Parliament passed important new legal protections against incitement to hatred on grounds of sexual orientation on Wednesday 7 May 2008. The Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill received Royal Assent on 8 May, another historic step towards legal equality.

See the Stonewall article on these provisions.

See the full article in Ekklesia.

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

Our next social event is on Saturday 10th May and is going to be fun!  We’ve booked a lovely room at Sedgley Park Police College where we are going to show Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 film “The 10 Commandments” and have a buffet meal together as well.

The film stars Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Rameses and is almost four hours long so we will break at half time for the food.  The college really are excellent at catering and we hope you enjoy this afternoon and evening – and bring your friends along too!

The cost is £10 but we don’t want to exclude anyone on the grounds of cost and have a few half price places.  Please sign up with Elen or contact the Pastor for details of time and venue (0161 249 0649) if you wish to come – we’ll collect money on the day.

China has a well-documented history of human rights abuses. Many had hoped that it would be forced to clean up its act in the run-up to the Olympics later this year. However, far from taking steps to improve the situation, the Chinese Government actually appears to be clamping down even harder on human rights defenders and activists in an attempt to silence anyone wishing to protest about its dire human rights record.

We are asking you to write a letter of protest to the Chinese Premier:

Premier WEN Jiabao
Guowuyuan
9 Xihuangchenggenbeijie
Beijingshi 100032
People’s Republic of China

and to send a copy to the President of the Olympic Committee:

President Jacques Rogge
International Olympic Committee
Château de Vidy
1007 Lausanne
Switzerland

In your letter you should:

• Express your concerns about the draconian measures used by the Chinese authorities to suppress basic human rights
• Call on the Chinese government to allow independent monitoring by international human rights groups in the run up to, and during, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and to allow such monitoring to take place throughout the country and without any restrictions
• Demand that China complies with international human rights standards in the future

This article on the Human Rights Watch website gives further details which may be useful when you draft your letter. You may also wish to use aspects of the sample letter below:

*START OF SAMPLE LETTER*

Your Excellency,

As the world’s attention increasingly turns to China in the run-up to the Olympic Games, I wish to express my concern about the reports I have heard of people being forcibly evicted from the areas in and around Beijing to create space for Olympic facilities without any offer of compensation or alternative accommodation. In addition, I am extremely alarmed to hear of the exploitation of the many migrant workers employed on construction projects across Beijing who are not being paid a fair wage, are not allowed to take days off and are being compelled to do dangerous work without adequate safeguards.

These issues appear to be part of a wider pattern of human rights abuses within your country and many of us had hoped that the Chinese authorities would respond to the opportunity of hosting the Olympic Games by taking decisive action to improve its human rights record. To our dismay, the latest reports suggest that the Chinese Government is actually treating domestic human rights defenders even more harshly than before, because it is afraid of having its image tarnished abroad by protesters at home. Personally, I believe that the true damage to China’s image is not being done by protesters such as these, but by the brutal tactics employed by the Chinese Government, which violate basic human rights.

Therefore, I call on your Government to respect the basic human rights standards that are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to allow international human rights groups full access across the country, both during and after the Beijing Olympic Games, so that the human rights situation in China can be both monitored and improved.

Yours respectfully and sincerely

*END OF SAMPLE LETTER*

See the IDAHO UK website at http://www.idaho.org.uk/ for further information about this annual campaign.

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.

Dear Friends,

I am contacting you to ask for your prayers for an Iranian woman called Laleh whom the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit are helping.

Laleh is an Iranian convert to evangelical Christianity.  She has been worshipping at a lively church in Manchester for the last two years and has been lodging with one of the pastors.  The Home Office are seeking to deport her to Iran tomorrow - Good Friday of all days - where she fears persecution.

As you may know some forms of Christianity are tolerated in Iran and Christians have some legal rights.  The churches which are tolerared are part of the Orthodox family of churches which worship in Assyrian - a language most Iranians don’t speak.  As such these churches, which are not allowed to proselytise, are considered to be non-threatening by the regime.  Evangelical churches are harshly persecuted.  To convert from Islam is known as apostasy and the penalty is death.

The authorities here in the UK often use public holidays to deport people as it catches their solicitors, and the courts, on the hop.  Generally courts do not sit on Good Friday (unless there is an emergency).  Staff from the Immigration Aid Unit are working on a fresh application this afternoon for Laleh but if it is turned down it will be very difficult to get a judge to review the decision tomorrow.  Many Iranians are not deported from the UK as they did not arrive on valid passports; however Laleh did, so it is possible for our government to deport her. 

Please pray for Laleh, that her application may be successful, that a stay of deportation is granted, and that she is given the strength to face all that is happening to her.  Please also pray for the Immigration Aid Unit as they work on this case. 

Today, on Maundy Thursday,  we are especially mindful of the unjust legal system which sent Jesus to his death; this should add a certain determination to our prayers for Laleh at this time. 

With much love,

Andy

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

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