Rev. Dr. Sid Hall, III – Minister of Celebration

Rev. Dr. Sidney G. Hall, III is a United Methodist minister, a writer, an activist, a husband, and a father. He has served as the senior minister of Trinity United Methodist Church located in the Hyde Park Neighborhood of Austin, Texas since June 1988. Trinity voted to be a Reconciling Congregation (Welcoming of the LGBTQ community) in 1992 and continues in that public witness. Trinity is also a church that practices Nature-based Spirituality (The idea that all of creation is infused with an innate sacredness). Hall has been a leader in the Reconciling Ministries Network, having served on the national board of directors from 1996 to 2002.  He was also one of the original 15 signers of “In All Things Charity” in January of 1997 calling the United Methodist Church into full inclusion for sexual minorities. He was arrested with other activists at the United Methodist General Conference in Cleveland in 2000 for protesting the church’s exclusive policies. A native of Kokomo, Indiana, Hall has served United Methodist congregations in Indiana and Texas since 1978 and has been elected to the General and Jurisdictional Conferences Delegation from Southwest Texas for three quadrennials. Over the years he has served on various other boards such as The Political Asylum Project of Austin, Austin Reading Is Fundamental, The Executive Committee of the Texas Conference of Churches, and the Mayor’s Task Force on Human Rights. He holds a Bachelors degree in History and Religion from the University of Indianapolis, a Masters in Theology and Doctorate in Liberation Preaching and Holocaust Studies, both from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Dr. Hall is the author of Christian Anti-Semitism and Paul’s Theology (Fortress Press, 1993). His book is a standard reference book in many college classes on Holocaust Studies. He is a frequent speaker and workshop leader in the areas of Holocaust Studies; LGBT Inclusion in the Church; and Leading Nature-based Ritual and Worship in the Church. In 1991 he was awarded the Jewish Community Friendship Award by the Jewish Community Center in Austin for his work as a non-Jewish ally. Hall has been featured in numerous magazine and newspaper articles, including The Advocate, Out, Open Hands, and Creation Spirituality. He and Trinity were the focus of  an article in Time Magazine (July 3, 2000) because of his stand in 1997 to suspend conducting heterosexual weddings after the 1996 General Conference made it a chargeable offence for United Methodist clergy to conduct same-sex unions. Sid is married to Mary L. Pratt, a local psychotherapist and adjunct professor at Huston Tillotson University. He is a father and grandfather.  His children are: Rachel, who is a local artist and Starbucks Assistant Manager. She is married to Evan Xydes, a Biologist.  Rachel and Evan have a lovely son, who his grandfather gets to babysit on his day off; David, who is a graduate of Chapman University in California and a Rock and Roll journalist with Orange County Register; Daniel, who is studying environmental geology at Middlebury College in Vermont; and Angela, who is studying voice and music education at the University of Central Florida. Sid Hall is described as “a social activist with the heart of a mystic.”

To contact Sid, e-mail sid@tumc.org or call him at the church office, 512-459-5835, ext. 205.

To obtain a copy of Sid’s book, write to mail@tumc.org.