The Rev. Colleen Darraugh, left, and her wife, Shelley Torres-West
In a video posted to Facebook this morning (Tuesday, May 8), the Rev. Colleen Darraugh announced that the congregation of the church she pastors, Metropolitan Community Church of Greater Dallas, has “decided to close its doors and disband its operations.”
MCC of Greater Dallas was formed in 2003 by former members of Cathedral of Hope, when the congregation of that church voted to leave the University Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, who wanted to have a church that remained affiliated with UFMCC. Darraugh was MCCGD’s founding pastor, and has remained lead pastor ever since.
Here is a transcript of Darraugh’s video announcing the church’s vote to close:
Hi. I’ve got some news that I’d like to share with you.
The entity we know as Metropolitan Community Church of Greater Dallas has decided to close its doors and disband its operations. We are clear that the members, the people of MCC of Greater Dallas are a community of faith, and that we are still connected by the relationships we have formed and by God who joins us. But we have come to the decision that it is time to close the legal, operational part of that church.
It is not an easy decision. And it was not made quickly or lightly. We have thought about this. We have tried a number of different things. And like so many other churches, we have seen a decline in attendance, in human resources and in finances. And the Holy Spirit made it clear that it was the time, now.
And so we shared that news with the members of the congregation to consider and pray about that decision. And we met and we had our congregational meeting and voted to close the official organization, and yet remain committed to each other as a community of faith.
So I want to share that news with you and ask you to pray with us as we go through that transition. You know, there’s a lot of churches that close, and there are other churches that are opening. The church universal continues, and the truth is, God is with us, whether we have an organization we identify with or not. God is with us.
I would ask you, if you have questions, please contact us and we’d be happy to talk about it with you. I can assure there’s no conflict, there was no big incident. There’s no shame; there’s no blame. It’s just part of an organization life. As it says in Ecclesiastes, for everything there is a season, and so this is our season.
I wanted to share that with you. Again, I ask for your prayers for me, and I ask for your prayers for all the members of this congregation as we go through this transition. I thank you, and I’m still going to be doing some online stuff, so watch for what will happen with that in the future. We’ll watch as God leads in that.
But for now, would you please pray with us and pray for us. Thanks so much. God bless.
— Tammye Nash
