MCC Manchester News

Dear Friends,

Our fortnightly Sacred Space service takes place on Tuesday at 8pm in the social room – access via the side door on Anson Road. 
 
There is a common theme to each of the four types of Sacred Space Service: time for quiet reflection, gentle music, prayers led gently, a time to pause, meditate and enjoy God’s presence, all providing a form of worship different to what we offer on Sunday afternoons. 
 
We change the format of the service: sometimes offering Holy Communion, sometimes sacramental anointing, sometimes a reflection and, like this week, a time of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.   This service allows us to spend time in Jesus’ presence, to bring to Him our needs, dreams and prayers and to sit quietly and listen to Him as he speaks to us.
 
We have a short time for refreshments afterwards too.  I hope to see you on Tuesday as we enjoy His Presence together. 
 
With much love,
Andy

Andy Braunston
Pastor
Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester
www.mccmanchester.co.uk

Special Sparkle Church Service at Metropolitan Community Church, Manchester - 4:00pm on Sunday 29th June 2008

Metropolitan Community Church, Manchester (LBGT) is delighted to invite all participants in the Sparkle celebration to worship with us when our service will be led by our transgender members. The service will be followed by refreshments in church. See here for directions to the Church.

Then the whole weekend ends with…

The Closing Meal - 6.30 pm

A Special Indian meal at a top class restaurant has been booked for 6:30pm. All attending Sparkle are invited to join us at the well known Sangam Indian Restaurant, 9-19 Wilmslow Road, Rusholme, M14 5TB.

This is a restaurant well known to the local trans community, is only a short walk from the Metropolitan Community Church, and is particularly suitable for those not used to being out in public. It is also accessible to wheelchair users and will cater for vegetarians. It is one of the best budget Indian restaurants in Manchester and is very trans-friendly, regularly being used for trans group meals.

Cost is a very reasonable at £ 12-15 per person (including a small tip for the restaurant), depending on what you eat and your consumption of alcohol. This event is being organised by the MCC Manchester Trans Discussion Group and Unique TG Support Network, especially for Sparkle.

E-mail Jenny-Anne Bishop (jennyannebuk@yahoo.co.uk) or phone her on 07776 298708 for more information and to book your place for the meal, or talk to Jenny-Anne and Elen on the TranzNet info stand at Sparkle.

Please follow these links to the Sparkle web site, the Sparkle Sunday programme, and the Metropolitan Community Church, Manchester web site for further information.

Our Holy Week and Easter services were very well received this year: 

• 45 people attended the Palm Sunday service at the start of Holy Week,
• 15 people came to the Way of the Cross service on Holy Tuesday,
• 29 people came to the Passover Seder on Maundy Thursday,
• 17 people came to the Good Friday service at the foot of the cross,
• and 58 people gathered for our Easter Sunday celebration of the resurrection, renewal of baptismal vows, and admission of new members. 

Thanks to everyone who took part in the services and contributed to such a successful week as we journeyed together through the arrest, trial, death, burial and resurrection of our Lord.

Easter blessings to all who journey with us in the Metropolitan Community Church, Manchester.

Sunday 16th March - 4pm

Palm Sunday - Blessing of palms, procession into church, and reading of the Passion.

Tuesday 18th March - 8pm

The Way of the Cross - Audio-visual meditation on the journey to Calvary.

Maundy Thursday 20th March - 7.30pm

Passover Meal at Hulme Hall Chapel - Please bring some food to share.

Good Friday 21st March - 5pm

At the Foot of the Cross - A simple service to mark this day.

Easter Sunday 23rd March - 4pm

We celebrate the resurrection together.

For details of where we are, and how to contact us, please see our main web site at http://www.mccmanchester.co.uk

MCC Manchester is delighted to welcome Hermione McEwen, Senior Solicitor from the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU), as a guest speaker at our worship service at 4pm on Sunday 4th February 2008.

Details of GMIAU can be found at their website http://www.gmiau.org

An article describing Hermione’s work can be viewed at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,200-2260733,00.html

On Sunday the 6th of January the MCC church planters held the first Sunday Gathering of Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in Glasgow.  11 people prayed, sang and dreamed together about what God’s vision is for the community. 

No single person holds the whole vision for the church, so as a group they prayed and meditated on what God is calling them to be.  The following is what they put on their Dream Tree.  Within these words is the vision of God, and more will be added as they work and grow together and more people bring their part of the vision.

Love * a ’safe place in the world’ ministry * a place full of friends * less doom and gloom and more laughter, music and fun * a place that is inclusive of all people in our community * a beacon of thoughtful, heart-filled christianity * building a Queer Theology for each individual * MCC in Glasgow needs to reach out to folk who are seekers so they may hear the Good News of Christ * a childrens ministry * honest, nourishing and life changing friendship with each other and with God/Jesus * a place of sanctity where I can feel calm * meeting needs in the wider community - social justice * welcome people of all ages * a place of refuge * working together, even in a small way, to make a difference in the community and the world * ‘beyond tolerance’: affirming and celebrating the marginalised * diversity of practice, of worship, of belief - unity in love for each other, unity in respect * ’community ministry’ (development of church ‘history/her-story/other-story, usually accepted boundaries) * a place of hope where no shame is felt * inclusive * part of the wider interfaith community * this is a place for me not to lead, but feed - a place to receive, and be an ‘internal organ’ of the body * a place for me to do some church healing * a place for spiritual sustenance in a spiritual desert * to be visible in the LGBT community and the wider community * ministry/place of real acceptance for religious beliefs *
a place to support Christians who are involved in other churches * to further the saying ‘God Loves All’ * a place where all are free to be * a place where art is - where expression can take many forms: music/web/art - each are valued * rest when it’s needed * peace between people - trust in each other * hope of Christ * compassion
to others - understanding of other groups in society * something different - a place where we learn to approach God in all sorts of, sometimes new, ways * a place of suprises * to sing to shout, to praise out! * friendship * safe space * youth work * outreach to other minority groups * a place to ask questions

The next meeting of Metropolitan Community Church in Glasgow is 3rd February, 11.30am, at The LGBT Centre, 84 Bell Street, Glasgow.

See their website at http://www.mccinglasgow.co.uk for full details and contact information.

The church planting team at MCC in Glasgow, with their inclusive Christian ministry to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, invite everyone to join them for their first Sunday gathering - a time of worship, reflection and dreaming - on January 6th 2008, at 11am, at The LGBT Centre, 84 Bell Street, Glasgow.

Full contact details are on the MCC in Glasgow website at http://www.mccinglasgow.co.uk

Our service at 4pm on Sunday 23rd December for the fourth Sunday of Advent will focus on some more characters from the Christmas story.

We have a traditional Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, starting at 11.30pm.

There is no MCC service on Christmas Day but we are warmly welcomed to mass at St Chrysostom’s at 11am.

We have a Christmas celebration at 4pm on Sunday 30^th December and will celebration Epiphany together at 4pm on Sunday 6^th January 2008.

Link to our main web site for details of where we are and how to contact us.

Next Sunday, 2nd December, the great season of Advent starts.  This is a season of prayer and preparation as we look forward to Christmas and the celebration of Jesus’ birth amongst us.

As in previous years we have changed our worship format for Advent.  We will follow the traditional Advent themes: John the Baptist, longing for Jesus’ return, and the Christmas story itself.  We have pre-recorded readings and reflections on these themes and mixed them with modern music and various images.  These recordings will take the place of the sermon in worship and our services are deliberately more reflective in this season.

Our Carol Service will be on Sunday 16th December, and we will have a Christmas celebration on Sunday 23rd.  We celebrate a traditional Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, starting at 11.30pm and are warmly invited to Christmas Day worship with our friends at St Chrysostom’s at 11am. 

On Tuesday we have our monthly Quiet and Calm service at 8pm in the Social Room.  This is an intentionally quiet and reflective form of worship where we share Holy Communion and pray together quietly.  It is a wonderful way to let the cares and concerns of the week ease away in God’s presence.  Please use the entrance on Anson Road to come in.

We meet at 8pm on Tuesday in the side chapel for our monthly Quiet and Calm service. This is a chance to relax in God’s presence, feel the stress and strain of the day and the week ease away, meet the Lord in a simple celebration of Holy Communion and to be prayed for and anointed with Holy Oil.

On 9th September we welcome the Rev Jane Clarke as our guest preacher.  Last week Jane stepped down after 12 years as pastor of the MCC in East London.  She, and her partner Kate Wood, have now moved to Glasgow and after settling in and finding work are hoping to start a new MCC congregation there.  Jane will be sharing her plans with us and asking for our support, love and prayers.

We are preparing a sermon series to use in the Autumn after the Pride festival.  It is inspired by the songs of Madonna and her unique insight into life, sexuality and spirituality, seeing similarities and differences between this and the Scriptures.

We welcome the Rev Dwayne Morgan as our guest preacher for the Pride service on Sunday 26th August.  Dwayne is our pastor in Bournemouth and is a much loved preacher with us; it is a delight to welcome him with us again.

Dear Friends,

One of our goals this year was to expand the ministry of our website in various ways. 

We have already added extra quizzes, a visitor’s book, a news blog, and an on-line catalogue of our library, as well as a special page for first time visitors to leave anonymous feedback arising from their first visit. 

This week we have started to podcast our sermons!  This means you can listen to sermons on line or download them (opposite click and then save to your computer) so that you can play them either from your computer or from an MP3 player!  Now you can even listen to us in the gym!

We have recorded the last couple of sermons and also some others from further back.  You can also link to the text of the sermon from the audio download page (we have put sermon texts on line for some years now).

We hope in the near future to have some daily devotional podcasts with music, reflections and readings on line as well. 

To find the podcasts go to our website http://www.mccmanchester.co.uk/ and then look for the left hand navigation bar, and in the worship section, you will find the download button.

Happy listening!

With much love,
Andy