Released: 09 May 2008
A Message from MCC's Moderator

AN MCC PRAYER ALERT: Jamaica

Dear friends:

I am writing today to ask for your prayers for our LGBT brothers and sisters in Jamaica.

Earlier this year on Valentine's Day, MCC issued a global Call to Love -- a campaign to end the horrific violence targeted against our gay and lesbian sisters and brothers in Jamaica.
 
Many of you participated in that campaign by visiting embassies and consulates, holding public demonstrations to end the violence, and sponsoring prayer vigils for the LGBT community in Jamaica, asking for God's intervention to open the hearts and minds of those in power who can make a difference.
 
This weekend, as we celebrate Pentecost and "the mighty deeds of God" made known in ways understood by all God's children, an MCC team is in Jamaica. Members of the team are Rev. Robert Griffin, Rev. Pat Bumgardner, and Ken Reeves, former mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts and a current member of the city council.

This is a critical time in the movement for liberation and justice in Jamaica. In many ways it is the "Stonewall" moment in that nation. Many of our members there are garnering their strength and courage to come out as people who believe in the dignity and value and worth of all God's children, including those in the LGBT community.
 
MCC is holding a vigil on tonight, Friday, May 9th, to commemorate the dead and to reaffirm our commitment to fight for the living. We will host a prayer breakfast on Saturday morning with other spiritual and political leaders from Jamaica who share our belief in the oneness of humanity and the vision of our world coming together with one heart and one love, as Jamaican musician Bob Marley penned and as Jesus prayed 2000 years ago. That breakfast will be followed by a pilgrimage through the streets to lay a wreathe in remembrance of those we have loved and lost to anti-LGBT hated and violence.
 
On Sunday, May 11th, the MCC Team will join with MCCers and supporters from around the island to celebrate the Good News of God's love for all people.
 
Please join with us in spirit this weekend and pray for the mighty work that God is seeking to do in Jamaica right now.

• Celebrate Communion on Pentecost Sunday in memory of all our brothers and sisters lost to violence in Jamaica.
  
• Pray for the Spirit of God to fall afresh on all of us, so that violence and hatred may end, and love and peace prevail.
  
• Pray for our team and for all of our family in Jamaica.  Pray that we be able to act justly and to love tenderly and to walk humbly with God, which is all Scripture says is asked of us.

Grace and Peace,

+Nancy
 
The Reverend Nancy L. Wilson
Moderator
Metropolitan Community Church

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