Metropolitan Community Church Los Angeles

On Tuesday of this week, voters in North Carolina voted to include discrimination into their constitution.  Amendment 1 precludes marriage to same-gender couples.  Much of this was fueled by people of faith, specifically Christians. These actions once again help to widen the gap created by suspect theology, alienating the LGBTQI community.  It once again reminded me of why our community of faith is so vital and why we must continue to raise our voices of faith so that all people will hear that God’s love is unconditional; that God loves everyone.

Our very existence is a testimony to the fact that our shared work and ministry provides a life-line to so many who join us literally, and virtually.

On Wednesday the President of the Unites States finally “evolved” in his thoughts on marriage equality and, in sharing his disappointment at the vote in North Carolina declared his support for lesbians and gay man to have the right to full legal marriage.

I have shared our denominational statement and a statement from our Founder and first Senior Pastor of MCCLA, the Reverend Elder Dr. Troy D. Perry below.

MCC was one of the first religious organizations to extend religious marriage to same-gender couples and we continue to offer our belief and understanding that marriage is both a civil and religious right.  In California we have religiously married thousands and thousands of same-gender and opposite-gender couples and, during the window of opportunity when same-gender marriage was legal, we legally married hundreds of couples, including members of our own congregation.

Our ministry as a community of faith is, as we have stated to be, “Centered in Christ, Engaged in the World and Led by the Spirit.”  It is this belief that drives us to remain in Christ as well as engaged in both social and cultural work that makes this earth more like God’s heaven.  We do this by being agents of God’s spirit at work in the world today and, just as we are called to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, to be alongside those less fortunate than ourselves, we are also called to raise the need for justice and equality wherever it is needed.

When we join our spiritual voices together we make God present in our lives and in our world, we are reminding the world that God is still with us, God is still speaking and God’s love is still present.

I look forward to worshipping with you again this weekend and to experiencing the voice of God in community, lived out in every single one of us regardless of age, color, creed, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other label that may been used to once divide us but which, through Christ, unites us.

Now, that is radical inclusion!

The Reverend Dr. Neil G Thomas

Senior Pastor

Reverend Elder Dr. Troy D Perry press statement

Reverend Elder Dr. Nancy Wilson press statement