Dear Founders,


I pray this finds you well and happy. 


Last Sunday, we completed our annual Stewardship Sermon Series on Thanks-Giving. You sure blessed me with all the Commitment Forms that came in last Sunday. If you were not present to receive your form, please go to our church website (www.foundersmcc.org) and click on the Stewardship link. I truly believe that while one person can make a difference - a major difference! - we can do so much more and make a bigger impact when we commit to ministry in community. I know God will bless each of us in all we have committed to be and do.


This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent and also the day we honor World AIDS Day (honored each year on December 1st). We will dedicate our Communion this Sunday to World AIDS Day and share red ribbons to all.  


We'll also begin our annual ritual of lighting the Advent wreath. The Advent theme this year is Songs of the Reason. Each week, we'll concentrate on one of the traditional ideals of Advent (Hope, Peace, Joy, Love), and we'll focus on a particular Christmas Carol. This Sunday, the message is entitled, Hope: O Holy Night. If you'd like to read ahead, check out Luke 4:16-21 (Message Version).


I look forward to seeing you in worship this Sunday!


Pastor Keith

Advent Series in December, theme is "Songs of the Reason." Each Sunday will be interwoven around a classic Christmas carol with the origins of the song being shared. Our first week starts with Hope, December 3rd, featuring O Holy Night. 

Sunday, December 3rd, 4 pm. Queer Wise: AIDs thread

Sunday at 4 at the Lineage Performing Arts Center in Pasadena. Lucia Chappelle is a speaker.

Courageous Leadership: Sexuality, Consent, & Boundaries

You are invited to participate in the pilot presentation of Courageous Leadership: Sexuality, Consent, & Boundaries. The purpose of the course is to support MCC congregational leaders to build cultures that balance unique expressions of sexuality with boundaries and consent.


December 7th, 1:00-2:30pm ET


Intended for clergy and boards of directors and other ministry leaders.


For more information, please contact Rev Cathy Alexander at RevCathyAlexander@MCCchurch.net

Saturday Dec. 9, Memorial Service for Norm Cox. @ 3pm.

Saturday Night Spiritual with Rev. Sheena Metal, Next Saturday, Dec 9th @ 5 p.m.

SPECIAL CHRISTMAS OFFERING FOR PASTORAL STAFF

Especially at Christmas, we appreciate our pastoral staff and all that they do for us throughout the year. The Board of Directors set Sunday, December 10 in both the 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. services, to receive a Special Christmas Offering to bless our Pastors and Church Staff with holiday love and appreciation.

Please come prepared Sunday December 10 to participate in this offering as we give with generosity to those who have given so much to us. For those giving virtually or joining online, you may give through the PushPay app by texting to 77977 and use the Special Offering Fund to designate your gift. Together let’s make this a special Christmas for our pastors and staff.

Sunday, Dec 10th: Mobile Vaccination Unit

Mobile Vaccination Unit will be with us from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. New Covid and flu shots are available

Tuesday, December 12th: Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe with Mariachi Acoris

Commitment Cards

Commitment forms for 2024.

Hospitality!
Join us before and after worship for a time of Hospitality in the church courtyard. Martin Miny is heading a team of people to get coffee, juice, and pastries ready each Sunday. Volunteers are always welcome!
Monkey Pox Vaccine Available 
LA County now has another limited supply of Monkeypox Vaccine available. You can sign up here: https://lacpublichealth.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_aY96Sxs2lUgUZb8
Change In Covid-19 Protocols
As we continue to cope with Covid-19, we are changing our protocols. The new protocols are in line with the rest of LA County. Until further notice, here are our guidelines:

1. We will no longer require vaccinations and boosters for church attendance, though we highly encourage them.
2. We will make wearing masks optional. Please feel free to continue wearing masks as you feel comfortable.

3. We ask people that have symptoms of (or tested positive for) Covid, flu, monkeypox, or any other easily communicable disease to please refrain from attending until they are well.

As we have from the very beginning of the pandemic, we will continue to keep in line with the advice of the LA County Public Health Department. Thank you so much for your patience as we navigate new guidelines.
Tithes & Offerings

Thank you to all who have given so generously through our online giving portal. Our church cannot function without your generosity!! Feel free to continue giving through our website (on PushPay) or simply sending a check in the mail (4607 Prospect Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027). Again, thank you.



Grand Total For Week Ending: 11-26-2023: $7,073.00.


Tithing: $5,491.00


Deaf Ministry: $410.00


Christine Daniels Scholarship Fund: $1,172.00

Advent Reflections

Hello, I’m Rev. Elder Goudy and I bring you greetings from Metropolitan Community Church of the Lehigh Valley in Allentown, PA, USA.


Peace be with you. Once again, the world is groaning for peace, with too many conflicts all over the globe.


Every year in this region of Pennsylvania there is a 10-mile Peace Walk on the second Sunday of the month of December.


For most of the 24 years I have pastored MCC Lehigh Valley, I have participated in the Peace Walk. We walk from the town of Nazareth, Pennsylvania to downtown Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.


Quite frequently I have not wanted to be a part of the event.


It is a long day in the middle of a busy season and it is usually quite cold. One year I was so out of shape that by mile six I was walking like a robot because my joints were so out of whack.


All of this is to say that the annual Peace Walk is usually an inconvenience. It is a significant commitment in the midst of many other commitments.


And yet every year there are a multitude of blessings along the Peace Pilgrimage. I renew conversations with Quakers and Mennonites and peace-making people from a variety of denominations. I walk 10 miles along a busy highway and busy streets in a public witness for peace in a world that is resigned to war.


In the 21st century there continues to be a clear conflict between God and all sorts of powers. There are the media powers, the technological powers, the political powers and the power of war and when they all collude together it is a terrible mess. These powers we contend with day-in and day-out, they have a strong grip on us because they have the attention of our eyeballs through the media, they control the algorithms when we do a web search, they control the political process and they know how to manufacture and operate weapons of war.



And yet there is no reason to be hopeless. God empowers each one of us. God believes we are ready to be victorious over the powers that be.


There is a way out from under the powers-that-be! There is a way out from being under the control of the Herods and Caesars of 2023. The way out from under the powers-that-be is to seek peace. We are to seek peace, we are to pursue spiritual illumination, we are to seek God’s light, we are to seek God’s wisdom and we are to commit to a practice of community building.


Peace is inconvenient, it takes time and long-term relationship building. That’s okay, it’s worth it. And when peace flows there is rejoicing! This is the season we celebrate the Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Creator.


Peace be with you.


Rev. Elder Goudy

MCC Council of Elders


Read Elders' Bios here:

https://insidemcc.org/governance/council-of-elders/


Advent Reflections

Fresh Greetings for the Advent Season to All Our Global MCC Family,


I am Rev. Elder Carolyn J. Mobley-Bowie, coming to you from Saginaw, Michigan in the USA, representing all the Elders, and our Moderator, the Rev. Elder Cecilia Eggleston. It gives me a tremendous sense of joy to share the first in a series of Reflections from the Council of Elders for this Advent Season.


This year marks the 35th year since the World Health Organization first designated December 1 as World AIDS Day back in 1988. However, it was in 1981 that we first heard the announcement that AIDS was a pandemic in America. In those early days, we knew so little about HIV/AIDS and there was so much fear, anxiety, shame and stigma attached to it that people who became infected felt alone, rejected and abandoned. It did not take long for us to understand that AIDS was a worldwide pandemic. The thematic focus for this year’s commemoration is “Remember and Commit.” We all need to remember how things were, how far we have come, and we must commit ourselves to continuing this fight until no one has to live with HIV/AIDS.


I find it so appropriate that the MCC Advent theme this year is “The Gift of Being Present.” Indeed, this is exactly the way we, as a denomination approached the AIDS epidemic before World AIDS Day “became a thing.” We knew in our spirit and in our heart of faith, that God still loved us all and was in fact with us in the midst of all the trauma and drama we were facing. We understood that our loved ones and people with AIDS everywhere, were worthy of love and support and fully deserved our compassion, our acceptance, and our presence. So, we were there for each other. Ours was a ministry of presence, when so many others were turning away from people with AIDS.  


MCC pastors and congregations were among the very first to reach out in love, and with compassionate-creative care for people living with AISD. We got busy leading HIV/AIDS Support Groups; we got busy raising funds to support people who needed help with food, medicine, and housing; we got busy building clinics and group homes for those who had very few resources; we got busy developing Care Teams and creating agencies. We were present.


I can also remember a San Francisco activist, named, Cleve Jones, starting the Names Project (the AIDS Quilt) in 1987, the year before World AIDS Day was founded. Many MCC Congregations formed quilting groups to make quilt panels to help us collectively remember the names and the stories of those who died of AIDS (sometimes without the dignity of a funeral or any kind of memorial service). So, in 1987 many of us participated in the initial roll-out of the AIDS Quilt on the National Mall in Washington, DC as part of that year’s National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Even then, we were offering ourselves as the “gift of being present” to people living with AIDS, to our larger LGBTQI+ community and to the world. World AIDS Day has become one of our best platforms for: 

  • Increasing Awareness of the ongoing reality of HIV/AIDS around the world.
  • Exposing the inequities in HIV/AIDS funding, treatment, education and other resources worldwide.
  • Remembering all those who have died while finding new ways to support and lift up all who are infected now.
  • Developing effective programs to prevent new infections and strengthen research to eventually find a cure.


Join me is this simple prayer:

Loving Creator-God, our Great-Physician-Healer,

We know you have made us in your own Divine Image, and so,

We thank you for choosing to be with us and in us at all times and in every place.

Forgive us when we forget that we are One With You and one with each other;

May the truth of our Oneness heal our bodies, our relationships, and our world.

In the name of Jesus and in all your Holy Names, we pray with your blessed assurance. Amen!

Rev. Elder Carolyn Mobley-Bowie

MCC Council of Elders


Read Elders' Bios here:

https://insidemcc.org/governance/council-of-elders/

Rev. Keith Mozingo (Moderator)
Dean Coffey (Vice Moderator)
Kim Doneche (Clerk)
Ed Shaughnessy (Treasurer)
Roger Owens - Governance
Ina Serene - Trans* Unity
Martin Miny - Facilities
Parking Available
Children's Hospital has so graciously volunteered up to 10 spaces for us to park. It is a small lot off Sunset Blvd., just beyond the Metro Station entrance.
Founders Metropolitan Community Church Address And Contact Info:

4607 Prospect Ave, Los Angeles CA 90027 | 323-669-3434
E-mail: info@foundersmcc.org
Website: www.foundersmcc.org
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