Pioneering lesbian minister Nancy Wilson is being honored today (July 6) as she retires as global moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches.
I worked closely with Nancy from 1991-94 as MCC’s ecumenical field director. Here are some photos of our efforts to advocate for LGBTQ rights at the World Council of Churches, National Council of Churches and other church events. Thanks, Nancy, for your passion and prophetic vision!
Nancy is the second person, and the first woman, to lead MCC since it was founded in 1968 by Troy Perry. When MCC was founded, homosexuality was still considered a sin, a sickness and a crime, but MCC gave religious affirmation to queer people. Nancy joined the new denomination as associate pastor of MCC Boston in 1972 when she was 22 years old.
After serving in numerous positions in MCC, Nancy Wilson was elected as moderator in 2005 following Perry’s retirement. President Barack Obama appointed Nancy to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in 2011. When Obama was re-elected, she became the first openly LGBT clergy to participate at the Inaugural Prayer Service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
Her 44 years of ministry are being celebrated today with a “Tapestry of Thanks” event at MCC’s international General Conference in Victoria, BC, Canada.
In 2016 she wrote a new book: “
I Love to Tell the Story: 100+ Stories of Justice, Inclusion, and Hope.” Her collection of true stories from the LGBTQ faith community will bring laughter, tears, insight and hope. Sections cover love and marriage equality, pastoring, death and funerals, hate and violence, laughter, portraits, kids and angels, MCC’s first decade, earthquakes and MCC buildings, sexuality and ecumenical adventures, and White House encounters. She draws on four decades of ministry and activism and ministry in MCC for motivational stories of pastors and porn stars, presidents and persons with AIDS, and many more.
Her other books include “
Outing the Bible: Queer Folks, God, Jesus, and the Christian Scriptures” (LifeJourney Press); “
Outing the Church: 40 Years in the Queer Christian Movement” (LifeJourney Press); and “
Amazing Grace: Stories of Lesbian and Gay Faith,” which she co-edited with Malcolm Boyd. The two "Outing" books were previously published as "
Our Tribe: Queer Folks, God, Jesus, and the Bible (HarperCollins).
Her prayers and poems are included in “
Race and Prayer: Collected Voices, Many Dreams,” edited by Malcolm Boyd and Chester Talton (Morehouse Press) and “
Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies and Celebrations,” edited by Kittredge Cherry and Zalmon Sherwood (Westminster John Knox Press).
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, right, meets MCC National Ecumenical Officer Kittredge Cherry and MCC Chief Ecumenical Officer Nancy Wilson, and an unknown woman. The MCC delegation was in Johannesburg, South Africa in January 1994, to advocate LGBT religious rights at a meeting of the World Council of Churches.
Protestors carried a sign saying, “Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual: We are Already in the Church. Let us be Open, Free” when the National Council of Churches denied observer status to Metropolitan Community Churches in November 1992 in Cleveland, Ohio. Pictured in the middle is Nancy Wilson of MCC. Photo by Kittredge Cherry.
We held protest signs and took over the microphones when the National Council of Churches denied observer status to MCC in Cleveland, Ohio, on Nov. 12, 1992. Nancy, pictured in the middle, seized the podium and said, “It’s easier to get into heaven than into the NCC!” She banged her fist on the podium so hard that it cracked. Protest signs in this photo say, “Stonewall Rises Again!!!” and “Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual: We are Already in the Church. Let us be Open, Free.” Pictured are, from left, John Taktikos of Axios (Orthodox gay and lesbian group), Nancy Wilson of MCC, and Lorna Cramer of Unitarian Universalists for Lesbian/Gay Concerns. Photo by Kittredge Cherry. RIP John Taktikos, who died of AIDS in October 1993.
MCC clergywomen met Christian feminist authors at the “Re-Imagining” conference. Left to right: Lori Dick, Virginia Mollenkott, Susan Thistlewaite, Nancy Wilson and Kittredge Cherry.
MCC clergy at “Re-Imagining: A Global Theological Conference By Women” conference Nov. 4-7, 1993 in Minneapolis included, from left, Revs. Coni Staff, Kittredge Cherry, Nancy Wilson and Lori Dick. More than 2,000 attended the conference, which was controversial for presenting female images of God, accepting LGBT people and other “heresies.”
Pictured left to right are Laurie Fox of Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns, Kittredge Cherry and Nancy Wilson at a demonstration for LGBT rights at the Christian feminist “Re-Imagining” conference Nov. 4-7, 1993 in Minneapolis.
Nancy and I sang and held a banner at a demonstration for LGBT rights at the Christian feminist “Re-Imagining” conference Nov. 4-7, 1993 in Minneapolis. Our banner says, “A Christian fellowship reaching out to gays and lesbians around the world” with the logo for Metropolitan Community Churches.
The NCC-MCC Dialogue Committee gave an official report in November 1992 in Cleveland, Ohio. We sure look miserable. Our committee tried and failed to find common ground on homosexuality. Left to right: Bishop Clinton Hoggard (African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church), Jean Marshall, Kittredge Cherry (MCC), Nancy Wilson (MCC), Laura Bailey (Disciples of Christ) and NCC staffer Eileen Lindner. Some other committee members are not pictured. RIP Bishop Hoggard, died 2002.
MCC’s delegation to the World Council of Churches 1994 meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, consisted of, from left, Kittredge Cherry, MCC ecumenical director; Sylvanus Maduka, head of MCC in Nigeria; and Nancy Wilson, MCC ecumenical officer (before she was moderator). We shocked many WCC leaders by urging them to stand up against homophobia in the church, and got a warm welcome from South African LGBT Christians.
Happy times with Kittredge Cherry, Nancy Wilson, and my spouse Audrey Lockwood in July 1993 after my ordination at MCC General Conference, Phoenix.
Nancy Wilson, left, and Kittredge Cherry advocated for LGBT rights at the World Council of Churches Assembly in Canberra, Australia in 1991. I’m wearing headphones to listen to the translation at the multilingual event. This was the first conference that I attended after being hired as Field Director of Ecumenical Witness and Ministry for MCC.
MCC’s delegation to the World Council of Churches Assembly in Canberra, Australia in 1991 included, from left, Revs. Steve Pieters, Sandi Robinson, Nancy Wilson and Kittredge Cherry.
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See more of my MCC photos at these links:
Happy birthday, MCC and Desmond Tutu! (2011)
See LGBT history in photos (2010)
Happy 40th birthday, MCC! (2008)
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