UNITY FELLOWSHIP CHURCH MOVEMENT HOUSE OF BISHOPS

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THE HISTORY

Unity Fellowship Church, Los Angeles (UFCLA) was founded in 1982 by Reverend Carl Bean for openly gay and lesbian African Americans. The first meetings were held in the private residence of Rev. Bean, on Cochran Avenue in Los Angeles. In 1984, a reorganization took place in the last residence of the late Archbishop William Morris O’Neill, located on South Burnside Avenue (also the ordination site of our founder). Weekly Bible studies then moved to the home of Deacon Christine Tripp. UFCLA received its nonprofit status in 1985. The first UFCLA public worship service was at the Cockatoo Inn on Hawthorne Blvd in Inglewood. It was then decided by the membership to move the worship service to a more central location, so that it would be more accessible to those on public transportation. The new location was the Ebony Showcase Theatre on Washington Boulevard, which was an integral part of the culture of the black community. Public worship continued at the Ebony Showcase Theater until 1988. It was then that Unity Fellowship Church purchased its first property, and moved to West Jefferson Boulevard.

The Unity Fellowship Church Movement (UFCM) was registered in 1990 as a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, headquartered at the Jefferson Boulevard site. Presently, the UFCM network is far reaching with various national departments, urban outreach ministries, the national mass choir, periodicals and constituency-based programs nationwide.

WHAT WE BELIEVE

God is Love and Love is for Everyone. It is impossible to love each other without a sense of mutual (equal) worth and respect for each other.

Romans 13:10- Love worketh no ill to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

1st John 4:20- It is impossible to love God, whom we’ve never seen and hate our brothers and sisters whom we see every day.

God is neither male nor female; God is spirit and spirit has no gender.

Liberation Theology for all, a theology that frees the oppressed, therefore is:

● not a male dominated hierarchy

● not oppressive to women

● not just European in scope, and must relate to people of color and their various cultures around the world

● not oppressive to Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, and Bisexual people, and allows us to think and discern through human reason and experience

● not oppressive to Native Americans or their spirituality or any other oppressive use of scripture

We believe in the teachings of Jesus but we do not dismiss all of the other beliefs as wrong or second to our way of believing.

God is greater than any religion, denomination or school of thought.

God is spirit, alive and at work in the Moslem Mosque, the Jewish Synagogue, the Christian Church and the Tribal Ritual. God is everywhere present.

We believe the Bible and all great spiritual writings or guides must be read taking into consideration the time of their writing, the traditions practiced at that time and the fact that we have the right to question and examine and all interpretation.

A person’s belief system:

● must be supportive of healthy self-acceptance

● must support spiritual growth

● must encourage physical, emotional, and mental help

Enlightenment and revelation are continuous and did not stop with the Bible writers.

OUR MISSION

The primary work of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement (UFCM) is to proclaim the “SACREDNESS OF ALL LIFE”, thus focusing on empowering those who have been oppressed and made to feel shame. Through an emerging international network, the UFCM works to facilitate social change and improve the life chances for those who have been rejected by society’s institutions and systems. Although its pivotal work focuses on the urban weak and powerless, the scope of its work is inclusive and has significance for all people.

Presently four bishops oversee the movements’ seventeen churches. Archbishop Carl Bishop (our Presiding Prelate) oversees Jurisdiction 1, Senior Bishop Zachary Jones, Jurisdiction 2, Bishop Jacquelyn Holland, Jurisdiction 3, and Bishop Tonyia Rawls, Jurisdiction 4.