New Haven Independent

Gay Church Finds New Home

by Allan Appel | January 4, 2010 7:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

mccc%200000777.JPG Tom Oloughlin clapped only twice in his life in the Episcopal church of his childhood; he didn’t feel included. Sunday he clapped to his heart’s content as New Haven’s first LGBT congregation moved into a new home.

The congregation, Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), now in its 32nd year, held its first service Sunday morning at its new home in the United Church on the Green Parish House on Temple Street.

The MCC had another reason to celebrate Sunday. Its former landlord, the (Methodist) United Church of Westville, over the last year had prohibited the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered) congregation from performing same-sex unions on its premises. At the church’s new home, that will no longer be a problem.

Plus, there’s more space, a great kitchen, $200 cheaper monthly rent.

An engineer from Milford, Oloughlin (pictured above) was the coordinator of the relocation. He said that congregation moved mainly because it was cramped and sharing the Harrison Street space in Westville with two other congregations.

“We had use of the sanctuary on Sunday morning for 75 minutes, after which we had to get out,” said MCC pastor Marilyn Bowens.

But that was clearly not the only pressure on MCC’s 50-member congregation.

“We had been informed by the [Methodist Church’s new] superintendent that we could not perform same-sex marriage. We needed a new home.”

Enter John Gage, the pastor of the United Church on the Green, which also has a mission of outreach to the gay community. He and Bowens (pictured at the top of this story) had met at a conference in October affirming the church’s 20-year-old open and affirmiing policy of the United Church of Christ. The two hit it off.

You might think that a church with a gay mission on Temple Street already would hesitate to welcome competition 100 yards away and in its own parish building. But that was not the case.

There’s more than enough need and “more than enough of God’s spirit to go around,” said Gage.

Now the MCC-ers don’t have to watch the clock. They can be in the space every Sunday until 2:30. There’s a good-sized kitchen, where the coffee essential to fellowship can be brewed. There’s also a choir rehearsal room where New Haven Police Department Officer Jeannette Miles (on the right in the photo) and the rest of the on-fire MCC chorus can prepare.

Miles called the occasion joyful. Like Oloughlin, she’s a longtime member.

While for him MCC is like family, for Miles there’s the additional benefit of the MCC network of other churches. Its umbrella organization, the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, was founded 42 years ago in L.A. It now has houses of worship across the country and the world.

When she travels or goes on vacation, Miles connects with other MCC churches. “I don’t have to worry about being unwelcomed,” she said.

Sunday morning’s opening hymn, “A Brand New Day,” in which contralto Miles and a dozen other congregants sang, brought the MCC’s new house down — or rather up, up, and up.

For more information about MCC’s services and program, click here.

Share this story

Share |

Comments

Posted by: L | January 4, 2010 9:23 AM

Awesome! I am proud to live in CT and in New Haven.

Posted by: Joe Coleman | January 4, 2010 2:07 PM

Wow. Stupid. Churches supporting homosexuality. I'm going to open my own church too. Yeah those ten commandments...we can just...ya know...forget about em. Good job CT. I can understand people who support gay marriage, but for the life of me - churches who change their moral standards - the very ones that are the basis of their existence...that's just insanity.

Posted by: Ree | January 4, 2010 6:34 PM

I'm not a religious sort but even I know that there isn't a Commandment that says Thou Shalt Not Be Gay. Personally, I think Jesus would be appalled at the things that churches do "in his name".

Posted by: Ashamed | January 4, 2010 11:03 PM

... When will these churches read the chapters that speak against homosexuality and stop going with the normal. The churches are supposed to be separate from the trends of this so-called world, but more and more churches are going with the status quo. ...

Posted by: Ned | January 5, 2010 8:30 AM

I'm confused; I thought the gays were too busy destroying heterosexuals' marriages, now they want to corrupt those old-timey religions too! Well rest assured that god hates fags (assuming that there is a god [gods or godesses - not likely, but whatever]) and wants them killed (and if you can't kill them, the least you can do is discriminate against them in minor ways, like denying them the right to visit one another in the hospital, tax their estates, take away their children, beat them up when you see them on the street, etc.). It's time for a "final solution" to the "gay problem" - now that's something ... can all rally around.

Posted by: William Kurtz | January 5, 2010 8:20 PM

Perhaps some of you would find condition in Uganda more to your liking?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/world/africa/19briefs-HOMOSEXUALIT_BRF.html

Or maybe you would be just as happy in that other bastion of old-time superstition, the Republic of Ireland:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122225249&ps=cprs

Posted by: Sally Tamarkin | January 6, 2010 8:23 AM

Thanks for posting that link, Bill.

Wow, the crazies really do come out for any thread about homosexuality, even in New Haven! I love that most people who aren't bigots didn't even care to comment in this thread because the people above are clearly too unhinged to have a conversation with.

Posted by: The Rev. Mr. Samuel T. Ross-Lee | January 6, 2010 8:57 AM

Mr. Joe Coleman should know that the "moral standard" which is "the very basis of (the church's) existence" is Love.

So if you plan to open a CHRISTIAN church, as you threatened to do, make sure you read carefully I John 3. That chapter should give you a better understanding of what the "very basis" of the Christian is.

The Rev. Mr. Samuel T. Ross-Lee, Pastor
The Immanuel Missionary Baptist Church
New Haven, CT

Posted by: anthony | January 6, 2010 1:43 PM

This is great news. Congratulations on the move, I look forward to seeing the good works you do come out of your new home.

Best wishes!

-anthony

Posted by: Marilyn Bowens | January 6, 2010 5:31 PM

I deeply appreciate the supportive posture of this article. Just one clarification � I like to discourage MCC-NH from being thought of as a "gay church.� We are, first and foremost, a Christian church; with a specific mission and intentional outreach to persons of minority sexual orientation and gender identification. We want it to be clear, though, that we welcome everyone for whom sexual orientation is the non-issue that we believe it should be in the context of Christian community. Space won�t allow me to respond to some of the comments about the Bible, except to say that there would not be so many Christian denominations and doctrines (some conflicting), if being Christian meant that we could all land on one uniform understanding of the Bible. Jesus said that the whole law is fulfilled in love of God and love of neighbor. My efforts to live up to that standard keep me too busy to have time, or inclination, to judge others.

Peace,
Rev. Marilyn Bowens, Pastor
Metropolitan Community Church � New Haven

Posted by: Low key | January 8, 2010 8:55 PM

Thank heavens MCC has helped teach me that that Jesus loves all his children. God made us all the way he did because that is how he wants us to be. We are all dealt a certain hand at birth and you don't get to change your cards in life. It is up to all of us to develop our God given talents to the best of our abilities and to play the hands we are dealt with as best we can.

Posted by: Spoon | January 9, 2010 7:40 AM

I have been a member of MCCNH 8 years now. I am so bless to be a family member of the church. I will prayer for those who still see us as sinful. For no man on this earth can judge me. Only GOD can; for I am child of GOD just like anyone else. May GOD bless all his or her children on the earth. I am so happy to be in my new home to priase the one who loves me unconditionally. That is GOD!!!

Gay Church Finds New Home

Comments

Sections

Neighborhood News

Special Sections

Legal Notices

Some Favorite Sites

Government/ Community Links

Flyerboard

Sponsors

N.H.I. Site Design & Development

NHI Store

News Feed