Clergy from a variety of denominations gather on the pulpit of Cathedral of Hope on June 26, 2015, to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, making marriage equality the law of the land (Photo by David Taffet/Dallas Voice)
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
As Cathedral of Hope prepares to celebrate its 56th anniversary, this week we spoke to the Rev. Dr. Andria Davis, the church’s executive pastor of digital experience and worship, who is involved in organizing the celebration.
Davis has been with the church since 2017 when Senior Pastor Neil Thomas called her and asked if she was available. At the time, she was serving as the senior pastor of a large UCC congregation in Phoenix.
But why a special celebration for the church’s 56th year? Because, Davis said, We don’t take any year for granted,” and because the church missed the opportunity to celebrate the big 50-year anniversary in 2020 because of COVID.
On July 30, 1970, a group of 12 people met in a home in East Dallas to form a local congregation of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches denomination, which was found in October 1968 in Los Angeles.
At the time, Dallas had a few gay bars, but if any other LGBTQ+ groups formed before MCC, they’re long gone now.
The new MCC congregation worshipped in members’ homes for its first two years. Known then as MCC Dallas, it is now known as Cathedral of Hope, a congregation of the United Church of Christ.
Davis called her church an oasis in the desert that grew through the AIDS crisis in a city that was, then, quite hostile to an LGBTQ+ congregation and the larger LGBTQ+ community. At the time, Dallas was a bright red city, not shifting to blue until 2004.
Even as other churches have become affirming, Cathedral of Hope has always been a spiritual anchor for the community. For a number of years, it was the only place in Oak Lawn that would conduct funerals for people who had died of AIDS. But when John Thomas, founding executive director of Resource Center, died in January of 1999, the Cathedral of Hope was the only place large enough to accommodate the standing-room only crowd.
In May 2019, the funeral for Muhlaysia Booker, a transgender woman murdered in Dallas on May 19, was moved from a smaller location to Cathedral of Hope to handle the large crowds and TV news cameras.
But Cathedral of Hope hasn’t been a place of sadness.
An estimated 3,000 people packed into the church on June 26, 2015, the evening the Supreme Court declared marriage equality, including clergy from a variety of denominations from around the city. A highlight of the evening was the couples who married at the church that night in what was one of the most joyous days in the church’s history.
Davis said that partnering with other congregations is one of the Cathedral’s greatest successes.
Another, she said, is “our food rescue program. So far this year we’ve collected one million pounds of food and our meal count is at 842,000. We collect food and redistribute it to a bunch of other organizations.”
She added that through that program the church has built connections with others who wouldn’t otherwise engage “the big gay church.” But feeding people is something a variety of churches can do together.
The split
When Cathedral of Hope left the UFMCC, the Dallas church’s future wasn’t very certain. National MCC was about to start an audit of the local church. Then senior pastor the Rev. Michael Piazza, who served the church for 20 years and oversaw its growth from several hundred people to several thousand, said at the time that Cathedral of Hope was a larger organization than the denomination’s headquarters, and that UFMCC was not equipped to carry out a useful audit of the Dallas church.
So instead of cooperating with the national church, Piazza called a congregational meeting to vote on whether the Cathedral should withdraw from UFMCC. About 88 percent of the congregation voted with Piazza, and the split ended both the audit and the affiliation.
Piazza proposed that the Cathedral join the United Church of Christ denomination, but that move was not a forgone conclusion. Davis said when CoH applied to affiliate with the denomination, the church was accepted by just one vote.
Since then, however, Cathedral of Hope has become a resource for the denomination overall. Davis said she and Thomas regularly take calls from pastors at other UCC churches asking for liturgy for funerals for LGBTQ+ members or special readings for same-sex weddings.
After the aaffiliation with UCC, the Rev. Jo Hudson became senior pastor, and Piazza became the cathedral’s dean. Davis credits Hudson for opening the door for female pastors and credits her, in part, for Davis’ current position.
When Hudson left Cathedral of Hope, the Rev. Jim Mitulski was hired to serve as interim pastor while the church did its first national search for a permanent senior pastor. Mitulski covered some of the hurt left over from Hudson’s departure, and he brought new attention to the church by bringing in outstanding national speakers. Among them was Episcopal Bishop Shelby Spong, who had advocated for LGBTQ+ rights in the Episcopal Church and was the first to ordain openly gay clergy. He was also among the first in his denomination to ordain women.
Davis said the video of Spong’s sermon at Cathedral of Hope remains the most watched video among the church’s vast video library.
Davis said the church has come a long way since it tried to purchase its first property at 2701 Reagan Street in Oak Lawn. After making an offer on the property, the church that owned it said, “We would rather burn it down than sell it to you.”
The church did manage to buy it through some secretive dealmaking and later sold it to become Resource Center’s new home.
That kind of cooperation is what makes the Dallas LGBTQ+ community so vibrant and dynamic, Davis said, and why Cathedral of Hope has remained a religious anchor in the community for 56 years and counting.
Cathedral of Hope celebrates its 56th anniversary on Sept. 18 from 6-9 p.m. with music, food and auctions.Visit CathedralOfHope.com for tickets and more information.