2011 MCC Fellowship Sunday Offering - Why Not Donate Now?

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Tearing Down Walls. Building Up Hope.   2011 Fellowship Sunday Pacesetters   1.   Church of the Trinity MCC        (Sarasota, Florida) - Rev.        Charles Tigard, Pastor   2.   Cornerstone MCC (Mobile,        Alabama) - Open Pulpit   3.   Emerald City MCC (Seattle,        Washington) - Rev. Ray        Neal, Pastor   4.   Exodus MCC (Abilene,        Texas) - Rev. Margaret        Walker, Pastor   5.   FirstCoast MCC (St.        Augustine, Florida) - Rev.        Ruth Jensen-Forbell, Pastor   6.   Gentle Shepherd MCC        (Phoenix, Arizona) - Rev.        Gale Rawson, Pastor   7.   Heartland MCC (Springfield,        Illinois) - Rev. Dr. Tony        Thieman-Somora, Pastoral        Leader 8.   Holy Covenant MCC        (Brookfield, Illinois) - Rev. Dr.       Danny Spears, Pastor   9.   Holy Cross MCC        (Pensacola, Florida) - Rev.        Sandy O'Steen, Pastor   10. Imago Dei MCC (Glen Mills,       Pennsylvania) - Rev. Janice        Bowker, Intentional Interim        Pastor 11. Joy MCC (Orlando, Florida) -        Rev. Lisa Heilig, Interim Pastor   12. King of Peace MCC (St.        Petersburg, Florida) - Rev.        Dr. Candace Shultis, Pastor   13. Living Springs MCC (Bath,        England) - Rev. Kieren        Bourne, Pastor   14. MCC Brisbane (Australia) -        Rev. Dr. Leigh Neighbour,        Pastor   15. MCC Charlotte (North        Carolina) - Rev. Catherine        Houchins, Pastor   16. MCC Elizabethtown        (Kentucky) - Rev. Cathy        Porter, Pastor 17. MCC Good Shepherd       (Granville, Australia) - Rev.        Robert Clark, Pastor 18. MCC Knoxville (Tennessee) -        Rev. Jill Sizemore, Pastor   19. MCC Los Angeles        (California) - Rev. Dr. Neil        Thomas, Pastor   20. MCC Lubbock (Texas) -        Rev. Renae Phillips, Pastor   21. MCC Newcastle (United        Kingdom) - Rev. Elder Cecilia        Eggleston, Pastor   22. MCC of Albuquerque (New        Mexico) - Rev. Judith Maynard,        Pastor   23. MCC of Baton Rouge        (Louisiana) - Rev. Keith        Mozingo, Pastor   24. MCC of Greater St. Louis       (Missouri) - Rev. Dr. Carol       Trissell, Pastor   25. MCC of New York (New        York) - Rev. Pat        Bumgardner, Pastor 26. MCC of Our Redeemer       (Augusta, Georgia) - Rev. Jeff        Pullium, Pastor   27. MCC of Paducah (Kentucky)        - Rev. Lillian Ferguson, Pastor 28. MCC of San Diego        (California) - Rev. Dan        Koeshall, Pastor   29. MCC of the Blue Ridge        (Roanoke, Virginia) - Rev. Joe        Cobb, Pastor 30. MCC of the Palm Beaches       (Florida) - Rev. Dr. Lea Brown,        Pastor   31. MCC of the Spirit        (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) -        Rev. Lori Rivera, Pastor   32. MCC of Topeka (Kansas) -        Rev. Dr. Ty Sweeting, Pastor   33. MCC of Winston-Salem        (North Carolina) - Rev. Ron         LaRocque, Pastor   34. MCC Portland (Oregon) -        Rev. Nathan Meckley, Pastor   35. MCC Pueblo (Colorado) -        Rev. John Mark Hild, Pastor   36. MCC Quezon City        (Philippines) - Rev. Ceejay        Agbayani, Pastor 37. MCC Rehoboth (Delaware) -        Rev. K'Lynne McKinley, Pastor   38. MCC Richmond (Virginia) -        Rev. Dr. Robin Gorsline,        Pastor   39. MCC Sacred Journey       (Hendersonville, North Carolina)        - Rev. Jane Nelson, Pastor   40. MCC San Antonio (Texas) -        Rev. Mick Hinson, Pastor    41. MCC Sydney (Australia) -        Rev. Greg Smith, Pastor   42. New Creation MCC        (Columbus, Ohio) - Rev.        Margaret Hawk, Pastor   43. New Spirit Community        Church (Berkeley,        California) - Rev. Elder Jim        Mitulski, Pastor   44. New Spirit MCC (Cincinnati,        Ohio) - Open Pulpit   45. Open Arms MCC (Rochester,        New York) - Rev. Jim Mulcahy,        Pastor   46. Open Circle at The Villages        MCC (Oxford, Florida) - Rev.        Carol Rawlings-Chambers,        Pastor   47. Peninsula MCC (San Mateo,        California) - Rev. Terri        Echelbarger, Pastor 48. Reconciliation MCC (Grand        Rapids, Michigan) - Rev. Steph        Maxson, Pastor   49. Resurrection MCC (Houston,        Texas) - Rev. Elder Lillie Brock,        Consulting Pastor   50. River of Life MCC        (Dorchester, England) - Rev.        Catherine Dearlove, Pastor   51. River of Life MCC       (Kennewick, Washington) -        Rev. Janet Pierce, Pastor   52. Spirit of Christ MCC (Joplin,        Missouri) - Rev. Steve Urie,        Pastor   53. Spirit of Life MCC (New Port         Richey, Florida) - Rev.         Dexter Brecht, Interim Pastor 54. St. John the Apostle MCC       (Fort Myers, Florida) - Rev.        Steve Filizzi, Pastor   55. SunCoast Cathedral MCC        (Venice, Florida) - Rev. Dr.        Sherry Kennedy, Pastor   56. Trinity MCC (Gainesville,        Florida) - Rev. Dr. Jim Merritt,        Pastor   58. Water of Life MCC (Tucson,        Arizona) - Rev. Elder Dr.        Charlie Arehart, Pastor   59. Wichita Falls MCC (Texas) -        Open Pulpit     An Invitation from Rev. Dr. Nancy L. Wilson Moderator, Metropolitan Community Churches     As You Prepare To Celebrate The 43rd Anniversary of MCC in October...    ...I invite you to hold MCC's growing and emerging international work in your hearts -- not as an abstract "concept" -- but as real, live people around the globe who hunger for MCC's experience of faith, inclusion and community.   Today, as this anniversary approaches, I'm thinking of...   V ...the enthusiastic young people who attended the recent, first-ever conference for LGBT people of faith in Russia. They expressed such overflowing joy at MCC's message of biblical faith and justice. "When will you have MCC churches for all of us?" was the question heard over and over.   V ...the faces I witnessed of our Jamaican brothers and sisters at worship. The depth of their faith was so evident, and their worship was so passionate! They live in a culture in which LGBT people are faced with daily threats of persecution, physical abuse and even death. But through MCC's gospel message, they are discovering amazing strength and are working to transform their society.   V ...the woman who faithfully attends every service of MCC in Romania. She's a human rights activist who was drawn by MCC's work as "The Human Rights Church" -- but she stayed and discovered new spiritual life and faith through Jesus' transforming message.   Through your generosity, you can celebrate the 43rd Anniversary of MCC's founding -- and all that MCC means in your life! -- by making a profound difference in the lives of our brothers and sisters around the globe and strengthening MCC's growing and emerging international ministries for decades to come.   Here's how...   After you've shared your tithes and offerings through your local MCC congregation, I invite you to make a generous, over-and-above financial gift to this year's MCC Fellowship Sunday Offerings campaign.   International Task Force Steering Committee Rev. Hector Gutierrez (Staff), Dr. Carol Scherfenberg (Group Hope), Dr. Mark Dalgleish (Group Grace), Rev. Dr. Nancy Wilson (Moderator), Jochen Gewecke (Group Faith), Marina Laws (Staff), Raquel Benitez (Governing Board) _______________________________________________________    Your generous donation to MCC's 2011 Fellowship Sunday Offering campaign will support the vital work of our International Task Force and help build a strong global MCC structure for decades to come! _______________________________________________________     There are three ways you can make your personal gift to MCC's 2011 Fellowship Sunday Offerings campaign.   Won't you select one of these options and share your gift today?   GIVING OPTION #1: Locate an MCC Pacesetter church in the left column and make your contribution through the Fellowship Sunday Offering of a local participating church.   GIVING OPTION #2: Visit the MCC Fellowship Sunday Offering web page and scroll to the yellow "Donate" button to make your on-line donation.   GIVING OPTION #3: Mail your donation by check or money order, made out to "Metropolitan Community Churches," to P.O. Box 1374, Abilene, Texas 79604, USA. In notation section, add "Fellowship Sunday Offering."   Thank you for your generosity and for your support of MCC's global ministry.   As we prepare to celebrate another milestone in MCC's history, here is my prayer for you:   As you look to MCC's past and all that God has brought us through, may God's FAITH strengthen and sustain you.   As you look to MCC's future and all the opportunities it holds, may God's HOPE empower and encourage you.   As you live faithfully day-to-day, may God's LOVE surround you and flow through you!   Alleluia! Amen!   Grace and peace,   + Nancy   Rev. Dr. Nancy L. Wilson MCC Moderator FellowshipSunday@MCCchurch.net       P.S. Remember, to make your MCC 43rd Anniversary donation on-line, simply visit the 2011 Fellowship Sunday Offering web page and click the yellow donation button.

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MCC Headline News - 28 September 2011

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Headline News Tearing Down Walls. Building Up Hope. Governing Board Appointment Announcement MCC's Governing Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Kareem Murphy to the Governing Board. Kareem will serve a two-year term until the 2013 General Conference XXV in Chicago, Illinois (USA). At such time, the General Conference will elect a Lay Person to complete the remaining three years on this unexpired term, ending at 2016 General Conference XXVI. Please visit our MCC Governing Board webpage to read a short bio of Kareem Murphy. We thank all applicants who inquired and/or submitted an application for consideration to this appointed position. Kareem will join us for our next scheduled MCC Governing Board meeting on October 18, 2011 at 5:00 pm (EDT).   Please join us in welcoming Kareem Murphy!   Office of Formation and Leadership Development Announces Associate Director    The Office of Formation and Leadership Development is pleased to announce as its new Associate Director the Rev. Dr. Kharma Amos.  Kharma has been involved as a volunteer for nearly ten years in the ongoing work of clergy development in MCC.  She was part of the original team that designed our current credentialling system and was instrumental in shaping the Guidelines for Professional Ethics in MCC, formerly known as the 'code of conduct.'  She has served as faculty for REVM, Intensives and online courses.  During her nine-year tenure as the Senior Pastor of MCC of Northern Virginia, Kharma has been sought out as a Supervising Clergy by MCC students.  Her success as a mentor and supervisor is evidenced by the fact that all her supervisees currently serve in Triple A ministries. Rev. Dr. Kharma Amos   Rev. Dr. Mona West states, "I had the privilege to work alongside Kharma as a volunteer when we implemented the new credentialling system with the REVM program. More recently in my current role as the Director of the OFLD, I have called on her numerous times to serve on ordination interview teams and advisory boards.  I know her to be a person of great integrity, and she has a passion for leadership development--especially clergy development--in MCC.  I am excited about the ways her creativity and professionalism, as well as her training and experience, will shape the future of the OFLD and MCC. It's going to be a joy (and a lot of fun!) to have her as a team member!"   Kharma holds the Master of Divinity degree from Lancaster Theological Seminary, where she is currently on the Board of Trustees.  She completed her Doctor of Ministry degree at Episcopal Divinity School, writing a thesis titled, Queering Church: Integrating Queer Theology in Congregational Life in Metropolitan Community Churches.  She is currently the chair of MCC's Theologies Team and was accepted as a participant into the inaugural Moderator's Leadership Mentoring Retreat in January 2010.  From 2003-2005, she participated in the First Parish Project, funded by the Lilly Endowment, for the purpose of supporting young clergy as they transition from seminary to serving their first parish as solo or senior pastors.   Send your congratulations to KharmaAmos@aol.com.   The Office of Formation and Leadership Development is grateful to the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation for a generous grant to fund this position.   Rev. Dr. Mona West Introduces the Office of Formation and Leadership Development The Office of Formation and Leadership Development was formerly known as Clergy Development. The change in the name represents the larger vision that MCC has for leadership development in our denomination. As our name states, we believe that leadership has a formative component to it, which includes not only education, but spiritual development and community. Clergy development, including working with seminary students, conducting the REVM (Readiness for Vocational Ministry Retreat) and issuing licenses to practice for currently active clergy is still at the heart of what the Office of Formation and Leadership Development does. We have also expanded our work to include the development and launch of a leadership training program for MCC laity called L.E.A.D. (Laity Empowered for Active Discipleship). In addition, we have partnered with the Moderator's Office to develop Leadership Mentoring Retreats and with the Office of Church Life and Health to create the next level of church summits in the areas of programming and worship. The OFLD functions globally through faculty teams and volunteer coordinators who assist in creating and implementing leadership development protocols that are indigenous to each country where there is an MCC presence. The current paid staff for this office are Rev. Dr. Mona West, Director, Rev. Dr. Kharma Amos, Associate Director, and Ritchie Crownfield, Executive Assistant. Theologies Team Invites You to Participate in Survey   Since our first meeting in December 2007, we have been working on a number of projects that support our vision of equipping everyone in MCC to be both reflective and practical theologians.   Descriptive Theologies Project We're excited to announce the launch of our new Descriptive Theologies project, designed with three goals in mind: 1.     To provide an accurate picture of practices "on the ground" in our churches around the world; 2.     To facilitate our understanding of who we are as a denomination/movement; and, 3.     To help us identify areas where the MCC Theologies Team may assist our churches. Friend? Member? Clergy? Board Member? Elder? We want to hear from you! Our goal is to survey as widely as possible, soliciting responses from every individual associated with MCC in any way. Our short questionnaire has three sections for you to describe your experiences around baptism, to tell us what you were taught, and to tell us about your current beliefs around this important topic. Continuing on work begun at the 2007 General Conference in Phoenix and the Holy Conversations congregational resource, we've designed our first surveys around the Sacrament of Baptism. Visit the survey page, and choose the Baptism survey for individuals.   The password for the survey is Baptism2011. It is case sensitive, so make sure to use a capital B and lowercase letters for the rest. Making Headlines! Governing Board Appointment Announcement OFLD Announces New Associate Director Rev. Dr. Mona West Introduces the OFLD Theologies Team Survey Correction from Previous Issue U.S. Board of Pension Applications Due Clergy Retreat Update 2012 Women's Conference Upcoming Events Correction from Previous Issue Oops! We inadvertently misspelled one of the L.E.A.D. candidate's names. Here is the correction: Ken Keate, All God's Children MCC, Minneapolis, Minnesota.   U. S. Board of Pensions Applications Due:  5 October 2011 Please see the previous issue of Headline News for the full description of this opening. Hear are the basics for applying:    We have 1 (one) non-clergy opening on our National Board, which carries a four-year term. Investment knowledge, marketing, communication and/or technological skills would perfectly complement our Board make up.   Our deadline to receive resumes/references is 5 October 2011. Please send to Devon Avery, President, UFMCC BOP: dhavery@att.net.   Clergy Retreat Update   Thirty clergy from places as far away as Hawaii and Canada gathered at Delray Beach, Florida (USA), on 12-14 September for a clergy retreat. There was opportunity for people to network and connect as well as to enter into silent reflection and renewal. We also had some great intellectual stimulation from our plenary speaker, Diana Butler Bass. She shared material from her new book Christianity After Religion, which included statistics about the ways in which Christianity as we have known it is changing - shifting to what she and others are calling 'the age of the Spirit' with a focus on personal experience as the primary source of religious authority. Based on the feedback, the OFLD will begin offering clergy retreats on a yearly basis at a variety of locations. We hope to see you at the next one!   The OFLD is grateful to MCC Austin for providing a $1000 (USD) grant that allowed four MCC Clergy to attend the retreat. We also want to say thanks to Rev. Dr. Robert Griffin and the Sunshine Cathedral for their assistance with the retreat. 2012 Women's Conference The Holy Trust Conference: Together in the Struggle for Justice 2-5 February 2012 Sarasota, Florida   Church of the Trinity MCC (Sarasota, Florida), in partnership with  Metropolitan Community Churches and The Fellowship, presents The Holy Trust Conference. The focus is women empowering women to assume leadership roles in their communities by developing the trusting relationships essential to achieving social justice. This conference is open to women, transwomen and those who identify themselves as women who are interested in improving their leadership skills and connecting with others in the common pursuit for social justice.   Clergywomen are eligible to receive continuing education units. This conference is intentionally designed for all women, both clergy and lay leaders.    Keynote speakers are Rev. Dr. Elder Nancy Wilson and Bishop Yvette Flunder. Early registration deadline: 1 November 2011. For more information and to register, click here.   Upcoming MCC Events      11-12 November Worship Summit Registration Deadline: 18 October   28-31 October Young Adult Leadership Mentoring Retreat   A list of future MCC events will be available soon.

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