April 25, 2005

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA – The Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson, a longtime leader in the predominantly gay Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC), has been nominated to become the next Moderator of the MCC denomination.

If elected during MCC's General Conference in Calgary, Canada in July, she will succeed the Rev. Troy D. Perry, MCC's Founder and current Moderator.

Wilson has enjoyed a distinguished ministry within Metropolitan Community Churches. In 1976, she became the youngest person ever elected to the MCC Board of Elders and has served as an Elder since that time.

Wilson, attended Boston University School of Theology with a Rockefeller Fellowship, also holds an M.Div. from SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary, served as Vice-Moderator of MCC during 1993-2003 and has pastored MCC congregations in Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, and California. She is the former senior pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles, the Founding Church of the MCC movement. She currently serves as senior pastor of Church of the Trinity MCC in Sarasota, Florida.

Wilson has a long commitment to ecumenical work and human rights. During 1979-1999, she served as MCC's Chief Ecumenical Officer, representing MCC at the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches. In 1987, she represented MCC as an ecumenical observer at the Bilateral Dialogue of the Roman Catholic and Lutheran Churches in Columbia, South Carolina, where she met Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.

She has also been active on behalf of HIV issues, prisoner treatment programs, and women's rights. She is the founder of the MCC Conference for Women in Professional Ministry.

In 1979, she participated in the first-ever meeting of gay and lesbian religious leaders at the U.S. White House during the Carter Administration.

Rev. Wilson was the Guest Preacher at the Earl Lectures at Pacific School of Religion (Berkeley, California, January 2002) and has been a guest speaker at Harvard Divinity School, Vanderbilt Divinity School, Allegheny College, Claremont School of Theology, and the University of Southern California.

Wilson is the author of Our Tribe: Queer Folks, God, Jesus and the Bible (Alamo Press), co-editor of Amazing Grace with Fr. Malcolm Boyd, and a contributing author to Poems and Prayers in Race and Prayer edited by Malcolm Boyd and Chester Talton (Morehouse Press).

Rev. Wilson resides with her partner of 27 years, Dr. Paula Schoenwether. They both actively work for same-sex marriage equality.

Prior to beginning her MCC ministry, Rev. Wilson was active in the United Methodist Church.

The election of the new MCC Moderator will take place in late July during MCC's General Conference in Calgary, Installation Services for the new MCC Moderator will take place at Washington National Cathedral, Washington, DC, on October 29, 2005.

Founded in 1968, MCC is a Christian denomination with more than 43,000 members in 23 countries and a primary, affirming ministry to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people of faith.

Metropolitan Community Churches