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A Special MCC Screening of
Angels & Saints - Eros & Awe
A film about wholeness and uniting body & spirit
Individuals, congregations and organizations will be able to view the film at their convenience from 14 February - 19 February, 2024
There will be two live, interactive Q&A and Panel Discussion with the Producer, Director, and MCC members on Saturday, 17 February 2024.
You must register in advance to view the film. Congregations are encouraged to gather in-person to watch and discuss the film.
All are invited to attend the live, interactive Q&A and Panel Discussion.
Clergy can use this event as 2 CEU.
North American LEAD can use this event as an elective course.
Registrants will receive an email on Tuesday, 13 February with link and password to view the film and link to join the live Panel Discussion.
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Living Well with Differences 2024 Course
Would you like to feel more confident when engaging on difficult issues?
Would you like to tackle hot topics with open, honest, and loving communication?
Have you struggled to have a meaningful conversation with someone who opposes your views?
Would you like to respond more positively when a conversation gets heated?
Living Well with Differences course helps participants learn how to recognise and understand the signs of potential tensions and sources of conflict earlier and respond with confidence. We will explore what conflict ‘looks’ like in our faith communities, explore different approaches and responses that can help develop your skills in transforming relationships and navigating tricky conversations. Please click the links for course information.
The US and Canadian Cohorts start the 8th of February, whereas the Europe, Africa, Australia cohort starts the 12th of June.
Europe-Africa-Australia
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UKgrgDnctMvoG9cg2MwnhNSzxjul0Gdx/view?usp=sharing
US-Canada
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wpJJMZ9fnwfqbIZjkeRAhsG6pJDYyD7O/view?usp=drive_link
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Pastoral Search - MCC Richmond
MCC Richmond is pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for the Senior Pastor position. We have been in ministry in the Richmond area for over 45 years, and we are energized by what lies ahead for us. You could be the leader that God is calling to serve with us! Come and be a part of this vibrant and active church that is on the move. If you are considering a change or even if you are not, check out the information that we have put together. We know that you will be intrigued by what is happening in Richmond, Virginia. You will find our application packet, videos, and background information in the Resource Bank of the UFMCC website. Here is a photo of the Pastoral Search Team in front of our church.
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LGBTQ+ History Month Celebration
Saturday, 17th February
Augustine United Church in Edinburgh, Scotland invites you to their LGBTQ+ History Month Celebration on Saturday, 17th February
This will take place from 2pm to 8pm at Augustine United Church, 41-43 George IV Bridge EH1 1EL.
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MCC of Omaha Celebrates 50 Years
2024 is MCC of Omaha's 50th year as a chartered church within MCC. Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson joined the congregation for the kick-off event on the 28th of January. A local TV station (Channel 3) covered the celebration and aired a wonderful news story include interviews:
https://www.3newsnow.com/south-omaha/half-a-century-of-building-community-metropolitan-community-church-of-omaha-celebrates-50-years
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In celebration of the wonderful work Colleen has led in UFMCC's communication efforts over the past 4 years, we offer the following blessing:
God of many names, we celebrate your servant leader Rev. Colleen, for her unique gifts and talents that she has brought working for the denominational on staff for the past 4 years – transforming our communications and drawing upon her experience as a local church pastor. We celebrate her passion, her energy, and her focus on ensuring that the denomination has more regular and relevant communications to reach our clergy, our churches, our lay leaders and the wider MCC.
We celebrate Colleen’s quest to spread the word about the amazing ministry that happens in our local churches each and every day, as peoples lives are touched and people’s lives are transformed by our ministry and the message of your infinite love for all of us “just the way we are.”
We celebrate that Colleen made translation of our communications a priority so that we could reach more people around the world in their own language. We celebrate Colleen as a lead champion of our Resource Bank to provide our clergy, our churches, and our lay leaders with the resources they need in their local communities.
We celebrate Colleen’s inquisitiveness, her curiosity, her willingness to ask questions, her willingness to reflect on how others may look at the world from their set of shoes and their own lived experiences. We celebrate that this is not a door closing, but rather another door opening, as Colleen continues her exploration of life, as she completes her doctorate, and Colleen focuses on pastoring her local church. As Colleen leaves our staff, bless Colleen and Shelley as they continue to grow, learn, and make a positive difference in our world. We also pray for our staff, our Governing Board, our Council of Elders – we ask for your guidance in leading MCC forward to continue to touch and make a difference in people’s lives around the world. We ask this in all your many names. Amen.
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Discovering Common Ground:
Learning, Sharing, and Growing Together
One of the blessings of being MCC is the chance to be in community with individuals from different religious traditions, expressions, faith streams, and spiritual paths. Creating intentional space on a regular basis to share with and learn from one another about our various religious/spiritual experiences offers us time to discover, as Tom Giaquinto once stated, "humanity has more in common than the differences that separate us." As a new MCC spiritual community, Discovering Common Ground seeks to be a place where interfaith/interreligious and cross-cultural dialogue can occur, learning opportunities are offered, and new discoveries can be made about God, ourselves, and one another.
Interested in knowing more about this spiritual community or desire to be added to our email list? Email Rev. Brendan Boone at [email protected].
Join us in the journey of discovery!
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MCC Clergy Spiritual Retreat in Assisi/Italy
Encounter with me, my call, my God
Learn more about this exciting opportunity here:
Clergy Spiritual Retreat in Assisi Italy
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The Power Of Our Voices and The Telling of Our Stories, hosted by the RISE Together Mentorship Network, is a three-day mentorship and leadership development opportunity for women of color ministry leaders, activists, clergy, and lay leaders. Through networking, inspirational worship, dynamic panel discussions, and empowerment workshops, women of color will be renewed, inspired, supported, and empowered to navigate difficult spaces, overcome barriers, and embrace the fullness of God’s call on their life.
March 14-16, 2024!
Register Today - https://utsnyc.edu/2024riseconference/
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Prayers for Peace
Wednesdays 8pm EEST / 6pm BST / 1pm EDT
Living Water MCC in Helsinki Finland offers this time of prayer. The sessions are bilingual: Finnish and English. The prayer sessions last about 15 min and are over Zoom. The link for them is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84221914911?pwd=VTd1MnlPakltODFxK2lFclo5SkxVdz09
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MCC Kinship Groups
BIPOC | PAD | API | LatinX |Trans | God-Talk
Many of these groups may not be meeting at their usual times due to the holidays. Please check with the group facilitator(s).
If you are interested in a particular Kinship group or in forming another group, please email Rev. Hector Gutierrez at [email protected]
BIPOC is a term that means “Black, Indigenous, People of Color” and is mainly used in the USA. “People of Color” are African Americans, Asians, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, multiracial Americans, and LatinX. If you are interested or have any questions please contact:
[email protected] or [email protected]
Trans Kinship Gathering Saturday,
3rd February (Meets first Saturday of the month)
11am PDT / 1pm CDT / 2pm EDT / 7pm GMT
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89808765091?pwd=bzA4Wkprb2pyeGdwM2tkeGk0Q1ZhZz09
Meeting ID: 898 0876 5091 Passcode: 381764
PAD: People of African Descent
Saturday 10th February at 9am PST / 10am MST / 11am CST / 12pm EST Tuesday 20th February at 4pm PST / 5pm MST / 6pm CST / 7pm EST
This group is for People of African Descent only.
For more information and the link to attend, please contact [email protected]
API Kinship Gathering
Friday, 16th February at 6pm PST / 7pm MST / 8pm CST / 9pm EST (USA)
Saturday 17th February at 10am Philippines & Singapore
Promoting connection, visibility, celebration & diversity through monthly online conversation of the global Asian Pacific Islander MCC community.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85461173187?pwd=RG9oMm1WdGR3K0JpVFlQTjNUYmplZz09
Meeting ID: 854 6117 3187
Passcode: 701186
For more information, contact [email protected]
God-Talk
If you are interested or have any questions please contact:
[email protected] or [email protected].
Latinx Kinship Gathering
Meeting ID: 831 8721 6000 Passcode: 426447
For more information, please contact Rev. Nilsa Irizarry at
[email protected]
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Monthly Book Club Discussion on Zoom
Monday, 19th February - 12 noon EST / 5pm GMT
Connect with others and discuss social issues as we read and discuss one book per month. You are invited to read the whole book and then gather for a conversation. Don’t like to read? It's available as an audiobook! Listen while you walk or drive or while relaxing.
The February book will be the novel Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (2023)
Named a best book of the year by NPT/Fresh Air, Washington Post, The New Yorker and Time magazine.
One of Barak Obama's Favorite Books of 2023.
“A murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel . . . Charming, smart, heart-blistering, and heart-healing.”—Danez Smith, The New York Times Book Review
“We all need—we all deserve—this vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82059571267?pwd=NTZ6ejZXOHNzZkFDS0FoQllMVTl2QT09
Meeting ID: 820 5957 1267 Passcode: 432609
This book club is sponsored by MCC Knoxville and is facilitated by
Rev. Colleen Darraugh.
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The next North American LEAD Retreat to be held at
Church of the Trinity MCC
Sarasota, FL, USA
April 19-21, 2024
LEAD, Laity Empowered for Active Discipleship, is the UFMCC lay leader certificate program. Since its inception in 2011, there have been 13 North American LEAD cohort groups, as well as LEAD cohort groups in the UK, the Philippines, the European Network and Australia. We now have 51 LEAD graduates following their call to lay ministry all over the world. The next LEAD
cohort group, North American LEAD 14, is now being planned for Friday, April 19, beginning at 1:00 pm Eastern Daylight-Saving Time, through Sunday, April 21, 6:00 pm Eastern Daylight-Saving Time, at Church of the Trinity MCC, Sarasota, FL, USA.
One of the exciting features about this retreat is that most of the expenses for the retreat will be covered by a fund set up by upRising MCC of Austin, TX, USA. Because of the fund, accepted retreat applicants will not pay the Retreat registration fee (normally $350). In addition, Church of the Trinity will provide housing for participants with its church congregants and provide several meals during the Retreat. Retreat participants will only need to pay for their travel, plus a $50 matriculation fee, to attend the retreat. In addition, all online courses that are required or are electives for completion of the LEAD program will be paid through the fund (a $600 value). The LEAD scholarship fund, The Judy Dale Scholarship for Lay Leadership, may be used to assist with other fees associated with course work or events necessary for the completion of the LEAD certificate requirements.
Applications
Applications will be processed on a “first come, first served” basis until March 11, or until 18 applicants have been accepted to attend the Retreat.
Applications can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1946FBthJkP5mOsXHt_LaooV1EuUD6S9H/edit?amp%3Bouid=107596378083343173086&%3Brtpof=true&%3Bsd=true
(to download the Application, click on “File” in the upper left hand corner. A pull-down menu will appear. Click on “Download” and then select “Microsoft Word”.)
More information about the LEAD program can be found in the North American LEAD Manual here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y5eZ1rhXCPo647xrMv2BOnjvsTals5VR/edit?amp%3Bouid=105065752783664344590&%3Brtpof=true&%3Bsd=true
(to download the Manual, click on “File” in the upper left hand corner. A pull-down menu will appear. Click on “Download” and then select “Microsoft Word”.
Questions about the retreat or the LEAD program can be directed to Elder Nancy Maxwell at [email protected].
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Board of Pensions USA Update
For the year 2024 the Board of Pensions rate will continue to be $1.75 per member, per month; due quarterly.
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1Om9DGS4Xrn30U05sn0Tq
Pr2x6bc0jbDV
If you have any questions please email Tammy Erwin at:
[email protected]
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Visit the Library | Consider an Annual Membership
What Does Membership Get You?
Professional development and online learning at the crossroads of leadership and faith from the most impactful and important voices in our midst.
• Our full library of online learning tools including courses, webinars, summits, and conversations. Over 100 courses for one price!
• Immediate access to all new content the moment it is released.
• Engage with like-minded folks who are participating in your course.
• Future discounts on Convergence projects.
$240 annual membership (saves 33%) or save 15% with quarterly or monthly payments. Consider that one Summit may cost $140.
www.convergencecolab.org
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Looking for something on the website?
It might be in the Resource Bank now.
Need help finding something?
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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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ASSESSMENTS: 18766 John J. Williams Hwy | #382 | Rehoboth Beach | DE 19971 | USA
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