Nate Phelps to Speak at MCC Topeka, Joined by Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson

23rd April, 2010 - Posted by admin - No Comments

METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCH
RICHARD DAWKINS FOUNDATION

Media Contact:  Phil Griffin, 785-408-4950

For Immediate Release: April 21, 2010

Nate Phelps To Tell Story Of Growing Up
In Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas
Son of ‘God Hates Fags’ Pastor To Speak At Event
Sponsored By Gay Church, Atheist Foundation

ADVISORY:
Press conference will be held on Friday, 4 p.m., April 23, 2010 at Metropolitan Community Church of Topeka, 4425 SW 19th Street, Topeka, KS to answer questions related to this event.

MEDIA RELEASE:
Nate Phelps left his family at the stroke of midnight on his eighteenth birthday.  After years in Canada, Nate returns to Topeka to share his story growing up as the son of Fred Phelps, the “God Hates Fags” pastor, and as a member of the Westboro Baptist Church. Admission is free.

Nate Phelps son of the Rev. Fred Phelps, will be speaking in Topeka, KS, April 24, 2010, from 2- 4 p.m. at the Topeka Performing Arts Center, 214 SE 8th Ave. (http://natephelps.com/ <http://natephelps.com/> )

Nate, now an atheist, will be joined on stage by the Reverend Elder Nancy Wilson, Moderator of the international denomination, Metropolitan Community Churches, (http://www.mccchurch.org <http://www.mccchurch.org> ). The predominantly gay Metropolitan Community Church of Topeka (MCC Topeka) and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (RDFRS) are sponsoring this event. Nate contacted MCC Topeka knowing that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and Topeka have been the targets of Fred Phelps and his message of hate that is now spread across the country.

A documentary of Nate’s story will be filmed during this event by Upper Branch Productions, and sponsored by the RDFRS.

Driving Directions: http://www.tpactix.org/driving.html <http://www.tpactix.org/driving.html>

Parking: http://www.tpactix.org/parking.html <http://www.tpactix.org/parking.html>

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Nate Phelps Biographical Sketch – attached
Nancy Wilson Biographical Sketch – attached

Attachment 1

Nathan Phelps

Nathan Phelps is a writer and cab driver in Cranbrook, British Columbia. As the estranged son of “God Hates Fags” pastor Fred Phelps, he has recently taken a more active, outspoken role as a counter to their message of hate against the gay community and others. Nathan is the father of four adult children and worked for over 25 years in the printing industry in Kansas and Southern California before he moved to Canada in late 2005.

Attachment 2

Rev. Elder Nancy L. Wilson, Moderator
Metropolitan Community Church

Rev. Nancy Wilson joined MCC as Associate Pastor of MCC Boston in 1972 at 22 years of age.  She served as Pastor of MCC Detroit from 1975 to 1979 and was elected Elder in 1976.

She moved to Los Angeles in 1979 and became Clerk of the Board of Elders, a position she held for 10 years, seven of them full-time at UFMCC Headquarters.  In 1986 she became Pastor of MCC Los Angeles where she served from 1986 to 2000.  She became UFMCC’s first Chief Ecumenical Officer, a post she held for 23 years, representing UFMCC to the World Council of Churches as its official observer in Canberra, Australia (1991) Harare, Zimbabwe (1998) and Porto Alegre, Brazil (2006).  She served as Vice-Moderator of the Board of Elders from 1993 to 2001.

Rev. Wilson was involved in the move of the MCC LA church from the theater on Hill Street to West Hollywood in a building shared with UFMCC Headquarters on Santa Monica Boulevard.  She oversaw the rebuilding of that facility after the 1994 earthquake; started a Latin Ministry and a youth outreach program for which a Ford Foundation grant was obtained.  Wilson was founder of Free Spirit MCC, an outreach to women incarcerated at California Institute for Women, and sponsored the first three UFMCC Conferences for “MCC Women in Ministry.”

In 2001, she was elected Senior Pastor of Church of the Trinity MCC in Sarasota, Florida.  In 2005, she was elected to the position of Moderator of UFMCC and was installed on October 29, 2005 at the Washington National Cathedral.  She has her office in Sarasota, Florida.
Rev. Wilson earned her B.A. in Religion from Allegheny College in Meadville, PA and a  M.Div. from SS Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Detroit and is currently a D.Min. candidate at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA.

Her published works include:  Our Tribe:  Queer Folks, God, Jesus and the Bible (Alamo Press); with Fr. Malcolm Boyd, Amazing Grace; and her prayers and poems are included in Race and Prayer edited by Malcolm Boyd and Chester Talton (Morehouse Press). She is a popular preacher and speaker; has been honored with the first “Lazarus Award” from the Presbyterian Church and was invited to preach at the Earl Lectures at Pacific School of Religion in January 2002.

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