Troy Perry, Moderator of Gay & Gay-friendly MCC denomination to step down

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According to an article on 365gay.com (article), The Reverend Troy Perry, Moderator of the Metropolitan Community Church, a gay and gay friendly Christian denomination, and founder of the first ever MCC Church in Los Angeles in 1968 has announced that he will step down from the position at the church's General Conference being held July 21-26, 2005 in Calgary, Canada. Perry will be succeeded by the Reverend Nancy Wilson. According to the article:

Wilson has had a distinguished career within Metropolitan Community Churches. In 1976, she became the youngest person ever elected to the MCC Board of Elders and has served as an Elder since that time. She attended Boston University School of Theology with a Rockefeller Fellowship, also holds an M.Div. from SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary, served as Vice-Moderator of MCC during 1993-2003 and has pastored MCC congregations in Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, and California. Wilson is the former senior pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles, the Founding Church of the MCC movement. She currently serves as senior pastor of Church of the Trinity MCC in Sarasota, Florida. From 1979 to 1999, she served as MCC's Chief Ecumenical Officer, representing MCC at the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches. In 1987, she represented MCC as an ecumenical observer at the Bilateral Dialogue of the Roman Catholic and Lutheran Churches in Columbia, South Carolina, where she met Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, becoming one of the first LGBT leaders to meet the man who is now Pope Benedict XVI. Wilson has also been active on behalf of HIV issues, prisoner treatment programs, and women's rights. She is the founder of the MCC Conference for Women in Professional Ministry. In 1979, she participated in the first-ever meeting of gay and lesbian religious leaders at the U.S. White House during the Carter Administration. She is also the author of several books and is a contributing author to Poems and Prayers in Race and Prayer edited by Malcolm Boyd and Chester Talton (Morehouse Press). Wilson resides with her partner of 27 years, Dr. Paula Schoenwether. They both actively work for same-sex marriage equality. Prior to beginning her MCC ministry, Rev. Wilson was active in the United Methodist Church. Following the ratification vote this weekend, Wilson will be formally installed as the new MCC Moderator at a ceremony at Washington National Cathedral, Washington, DC, on October 29.

The Metropolitan Community Church has more than 300 churches around the world with more than 40,000 members total. The General Conference is expected to draw a thousand or more delegates to Calgary and is the third conference to be held by the MCC in Canada.