Founding and Senior Pastor

A native midwesterner who was raised in the United Methodist Church, Paul Turner felt, even as a young child, a call to pastoral ministry. He majored in Theology and minored in Psychology at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois. He left prior to graduation when the nature of his sexual orientation became clear to him and church officials informed him that he would never be ordained within the United Methodist Church. After being out of the church for six years, Turner discovered the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Church in June of 1982. He received a certificate in "Crisis Intervention" from the Council of Christian Communions of Cincinnati in 1983; served on the Crisis Intervention Team and as a Chaplain for the city jail, was licensed as a clergyperson in the UFMCC in 1986, and ordained in 1989.