On Sunday, October 6, the congregation of East Liberty Presbyterian Church, also known as the Cathedral of Hope, voted in favor of Rev. Dr. Michael A. Diaz as the church’s next Senior Pastor. Rev. Diaz comes to Pittsburgh from Dallas, Texas, where he has served since 2016 at the Cathedral of Hope United Church of Christ, first as an Associate Pastor and then as an Executive Pastor, leading an array of programs, including traditional, Taizé, contemporary and Spanish-speaking worship services.
Rev. Diaz grew up in Houston, Texas, where he began his remarkable faith journey, first as a Catholic, then an Evangelical, then an Episcopalian, and finally to his ordination first in the Metropolitan Community Church and then in the United Church of Christ. By chance and because of the similarity between Michael’s Dallas Church’s name and ELPC’s, he discovered Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Hope online.
While Rev. Michael is amazed by the beauty of ELPC’s incredible Gothic structure, he is more enamored with the church’s transformative ministry work in the community. “Loving God and loving people are clearly at the heart of everything ELPC does,” he said. Journeying with immigrants, refugees, and queer communities awakened Michael over time to a deeper spirituality based on divine love and radical inclusion; his beliefs and ELPC’s mission as a congregation believing in total inclusion and working to solve problems of systemic racism and poverty are in close alignment.
Rev. Michael and his partner, Dr. Nino Testa, a professor of gender studies, will move to Pittsburgh in mid-November. An installation date for ELPC’s new Senior Pastor remains to be set.