By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware
Word In Black
Merrick Moses is a man of many labels: Old Catholic priest, Benedictine monk, and LGBTQ+ advocate. But don’t let the “old” in his titles fool you – at nearly 50, this Reverend Brother has fire enough to walk by his faith.
The Baltimore resident, who loves ”to pray the rosary while I’m walking,” describes himself as a cradle Roman Catholic — which means he was born right into the church through his family. But Moses’ journey to the priesthood wasn’t a straight path.
He grew up in Queens, N.Y., with a Roman Catholic dad from Panama and a mom from Pittsburgh.
“My Roman Catholic side was really Roman Catholic– with altars in people’s houses and incense and novenas and rosaries,” Moses says.
Meanwhile, his mom’s side of the family “were Baptists, some Seventh-Day Adventists, and an aunt who was a Jehovah’s Witness,” he says. “I can’t tell you how many times I was called a papist, one who believes in the authority of the pope.”
Moses recalls he “always loved church — so much as a child that I would play mass, with figures set in place as parishioners and servers, with pomp and ceremony. But I really did want to lead mass and have a place in the church, but I knew I could never be a priest, having been born a female person.”
He ultimately chose to model his life after his godmother, his father’s sister, who lived a spiritually engaged life. She prayed Catholic prayers but with her own words and passion from her Caribbean heritage.
Moses says he couldn’t understand the reason women were oppressed in the church. He couldn’t understand why someone as devout as his aunt, with great devotion to the Blessed Mother, could not officiate at the altar. So, he left the church for a season.
He practiced Buddhism and found great peace until the tragedy of Sept. 11 drew him back to all he’d known and come to love in the Catholic Church.
No wonder Moses is the epitome of ecumenism.
The Morgan State University graduate currently streams broadcasts for the Catholic Church while he serves as an administrative board member for the Episcopal Church to which he also belongs.
He is ultimately ordained as a priest by the “One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” of the Diocese of the Northeast in the International Ecumenical Catholic Church.
His spiritual footprint can also be found in state legislative discussions concerning equal rights for the LGBTQ community. “I entered into a realm of politics but with a spiritual component.”
Moses also knows the process of growth never ends. ”I’m taking a course that helps me participate in the conversation without exploding in anger, to dialogue with people I don’t agree with and listen with a non-judgmental ear,” he says. “I’m learning to sit with a simmer rather than the pretty hot temper I inherited from my ancestors. If this is the work God has given us, then certainly it must be a work that showcases the love we have for each other.”
And his joy? “Helping some of the most marginalized people understand that God loves them, too. And so I don’t necessarily push my own Catholicism on that, but I do help people.”