CONNECT
with Metropolitan Community Church
and Resources
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IN THIS ISSUE, you will find:
- New Events offered by MCC and by others who share our values
- Ongoing Events that continue monthly or weekly
- Helpful Links to information
- Reminders of things
- Resources.
Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom where our Mailing Address is listed. Some servers clip or truncate emails and you might have to click a link to "view entire message."
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Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month 15 September to 15 October. September 15th marks the independence anniversary of five countries: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. September 16th is Mexico's Independence Day and September 18th is Chile's.
A Hispanic person is someone who comes from or is a descendent from a Spanish-speaking country. Hispanic countries are: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Let's learn about and celebrate Hispanic Heritage.
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Mental Health Kinship Gathering
Time: Sep 24, 2022 11am EDT / 8am PDT / 4pm BST / 3pm GMT
This initial gathering is to discuss ways to best connect those in MCC that would appreciate a safe space and connection and also for those that will support and help bring visibility and awareness of mental health in MCC. These will be two separate groups moving forward.
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 963 668 1482
Disability Access Kinship Gathering
September 24 – Saturday
9am PDT / 11am CDT / 12pm EDT /5 BST / 4pm GMT
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 963 668 1482
HIV/AIDS Kinship Gathering
September 24 – Saturday
10am PDT / 12pm CDT / 1pm EDT / 6pm BST / 5pm GMT
This is an identity-specific closed group.
Facilitated by Preben Bakbo Sloth (Denmark)
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 963 668 1482
Trans Kinship Gathering
October 1 – December 3 (first Saturday of the month)
11am PDT / 1pm CDT / 2pm EDT / 7pm BST / 6pm GMT
Zoom Link:
Meeting ID: 839 4427 5180
Passcode: TransMCC
If you are interested in a particular Kinship group, please email Rev. Stedney Phillips: [email protected]
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GOVERNING BOARD REPORTS and Financial Information
You can find past and current reports, minutes, and financial reports in the Resource Bank. Check here: Governing Board
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Clergy License Renewal starts in October
Clergy, watch for an upcoming email about this Clergy License Renewal cycle. Complete your forms and get them in early to save with the Early Bird Rate. Haven't completed your 9 CEU's? Now is the time!
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Fellowship Sunday, October 9th
The first service of MCC was held on Sunday, October 6th, 1968. We celebrate Fellowship Sunday on the Sunday closest to that date. Some of our churches celebrate Fellowship Month using the month of October to highlight our shared history, leaders past and present, accomplishments, and programs.
Each year, MCC congregations are encouraged to receive a special offering for the denomination. More information on the focus for this year's offering will be coming out shortly.
There are resources from past years to help you plan Fellowship Sunday or Month. Visit these folders in the Resource Bank. Fellowship Sunday-Month and History
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WE ARE CELEBRATING
Nancy Wilson's Ministry Jubilee: 50 years of service and not done yet!
We are raising $50,000 (US) to honor Nancy's 50 years. So far, we have raised $31,800. Won't you help us meet our goal? The denomination will use 50% of these funds for translation which will assist our global reach. Will you give $50 to honor her 50 years of service?
You are invited to join Nancy and her local congregation, SunCoast MCC, for these celebrations.
Dinner and Congratulations
Saturday * September 24, 2022 * 4:00 PM
Bay Indies – Indies House
Please Register in Advance for the Dinner
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Worship Service
Sunday * September 25, 2022 * 10:00 AM
SunCoast Metropolitan Community Church
3276 E. Venice Avenue, Venice, Florida, USA 34292
Guest Preacher: Florida State Rep. Michele Rayner-Goolsby
who is an out lesbian and person of faith.
Clergy attending Sunday Worship Service are invited to wear a gold or white stole.
Send a note of congratulations on your church letterhead and attach it to an email. Send it to [email protected]
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Dates/Times: October 7 (1-6pm) and October 8 (9am-5pm)
Location: Online Course
Instructor: Kelly Brown Douglas
How do you speak of the justice of God amidst unjust human suffering and oppression? This core dilemma in the book of Job is also the central theme of liberation theology. Gustavo Gutierrez, the pioneer of Latin American liberation theology, writes that “the innocence that Job vigorously claims for himself helps [us] to understand the innocence of an oppressed and believing people amid the situation of suffering and death that has been forced upon it.” Through careful examination of Gutierrez’s “On Job: God-Talk the Suffering of the Innocent”, this course examines how Latin American liberation theology responds to the predicament of speaking of a just God in the face of human suffering with special attention to the practice of ministry in an unjust world.
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Date/Times: October 14 (3-8pm) and October 15 (10am-6pm)
Location: Online
Instructor: Mona Siddiqui
Struggle is both a personal and universal reality of human life and always present in theological, philosophical and sociological literature. Human beings often wish to avoid struggle and yet it is during times of struggle that we become, we grow and we find deeper purpose in life. This course will explore the topic of struggle through the writings of celebrated Christian and Muslim scholars, including Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Syed Qutb, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali and Rainer Maria Rilke. Their writings reflect how their faith inspired them to rethink the universal themes of love, loss, the crisis of faith and personal salvation. They suffered from doubts and adversity but their faith and quest for God gave their lives hope and meaning.
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Monkeypox
A Panel Discussion – What You Need to Know
Monday, October 17, 2022 7pm – Live Over Zoom
Monkeypox is a growing health concern within the LGBTQ community. All churches, congregants and friends are invited to participate in this live panel discussion with two health experts to discuss this growing community concern. Together, let’s break the silence, stigma and shame!
Live Q&A with our Experts:
Phil Griffin, Public Health Official - Recently retired, Director of the Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control State of Kansas
Rachel Guran, MPH, BSN, RN, CIC, FAPIC - System Director, Epidemiology and Infection Prevention, Memorial Healthcare Systems
This event is open to all of MCC. It is sponsored by the MCC Florida (USA) Network.
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How do we preach hope, peace, joy, and love
in these hot mess times?
October 17-20, 2022
Listen in as a dozen of the nation’s most prophetic preachers reflect on the upcoming Advent season and how they will approach the familiar lectionary texts in our perpetually unprecedented times.
Voices include:
Cláudio Carvalhaes, Daniel Brereton, Rob Lee, Brandan Robertson,
Emily McGinley, Adrienne Thorne, Andrea White, Amanda Meisenheimer,
Debie Thomas, and Josh Scott.
12 Voices
4 Days
More than 10 Hours of Content
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Dates/Times: November 4 (1-6pm) and November 5 (9am-5pm)
Location: Online
Instructor: Sarah Monroe
As the religious landscape in the United States shifts with growing speed, chaplaincy has grown in importance cross institutions and disciplines. This course explores how chaplains could be a vital presence in poor communities, as poverty grows with equal speed. Taking lessons from The Poor People’s Campaign, grassroots movement building around the country, and hospital and jail chaplaincy, students discuss how chaplains could lead a movement to end poverty.
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Tea Time with the Elders!
THIRD TUESDAY MONTHLY
5pm EDT / 9pm GMT
Join us via Zoom
Meeting ID: 248 584 328
Password: 469464
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Sanctuary Online - Tuesdays
5pm Pacific / 6pm Mountain / 7pm Central / 8pm Eastern
Sanctuary's Zoom Room:
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Lectionary Discussion Group for Preachers
Wednesdays 11am EDT / 3pm GMT
https://zoom.us/j/92606189026?pwd=UFNONnpVOEF2WnFXb3cyTG5tQVoxdz09
Join in conversation with other preachers to share ideas and questions that will help shape your sermon.
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Prayer Time with the Moderator
Most THURSDAYS
at 5:15pm EDT / 9:15pm GMT
Join the Moderator for a time of reflection and prayer on Facebook Live.
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MCC Clergy Connection Call
2nd Thursday Monthly
1pm EDT / 5pm GMT
This is a peer initiated, peer led, focused monthly support group.
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Bilingual Praise worship hosted by Joy MCC (Orlando, Florida, USA) Thursdays at 7pm ET/midnight GMT
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Military hymn download for Veterans Day now available
Planners for the services, ceremonies, and observances of Veterans Day 2022 now have a new resource to consider: a military hymn entitled, “Ever Faithful to the Call.” The hymn can be reviewed and downloaded free for nonprofit use at www.everfaithfultothecall.com
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Small Churches Find Growth Online
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CHILDREN’S SUNDAY SCHOOL
Do you have Children’s Church or Sunday School? Are you looking for curriculum? MCC of the Lehigh Valley, this fall, is offering Seeking Justice Together. “This is a wonderful peace-oriented curriculum under the Shine umbrella from the publishing ministry of the Church of the Brethren, Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada.”
What curriculum have you used that you found to be well-suited to our diverse and inclusive MCC context? Let us know so we can share with others! [email protected]
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A Conversation with Jim Wallis - FREE
Professor of the Practice at the McCourt School of Public Policy and Founder and Director of the Center for Faith and Justice at Georgetown University, Jim Wallis is a globally respected writer and speaker, public theologian, and justice advocate. He is the founder of Sojourners and is a New York Times bestselling author with recent titles including America’s Original Sin, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong, and the Left Doesn’t Get It, and Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus. He is the host of the Soul of the Nation podcast.
Jim is in demand as a speaker at Colleges, Universities, Seminaries, Churches, and faith-based conferences and conventions both nationally and internationally.
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Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks
How do we handle gratitude during these times? When we don't feel grateful? In a 6-part video and discussion course based on her book, Grateful, Diana Butler Bass takes us into a journey to understand what gratitude is, how it can strengthen us as individuals and in community, and the surprising ways in which it subverts hopelessness and injustice. In addition to lectures and mini-practice sessions, Diana will be joined by other writers in conversation about how giving thanks has made a difference in their own lives.
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In Case You Missed It... FINANCIAL FACTS
A report co-authored by Dr. Sean Payne of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Dr. David King of Lake Institute on Faith and Giving, and Dr. Susan Barnett of the Presbyterian Church (USA) sheds light on trends in the financial futures of congregations based on data from our Faith Communities Today (FACT) 2020 study.
The report focuses on economic trends in U.S. faith communities and offers deeper insight into how congregations receive, manage, and spend resources. In addition to looking at finances in relationship to congregational size and religious tradition, the report also looks at online giving trends, an increasingly important source of income. Comparisons are also offered across 20 years of FACT studies, which demonstrate how the financial health of faith communities has changed over time.
Among the many interesting findings the report reveals are:
- Most congregations are small and have budgets under $100,000.
- Slightly more than half of American worshipers (51%) attend large congregations with budgets over $1,000,000.
- The median income or gifts was $120,000, which is a 20% decline from 2010.
- Congregational budget size is closely tied to attendance and participation.
- Smaller congregations have larger per capita incomes and expenses.
- Congregations with shrinking attendance have much higher per capita incomes and expenses than stable or growing congregations.
- Eighty-five percent of revenue is from participant contributions.
- Salaries are the largest share of expenses at 44%. Buildings make up another 26% of expenses.
Explore the full range of trends, data points and comparisons in the full report:
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Conversations With Today's Greatest Thought Leaders
- Brian McLaren
- Yvette Flunder
- Kelly Brown Douglas
- Shawna Bowman
- Traci Blackmon
- Diana Butler Bass
Length of conversations range from 20-40 minutes.
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Created for you, the members and leaders of MCC! Visit the site and familiarize yourself with the menu and easy to access blocks. Use the quick link to get to the Resource Bank where you can search for the tools you need.
Remember, we also have our visitor website https://visitmccchurch.com/
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MCC Resource Bank - for Clergy, Lay Delegates, Board Members, and Worship Planners. New resources are added all the time so check back often!
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Check out all the great classes and resources still available at Sacred Space Online Learning (SSOL) including MCC specific classes. Yes, we no longer have the OFLD (Office of Formation and Leadership Development) but SSOL classes are still available.
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2775 NW 49th Ave. Ste: 205-327
Ocala, FL 34482
USA
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