INSIDE: Pastor Travels the Globe for Social Justice See Page 2.
Homecoming Sunday:
September 17th
• MCCNY’s award-winning choir under the direction of John Fischer returns from summer vacation with an extra-special performance.
The Query Newsletter
Metropolitan Community Church of New York
• Religious Education (Bible Study through Queer eyes, etc.) and MCCNY’s myriad other ministries begin a new year of programming.
Church of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People Open to All
• Meet and greet friends old and new at a special social hour with hot buffet in the art gallery after each Worship Service. (It’s one of the best-attended Sundays all year.)
Air Conditioning Installed in Church and Sylvia’s Place Homeless Youth Shelter
On Homecoming Sunday (and EVERY Sunday) MCCNY holds 3 Worship Services in the church at 446 West 36th Street, NYC (between 9th and 10th Avenues):
9 a.m. Traditional
11 a.m. Celebration
7 p.m. Praise & Worship
Incorporating beautiful aspects of the Mass liturgy
The most heavily attended
Worship Service
Featuring additional music of praise
(The fastest-growing Service, popular among 20- and 30-somethings)
Sylvia’s Place Director
Kate Barnhart
(Expect virtually a full house in the
250-seat sanctuary on Homecoming)
Blessing of the Animals/ Feast of St. Francis: Sunday, October 1st
In celebration of the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, a saint reputed to have a special love for and rapport with all of God’s creatures, congregants at all 3 Worship Services are invited to step forward to the altar with their animal companions (or a picture of them if they are “behaviorally challenged” or otherwise unable to attend physically) to receive a Blessing from the Pastor.
Homeless LGBTQ Youths at Sylvia’s Place: They once were hot (sweltering!) but now are cool, thanks to The Anonymous Donor.
(photo by Samantha Box)
The Anonymous Donor
For New Yorkers, and indeed for people across North America and Europe, the summer of 2006 will be remembered for its heat wave – and with Global Warming underway, that trend is only likely to get worse in summers to come.
Deacon Mel Bryant and “the kanine kids” anticipate the Blessing of the Animals on Sunday, Oct. 1st.
For congregants of Metropolitan Community Church of New York (MCCNY) and for the homeless LGBTQ youths at the Sylvia’s Place Shelter in the church, 2006 will be remembered as the summer when the dream of AIR CONDITIONING in the building became a reality, thanks to the generosity of The Anonymous Donor.
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The new air conditioning system throughout the building—covering the previously-sweltering Sylvia’s
S u n d a y H o m e c o m i n g
Place homeless LGBTQ youth shelter on the ground floor, the church sanctuary where Worship Services are held on the second floor, and the third floor offices, art gallery and library —cost $80,000 to install.
The Anonymous Donor single-handedly contributed $70,000 towards that total, and other congregants stepped forward to donate the remaining $10,000.
One of the new air conditioning vents spewing cool air into the sanctuary
The Anonymous Donor has contributed with amazing generosity over the decades, to the acquisition of the church building itself, and to MCCNY’s social services ministries including the Sylvia Rivera Food Pantry and the Sylvia’s Place Homeless Youth Services. Last Christmas, he gave a $100,000 donation.
Sylvia’s Place Director Kate Barnhart tells The Query that The Anonymous Donor established a Youth Emergency Fund of $50,000 for Sylvia’s Place in June. To date, it has paid for bus tickets to reunite 6 youths with supportive relatives (photo at right of one of them); shoes for youths who lacked them; a domestic partnership that allowed a young lesbian couple to get into a family shelter; college textbooks for a young person living with AIDS; a security guard license for one shelter resident and an SAT registration fee for another; and psychiatric medication to keep a young man out of the hospital until he gets Medicaid coverage.
1 0 0 1 N 8 Y o Y r k , N e w e e t S t r 3 6 t h e s W t 4 4 6 o Y r k N e o w f c h C h u r
C o m m u n o i t p y o l i M t a e n t r
Activists Together in Love Since 1976
Pastor Travels the Globe for Social Justice
Rev. Earl (David) Ball & Tim Hare, celebrating their 30th anniversary this year, are seen at NYC's LGBT Pride March on June 25th and at a Margaret Cho show at the State Theater in Pennsylvania on July 7th. Rev. Earl & Tim are longtime anti-discrimination and promarriage equality advocates, from New York where they worship at MCCNY, to Pennsylvania where Rev. Earl serves as a Hospital Chaplain.
In her role as the Chair of the Global Justice Team of the worldwide predominantly-LGBT Metropolitan Community Churches denomination, MCCNY’s Pastor Rev. Pat Bumgardner traveled the globe this summer: to World Pride in the holy city of Jerusalem during wartime, to the first-ever LGBT Pride celebration in Iceland, and to Malaysia to lay the foundations for opening the first MCC church in that officially inhospitable-to-LGBTs country. Here are brief excerpts from her keynote address at the Multifaith Convocation at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem on August 8th:
“…If we here can overcome the religious bigotry, hatred, filth offered in the name of faith-bias and condemnation promulgated by the combined religious aristocracies of three faiths here in a city that fully one-half of the world’s population claims for inspiration and guidance – if we can overcome here – if the vision of God for peace on earth and goodwill among all can even get a hearing here, then maybe there’s some hope tonight…Hope for that vision peeking through for our people in Moscow, where churches advocate our public thrashing…some hope for a glimpse of goodwill and open-hearted acceptance prevailing in Iran, where girls as young as 9 and boys of 15 can be executed under religious law for sexual nonconformity…
News Briefs:
Rev Dr Edgard Danielsen-Morales, MCCNY’s full-time Assistant Pastor for Congregational Life, traveled to a meeting at Casa de Luz ICM [House of Light MCC] in Monterrey, Mexico early this summer to help plan for the development of new ICMs [Spanish for MCCs] in Latin America… Mark Steiger was congratulated upon his college graduation at a gathering of about a dozen friends from the MCCNY men’s group… NY State Assemblymember Danny O’Donnell, guest of honor at MCCNY’s Easter Awards Banquet, was cover man on, and interviewed in, A Bear’s Life magazine (at right)… MCCNY Board member Mark Gilrain & his spouse Rob Lennon ran in the Frontrunners NY 25th annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Run in Central Park… At the Gay Games in Chicago, Sheila MarinoThomas’s volleyball team won a Gold Medal, and Larry Smith performed his personal best in swimming… Choir member Krister Paakkonen & his spouse David Zwiers were married this summer in Krister’s native Sweden… On August 13th, the congregation sang “Happy Birthday” to Annie Bostick-Heath, who turned 17… Choir member Eric James continues to shine as a star athlete on NYC’s LGBT tennis team, the Metropolitan Tennis Group… Sebastian Maguire, 29, of Queens, a leader in the church’s social justice ministry, was quoted twice in recent months in Gay City News – the first time at the June 17th Anti-Violence Project rally protesting the brutal unprovoked gay-bashing of entertainer Kevin Aviance (which hit home especially hard because Kevin attended the LGBT Interfaith Celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday at MCCNY last January), and the second time at the big July 7th protest in Sheridan Square after the NY Court of Appeals ruling... While MCCNY’s choir was on summer vacation, some of its members including Aaron Battle (at right) continued to treat the congregation to stirring solo performances each Sunday... Queens Borough President Helen Marshall’s LGBT Pride Month Celebration at Queens Borough Hall on June 28th honored former MCCNY Deacon Russell Murphy, a stalwart allaround LGBT activist/volunteer who has held virtually every major position in Heritage of Pride, not to mention high posts in the international coalition of Pride committees, and who
“[Let] the proclamation go out from this holy mountain…that Queer people are God’s people – and that we are who we are NOT by genetic flaw and/or failed human choice, but by the grace and design of a God who knows us in our mother’s wombs and named us before we were ever born – a God who made us in the divine image, and then pronounced that creation good. There are no exceptions.
“…Sometimes we hear non-Queer people say…the purpose of sexual relationships…[is to] repopulate the earth. But my Bible says – and I apologize for being so blatantly Christian, but I think you will agree it IS a tradition in need of reclaiming tonight, and I want to do that for the sake not only of Queer Christians tonight, but all those who suffer under the weight of its misrepresentation – Luke’s 3rd chapter says GOD can raise up children to Abraham and Sarah from stones, and when people ask John the Baptist what they must do in the face of that truth, he says essentially: clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and treat one another decently. God does not need us to PRODUCE life – God needs us to sustain and restore life…
“[Religious leaders in Jersusalem], even the Ambassador from the Vatican, band together to not only condemn us but to advocate violence against us in the name of a God whose only Scriptural definition is LOVE. That act is blasphemy. It is to’ebah, an abomination, because it has nothing to do with the worship of a God who is by definition love. ‘God is Love,’ I John records, ‘and those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.’
donated the rainbow pride flag that flies in front of MCCNY …The August 29th issue of the Advocate newsmagazine contained a report on homeless LGBTQ youth in NYC that quoted several residents of Sylvia’s Place and described how Sylvia’s Place Homeless Youth Services is helping to find them jobs and permanent housing… Former MCCNY Board member Bob Wolfe (at left), now a New Hampshire resident, did so much for the church during his long service here that it is always a joyful occasion for the congregation when he returns for a visit, as he did in late August...
“It is not our love of someone, whatever their gender identity or sexual orientation – it is not our making love that separates any one of us from God, but rather the outright failure to do so, and perhaps even more heinously, to evoke violence and hatred in that God’s name. THAT is abomination!...
From the Mailbag
Michael of NJ writes to Rev. Pat: “…For the longest time I considered myself ‘spiritually bankrupt’ because of growing up Catholic and hearing their views on who I am. I didn’t go to church for over 10 years and then something pushed me to go into MCC’s doors. I [was] so moved by your sermon and the love in that church, it actually brought me to tears… I finally feel
“Matthew writes, ‘Do not be afraid… What you hear under cover of darkness, proclaim by the light of day. What you have heard whispered in the secret of your hearts, shout from the rooftops.’ Everyone here knows, has heard in the secret of our hearts that voice telling us WE are God’s beloved. Now it is time for the world not only to hear that message, but to know what it means…”
in touch with God and my spirituality. Words cannot express how thankful I am to you and the members. Your church helped me find my faith again…”
Volunteer staff of
Angel wrote to an anti-LGBT preacher who “debated”
The QUERY Newsletter
Rev. Pat at a public forum at the YMCA in July
Photos of Jerusalem by Candidate Gayle Davis
about what the Bible does and doesn’t say about homosexuality:
Editor Joe Kennedy Graphic Design & Layout Editor Les LaRue
“…Your views on those in loving relationships [were] very inappropriate and distasteful. We may not agree…but we should be able to have a discussion without offending people. One example is how…you focused on the mechanics of sexuality and you spoke of ‘the plumbing’ of sex and how it doesn’t work in homosexual sex…Our focus, as is God’s focus, should be to speak about Love and not vulgarity. Love is the main message above all that is consistently repeated through the Bible… The Bible teaches us not to judge others and intentionally upset others with our words…”
Unless otherwise noted, Newsletter content is written by the editor.
The Query can be read online at www.mccny.org, thanks to webmaster Chris Baker.
Metropolitan Community Church of New York
446 W. 36th St., New York, NY 10018 USA Phone 212 629-7440 www.mccny.org
Sunday Worship Services at 9 a.m. (traditional),
11 a.m. (celebration), and 7 p.m. (praise & worship)
On TV in Manhattan: Sundays 1:30 p.m.,
Time Warner channel 57, RCN channel 85
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Persecution of Gays in Iran Protested
MCCNY’s social justice ministry was at the forefront of recent protests, as reported in Gay City News:
GenderPeople Ministry Celebrates 10th Anniversary
On Stonewall Sunday in June, the congregation extended its blessing and love to GenderPeople as the ministry, which serves the transgender community, celebrated the 10th anniversary of its founding by Rev. Pressley Sutherland. Its members over the years have included luminaries such as Saint Sylvia Rivera, whose ashes lie in a reliquary urn at the altar during
Worship Services. Deaconess Mosay Moses
(at left) is now the facilitator of GenderPeople.
Jerusalem
Rev Eleanor Nealy Promoted to Deputy Director at LGBT Center
Rev. (and PhD. Candidate) Eleanor C.
Nealy (at right in photo, with her spouse Gail Drinkwater at an MCCNY fund-raising
gala in 2004) was promoted in July to the
MCC Candidate for the ordained ministry Gayle Davis, Rev. Pat Bumgardner, and former MCCNY Deacon Russell Murphy at World Pride.
newly-created position of Deputy Director of Programs at NYC’s LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th Street. Previously, she was Director of Mental Health and Social Services at the LGBT Center. Rev. Eleanor is a former Regional Elder (Bishop) in our worldwide predominantly-LGBT Metropolitan Community Churches denomination. It is always a popular occasion when she preaches at MCCNY Worship Services, as she did several times this summer. Rev. Eleanor and Gail also recently opened a Bed & Breakfast inn in Asbury Park, NJ.
‘The Fight for Equality Has Just Begun’
On the evening of July 7th, Rev. Pat Bumgardner addressed a rally of thousands in Sheridan Square after 4 judges appointed by Republican George Pataki to NY State’s highest court issued their ruling against same-sex marriage equality. Rev. Pat’s remarks were deemed noteworthy by DemocracyNow. org, which posted the 5-minute videotape and full text online. One commentator who saw the online posting observed: “I thought the piece was so powerful on so many levels – the direct challenge to injustice, the public integration of scripture, the linkage with other social justice issues…”
Iceland
Bishop Zachary Jones, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, Islamic author Irshad Manji, and Rev. Pat Bumgardner at the Multifaith Convocation at Hebrew Union College.
‘Let the Little Children Come to Me’ (Matthew 19:14)
Rev Franc Perry—who preached impressively at MCCNY in July about God’s miraculous healing power – with his spouse, former MCCNY Board member Jeff Bornheimer, and their son Jack in the Center Kids area at the LGBT Center’s Garden Party on the Pier in June (while their daughter Ruby played nearby just beyond the camera’s view). The Query hears that Rev. Franc, a distinguished attorney and longtime NYC civic activist, will be a candidate next year for Civil Court Judge in Manhattan; congregants are saying it’s a position
Malaysia
Brief excerpts from Rev. Pat’s speech follow: “Today, we
learned that 4 of the 6 judges believe that…the law clearly limits marriage to opposite-sex couples…that this was the universal understanding when our statutes where crafted. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t the universal understanding when Ruth pledged undying fidelity to another woman: ‘Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you live, I will live.’… Maybe the New York State Catholic Conference…maybe all the folks who like to cite moral authority for our exclusion from this basic human right should take note of the fact that it was two women who provided the Bible’s only death-do-us-part public relational pledge….
for which his keen sense of justice ideally suits him.
Amidst Iceland’s first LGBT Pride celebration, Rev. Pat spoke to more than 500 people in the biggest church in the country. It was front-page news in Iceland’s largest daily newspaper.
“All this decision means is that the fight for equality has just begun… Don’t vote for anyone who doesn’t vote for you and me… They accuse us, when we say vote only for people who support queer rights, of being single-issue voters. But I’m not a single-issue voter… They don’t see the connection between queer rights and immigration rights and a just and fair wage for all of us, and child care for all the people who hold down two jobs.
Tim Carter & Andre Thompson at
church in July with their twin sons Eli and Lucas, who were making their first appearance at Worship Services. Tim, a former MCCNY Sunday School teacher, is a two-time Emmy Award winner for children’s programming and is also known as a star athlete who has been named M.V.P. on the MCCNY men’s group team.
Rev. Pat Bumgardner preached at Worship Services at an “underground” church.
MCC Candidate for the ordained ministry Boon Lin Ngeo addresses an LGBT forum in Kuala Lumpur.
"Our battles are often disparagingly compared to the civil rights movement in this country, but the only way in which the fight for queer equality on all fronts, including marriage equality, falls short of that legacy is that we have not been persistent in taking to the streets, in demonstrating and protesting. The courts, the legislature will not think we are worth saving until we show them that we think we are worth saving… [May] this defeat…become our motivation to…fight like heaven until all of our relationships are equally recognized and protected.”
Former MCCNY Board member Dr
Andre Moreira & Jerome Dumane
attending Worship Services in August with their son Alexandre. By now they must be getting used to congregants exclaiming, “My goodness, look how fast he’s growing!”
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Folsom Street East Festival (June 18th): Marvin Bagwell (at left in photo), former
MCCNYDeaconandnowmemberoftheBoardofAdministrationofourworldwide, predominantlyLGBT Metropolitan Community Churches denomination, with partner Alejandro Garcia.
NYC Pride Month 2006
MCCNY’s contingent, led by actor Sam DuBel and friends (at right), handed out tens of thousands of MCCNY’s “God Made Me Queer” stickers, a now-ubiquitous part of NYC Pride.
LGBT Pride March (Sunday, June 25th), celebrating the 37th anniversary of the June 1969 Stonewall Rebellion on Christopher Street that launched the modern LGBT rights movement:
Lavender Light Gospel Choir Salutes “Warriors of Faith” (June 17th)
at Symphony Space on Broadway: “This is the picture of interfaith religious leaders
that the world should see,” declared Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, to cheers from the 1,000 at the Lavender Light annual Pride concert, in response to a picture atop page one of The New York Times that showed major Christian, Jewish and Muslim clerics in Jerusalem together to denounce LGBT people. “What brought them together is their hatred for us,” Rabbi Kleinbaum said. Lavender Light honored (from left in photo): Faisal Alam, founder of Al-Fatiha LGBTQ Muslims, Rev. Pat Bumgardner, Elder Rev Jacquelyn Holland of Unity Fellowship Church/Newark, NJ, Bishop Zachary Jones of Unity Fellowship Church/NYC, and Rabbi Kleinbaum of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, the world’s largest LGBT synagogue. Bishop Jones, Rabbi Kleinbaum and Faisal Alam have been guests in MCCNY’s pulpit on numerous occasions over the years, and the Lavender Light Black & People of All Colors Lesbian & Gay Gospel Choir, directed by Ray Gordon, performs twice a year in MCCNY’s sanctuary. Lavender Light’s ties to MCCNY, recalls Andy Buck, go back to Lavender Light’s founding 21 years ago when it conducted its first rehearsals in MCCNY’s space.
MCCNY’s float blasting live, energetic Gospel music by the church choir under the direction of John Fischer (at center in
photo at left) and David Raleigh’s (at right in photo) Band.
Speaker Christine Quinn’s LGBT Pride Event (June 13th) at City Hall, marking the 20th anniversary of the historic enactment in 1986 of NYC’s Gay Rights Bill, which was the culmination of 16 years of heroic all-out struggle by LGBT activists: Rev. Pat Bumgardner’s call in her invocation (below, photo by Andy Humm) for the life-saving use of condoms was quoted in Gay City News. Rev. Pat, Bishop Jones and Rabbi Kleinbaum were seated front and center and were greeted by the likes of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Mayor Ed Koch (who signed the Gay Rights Bill into law in 1986). Honored by the overflow crowd of 600 in the City Council chambers was former Councilmember (and MCCNYer) Phil Reed (below right). City Council Speaker Quinn’s remarks to the crowd attributed Phil’s “miraculous” recovery from
Trans Day of Action for Social & Economic Justice (June 23):
Members of MCCNY’s GenderPeople ministry and Rev. Pat Bumgardner were enthusiastic participants (photo at left).
health challenges “to God and to Rev. Pat.”
Garden Party (Mon. evening, June 19) on the Pier, benefiting the LGBT Community Center: Volunteers Kasey Michelus and
Sophia Pazos (photo at right) staff MCCNY’s
outreach table at the event attended by thousands.
Heritage of Pride Rally (Sun., June 18th) in Bryant Park: Rev Pat Bumgardner was a featured speaker (below left). Shimmerplanet, the hit music duo composed of MCCNY Music Director John Fischer and choir member Carolyn Eufrasio, provided the music for the afternoon (below right). Gerald Tucker, who operates the camera in church on Sundays for the cable broadcast of MCCNY’s Worship Services, is also a key HOP volunteer and was at the sound control panel for the rally.
