Four Welcoming Congregations in San Francisco
A Short List of Churches for LGBTs
Aug 13, 2008 Heather T Gilligan
Some of these congregations are part of mainline denominations that are welcoming in varying degrees.
United Church of Christ churches (UCCs) and Unitarian Universalist Churches (UUC) are examples of two congregations that embrace LGBTs locally and are part of a larger denomination that welcomes LGBTs on a national level.
This national welcome is important for LGBTs looking to join a congregation because some mainline denominations, like the Methodist Church, recently rejected the need to extend important rights, such as marriage, to their LGBTs members. While individual churches might welcome gays, the larger community is not necessarily open to LGBTs.
The following four San Francisco churches have a long history of accepting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people into their flocks:
- Glide Memorial Church
- St. John the Evangelist
- First Congregational Church in San Francisco
- United Unitarian Society of San Francisco
Glide Church (Methodist) and St. John the Evangelist (Episcopalian) have been openly welcoming LGBTs for upwards of 30 years each. The First Congregational Church of San Francisco (UCC) and United Unitarian Society of San Francisco (UUC) accept LGBTs as a matter of course.
The First Congregational Church is a participant in the UCC’s “Still Speaking” ministry, which takes the politically progressive stance of seeing religion as an ongoing act of engagement and interpretation. “Never place a period where God has placed a comma” is the ministry’s slogan.
Each of these San Francisco churches also explicitly welcomes same-sex marriage ceremonies in their cathedrals and sancturaries.
“I was waiting for this day,” the Rev. Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church told the NBC11.com the day that same-sex marriage became legal in California. “What a glorious day it is and will be.” Williams has been performing ceremonies for gay couples for four decades, he told NBC11.com, but before the legalization of same-sex marriage, he had to call the ceremonies a “same-sex covenant.”
These four churches are not exclusively LGBT, but the queer community is a visible presence in each congregation.
The churches are also known for their activist work inside the gay community and for social justice work generally.
Glide Memorial church, featured in Will Smith’s “The Pursuit of Happyness,” runs a number of programs that help the homeless population, including the shelter where Smith's charcters and his son took refuge in the film. Glide is also famous for its gospel chorus, which performs on Sundays.
Each church’s website makes their political inclinations clear, and the First Congregational Church and the United Unitarian Society of San Francisco also offer links to their denominations welcoming statements.
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