Christ Church Cathedral — Attraction in Houston

To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Chianti Lateef, and I am the worship leader with the Eternal Soul Empire Outreach Team.

On Febuary 10, 2023, at about 3pm, my team and I arrived at the church to view the beautiful chapel, pray and take pictures.

When we walked onto the courtyard, situated on Texas Aveue, we witnessed at least two photographers freely taking pictures and video recording the church's courtyard and the building.

As soon as we walked into the courtyard, we were rushed by a male, followed by a female who told us to get our cameras off of the church's property, while completely ignoring the other two people who also had cameras. Please note that at the time of this incident, there were and are no publicly displayed signs on the property forbidding pictures or videos, outside of any worship service.

The male presented himself as the Operations Supervisor on duty and the female said she was the COO, Chief Operating Officer, more specificly, stating that she is "the head honcho in charge." They were both rude and aggressive, even after we had immediately, put the camera back in the car.

I asked the Chief Operating Officer why the photographers we saw on the grounds, earlier, were allowed to take pictures, but we weren't. This question seemed to bring out hatred and disgust towards me and my team and she did not offer an explanation.

I was totally respectful and professional, but the Operations Supervisor and the C.O.O. continued to exhibit rude, mean and aggressive behavior towards me and my team.

I truly feel that we were discriminated against, racially profiled, and insulted. I asked that you forward this email to the person in charge of investigating these types of situations.

Again, I instructed my team to put the cameras away immediately and cannot understand why the Chief Operating Officer was so mean and disrespectful towards me. I told her that she was representing the Kingdom Of God and that her attitude was very ugly. There were also two witnesses who can testify that I was in good spirits and only wanted answers, because I saw other people, openly, filming and taking pictures on the church grounds and of the church building.

I looked at the churches reviews on the internet and saw hundreds of pictures taken and posted by vistors from all over the world. Those pictures and videos of the courtyard and inside the chapel are fully displayed on the internet.  It feels awful that we were kicked out of the church, who is supposed to represent the love of God, and were treated like dirt in the process, because of our skin color and culture difference.

Please investigate this matter, and I am requesting that someone above the Chief Operating Officer give me a explanation of this ungodly behavior.

I am reaching out to my attorney regarding the mistreatment we experienced, over other visitors on the courtyard, and the behavior of the self proclaimed "head huncho" COO, which did not represent God, your beautiful church or what you stand for, in...

It was and experience and not just a visit. I stopped by the restaurant there on site first. I had a wonderful lunch with everything being served was prepared from scratch. The restaurant was very clean. All of the employees was very friendly, the service was great and the food was delicious. FreeBeards is the name of the restaurant. It's open Mondays - Fridays from 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. one can find the menu online and become suprised with all the items served. Certain food items are served on certain days of the week. Fresh vegetables and soups and so much more daily, not to mention the choices of desserts. Simply remarkable!

After lunch I ventured over to the receptionist area. There I met Miss Lisa, such a wonderful lady being the perfect person for the position. Seemingly she's worth her weight in gold. ($ hint hint $)Her personality and character appears to be second to none. Lisa is very knowledgeable and responds to most questions one would have in regards of staff are the historic cathedral. This church has been on the same site since 1939, making it the oldest church building and congregation in the city of Houston. This church serves the community in so many ways with different programs and operations. Perhaps the most widely known is "The Beacon" which provides live changing services to those in need and the homeless.

Last I was being inquisitive about the history of the facility, so therefore, one of the priests gave me a partial tour of the campus. Each day after the weekdays morning services a tour guide comes out in the courtyard to meet those individuals desiring to tour the property. Stop by if for nothing else,...get the educational knowledge. However, the church's doors are open to everyone. There are weekday services and several Sunday morning services.

Don't worry about the football games. You will have time after church services to enjoy. There a reason for both NFL Texas Teams playing in stadiums with retractable roofs. They are retractable so God can watch his favorite football teams after church on Sunday...

I was a parishioner of this church for almost 10 years. Most of my time there was under the leadership of Dean Barkley Thompson. The new Dean, Nathaniel Katz, has changed things and the direction of the Cathedral is negative.

Nathaniel Katz and Bradley Varnell are pretty narcissistic and lack passion for their callings. Bradley Varnell is pretty ego-centric and wants to be the center of attention. He gravitates towards the white, wealthy parishioners. Since he became the canon responsible for the 20s and 30s group, the group decreased in numbers and started to lack the diversity it once had. Several of his friends followed him to the Cathedral and the group became a close knit circle of his friends. He is an openly gay priest, but ironically, most of the queer, non-binary folks left within the first couple of years. He defended a lawyer who was running as a Republican candidate for a local political office. I exercised my right to free speech in my own social media when I was critical of this political candidate and the candidate was made the victim. I was subsequently punished. He was caught in questionable situations on social media as well and I brought a complaint to his superiors at the Cathedral. Nathaniel Katz chose to ban me from Cathedral 20s and 30s citing my “disappointment in the Church” as the reason - but it was really in retaliation for submitting my concerns to Bradleys superiors.

The Cathedral markets itself as an inclusive, welcoming community - but it’s not true. It’s a social club for the wealthy and powerful. You only need to walk into the Cathedral and feel the lack of the...