Monday, July 28, 2003

While the Anglicans might split over gays...

the gay churches are splitting, too!

The congregation of the Dallas-based Cathedral of Hope voted overwhelmingly on Sunday to part company with the United Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC). The decision severs a 33-year-relationship between the nation's largest gay church and the country's only GLBT denomination. The loss of the 3,000-strong Dallas flock brings MCC's membership down to 43,000. A preliminary 977-140 vote on Sunday will be confirmed in a final tally later this week, the Dallas Morning News reported. Sunday's vote capped a months-long dispute between Michael Piazza, the charismatic leader of the Cathedral of Hope, and a group called Cathedral of Hope Reform, which questioned his financial decisions. Led by former board member, Terri Frey, the reform faction accused Piazza of a number of fiscal irregularities, ranging from the charge of arranging health insurance for ineligible HIV-positive volunteers, to the more serious allegations that Piazza used capital campaign contributions for ongoing operations and spent thousands on "fund-raising parties" out of town, where little or no money was collected.

No, it's the other Mike Piazza

.....