Gay megachurch welcomed to UCC: Chosen to be part of 50th anniversary event

Nearly a year after the 4,300-member Cathedral of Hope in Dallas voted to seek affiliation with the United Church of Christ, the gay congregation was admitted to membership October 29 by a regional association of the liberal denomination.

“This is an historic day in the life of the Cathedral of Hope,” said senior pastor Jo Hudson. The North Texas association approved the request by an “overwhelming majority,” according to the United Church of Christ news service.

The Dallas congregation was formerly the flagship church of the Metropolitan Community Churches, but leaders decided to disaffiliate from the gay denomination in January 2005 and seek alignment with a more diverse denomination.

As the fourth-largest church in the 1.2-million-member UCC, it was chosen as one of a handful of UCC congregations around the country to provide teleconferencing feeds into a simultaneous, experimental, Web-streaming event on November 5 to kick off the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the UCC’s inauguration.

A reported 5,400 computers signed on to the broadcast, which originated from the UCC’s Amistad Chapel in Cleveland.