Rev. Michael Piazza is the senior pastor at Virginia-Highland Church in Atlanta. A spiritual visionary, author and social justice advocate, he moved to Virginia-Highland Church after 23 years with the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, Texas. Under his courageous leadership as senior pastor and later dean, the Cathedral of Hope made religious history by reclaiming Christianity as a faith of extravagant grace, radical inclusion, and relentless compassion while becoming the world’s largest liberal Christian church with a predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender outreach. A native of Georgia, Rev. Piazza has pastored churches in Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Florida. He holds bachelor’s degrees in history and psychology from Valdosta State University and a Master of Divinity from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta.
His published books include “Liberating the Gospel; Liberating Word”,”A Daily Reflection for Liberals, Volume One: The First Testament”; “Gay by God: How to be Lesbian or Gay and Christian” (formerly “Holy Homosexuals”); “Queeries: Questions Lesbians and Gays Have for God”; “The Real antiChrist: How America Sold its Soul”; and “Prophetic Renewal: Hope for the Liberal Church”. He is the co-author of Liberating Hope: Daring to Renew the Mainline Church, which was released by Pilgrim Press.