metropolitan community church
BALTIMORE

Beginnings in 1972 1980s 1990s New Millennium The Church

Beginnings

On a Sunday in July 1972, a group of people met for what many perceived to be an unusual purpose. The rev. James Huff had gathered together a group of gays and lesbians not to dance, not to drink, but to celebrate together in a new way. This was, of all things, a worship service, held in, of all places, the YWCA. This was the beginning of the Metropolitan Community Church of Baltimore.

The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches had its beginning in 1969. Rev. Huff had come to Baltimore from Iowa and had peppered the bars and other gathering places with fliers inviting the gay and lesbian people of Baltimore to become a part of this new and exciting movement. His style was powerfully Pentecostal, and worshipers banged tambourines and made enough joyful noise to disturb the other groups around them at the YWCA. By December 1972, these pioneers had moved into Charles Village to take up residence, for the first time, with St. John's United Methodist Church on the corner of St. Paul and 27th streets.

In June 1973, MCC Baltimore had its first change of pastor and welcomed Rev. John Barbone into its midst. Rev. Barbone was a part-time pastor serving both MCC Washington and MCC Baltimore at the same time. He proved a definite departure in worship style. His tradition was "High Church" and he invested a lot of time teaching the congregants about the traditional elements, forms and functions of liturgical worship. After about five months, Rev. Barbone became full-time assistant pastor at MCC Washington.

The Rev. Paul Breton became the third pastor of MCC Baltimore, serving in that post for about one year. He brought a special gift in understanding gay and lesbian culture and the need to hold onto our heritage. During his pastorate, 32 people from the MCC church in New Orleans died in a nightclub fire. The Baltimore congregation mourned and learned the meaning and power of lives joined together in the solidarity of this fledgling fellowship of UFMCC. The need for and purpose of MCC Baltimore continued to strengthen and grow.

In 1973 the Rev. Howard Gaas became our fourth pastor. It was during Rev. Gaas' tenure that MCC Baltimore became a chartered church in the UFMCC. This was a mammoth occasion and was marked by a four-day celebration, which began with a dance at the Homewood campus of the Johns Hopkins University in the magnificent Glass Pavilion. There was a dinner dance held jointly with the Baltimore Gay Alliance. The chartering service was held on May 11, 1975. Rev. Troy Perry, the founder of UFMCC, inspired the crowd of 200, and warned them not to "play at church."

After nearly two years, Rev. Gaas moved on to Brooklyn, NY. The church had grown and needed full-time facilities. We had never been allowed the use of the main sanctuary at St. John's. Other issues arose. We decided to move on--to the former Ruck Funeral Home in the 4200 block of Greenmount Ave. This huge white "manse" sits high on a hill with massive columns and sweeping 20-feet-high front steps. It came complete with an old casket under the stairs from which church members occasionally staged unscheduled resurrections. Unfortunately, only five months later, the owners decided to convert the location into a haunted house for Halloween, and so we searched again and found our next stop: Rodgers Forge United Methodist Church.

During these last two transitions the church had been led by Ms. LaPaula Turner, and inspired by her piety and powerful Baptist preaching style. On the Sunday that LaPaula left to take a new position with MCC Detroit, the MCC Baltimore members arrived for Sunday evening service to find the doors chained. The brand-new Rodgers Forge pastor, who had invited MCC, explained that the Rodgers Forge congregation had held an emergency meeting after finding out that their new tenants were gay and lesbian Christians. They decided that we would not be allowed to hold services in their building and must leave after having been there only three weeks.

A church member, Mr. Jim Wilmer, had already agreed to serve as worship coordinator, and so he had opened up the basement of his home, located in Parkville. Members overflowed the small basement room onto the stairwell, and the church learned again that buildings were not the most important things.

The church met here and in other members' homes until December. On Dec. 1, 1976, MCC Baltimore moved into our sixth home, in the basement of 2233 St. Paul St. The building had previously served as a manufacturing site for artificial limbs. Corset models and a variety of false limbs provided many diversions during cleanup. The church members spent three months renovating, repairing, painting, etc., even thought services were already being held there.

MCC Baltimore achieved a first for a United States UFMCC church in April 1977. We called a pastor from overseas. The Rev. Stan Harris, from MCC Adelaide in Australia, accepted the pulpit and set about the task of renewing the church. Worship services again became more formal and a new level of visibility for MCC Baltimore was established in the community. The first student clergypersons, David Kromer and Delores Berry, completed their training and credentialing under Stan. The gay and lesbian community of Baltimore also grew to a point where a community center was created, and many members of MCC became vital parts of the newly founded center, the switchboard, and the Baltimore Gay Paper. To this day, MCC remains the oldest, continuous nonprofit advertiser in the Baltimore Gay Paper.

The church experienced remarkable growth in our small worship space, which held only 50 people, and in October 1978, we had to add a second Sunday worship service. Congregants learned to sing loudly enough to drown out clanging pipes and the noises of other tenants, and soon we needed even more space. It was while we were at this location that we started working vending stands at Memorial Stadium to raise funds for a building, and members of MCC Baltimore participated in the very first March on Washington for Gay Rights in October 1979. Then in January 1980, Rev. Harris moved on to the position of UFMCC district coordinator in New Zealand.

The 1980s

Our eighth pastor, the Rev. Ron Parnell, attended the Samaritan Theological Institute and was mentored by the Rev. Troy Perry. He had previously served MCC New Orleans and helped them recover from the deaths caused by the 1974 bar fire. He arrived in January 1980 and provided strong administrative leadership as well as insight and understanding. Christian education both for adults and children were established, as were several new outreach programs. Rev. Parnell facilitated the move back to St. John's UMC, with new provisions for full-time office space and expanded use of the facilities.

It was during Rev. Parnell's tenure that MCC Baltimore experienced our most memorable disaster. St. John's had provided a second-floor suite of rooms for office space. An electric heater had been installed to heat these rooms. Shortly before Christmas in 1981, a fire started in this electric heater and engulfed the majority of St. John's. The roof was burned off the building, the main sanctuary was destroyed, and the social hall and offices were severely damaged.

Members of MCC and St. John's alike stood together behind the police barricades watching flames destroy their church building and belongings. A couple of MCC members talked the police into allowing them to pick amid the rubble while it was still steaming. They rescued some hymnals, altar ware, Christmas ornaments, bibles, and several other items. One of the items that survived the fire was the seven-feel-tall Blessed Virgin Mary statue acquired by the church while in residence at 2233 St. Paul St. She had been residing on the second floor in the offices. During the fire she fell through two floors and ceilings into the basement and yet escaped relatively unscathed. Later she was sent out to Rev. Stan Harris when he returned to the states to pastor a church in California.

The day after the fire we began the search for a new home. For the next six months, we met in a bar, Dante's, on Howard Street, which was owned by an MCC member. Just down the block was the Greyhound bus terminal. Next door was a porn theater (a surprise for those who went to the wrong door), and the Senator Bar was a few doors away. In June 1982, Rev. Parnell moved on, the church moved to Strawbridge United Methodist Church in Bolton Hill, and Ms. Dottie Eder served as worship coordinator until September of that year.

In September 1982, the Rev. Jennie Boyd Bull became the first UFMCC-credentialed female clergy to serve as an elected pastor of MCC Baltimore. She had graduated from Wesley Theological Seminary, has served as assistant pastor of MCC Washington, and had been the founding pastor of the new MCC in Northern Virginia. With Jennie came a new focus on inclusive worship and language. We learned about liberation and feminist theologies, new names for God, and renewed community activism. We dealt with race and gender issues in a new way and began to grow and struggle with these new perspectives. The congregation grew to about 70 members with lots of lively communities.

In March 1985 we faced building issues again. Members of Strawbridge United Methodist Church had been somewhat offended by the casual MCC dress code for worship and struggled with our theology of same-sex Holy Unions. After a time they could not bring themselves to allow us to continue to perform these ceremonies in their facility. Rather than agree to not hold a rite of the church in our worship space, we elected to move.

St. John's UMC once again gave us sanctuary. Their welcome to us was quite heroic considering the 1981 fire experience. The former social hall--singed timbers, stone walls, cooing pigeons, bare-beamed roof and all--became our worship space. The main sanctuary had a new roof but no heat or lights, and was unusable. We had our own office, however, and frequent use of the basement social hall. While we were in residence this third time, we took responsibilities for building use and upkeep. We held some joint services for Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Thanksgiving, and other holy days, and shared several study series. MCC members served on and even chaired St. John's Board of Trustees, and we explored possible co-ownership of the building. Later, the Methodist District authorities prohibited joint ownership, but we stayed on for several years working cooperatively together.

Before Pastor David Smith began his long tenure in 1994, Rev. Jennie Boyd Bull served the longest term as a pastor of MCC Baltimore, from October 1982 to May 1989, nearly seven years. During Jennie's time we saw: the growth of our congregation size; the building fund expanded to more than $75,000 (from vending hot dogs at as many as 21 Baltimore Orioles baseball games at Memorial Stadium); the beginning of the ravages of the AIDS epidemic; the 1987 National March on Washington; and hundreds of MCC church events. We also hired Tommy Thornton, our incredible, long-serving administrative assistant.

These were exciting times for MCC Baltimore, and much of our legacy as visible community activists comes from Jennie's time as pastor. One such action was the passage of the Baltimore civil-rights amendment. Passing this bill took three tries. Jennie was prominent as a leader during the second attempt, and she inspired the successful Baltimore Justice Campaign in 1988. Jennie used her professionalism, grass-roots organizing skills, and political savvy to earn a new respect for our community from the members of the City Council. During the third try our MCC leadership became even more involved, with many of our members meeting with and coming out to their elected representatives to convince them of the need for this legislation. This took courage and skill on their parts. Needless to say, each of the City Council representatives to whom our members spoke directly voted in favor of the bill, and it passed. We were an eloquent and effective body inspired by Jennie's example and leadership.

Rev. Bull also took on key roles in our Fellowship while pastoring in Baltimore. She chaired the Faith, Fellowship and Order Commission (FFO), which was appointed to develop "grass-roots" theology. The FFO successfully developed the denomination's groundbreaking inclusive-language policies, which were introduced and adopted at the 1981 General Conference in Houston, Texas. Jennie worked on the efforts to bring UFMCC into membership in the National Council of Churches. She also introduced the UFMCC hymnal project's trial hymnal to our church. She had contributed to the inclusification of many of the hymns. During Jennie's tenure we also reached out to the other communities, sponsoring efforts to seed a new MCC church on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

MCC Baltimore continued to reach out in unprecedented ways. For example, a vital community resource that Jennie provided was for "mainstream" clergy groups in the area working on ecumenical and interfaith projects, and even more importantly, their own individual coming-out processes. Many local clergy struggled with sexual orientation, and had no other safe, helpful place to talk. Jennie filled that need for many. Several MCC clergy started down that road in talks with Jennie, and many others stayed in their denominations or moved on to other work.

In May 1989, Jennie resigned, and was good-natured enough to accept a satiric tribute known as, naturally, the "Jennie Boyd Bull Roast." Community leaders and UFMCC representatives joined us in telling stories about Jennie, and more than one complained that there simply wasn't enough "dirt" to work with! She went on to manage the 31st Street Bookstore, a women-owned cooperative that lasted until the mid-1990s.

The pastor of St. John's, the Rev. Carol Moore, served as our interim pastor for six months. Carol taught us that we could not only be adequately served by a "Straight Woman Pastor," but that we had much to learn from her about love, trust, and accepting acceptance. Carol went on to serve in United Methodist Missions in Central America.

The 1990s

In December 1989, MCC Baltimore's Christmas gift was the arrival of the Rev. Darlene Garner, who came to us from our Philadelphia church. Darlene brought a new "stretch" to us on issues of diversity and multicultural community. In November 1990, Rev. Garner resigned. Shortly thereafter she became pastor of MCC-NOVA of Fairfax, Va., and in 1993 was elected as the first African-American member of the Board of Elders of UFMCC. Since then Rev. Garner has worked at the denomination's headquarters in California and at churches in South Africa.

MCC Baltimore then chose to create a time of renewal and reconciliation and asked the Rev. Joseph Houle, former pastor of MCC Pittsburgh, to serve as interim pastor for one year. Joe's focus was to be on healing and recovery. New efforts at dialogue were begun to strengthen and stabilize our church community. At the end of the year, we decided to begin the pastoral search, and the Rev. Kathy Baker was asked to serve as interim pastor during that process. During her term, education programs were reestablished, board training was undertaken, and a new worship space was acquired at the former Waverly Presbyterian Church at 34th and Old York Road. MCC Baltimore would now be the sole church group in a "real sanctuary space" seating 175, with office space and more.

In December 1992, the Rev. Joseph Totten-Reid was called from the Santa Barbara, Calif. MCC to become our 15th pastoral leader. Despite the energy and excitement of a new building, a new pastor, and new Taize worship services, MCC Baltimore declined precipitously. Participation and attendance dropped down to 20 or fewer members per service, and the church had to relinquish its charter, becoming a mission church of the UFMCC Mid-Atlantic District. Rev. Totten-Reid resigned in February 1994. Sadly, he passed away in 1999.

For the next two months, Assistant District Coordinator Dan Schellhorn arranged for supply pastors from throughout the district to preach at Sunday services. The congregation was treated to a "buffet" of different preaching styles. A Board of Advisors, appointed from our congregation and under the direction of our district coordinator, the Rev. Arlene Ackerman, conducted a successful "Good News" stewardship campaign. They developed a realistic church budget, and then a social/fund-raising committee sponsored monthly potlucks and other events to rebuild community. Together, they reinvented MCC Baltimore so that healing could be followed by growth and joy.

In May 1994, R. David Smith, a student clergy from MCC Washington, was appointed lay pastor by the district committee. David was licensed as clergy in 1995 and ordained at a service held at MCC Baltimore in 1996. Under his leadership, MCC experienced steady and unprecedented growth. As one of a series of changes, in April 1995, the service time was changed to Sunday morning to attract higher attendance. New members joined, old members returned, and we survived the first season of Ravens football games together. A sound system was purchased after only five weeks of fund-raising. Many new ministries were begun and now flourish.

In late 1996, a 4:00 Sunday Gospel Prayer and Praise service was added. (The service ended in December 1998, but it was followed in January 1999 by a Gospel Chorus directed by Joe Kendrick.) By April 1997, MCC Baltimore reestablished commissioned-church status with all-time high attendance of 120 per week at the church at 3401 Old York Road. Financially, the church had grown abundant enough to employ Rev. Smith as a full-time pastor while meeting denominationally established salary and benefits guidelines, as well as supporting two part-time staff persons: Coordinator of Technical Support James "Fuzzy" Roark and administrative assistant Tommy Thornton.

In May of 1998 the Reverend Arlene Ackerman led MCC Baltimore in a planning weekend to mark the beginning of a three-year "Strategic Growth Initiative". In addition to developing Mission and Vision Statements, and a set of Core Values, three strategic issues were identified that would be addressed to carry the congregation into the next millennium. Significantly, one of these issues involved facilities and has been stated in this way: What must we do to provide quality, safe, air-conditioned facilities with adequate parking by the year 2000 and plan for acquisition of future ministry facilities?

Through discussions and research into facilities expenditures at other MCC churches in the Mid-Atlantic District, it was determined that the church must expand its budgetary commitment to facilities. Concurrently an opportunity arose to rent additional space in the Waverly Chapel building and the congregation raised over $6,000 as well as donated materials and hundreds of hours of volunteer labor to build three offices and two classrooms as well as a large open space and kitchen area into the newly rented area below the sanctuary. At the end of 1998, Govan's Presbyterian Church, the congregation owning the Waverly Chapel, announced that it had decided to sell the building and offered it to MCC for purchase. Because of the work already begun on the Strategic Growth Initiative, MCC was able to determine that the facility would not address the issue as defined, and the offer was declined.

In November of 1998 a "Welcome Home" Building Fund Campaign was launched to raise funds to purchase a permanent space. A Facilities Team began investigating properties to find the facility that God has prepared. At the same time, the Facilities Team identified the Waxter Senior Center (in the heart of Mt. Vernon, Baltimore's GLBT entertainment district, as an air-conditioned, fully handicap accessible facility with a parking lot for 40 cars and ample street parking) for an interim worship location. Separate office space just north of Mt. Vernon near Penn Station was secured for an Administration and Education Center for classroom and office facilities and storage of worship materials not utilized at the Waxter Center.

During this time the office space was shared with Hearts and Ears, a peer support organization for GLBT persons living with mental illness, and Sufficient As I Am (SAIM), a support group for GLBT and supportive youth. During this time of transition, facilities for holy union ceremonies, funerals, concerts, ordinations and congregational meetings were generously offered by the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore, Brown Memorial on Park Avenue and Govans Presbyterian Churches, and the Stoney Run Friends Meeting House.

Also in 1998, MCC Baltimore found a permanent home on the Internet. Previous World Wide Web and electronic efforts were moved to a "home site" on the Internet at http://www.mccbaltimore.org

On Easter Sunday of 1999, in recognition of the Vision of "evolving into a multi-congregational body of over 300 committed believers" and "sharing the saving grace of Jesus Christ with people where they are both geographically and spiritually", MCC Baltimore began an evening worship service in the southwestern-most suburbs of the city in an interfaith center in Columbia, Maryland. That service developed its own leadership with a member serving on the Board of Directors, a Bible Study group and monthly potlucks held in Howard County.

At the 1999 World Jubilee and General Conference XIX of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, Pastor R. David Smith was recognized with the "Phoenix Award" for "his leadership in Metropolitan Community Church of Baltimore, Maryland which in five years has increased their membership from 32 to 138 members..." God is doing great things at MCC Baltimore, as "Welcome Home" continues to resound for a wider and wider community of those hungry to hear these words.

The New Millennium

The work of MCC Baltimore has continued into the new millennium with more growth, more ministries and more spirit. We have held ongoing Bible Studies in 5 counties and Baltimore City.

In April of 2000, MCC Baltimore participated in the Millennium March On Washington. Then in August, members and friends of MCC Baltimore staged two sold-out performances of the play "Auntie Mame". In the fall of 2000, the "Welcome Home" Campaign was boosted by events like "Barbie Bingo" and the first Homecoming Dinner Dance & Auction.

The Prayer Ministry continued with monthly prayer breakfasts and began "Prayer Lighthouses" in homes around the region. They also made use of new technologies to broadcast prayer requests to prayer partners on the Internet.

Beginning on January 7, 2001 the Little Lambs Children's Ministry was added to the morning service to serve our youngest members. In the summer of 2001, the Theater Ministry presented "The Man Who Came to Dinner" at the Arellano Theater on the Johns Hopkins University campus. In the fall of 2001, the "Welcome Home" Campaign received a boost from the Second Annual Dinner Dance and Silent Auction.

In August of 2001 the congregation identified two buildings at 401 and 405 W. Monument Street in the Seton Hill historic district just west of Mt. Vernon to redevelop into our first church "home." The buildings were purchased with the $158,000 raised in the "Welcome Home" Campaign, and then renovations were funded through a church bond issue, and continued dedicated and memorial funding from the ongoing "New Day" Campaign. Construction on the building was a project of Magnum Construction Company. A Design Team led by James Swetlick of GHK Associates created a dynamic multipurpose space with room for expansion.

The first services in the facility at 401 W. Monument Street were held on Sunday May 12, 2002. One of the most memorable parts of creating the new facility were the hundreds of orange chairs that were purchased from another church and donated by a church member. Since orange was not his favorite color, Pastor Smith made a call to fill all of the chairs, so he would not have to see any orange seats from the pulpit.

In March of 2002 our evening service in Columbia was granted Parish Extension status by the Mid-Atlantic District. The new church became MCC Howard County. In July 2002 MCC Howard County hired their own pastor, Rev. Lance Mullins from MCC Christ Covenant in Decatur, Georgia.

The Theater Ministry continued its summer play tradition in 2002. Three sell out performances of Clare Booth Luce's "The Women" were presented at the Axis Theater in Baltimore.

After 8 years of non-stop work, Pastor David Smith went on sabbatical during the summer of 2002 for a well deserved chance for reflection, restoration, and recharge.

The fall of 2002 marks the 30th Anniversary for MCC Baltimore. To celebrate this event, Rev. Elder Troy Perry will dedicate the new facility at 401 W. Monument Street. The Anniversary weekend will include the Third Annual Dinner Dance and Silent Auction, a gospel chorus concert, and worship services with Rev. Elder Perry.

We are the Church

Sixteen pastoral leaders in 12 locations and over 1500 services don't begin to tell the whole story of MCC Baltimore. Thousands of hot dogs at hundreds of baseball games, cabarets, pie-throwing auctions, blood drives, dances, parties, coffeehouses, Lent studies, retreats, proms, roller-skating parties, floats, booths and food stands at Pride Day, caskets and corsets, newsletters, hay rides and campfires, drag shows, spaghetti dinners, potlucks and Pepto Bismol, pigeons, parachutes, practical jokes, banners and marches, human-rights ordinances, Names Project Quilt panels, bowling teams, softball teams, picnics, committees, board meetings, elections and arguments . . . those don't tell the entire story either.

We've learned over and over again, at the doors of Rodgers Forge, on the steps of Jim Wilmer's home, behind the fire barricades at St. John's, in the Waverly sanctuary, in the Waxter Center, and home in the West Monument Street location -- our church is not a building. We are the church. And we are the story. We are the people who've walked in the doors and cried in relief at nearly every service we attended for the first six months or sat in shock and awe that we couldn't make a sound. We are the ones who nurture each other through coming out and coming into joy in who we are. We are the ones who celebrate together at Holy Unions and babies' baptisms or who comfort one another when a member is lost to AIDS or street crime. We are the ones who claim the right to celebrate our love and our God in the same place and declare that as right for all people.

We are the church doing God's work in our community, providing space for the beginning Chase-Brexton clinic, support for the fledgling hotline, volunteers and space for women's coffeehouses, guidance by phone and in person for those struggling with sexuality issues, volleyball marathon fund-raisers, baskets of food and supplies, deacon's closet, Christmas caroling in the bars, social-justice leadership, men's groups, women's groups, transgender groups, prayer, worship, education, healing, and so very, very much more.

We are MCC Baltimore with pride that since 1972, we've been God's visible presence in our community in Baltimore, and we have the sure knowledge that we have many, many more years of service and celebration to go.

From the 1997 25th anniversary retrospective by Kathy Baker, with editing by David Smith and Louise Kelley. Additional history provided by David Smith. Updated by Jim Hubbs for the 2002 30th anniversary celebration.

© 2005 MCC Baltimore