Effective July 1, McLee will become the district superintendent for the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church’s Metro Boston Hope District, which means he’ll oversee 75 United Methodist congregations in a wide geographic area that stretches from Boston up to Peabody, down to Brockton and west to Wellesley. "The responsibility is to under gird the pastors, to support the pastors, to journey with the pastors of the individual churches," he explained of his new job, to which he was appointed by New England Conference Bishop Peter Weaver.
McLee said the search for his replacement at Union church is already well under way and that he expects a new pastor to be named "sooner rather later" - perhaps later this month or in March.
Without a doubt, his replacement will have some big shoes to fill. The gregarious pastor is as comfortable among his more conservative peers on the board of the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston as he is receiving accolades from gay organizations, which he did at a Human Rights Campaign Dinner in 2000, or visiting the MALE Center, a South End wellness program for gay and bisexual men run by AIDS Action Committee. He shuns clerical garb in favor of Sean John gear at church functions and is a devotee of old-school hip-hop and Patti LaBelle. In 2006, McLee won the New England Conference’s Ziegler Award for Preaching Excellence.
Not surprisingly, McLee arrived at Union from a church in Dallas with a mission to make the church a bridge builder in a diverse community that he perceived to have "this tribalistic understanding of life - this group here, this group [over] here.
"And I think Union has been very faithful to showing people it is possible to live together in harmony if we just come across the street and meet our neighbors," he says. Indeed, the church has opened its doors to labor union and gay events - last June it became the first predominantly black church ever to host the annual Boston Pride Interfaith Service. Most recently, the congregation lured folks into the sanctuary with jazz music and a host of the world’s greatest hoofers for a tribute to Big Band-era tap legend Jimmy Slyde. "Savion Glover was in the house," McLee rightfully boasts.
"That’s the kind of work this church ought to do," he says. "There are folk who don’t come to church, but who would come to church to hear jazz. That’s cool, that’s fine; come to church to have jazz. That’s cool. So it was really good to see us emerge as a place where that is what we do as a matter of course. On Sunday morning, you look at Union you see gay, you see straight, you see black, you see white, you see couples, you see married folk. ... There’s just such variety of humanity and that’s been a goal of mine. I think that is the Kingdom of God." McLee says Union will continue "to be a beacon of hope for bringing people together in that way."
South End state Rep. Byron Rushing, a frequent participant in events at Union, praised McLee for acknowledging the South End’s diversity. He specifically noted the influential nature of the congregation’s embrace of gay and lesbian people under McLee. "Why it had a big influence was that it was coming from a faith institution," said Rushing. Like St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on Shawmut Ave., Rushing said McLee brought Union "into a connection with the whole South End in ways that many of the other churches are struggling to do. I think that the way he opened up use of the building, but also the way he opened up the congregation to the community, is significant."
McLee became Union’s pastor just after the congregation made history by voting to become a Reconciling Congregation, meaning one that advocates for the full inclusion of LGBT people into the life of the United Methodist Church, whose official doctrine holds that homosexuality is "incompatible with Christian teaching" and prohibits the ordination of openly gay ministers. Union was the first historically black church in the country to take such a step.
McLee made clear that the congregation’s reconciling status will carry weight in the selection process for a new pastor. Every congregation undergoing a pastoral selection process presents a profile of how it views itself and is matched with an appropriate pastor also chosen by Weaver. McLee said he could not speak specifically about Union’s profile but said, "it would be ordinary for a reconciling church to be matched with a pastor that embraces that type of theology."
He acknowledged that his new position will be a balancing act regarding gay and lesbian issues. McLee hopes to be a resource for congregations in his district that are interested in undertaking the process of becoming a Reconciling Congregation. But despite the theology of inclusion and equality that McLee has embraced, in his new role he’ll be required to enforce official church policy on homosexuality, for instance, should a gay or lesbian pastor in his district come out to him. McLee admits he hasn’t given the issue much thought, but adds that, "there’s a distinction between fighting for change in the church and obeying the church as [church law] requires. And I have accepted this position with the understanding that I will be enforcing and supporting the rules of the church as they now exist.
"But at the same time I will work to bring about change in the rules of the church," says McLee. To that end, McLee is the leader of the local delegation of United Methodists headed this spring to the denomination’s General Conference, its governing body, in Fort Worth, Texas, where the issue of gay ordination is expected to be a contentious issue. "As one leading the delegation, one of my goals is to convince the church to change its rules with regard to ... its understanding of gay folk and gay and lesbian clergy," he said.
Though he’s excited about his new endeavor, McLee said he’s also been grieving the looming loss of his congregation at Union. The congregation has been dealing with the same mix of joy and sadness, he said. "This is my community. This is my pastoral circle of love and joy," he explains. "And I know God has great things [in store for me] and that the circle will extend, but no matter what I do for the rest of my life, this Union experience will always be pivotal in my understanding of what it means to pastor and to shepherd and to lead.
"And so I’m grieving a bit, as is the congregation, but we’re both grieving in the same way that we’re happy. And my hope and prayer is that the happiness will elevate above the grieving," he says with a laugh.
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