"Call Me Troy" Film Viewing OCTOBER 17th (FREE)

www.HopeandHelpCenter.Org

Join us on October 17th, for a special showing of "CALL ME TROY", the documentary film of Rev. Troy Perry, founder of Metropolitan Community Churches, in 1968. This Historical Film details the history of the Christian denomination founded by and for the LBGTIQ community.

October 17th, 2009 @ 7PM (FREE) 1919 S. Broadway (IN SOULARD)

FOR MORE INFORMATION< info@mccgsl.org

MetroEast Pride Supports Interfaith Food Pantry OCT 10th

(EVENT SOLD OUT)
THANKS FOR EVERYONE'S SUPPORT!


http://www.hopeandhelpcenter.org/




Interfaith Food Pantry FUNDRAISER BREAKFAST OCT 10th All you can eat Flapjack Breakfast @ Applebee's in Fairview Heights OCT 10th (details below)
on Behalf of http://www.metroeastpride.com/





Metro East Pride 2010 Supports the Community Interfaith Food Pantry located in Belleville.





Buy a $10 ticket ($5 for children) toApplebee's Flapjack Fundraiser breakfast.Saturday,





10/10/09 8 am to 10 am.





Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar


2426 N. Illinois St., Swansea

MCC of Greater St. Louis Grand Opening- September 26th

www.hopeandhelpcenter.org

Join Metropolitan Community Church of Greater Saint Louis for their Grand Opening Celebration and a free community concert. Officiated by the Moderator of MCC, Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson.

Elder Wilson, is only the second moderator of the Denomination, following the retirement of founder Rev. Troy Perry. Elder Nancy Wilson, served as the senior pastor of MCC Los Angeles for more than a decade during a turbulent time of LGBT issues.

5:00PM Ribbon Cutting
5:15PM Open House
6:00PM Community Concert featuring:

Price: Free
Gateway Men's Chorus, Band Together, Charis, Fruit Jam, Symmetry, MCCGSL Choir

Gateway Men's Chorus: Since April 1988, the Gateway Men’s Chorus has been performing to the delight of many in the St. Louis region— so much so that they’ve been called “an arts phenomenon” by The Riverfront Times. Dedicated to the freedom and message of music, the Chorus is committed to the community, locally and globally. http://www.gatewaymenschorus.org

Band Together: BandTogether is a volunteer music organization in the greater St. Louis area, open to performers of all abilities, providing musical opportunities to members of the GLBTA community in a safe and relaxed setting. www.bandtogetherstl.com

Symmetry: Melinda Ohlemiller and Wendy Bruner make-up the musical duo known as Symmetry. Wendy and Melinda met as colleagues and are strong social justice advocates who sing from their hearts. They have appeared in St. Louis area coffeehouses, charity events, churches, and concert halls for the past 6 years. In November 2007, they released their first CD, "Symmetry: Live at the Sheldon". http://www.symmetryduo.com/

Fruit Jam: Fruit Jam is a jazz / swing / dance / big band. We love to play music, and it shows when we play. We are committed to community responsibility. Our mission includes supporting organizations and events that assist, honor and respect all members of St. Louis's diverse populations. The band is GLBTA (or at least four of those!) http://fruitjamjazz.com/

CHARIS: is a lesbian chorus open to all women. We differ in age, size, ethnic background and ability, but we share goals to seek musical excellence, voice messages of social justice and create a fun and supportive place for all women. http://www.charischorus.org/index.html

MCCGSL Choir: The 65 member strong MCCGSL Choir is a radically inclusive group of performers that support the music ministry of Metropolitan Community Church of Greater Saint Louis. Most recently, the MCCGSL Choir was selected as one of the top 8 church choirs in the Midwest in the "How Sweet the Sound" contest sponsored by Verizon. The choir also performed in 2008 in Minneapolis, MN for the Metropolitan Community Churches regional meeting. www.mccgsl.org .

Join the Equality bus to DC - Show Me No Hate Event

www.HopeandHelpCenter.org

on behalf of: http://www.showmenohate.blogspot.com/

Show Me No Hate has chartered a 55-seat bus to bring LGBTQ and straight allies to the National Equality March in DC.

The bus will be leaving from St. Louis on Saturday October 10th at 3:00pm. We will travel to Washington D.C. (13 hours) with a dinner break along the way. The bus will arrive in D.C. around 6:00am at a location where we can stretch, eat breakfast and change clothing if necessary. Our group will participate in a variety of National Equality March events throughout the day including a memorial for deceased gay soldiers, the Equality March in front of the White House, and main event at the Washington D.C. Historic Mall to hear speakers. We will board our bus around 8:00pm and return to St. Louis by 10am, Monday October 12th.If you are interested in a seat on our bus please click here.

If you have any questions please send email to ShowMeNoHate@gmail.com

MCC Picnic Sept 19th - Tower Grove Park (JOIN US)

www.HopeandHelpCenter.org

www.MCCGSL.Org

Your invited to join the MCCGSL Family for our Annual Church Picnic, held at Tower Grove Park.

Come and meet some new friends, and enjoy great food, and activities. All are welcome~

"Come as you Are... Beleiving As you Do"

Event Starts at 11AM and we will conclude mid afternoon. Hope to see you there!

Bill's Journey - Homophobe to Advocate (Belleville JUSTICE NEWS)

www.HopeandHelpCenter.Org

Belleville JUSTICE NEWS - Fall 2009
www.BellevillePride.com
Justice NewsWritten in Belleville, IllinoisJustice News is a project of the Coalition for Economic and Social Justice.

Vol. 1 - Fall 2009

www.JobsandJustice.Org www.MetroEastPride.com

Bill's Journey - Homophobe to Advocate

(Feature Story)

This is an account of my journey from prejudice to understanding, acceptance and knowledge that human sexuality is a continuum with everyone occupying a point on the long line between heterosexuality and homosexuality.

I was raised in a traditional family and there was never a doubt as to my sexual orientation. I was profoundly heterosexual and the thought never crossed my mind that there might be persons with a different orientation. Oh yes, there was that classmate that didn't seem to fit into the male norm but it never crossed my mind that there might be a question of his sexual orientation.

Many years later I learned that he was gay. In the locker room and on male only get-togethers there were the inevitable jokes about queers but it never dawned on me that these "queers" might be real people.

After college I entered the United States Air Force and ultimately rose to the rank of Colonel. Though I had been raised by my parents to attend church, during the years that I was in the Air Force, I unconsciously used my frequent moves and overseas assignments as an excuse to not attend church.

In 1980 my wife Helen and I moved back to her childhood home to take care of her mother who at that time had bladder cancer. We attended the church that Helen had been raised in and I found a church home.

The people were friendly and the church did bring a sense of belonging to something larger than myself. Helen and I immersed ourselves in the life of the church and volunteered to help where ever possible.



I served on the church governing body and during my last year on this body was President of the Congregation. This led to wider church activities and I was elected to the Board of Directors of the Conference, one of the adjudicatory bodies for the denomination.

On my first Board of Directors meeting I was confronted with an issue that
would challenge me; a young woman preparing for the ministry had revealed that
she was in a committed lesbian relation. The Board was to vote at the next meeting
as to whether she should be continued in preparation for ministry or removed.

I consulted my pastor and re-read the passages in the Bible that seemed to be
relevant to the issue and voted with the majority to remove her from preparation for the ministry. Six years later I joined another Conference committee and at the first meeting I attended the same young woman had petitioned for reinstatement.

To the committees credit they decided to engage in an in depth study of the issue of homosexuality. This study made me question whether I was acting in a fashion consistent with being a good Christian. So a short time later I joined a study group on the same subject at my church.

The study at church was valuable, we did in depth Bible study. For the first time I met openly gay persons (male and female) and found that they are just like you and me. We also talked to parents of gay persons and discovered that in many cases when they found that their child was gay and turned to their pastor for solace, the pastor told them was that their child was an unrepentant sinner; hardly a Christian message.

With the study at the Conference committee and at church completed I was totally convinced that many persons use the Bible as a screen to hide their prejudice and homophobia. Jesus never mentioned homosexuality and was proactive in support of the marginalized. The New Testament message is Love and God's grace, freedom from the laws of the Old Testament. Time and again the message is - all are acceptable in God's sight; then how can I defy God?

In the years following my conversion to acceptance and understanding I have many friends who are gay or lesbian; they are good Christians and worthy people, working, paying mortgages, attending church, leading normal lives just as their heterosexual friends and neighbors do. This would be a better world if everyone would put aside their prejudices and live in harmony with all.



READ THE ENTIRE PUBLICATION

Beyond Stonewall: Why We March~ Sept 20th (FREE)

www.HopeandHelpCenter.Org

Beyond Stonewall: Why We March (St. Louis)
a short play in support of the National Equality March

Host: Show Me No Hate - St. Louis
http://showmenohate.blogspot.com

Price: FREE
Date: Sunday, September 20, 2009
Time: 1:00pm - 2:00pm

Location: Metropolitan Community Church of Greater Saint Louis
Street: 1919 South Broadway (near St. Louis Bread Company)
City/Town: Saint Louis, MO www.MCCGSL.org

Come attend this FREE performance of "Beyond Stonewall: Why We March," a short play written by Joan Lipkin of That Uppity Theatre Company and Tennessee Playwright Sharon Brandy.

This performance is being performed in support of the National Equality March scheduled in October.

---
Excerpt from St. Louis Post-Dispatch 9/6/09 article by Doug Moore:

After the Post-Dispatch posted to STLtoday.com its April story about prominent gays turning to activism, the reader comments swelled to more than 330, many of them negative. Several targeted Bill Donius, former chairman of Pulaski Bank, who was featured in the story.

"It is ridiculous that there is a story about a successful gay man in the paper," wrote "W. Champion," the screen name of one reader.

It is one of 16 reader comments sprinkled throughout a new play Lipkin has written with Sharon Bandy, a playwright from Chattanooga, Tenn.

In a conversation shortly after the story was published, Donius suggested to Lipkin that she turn the reader comments into some kind of performance piece.

"I like the idea of all the different voices, but I didn't feel like it was sufficiently dramatic. It didn't have a spine," said Lipkin.

Then their conversation turned to the National Equality March in Washington next month. Activists from across the country plan to march on the National Mall and urge Congress and President Barack Obama to make gay rights a priority. This push is something that many commenters on the story thought was a bad idea.

"The country has undeniable fundamental values, and the gay lifestyle is not one of them," wrote reader USF1965.

But the march gave the playwrights the spine of their story

http://www.showmenohate.blogspot.com/

Rev. Elder Lillie Brock Speaks in St. Louis

(click to watch)
www.HopeandHelpCenter.org

August 30, 2009 (St. Louis)

Rev. Elder Lillie Brock speaks at MCC of Greater St. Louis, during the Sancutary Dedication Ceremony. Rev. Brock serves the United Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, serving the midwest Region 2.

(SOURCE) wikipedia

Rev Elder Lillie Brock is an elder in the Metropolitan Community Church and serves the denomination's Churches in Western Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela and the U.S. States of Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Texas (Northern), Wyoming.

She formerly served as a staff Pastor in the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas while that congregation was affiliated with the Metropolitan Community Church and she serves her Region from her Dallas base.

A noted management trainer before entering professional ministry she co-developed the Change Cycle as a way of explaining how both individuals and organisations assimilate change.

Her father, Rev Elder Jimmy Brock, was a noted church leader within the Metropolitan Community Church and to date this is the only example in the Churches history of parent and child both having served as an Elder of the denomination.
Lillie has been active in the struggle for full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

She lives in Dallas with her partner Julie and their daughter.

GLEE Watch Party in St. Louis Sept 9th @ TIVOLI

www.HopeandHelpCenter.Org

GLEE Watch Party in St. Louis

Hosted by Growing American Youth
Host:
Growing American Youth

Price:
$5 minimum suggested donation
Date: Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Tivoli Theatre
6350 Delmar
Saint Louis, MO
Phone:
3148213524
Email:
growingamericanyouth@gmail.com

HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT GLEE? ARE YOU A GLEEK?GLEE is a new comedy for the aspiring underdog in all of us. It came on the scene in the summer and people have been buzzing! The series follows an optimistic teacher who attempts to save McKinley High's Glee Club.Watch the pilot TONIGHT on Wednesday 9/2 on Fox at 8pm. The show will repeat on Friday 9/5 the director's commentary. You can also watch in online right now with the link below. ----------------------------------------------

-THE EVENT NOT TO MISS - CALL THE NEIGHBORS! On Wednesday September 9, FOX will air the Season Premiere of GLEE. The pilot was amazing and now you can watch the anticipated episode "Showmance" in the main auditorium at the beautiful Tivoli Theatre in the Delmar Loop. (Imagine 400 Gleeks - and soon to be Gleeks - bringing the fun spirit of this show to life right here in St. Louis!) This event is hosted by Growing American Youth and everyone is welcome.Doors open at 6:30pmPre-show event/entertainment at 7pm emceed by local actor/comedian Ed ReggiGLEE airs LIVE at 8pm.

ABOUT GROWING AMERICAN YOUTH

Social support organization for youth who live in and near St. Louis and who are 21 and under and may identity as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity. We host events that are welcoming to youth, their friends and families. Growing American Youth has been supporting youth for more than 25 years. http://www.growingamericanyouth.org