Two events you won't want to miss:

 

1) Saturday May 25: Our Annual Tag Sale!  We need items to sell and volunteers to help that day.  Please email the office (mcchartford@aol.com) or see Clyde and Scott after worship with sale items or to volunteer for a portion of time. Tag sale location:  990 Forbes Street, East Hartford.  Thank you!

 

 

 

2) Saturday June 1: Movie matinee starts at 3pm!  Join us for the Ct Gay and Lesbian Film Festival double feature Taking a Chance on God (54 minutes) and I Am Gay and Muslim (57 minutes).  We will be going as a group, so please RSVP BY MAY 20 if you will be joining us, so we can reserve the number of seats we need.  A group of 10 or more will also reduce the ticket price to $7.  So, we hope you will join us for movie and fellowship.  And, these movies should provoke some great discussion!

 

 

Saturday, June 1 @ 3:00 p.m.

Cinestudio, Trinity College, Hartford, CT

 

Taking a Chance on God

Dir. Brendan Fay, 2011, USA, 54 min

Taking A Chance On God chronicles the extraordinary life and legacy of 85 year old John McNeill, gay Catholic priest, founder of the LGBT spiritual movement, and pioneering voice of gay liberation. Refusing to betray his own conscience, McNeill stood up to the man who became Pope Benedict XVI and would not be silenced. The Film depicts McNeill's remarkable journey: growing up in Buffalo, escaping death as a POW in Nazi Germany, falling in love with his husband, writing groundbreaking books, coming out on national television, calling for compassion and justice during the AIDS crisis, and celebrating the unique spiritual gifts of LGBT people. Theologians, journalists, activists, and LGBT religious figures, including openly gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, movingly testify to McNeill's influence and importance.

 

-  with

 

I Am Gay and Muslim

Dir. Chris Belloni, 2012, Netherlands/Morocco, 59 min

This intimate documentary follows a number of young Moroccan gay men in their exploration of their religious and sexual identity. Triggered by the current political situation in which homosexuality and Islam seem irreconcilable, director Chris Belloni spent the major part of 2011 traveling in Morocco to interview gay Muslims. The men portrayed in the film openly share their personal experiences and talk about the ambiguity and secretiveness of the life they feel condemned to live, although some have openly acknowledged their sexual orientation.

 

 

 

Join us for an 'afternoon at the movies' on Saturday June 1, beginning at 3pm!

Only a few more seats left...

So, please RSVP to this email BY THURSDAY 5/23 to reserve your seat.

Tickets are reduced to $7 (assuming we have enough people to reserve as a group).

See movie descriptions (double feature) and location below.

 

Hope you can join us! 

--Rev. Aaron 

 

CT Gay & Lesbian Film Festival presents:

Films of Religious Interest

Saturday, June 1, 2013, 3 pm

Cinestudio, Trinity College, Hartford, CT

 

Taking A Chance On God (54 minutes)

A documentary profile of John McNeill, pioneer gay priest

directed by Brendan Fay, in attendance

An aspiring portrait of a pioneer gay priest,

Taking A Chance On God follows the extraordinary

life of 86-year-old John McNeill from

his Buffalo boyhood through his experiences

as a POW in Nazi Germany, Vietnam peace

promoter, leading gay rights advocate, and

loving partner of forty-six years to Charles

Chiarelli. McNeill the author of groundbreaking

works of gay spirituality, a founder

of the LGBT Catholic group Dignity/New

York, and a gay community leader during the

AIDS crisis of the 1980s refused to be silenced

by the Vatican on LGBT issues, which

resulted in his expulsion from the priesthood.

Taking A Chance On God is a powerful story of

faith, love and perseverance in the face of oppression

and rejection.

AND

I Am Gay and Muslim (57 minutes)

directed by Chris Belloni

The film I am Gay and Muslim focuses on the subject

of gay rights in the Islamic world. This intimate documentary

follows a number of young gay Moroccan

men in their exploration of their religious and sexual

identity. Triggered by the current political situation

in which homosexuality and the Islam seem irreconcilable,

director Chris Belloni spent the major part of

2011 traveling in Morocco to interview gay Muslims.

The men portrayed in the film openly share their

personal experiences and talk about the ambiguity

and secretiveness of the life they feel condemned to

live, although some have openly acknowledged their

sexual orientation.

 

CHURCH NEW...during PENTECOST that happens every day!

Please see the REVISED updated event calendars--for MAY and JUNE (attached)

THIS Saturday May 25: Our Annual Tag Sale!  Still have  items to sell or want to volunteer to help that day??  Please email the office (mcchartford@aol.com) and we will connect you to Clyde and Scott (or just come to the tag sale itself on Saturday! Tag sale location:  990 Forbes Street, East Hartford.  Thank you!

 

Saturday June 1 starting at 3pm: Join us at the Ct Gay and Lesbian Film Festival double feature Taking a Chance on God (54 minutes) and I Am Gay and Muslim (57 minutes)see the attached flyer.  We will be going as a group, so please RSVP BY TOMORROW (MAY 23) (to the church office: mcchartford@aol.com) if you will be joining us, so we can reserve the number of seats we need.  A group of 10 or more will also reduce the ticket price to $7.  So, we hope you will join us for movie and fellowship.  And, these movies should provoke some great discussion!

 

Sunday June 2 has 2 great events!  

1.    Join us from 8:30-9:45am for breakfast ($5) and/or

2.    Join us in celebrating Rogation Sunday when we combine services with the host church, Church of the Good Shepherd in their sanctuary with Rev. Aaron preaching.  Following the service, we will be planting a tree and blessing Gods creation.

 

Saturday June 8: Gods Ministry has a church!  Join us from 11-1pm as we begin the discernment process...who MCC Hartford is today and where God is calling us.  This is a new chapter and we will be prayerfully moving toward creating vision and mission statements.  Who are we and who are we called by God to become?  We hope you will be a part of this discernment process and exciting journey that is just starting to take shape!

Friday June 14: Somewhere Coffee House:  >From 7-9pm---for some great fun and fellowship!

 

 

 

Saturday June 22: MCC Pride Picnic: We will be joining MCC New Haven for a combined church picnic starting at 11am at Wharton Brook State Park in Wallingford, off Route 5.  So, bring your Frisbees, lawn chairs, and a dish for the potluckand plan to have a great time as we celebrate Pride Month, MCC-style!

Monday June 24: McKinney Shelter Dinner:  Join us at 5:30pm as we serve Shepherds Pie to the 100+/- men at this homeless shelter.  If you plan to bring a dish, please let Rev. Aaron know.  Joy and hope abounds as we feed our hungry neighbors.

BEAN there...done that?  The month of May we are collecting canned BAKED BEANS  --supporting the Hands on Hartford food pantry.  June...it will be RICE (twice as nice)!

Bible Study -- off for the Summer.  It has been a great Bible study season and we are now taking our summer break.  Be watching late summer for news about its return...perhaps differently!

 

 

Roman 5:1-5

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Do we boast in our sufferings, knowing and trusting what it produces (hope)?  And, do we feel the love of God that pours into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, even in such suffering?  My prayer is that we know that all things made good by God and that we never cease to see, feel, and know Gods unconditional and abundant love every moment, in every difficulty and in every joy...through the Holy Spirit who is always near.  THEN, we will surely know peace that is through Jesus Christ and beyond human understanding.  Amen. -- Rev. Aaron

 

Please email your prayer requests to the office or to the pastor (mcchartford@aol.com or rev.aaronmiller@yahoo.com). If you wish to speak with the pastor directly, please call 860-990-1225.

 

For more information...about our church and our events...please visit the website:www.mcchartford.com