Tearing Down Walls, Building Up Hope
Some months back I found myself in conversation with a new member of All God’s Children. Having heard me speak often of liberation theology, she wanted to understand more about what liberation theology was. Liberation theology is a viewpoint that the purpose of Christ’s Gospel is its call to liberate people and structures from any and all forms of oppression. Then she asked two excellent questions. “How do we live that out in Minneapolis, at All God’s Children MCC”? And what about our affiliation with Metropolitan Community Churches.
I realized in that moment that we do a poor job of articulating the power of what we are a part of as MCC. In that moment I decided to devote a sermon to what it means to love mercy and do justice as Metropolitan Community Church. And here we are.
Did you know that long before there were any open and affirming congregations from any denomination, there was MCC. Before Stonewall, there was MCC. Before anyone else began preaching radical inclusion of all God’s children, there was MCC.
I am unabashedly proud of being a member of MCC. Metropolitan Community Churches have been a faithful witness of a loving and just God. We serve God through this affiliation. We serve humanity through this affiliation. We serve justice through this affiliation and we serve each other. MCC gets it.
In 1968, yes a year before New York's Stonewall Riots (the riots many credit as the beginning of the gay movement), MCC's first worship service was a gathering of 12 people in Rev. Troy Perry's living room in Huntington Park, California.
Today we have members in 22 countries, we have over 250 churches and over 50 percent of our clergy are female (more than any other denomination). We made history when our denomination elected a woman, Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson as our new moderator.
Today MCC churches and groups are located in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Nigeria, Romania, Russia, Scotland, South Africa, the United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Here is part of our denomination’s vision statement: MCC has staked its claim. As one of the world’s emerging churches, we are proclaiming a spirituality that is liberating and sufficiently profound to address the issues of our chaotic and complicated world. We live out our belief that in the margins we are blessed. MCC will become a name known to an increasing number of people as a place where all are welcomed and our service to those who are excluded is a primary focus of our ministry.
Metropolitan Community Churches are on a bold mission to transform hearts, lives, and history. We are a movement that faithfully proclaims God’s inclusive love for all people and proudly bears witness to the holy integration of spirituality and sexuality.
Just as Jesus did, we are called to:
- Do justice, show kindness, and live humbly with God. (Micah 6:8)
- Explore life’s questions with open hearts and minds.
- Raise our voices in sacred defiance against religious (and political or systemic) exclusion.
- Reach out to those with no hope. (…and my favorite)
- Lift up new generations of remarkable, far-reaching spiritual activists.
MCC Statement of Purpose is this…As God’s liberated people, we boldly--
Reclaim our Holy Identity.
At MCC, we believe that even in our humanness, we are holy. We are liberated from other people’s definitions of who we are. We are made both body and spirit. We believe that our sexuality is a holy gift from God so we no longer distance our bodies from our experience with God. We are a people who proudly participate in the communion of body and spirit. As God’s liberated people, we boldly--
Advance our call to Social Justice and Action.
At MCC, we believe that Jesus led the way in acts of compassion and acts of justice. Because we have been a people in the margins of society, we understand fully the grace that God has extended to us. We stand boldly with those who resist the structures of exclusion, as Jesus did, and work to insure freedom for all people. In the margins, we are blessed to be a blessing. As God’s liberated people, we boldly--
Tell the story of God’s Transforming Grace.
At MCC, we come as we are to Christ and are changed by what we find. We experience a God with open arms, inviting all to take the sacred journey of faith and transformation. We are growing in our faith and claim that our place in society has magnified our place in God’s family. We are one of the many voices of God that, until now, has been lost in the margins! As God’s liberated people, we boldly--
Nurture the value of Community
At MCC, we believe our ultimate ministry is in the world. We know that in order to prepare ourselves for radical service that changes lives, we must equip ourselves and others in the safety of a supportive community. As God’s liberated people, we boldly--
Build bridges that Liberate and Unite
At MCC, we have experienced the soul destruction that comes from hate filled rhetoric. As followers of Jesus, we believe in everyone’s holy privilege to work out their own salvation. While we are a Christian church who follows Jesus, we respect those of other faith traditions and work together with them to free all those who are oppressed by hate, disregard and violence.
Each Sunday we take an offering. Each week every MCC worldwide shares a portion of that tithe with the denomination. And from there, our gifts are given wings to reach beyond these walls to the far corners of the globe. Even as you sit here in the pews, you’re changing the world through this affiliation with MCC.
Would you like to know some of what you are making happen? Wonderful. I’m so glad you asked.
Through MCC, you help fund the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from cutting extreme poverty in half to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015. This partnership has galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. And we’re a part of that!
Through MCC, you help fund the Mother of Peace orphanage in Mutoko, Zimbabwe. You provide direct care to almost 200 HIV infected and affected children. But wait, there’s more.
Through MCC you help fund our Eastern European Initiative, an initiative that began in May of 2005. At that time worldwide attention was focused on Bucharest, Romania. The President of Romania and the Mayor of Bucharest refused parade permits to hold the first-ever Gay Pride March in Romania. Local activists invited MCC's Rev. Elder Diane Fisher to provide on-site support. Through MCC, she launched an international campaign to bring public pressure on Romania's political leaders. And -- within a week! -- the President of Romania and the Mayor of Bucharest reversed course and granted parade permits. And hundreds of proud, out LGBT Romanian's held that country's historic, first-ever Pride March. I went through clergy intensive with Florin Buhuceanu, the pastoral leader in Romania. Florin is an amazing young man.
There’s more…
MCC has launched the Mattresses and Microwaves program in an effort to better aide survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
MCC funds and operates a Drug literacy program which develops dialogue on issues of drug use and addiction and helps to place the stories of real people in the larger LGBT community experience.
We are part of MCC Partners in Justice Initiative, dedicated to forming lasting partnerships with other organizations to further human rights, social justice, and education around the world.
Rev. Arlene Ackerman head up the church planting initiative. We believe strongly that all of God’s children should be within the reach of an MCC congregation. That’s why they have set the bar high, planting 50 new churches in the next 10 years!
There is so much going on in MCC; more partnerships than I could list. The board of elders, the board of administration, and the geographic review board, the church revitalization team, the nominating committees. Rev. Eknes-Tucker and I serve on a couple of the teams and I find the commitment to help and advance our goals is amazing. Take the time to go to mccchurch.org and look around. There’s a link on the AGC website. We are a part of something that amplifies all the efforts of the local membership. People of God…
We live in an unfinished world and we have an unfinished calling. Until all people are free to worship without rejection and free to commit to love whom they will, our work is not done. MCC is not a collective of right beliefs, we are a movement of right action.
In a couple of months we’ll begin asking the question FAR AND WIDE, “Would Jesus Discriminate?” and along with MCC we’ll keep asking it until the world voices a resounding “No!”
I am so honored to serve as a pastor in MCC. I love this church. Years ago it gave me back my God and my worth and finally my anointing. I thank God that Troy Perry listened to the Spirit when it blew through his life. Look at all that has happened because he did. I hope you’ll invite MCC to change and transform you and then I hope you’ll become an active part of changing and transforming our world; tearing down walls and building up hope.