Another thing that occurred to me in reflecting on today's class was how MCC has played a part in the development of other streams in the LGBTQ social movement.
- Several other church groups and denominations found their roots in MCC, including Unity Fellowship Church (a predominantly black GLBT liberation-theology centered church with 14 congregations, started in 1985 by Carl Bean, an MCC-trained minister), International Christian Community Churches (an association of 13 evangelical churches started in 2002) and Cathedral of Hope in Dallas (the world's largest LGBT congregation, with 3,500 members, currently pursuing affiliation with the UCC).
- Beth Chayim Chadashim, the world's first LGBT Jewish congregation, was founded in LA in 1972 with support from Troy Perry and MCC.
- Many of the reconciling, affirming, welcoming etc groups within or aligned with traditional denominational movements have received inspiration, training, support or leadership at one time or another from MCC.
- Numerous AIDS and community service oriented organizations internationally were started as local MCC initiatives.
I think it is fair to say that the spiritual and social influence of MCC as a movement has touched hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives in one way or another. Often these connections are not acknowledged in the official and popular histories.
Another note — Wikipedia contains some brief, but excellent, articles on MCC and various MCC clergy and theologians. I was talking with another student in the class about the need to better document our history and theology. What better way to do this than in Wikipedia? I am considering getting involved as a contributor and doing some research to update existing articles and add more.
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