ABOVE: Rev. Jakob Hero-Shaw (L) and Rev. Craig Cranston at MCC Tampa. Photo by Ryan Williams-Jent.
TAMPA | The Metropolitan Community Church of Tampa is celebrating 50 years of serving the spiritual needs of Tampa Bay’s LGBTQ community and its allies.
Founded in 1968, MCC was the first Christian denomination with a primary, positive outreach to members of the LGBTQ community. By 1971, MCC Tampa became the seventh church to incorporate into the fellowship, which now includes nearly 300 congregations across more than 20 countries.
Billed as the first LGBTQ organization to affiliate in Hillsborough County, MCC Tampa currently serves around 100 congregants with in-person and virtual services each Sunday. It subscribes to MCC’s core values of inclusion, community, spiritual transformation and justice to serve as “your center for compassion in action, spiritual growth and personal development.”
“The slogan for our church is ‘Christ centered, genuinely inclusive,” Rev. Jakob Hero-Shaw says. “Those are the things that are paramount to us.
“We’re centered on Christ and we are inclusive of everyone,” he continues. “We have people from all philosophies and belief systems who come here, and sometimes people come who are affiliated with other religions but just feel more welcome.”
Hero-Shaw has worked to set that tone as MCC Tampa’s senior pastor since 2015, but it’s something he first experienced as a congregant 19 years ago.
“When I first came to MCC, I was really in need of what this place had to offer but was scared to come inside,” he remembers. “I sat in my car, waited until everyone got inside, and then I waited a little longer to make sure services started before I snuck in to sit in the back.
“As a gay trans man, I had so much trouble finding a place where I felt comfortable,” he notes. “This church really loved and supported me for me.”
That’s because every MCC is LGBTQ affirming. Hero-Shaw says that’s something no other denomination can assert.
“There are churches that accept LGBTQ people but don’t have the support of every church in that denomination,” he explains. “With some you can come in the door while in others you can’t. In some you can come in but can’t have communion. In others you can’t be ordained.”
Rev. Craig Cranston experienced that personally. He joined MCC Tampa’s staff as assistant pastor in 2020 following an internship, a process that began decades prior as a member of the Episcopal Church.
“I was originally called into ministry at 16 years old, but the church was very clear that they don’t ordain gay people,” he says. “I left orthodoxy but continued in a spiritual space.”
He resumed his path to ordination at 48, leading him to MCC.
“I love the rich tradition of the Episcopal Church, and I might find one that is open and affirming,” Cranston explains, “but the question becomes, ‘how do you know where you can go to be welcomed?’ It is a spotty experience: are you really being welcomed or are you just being accommodated?”
“My worth and God’s love is more than ‘I’ll accommodate you today,’” he stresses. “God doesn’t accommodate us; God loves us and embrace us. I want to go to a church where every single church in the denomination says that I matter. That’s MCC.”
The church originally planned a 50-year celebration honoring that fact in August. That changed due to COVID-19, evolving into smaller celebrations held throughout the end of the year.
Programming and weekly services will give congregants various opportunities to reflect on each decade MCC Tampa has served the community. Messaging will then transition into how the church will do so in years to come.
“We’re celebrating our past and building our future,” Hero-Shaw says. He adds that while the church is currently planning a 50-year gala in early 2022, all are welcome to celebrate MCC Tampa’s inclusivity until then.
“From the very beginning, our church has said, ‘God loves you. People have lied to you by saying God doesn’t love you. Come to our church and feel God’s love,’” he says. “We’re not perfect, we’re human beings running a church, but we’re here for anyone who just needs a place that is loving and accepting.”
MCC Tampa is located at 408 E. Cayuga St. Learn more by calling 813-239-1951 or by visiting MCCTampa.com.
