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Forme rly The "Atlanta Barb ^ "THE VOICE OF THE GAY COMMUNITY - SERVING THE SOUTHEAST AND THE NATION" VOL. 1 NO. 8 PUBLISHED IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA 25 CENTS San Francisco OVER 1,000 GAYS ATTEND CHURCH CONFERENCE Over a thousand gay' Christians met recently for five days in San Francisco for the Universal Fellow ship of the Metropolitan Community Churches, now of international status. Under the leadership of the founder and moderator, the Rev. Troy Perry, delegates from 32 states and five fo reign nations gathered to gether at the Metropolitan Church of San Francisco as representatives of this ra pidly growing ecumencial and congregational church serving the homophile com munity. The Universal Fellow ship, which began as a sin gle church in Los Angeles only six years ago, now numbers in the thousands. From the Southeastern states came over 30 church members and clergy repre senting Atlanta, Tampa, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Cocoa Beach and New Orleans. The Atlanta contingent numbered 12 members and the Atlanta church was represented by 4 delegates: The Rev. El der John Gill, Rev. Jim Snow (pastor and assistant pastor of the Atlanta church) and two lay dele gates. Both Rev. Gill and Rev. Snow were honored by the Conference Committee with a request to address the entire conference body. Rev. Keith Davis of the Mi ami Church delivered a stirring sermon on Satur day evening. Both Tampa and Miami were represent ed by sizeable contingents. During the conference it was learned that the Rev. Charles Larsen will leave his position as pastor of the Tampa church and return to school to earn his doctorate in religion. He will be re placed in Tampa by the Rev. John Hose from San Diego (affectionately known as “Pappa John”). From the MCC at Providence, R.I., the Rev. Arthur Cazeault announced that he has ac cepted an offer from the Atlanta church to join its pastoral staff. Rev. Ca zeault will arrive in Atlanta the early part of October. The cohesiveness of the entire conference was easi ly identifiable. While there were differences over many matters, the overall spirit of cooperation throughout the entire international membership was highly im pressive, truly in keeping with the conference theme: One Body, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. In a vigorous effort to combat sexism within the church, the Women’s Com mission, chaired by the Rev. Elder Frieda Smith, boldly recommended that between the present time and the close of the decade the conference achieve two important goals: Develop guidelines for member churches toward creative, meaningful non-sexist wor ship and: through a com mittee of qualified men and women; Edit and publish a fellowship hymnal in which neither masculine or femi nine words are used gene - rically. The Women’s Com mission further recom mended that a section of “In Unity” (the Fellowship’s official publication) be de- Cont’d. Page 4 THE BARB’S STUD OF THE MONTH Courtesy Michael’s Of Florida ' 0