FORT LAUDERDALE — A man stood outside the Sunshine Cathedral during a service Sunday morning, burning a piece of cardboard, according to police, then returned later that day to throw eggs at the LGBT church.
Police are investigating both incidents and have identified a “possible suspect,” said Casey Liening, a spokesperson for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, but have not released his identity.
The man first arrived during the 9 a.m. worship service, the church said in a release posted on Facebook Tuesday. He burned debris “in what appeared to be some sort of ritual, presumably in opposition to the LGBTQ+ affirming ministry of the Sunshine Cathedral,” the release said.
Police and firefighters went to the church, in the 1400 block of Southwest Ninth Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, where they discovered the man had set a piece of cardboard on fire outside, said Liening. It is unclear whether the cardboard had any message or symbol attached to it.
“Due to the fire, we are unable to determine at this time if anything was drawn or written on the paper,” Liening wrote in an email.
There was no damage to the building and no one was injured, she said. By the time police arrived, the man had disappeared.
Later that evening, the man returned and threw eggs at the building, Liening said. The incident was reported to police on Tuesday.
“We have no idea what sort of pain he is in or what has motivated him to act in such unpleasant ways,” the Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins, Senior Minister of Sunshine Cathedral, said in the release. “We can only assume he is experiencing some sort of mental dysfunction and we hope he gets the care he needs.”
It is unclear whether the man was already known to the church leadership. Calls to the church communications department and Watkins were not returned Wednesday.
Fort Lauderdale’s Threat Management Unit is investigating both incidents, the fire as a “suspicious incident” and the egg-throwing as vandalism, Liening said.
The church said in its release that security cameras had recorded the man both times, and that it shared the footage with police.
A Black Nissan Altima was listed as an “involved vehicle” in the burning incident, according to a mostly redacted police report.
The man has been identified, the church’s release said, and will be treated as a trespasser if he returns, while “safety protocols” are in place.
“While he may not recognize our sacred value, we do affirm the divine spark in him; even so, he can’t be allowed to harass or threaten our worshiping community,” Watkins said. He added, “With so much hatred in the world, our message of love is needed as much as ever, and we have every intention of sharing that message with as many people as possible.”
The Sunshine Cathedral describes itself as “the largest queer church in the world,” according to its Instagram page.
Founded over 50 years ago in 1971, the church has a “local and global” congregation of over 30,000, according to its website, and livestreams services on its Facebook page that viewers from across the country can attend.
Sunshine Cathedral is one of 350 churches in the nation’s Metropolitan Community Church denomination to serve LGBT parishioners, and one of six in South Florida.
The church often gets hate mail, the release said, and has dealt with “bouts of vandalism, protests, cyber bulling, and even anti-LGBTQ+ prayer vigils” over the years.
Last year, someone left poster boards with hateful messages in the courtyard, the church said in a previous release, while “silent protesters” had been coming to pray the rosary “against” them.
“Because there is an increase in hate speech, anti-gay and anti-trans legislative agendas, and attacks on LGBTQ+ venues, we at Sunshine Cathedral are more determined than ever to share a healing, loving, justice-seeking message,” the church wrote at the time. ” … We will simply need to take precautions as we do this important work.”
Information from the Sun Sentinel archives was used in this report.
