Glide is far more than a church. Under the Rev. Cecil Williams from the 1960s, this Methodist congregation on Ellis Street tore the cross off the wall, opened its doors to everyone — regardless of faith, sexuality, or circumstance — and reinvented itself as one of the most important social-service organisations in San Francisco, serving close to a million free meals a year and running programmes for the poor, addicted, and homeless of the surrounding Tenderloin.
Its Sunday "Celebrations" are the public face of all this: joyous, packed services driven by the renowned Glide Ensemble gospel choir, with a message of radical inclusion rather than doctrine. Visitors are genuinely welcome and the energy is extraordinary. It is the beating heart of the neighbourhood's long tradition of activism, and a moving counterpoint to the hardship on the streets outside.