During the weekend of July 22-24 this year, approximately 2,000 members of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC) held their annual conference in Calgary. The organization was founded in 1969 by Rev. Troy Perry, with a specific outreach to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans (GLBT) communities,.
For several years, starting in 1978, the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) had a visible presence in Calgary with first one, then two, congregations (MCC Calgary and Alleluia MCC).
It would seem to have been a natural fit, as MCC started out as a heavily Pentecostal-influenced church, due to Rev. Perry’s own faith background, and gradually morphed into a more evangelical-style church. However, MCC was never a particularly large draw for many of Calgary’s disaffected queer Christians, even at its peak in the mid-1980’s. The largest Canadian MCC congregation is in Toronto, a city arguably based around Anglicanism and other liturgical-based churches. Alberta’s religious expression, on the other hand, is largely based on conservative Protestantism, specifically evangelical and sometimes fundamentalist theology.
My own faith journey included MCC before I finally walked away from ‘The Church’. My disaffection with ‘The Church’ is multi-rooted, but MCC played little or no role in that disaffection. If anything, MCC kept me involved with ‘the church’ longer than I might otherwise have been.
That journey has been complex. Born into a nominally-Anglican family, I became interested in church-y things early on. By age 8, my mother had taken to calling me ‘The Little Deacon.’ By my teens, I had moved into the rarified stratum of High Church Anglicanism, which is barely distinguishable from Roman Catholicism in its rituals. In my twenties, I crossed over to Catholicism (although I never formally converted) frequently attending Mass for over a decade and a half. I didn’t really see myself as ‘a Catholic,’ but I also no longer perceived myself as an Anglican, either. I was this odd hybrid the existentialist poet, T.S. Eliot, referred to as Anglo-Catholic. Even at that, the term never quite applied to me as it did to him.
By the time I slammed through the age of 40, I had walked away from ‘The Church.’ I rejected its dogma and many of its tenets. I was critical of its rituals, and doubtful of the ability of the temporal church to represent the Deity on Earth. Its moral authority in my life had crashed and burned.
Before that, though, I took a stab at MCC. I had just come out and I was still attached to the Church, although I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable in the mainstream churches. They condemned me even as I yearned to seek out some Great Truth through them, needing some place to settle. MCC seemed tailor-made; a church that not only did not condemn me, but actively welcomed me with open arms.
However, those open arms were also, more often than not, raised in a ‘holy roller’ ecstasy punctuated by outbursts of “Yeeeeessss, Jesus!”, Pastors shouting out, “Can you say ‘Amen’!”, and “Halleluiah Jee-zus!” All a bit disconcerting for an Anglican boy with strong Papist leanings…
As I waited to speak to the rally of several hundred MCCers on the Stephen Avenue Mall on July 22nd, I was once again surrounded by swaying bodies, hands upraised to Jesus, joyous outbursts of “Praise Jesus” and “Mmm-Hmm…Speak out, sister!” It was all a bit disconcerting for a recovering Anglican boy with strong anti-Papist leanings, but I also felt surrounded by truly unconditional love and an energy that, to me, was truly Christian.
I first met the Reverend Troy Perry in 1980 in Calgary. He was a powerfully-built man, with a booming voice still carrying the traces of his Southern upbringing, and a charisma that could easily have led him to create a cult. He held the small gathering assembled in a cramped living room in a NW Calgary turn-of-the-century bungalow that had seen better days rapt with his humour, his humanity, and his presence. He filled that room.
In October, the Reverend Elder Troy Perry, Moderator the Metropolitan Community Church, will retire to spend time with Philip, his husband who he married two years ago in Canada after 20 years together. The now closely–cropped hair and beard have turned grey. The face is a bit more weathered from years of working long hours. The body is burlier. He is surrounded by security personnel 24/7, who hover around him like secret service agents around the President. They allow access to the reverend by those many admirers who want but a moment of his time, and to share a brief contact,. Troy Perry, a man of God and the Martin Luther King Jr. of the GLBTQ movement, needs them to protect his life following several death threats over the last 37 years. We don’t want him to be the martyr Martin Luther King Jr. became that dark day, on the balcony of a motel.
I interviewed Rev. Perry on Speak Sebastian in February of 2003 (rebroadcast on July 20th, 2005.) Amidst his many stories one stands out: a young minister living in Los Angeles recently being ejected from his church and shunned by his family, wife, and church elders for being homosexual. He was searching for a church to call home. Not finding one that would welcome him as the gay man he was, he turned to his God and prayed for guidance. Reverend Perry believes God answered him, by revealing to him that he needed to start his own church, where all were welcome and loved. He placed an ad in The Advocate and listed his home address, which he shared with a roommate, in East Los Angeles.
His roommate was mortified, convinced every whack-job, lunatic, and homophobe in Central California would hunt them down and slaughter them. Instead, MCC was born and is now, 37 years later, one of the fastest growing Christian denominations in the world with congregations and missions all over the world.
My partner Terry and I were invited to the tribute dinner for Rev. Perry, held at the Hyatt Regency in Calgary July 22nd. A thousand people stood, facing the Reverend Elder Troy Perry - their pastor, Moderator, brother, and leader. They extended their hands out to him in benediction and poured into him and his soul the love, care, and struggle he had poured out over the last three decades on their, and all GLBTQ people’s behalf.
This towering, authoritative, powerful man - a giant in so many ways - stood there amongst his congregation, his husband Philip by his side while he wept openly.
I remain un-churched and I remain wary of Christian churches and clerics in general. I remain somewhat unnerved by the evangelical style of worship and celebration of Deity, but I am encouraged there does remain a spiritual home for those who seek it, within the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.
Troy Perry is a maker of history and a hero. May he and his husband Philip forever enjoy the fruits of their labours and live long and happy lives together.
Stephen Lock is the Regional Director for Egale Canada and the Calgary Representative for The Canadians For Equal Marriage Coalition. He is also the producer and host of a semi-monthly glbt radio show, Speak Sebastian, airing at 9pm on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month on CJSW FM 90.9.
We are still looking for contributions to the Goliath’s Defence Fund. Donations can be made by cheque or money order, payable to “Stephen Lock (trustee).” In the memo section write “to be held in trust for the Goliath’s Defence Fund” and mail to: The Goliath’s Defence Fund, c/o The Calgary Eagle, 424-a 8th Ave SE, Calgary AB T2G 0L7. All proceeds go to defray the legal costs of the man charged as a found-in.
