Rehoboth’s MCC Church Celebrates 20 Years in Ministry
For a church that started in May of 1991 with three members, meeting in, of all places, the late-lamented Renegade bar and lounge, the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) of Rehoboth has had quite a 20-year ride.
Three men, Dave Patterson, Tony Warren, and Mike Shilling had a conversation with church elders from the MCC of Washington, D.C., which took place on the patio of the Shore Inn on Rehoboth Avenue extended. They wanted to know how to start a summer ministry in Rehoboth.
MCC itself was started in 1968, a year before New York’s Stonewall Riots. Rev. Troy Perry, a Pentecostal minister defrocked due to his homosexuality gathered 12 people in his California living room. That first worship service in a Los Angeles suburb launched the international movement of Metropolitan Community Churches.
Beginning in Rehoboth as a parish extension of the D.C. Metropolitan Church, the fledgling congregation picked up a few members here and there as they shuttled between services at make-shift locations like Sand in My Shoes B&B, the lobby of The Strand nightclub on Rehoboth Avenue, and, back again at the Renegade.
MCC Rehoboth’s first pastoral leader, Dave Patterson, remembers setting up for a church service in The Strand lobby as men were emerging from dancing all night.
“We went anywhere we could find space,” Dave recalls.
And they were not alone in founding a church that welcomed gay people.
But what started in Rehoboth 20 years ago as a summer ministry soon grew to a congregation of over 25 people, holding church services year round. Patterson, who really enjoyed his leadership role soon started taking correspondence courses in leadership sponsored by MCC Church. Patterson was eventually ordained and led the church until 1998.
During that time, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, Patterson was called upon to officiate at far too many funerals for his congregants, their friends, and families. But he was honored to be able to provide those much-needed services.
Over the years since, the congregation has grown and thrived, and are now on the verge of breaking ground for their own church building along Plantation Road. There will be a large multi-purpose room for services, a kitchen, small meeting rooms, and more. Finally having a real home is a marvelously realized goal for the 20-year old congregation.
Having well over 50 members now and growing all the time, their current minister is K’Lynne McKinley, who comes to MCC Rehoboth after five years as student chaplain at Salisbury University in Maryland, and youth minister and counselor at various retreats and churches in Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, California, Florida, and Maryland.
K’Lynne was originally a Southern Baptist, who received her ordination from MCC after taking classes like Queer Theology. “It was awesome,” she says.
Rev. McKinley is looking forward to the construction of the new church as well as the January 1, 2012 legality of Civil Unions in Delaware. “This will mean a lot to people who have been together a long time and who could not marry,” she says. Naturally, she is looking forward to civil union ceremonies and commitment ceremonies centered around the church.
One of her goals is to minister to people who have had problems reconciling being gay and being Christian. “I want to help walk people through the shame they may have suffered in the past and provide a comfortable place for them to worship.
Rev. McKinley and the congregation are looking forward to doing more outreach and welcoming more and more people to MCC. Their guiding principle is that “We are a loving, open, and affirming Christian congregation celebrating the wholeness of body, mind, and spirit. Rooted in and reaching beyond the Rainbow Community, we offer a safe and encouraging environment for spiritual transformation, through worship, learning, growth, and service.”
MCC hopes that the new church building will be ready by spring, but until then the congregation meets at the Cape Henlopen Senior Center at 11 Christian Street in downtown Rehoboth. There is a 10 a.m. service each Sunday.
The Metropolitan Community Church movement itself, which today has grown to 43,000 members and adherents in almost 300 congregations in 22 countries, is thriving as well. And MCC Rehoboth, celebrating two decades of ministering to gays and lesbians, their families, friends and allies, is really hitting its stride. All are welcome to attend and, according to Rev. K’Lynne, “have it be whatever you want it to be” on your spiritual journey.
For more information on MCC Rehoboth,email K’Lynne McKinley, or visit the MCC Rehoboth website.