Alexa Capeloto
GLENDALE----Dana Cagle just ended her term as president of the
Glendale Religious Leaders Assn. and now it looks as though her
congregation will be saying goodbye as well.
Cagle is pastor at Glendale's Metropolitan Community Church, a
nondenominational Christian congregation composed mostly of gays and
lesbians. The church owns property on Riverdale Avenue but is preparing
to sell it and move out of Glendale.
Cagle said the cost of owning and maintaining property has become too
prohibitive for the 40-member congregation. She is negotiating to move
Metropolitan's Sunday services into a chapel on Eagle Rock's Occidental
College campus.
"We don't want to be mortgage driven but ministry driven," said Cagle,
who was the church's original minister when it opened in 1996. "We are
being called somewhere else."
When Cagle's congregation leaves, she will exit the Religious Leaders
Assn., as well. As a lesbian, she was initially nervous about joining the
interfaith group, but members accepted her as their president.
"People have been respectful of who she is and the church from which
she comes," said Alan Strout, associate pastor of Glendale's First United
Methodist Church and a member of the association. Though Methodist
doctrine does not condone ordaining gays and lesbians, Strout's church
gives him its blessing to work with people of all orientations.
From Cagle's perspective, being accepted by other people would be
nice, but God's acceptance is what really matters.
"Gays and lesbians have to take the position that we don't have to be
invited to the table, because we're already there," she said. "Christ and
God have already invited us. We don't need validation."
Cagle said she hopes to have a new place for Metropolitan's services
within two months.
