Rev. Elder John Hose

The Rev. Elder John H. Hose was a native Ohioan who held an A.B. degree from Elmhurst College, a Master of Divinity degree from Eden Theological Seminary, and a Master of Science in Education from the University of Southern California. He was ordained into the ministry of the Evangelical Reformed Church (now United Church of Christ) in 1940 and served congregations in Illinois and Ohio. He was ordained as an Elder in the United Presbyterian Church in 1964. He became the 29th member of Metropolitan Community Church Los Angeles on February 3, 1969, served as its first assistant pastor from July of 1969, in which capacity he served until 1972. He was ordained as a minister of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches from its inception and is one of the four founding Elders of the Fellowship.

From 1970 to 1974, he served as pastor of Metropolitan Community Church San Diego, simultaneously with the Los Angeles post until 1972 when he moved to San Diego. He served as pastor of MCC Tampa, Florida, from 1974 to 1979 and then served as the Senior Pastor of MCC Atlanta until his death in 1988.

Rev. Hose, affectionately known to UFMCC as “Papa John” served the Board of Elders of the UFMCC continuously from 1969, for 9 years as Vice-Moderator and later as Treasurer. He traveled widely throughout the world in behalf of UFMCC, and was a board member of the A.C.L.U. for 8 years (in San Diego and Tampa), and served on the Florida Governor’s Ad Hoc Committee for revision of the State’s criminal code. His biography is listed in Who’s Who In Religion—an adjunct to “Who’s Who In America,” as well as “Who’s Who In Community Service.”  He was listed in “Outstanding Persons of The South” although he admitted he was an unreconstituted Southerner!

Most importantly, he was an “out of the closet” gay since 1947. Papa John died on November 25, 1988.

(This biographical statement taken from the program book of the 1981 General Conference of the MCC.) 

Biography Date: February, 2010

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