International Leader of Metropolitan Community Churches to visit and worship in St. Louis
St. Louis, MO - Rev. Dr. Nancy Wilson, moderator and international leader of the Metropolitan Community Chruches (MCC), will visit St. Louis February 23 and 24, 2013. Rev. Pressley Sutherland, Senior Pastor of MCC of Greater Saint Louis announces that Rev. Wilson will be featured and honored at a special "Evening of Inspiring Inclusion and Justice," Saturday evening, beginning at 6p. She is also scheduled to lead worship and preach on Sunday at MCC of Greater Saint Louis. Both events are at 1919 S. Broadway, near Soulard Market. ALL are invited and welcome!
Dr. Wilson was installed as MCC's global Moderator in 2005. MCC has ministries in over 40 countries. Dr. Wilson was part of the first LGBT delegation to meet with a sitting president in 1979 and is currently a member of President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. On Tuesday, January 22, 2013, she read from the Bible in the Interfaith Prayer Service at the National Cathedral, as part of President Obama's inaugural observances. Dr. Wilson said, "It is profoundly meaningful to read the Bible during President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden's second inaugural interfaith service. As I read, I will remember the hands lain on me seven years ago in this very cathedral by faith leaders who called me to serve all of God's beautifully diverse children, including LGBT people. President Obama prayerfully and respectfully stood up for LGBT equality during his campaign, and I am proud to stand with him."
You may recall this congregation of over 300 members from last year's news about their award winning choir. The MCCGSL Church Choir won the How Sweet the Sound regional choir competition in St. Louis, then participated in the Verizon Best National Choir Competition at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
When announcing the regional winner, competition judge, Pastor Marvin Sapp, said,
"... This is what Heaven is supposed to look like! It's supposed to look like a multiplicity of cultures, colors, creeds, all coming together for the sole purpose of magnifying and glorifying the God of our father." He summed up the way many feel about this church that is open to everyone. That sentiment is reinforced each Sunday during service when the call to communion ends with "Come as you are, believing as you do. You don't have to belong to this church or any church, to be welcome at this table."
MCC of Greater Saint Louis is relatively new in the Soulard neighborhood, purchasing and renovating a facility for worship and ministry at 1919 S. Broadway just four years ago. MCC was founded in 1973; just five years after the denomination began, as an outreach to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities in St. Louis. Today, it's more than 300 members represent a much larger community and the church is, as implied by Pastor Sapp's comment, diverse in many ways - race, gender, differently abled, different sexual orientations, and congregants from the whole range of religious backgrounds. All are welcome and affirmed!
