The Metropolitan Community Church of Philadelphia is preparing to mark four decades of providing an LGBT-affirming environment for worship and ministry.
MCCP will celebrate its 40th anniversary with a weekend of events Oct. 14-15 that will bring together past, present and future generations of congregants and supporters.
The theme — “40 Years of Welcoming Who-So-Ever” — exemplifies the church’s long-held mission, explained the Rev. Jeffrey Jordan, church pastor.
“MCC has always been a church that serves the LGBT community and very much advocates for the rights of the LGBT community,” Jordan said, noting that the denomination itself was founded even before Stonewall. “We’ve always been at the forefront of the gay community.”
The local congregation was founded in the fall of 1971 by Walter Applebaum, three years after the first MCC congregation began in California.
As the LGBT community has changed, however, so too has the local congregation.
“I think any church needs to be able to evolve to be successful and to meet the needs of its community,” Jordan said. “And while we’ve always been focused on the same basic mission, we have definitely evolved.”
Jordan became pastor 18 years ago and, in that time, the church has become much more diversified, he said, reaching Philadelphians of all races, ages, orientations and identities.
Membership in the church has seen its ups and downs over the years and currently averages around 50.
The physical location of the church has also changed numerous times — starting out at the First Unitarian Church at 21st and Chestnut streets, moving several times and spending more than a decade at the William Way LGBT Community Center.
In 2009, MCCP moved from the center into the University Lutheran Church of the Incarnation, where it has around-the-clock access to its facility.
“We’re now in a place that is all ours — that’s one of our biggest accomplishments,” Jordan said, noting that the new locale allowed MCCP to expand its offerings beyond weekly worship to include other ministries.
“We feed the homeless. We have a food-share program where people can buy inexpensive food. We have programs that support women in Africa who are HIV-positive. We have a dance ministry, a choir, a drama group, a game and movie night — and a lot of that is because we have a place that’s our own now,” Jordan explained.
While the church has flourished in recent years, it did so in spite of an embezzlement scandal in 2006 in which a former employee was accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars.
“We went through all of that and we’re alive and well,” Jordan said. “Many organizations couldn’t lose $60,000 like we did and still be successful. So that’s something that we’re really proud that we were able to deal with.”
The church’s decades of growth and achievements will be reviewed throughout its weekend of anniversary celebrations.
On Friday, the congregation and the public are invited to a reception with MCC founder the Rev. Elder Troy Perry at 6 p.m. at City Hall’s Conversation Hall. Following the reception, guests can head to the William Way LGBT Community Center, 1315 Spruce St., at 7:30 p.m. for the screening of “Call Me Troy,” about Perry’s founding of the denomination and his LGBT-rights work, where Perry will be on hand to answer questions and members of The Attic Youth Center will perform.
The following day, MCCP will host an anniversary convocation service at 2 p.m. at First Unitarian — the church’s inaugural location — with music by the Anna Crusis Women’s Choir, Voices of Pride, A Voice for All People and Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus’ ensemble group Brotherly Love, which Jordan said marks the first time the four groups will join together for a performance.
Perry will serve as the keynote speaker at the event, and Patrons of Humanity Awards will be given to Franny Price, Mark Segal, Lee Carson, Chris Paige, Waheedah Shabazz-El, Gloria Casarez, Carrie Jacobs and the Feast Incarnate, the University Lutheran Church of the Incarnation’s weekly dinner for those affected by HIV/AIDS.
At 6 p.m. Saturday, the congregation and its supporters will gather for a dinner at Finnegan’s Wake, 537 N. Third St., which will be emceed by Henri David with entertainment by Peterson Toscano and hostesses Andrea LaMour and La Tina Montgomery.
Tickets to the dinner are $50, and tickets to Friday’s reception are $30. The movie screening is free.
For more information, visit www.mccp40.com.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].