Metropolitan Community Churches: Statement of Faith

Written by St. John's MCC |

Doctrine

Christianity is the revelation of God in Jesus Christ and is the religion set forth in the scriptures. Jesus Christ is foretold in the Old Testament, presented in the New Testament, and proclaimed by the Christian Church in every age and in every land.

Founded in the interest of offering a church home to all who confess and believe, Metropolitan Community Churches moves in the mainstream of Christianity.

Our faith is based upon the principles outlined in the historic creeds: Apostles and Nicene.

We Believe

In one triune God, omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient, of one substance and of three persons: God - our Parent-Creator; Jesus Christ the only begotten son of God, God in flesh, human; and the Holy Spirit - God as our Sustainer.
That the Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God, showing forth God to every person through the law and the prophets, and finally, completely and ultimately on earth in the being of Jesus Christ.
That Jesus the Christ historically recorded as living some 2,000 years before this writing, is God incarnate, of human birth, fully God and fully human, and that by being one with God, Jesus has demonstrated once and forever that all people are likewise Children of God, being spiritually made in God's image.
That the Holy Spirit is God making known God's love and interest to all people. The Holy Spirit is God, available to and working through all who are willing to place their welfare in God's keeping.
Every person is justified by grace to God through faith in Jesus Christ.
We are saved from loneliness, despair and degradation through God’s gift of grace, as we declared by our Savior. Such grace is not earned, but is a pure gift from a God of pure love. We further commend the community of the faithful to a life of prayer, to seek genuine forgiveness for unkind, thoughtless and unloving acts, and to a committed life of Christian.
The Church serves to bring all people to God through Christ. To this end, it shall arrange for regular services of worship, prayer, interpretation of the Scriptures, and edification through the teaching and preaching of the Word.

Rites of the Church

Baptism by water and the Spirit, as recorded in the Scriptures, shall be a sign of the dedication of each life to God and God’s service. Through the words and acts of this sacrament, the recipient is identified as God’s own child.
Holy Communion is the partaking of the blessed bread and fruit of the vine in accordance with the words of Jesus, our Sovereign. “This is my body . . . this is my blood.” (Matthew 26:26-28). All who believe, confess, repent and seek God’s love through Christ may freely participate in the communion meal, signifying their desire to be received into community with Jesus Christ, to be saved by Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, to participate in Jesus Christ’s resurrection, and to commit their lives anew to the service of Jesus Christ.

Duly authorized ministers of MCCs perform the following Rites:

Ordination

Membership

Holy Union and Holy Matrimony

Funeral or Memorial Service

Laying on of Hands for Healing

Blessing of Persons, Things and Relationships

History of Metropolitan Community Churches

Written by St. John's MCC |

History of Metropolitan Community Churches

Rev. Elder Troy Perry Dedication of Fellowship home Rev. Elder Troy Perry installation

Rev. Elder Troy Perry The story of MCC begins with one man, defrocked by his Pentecostal church for homosexuality and recovering from a suicide attempt, who dared to believe God's promise of love and justice for all people.

The Reverend Troy Perry, then twenty-seven, received a call from God to found a church that affirmed gay men, lesbians and all other outcasts. UFMCC was born a few months later on October 6, 1968, when the Reverend Perry led eleven men and one woman in the first worship service of what was to become Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles, California (currently pastored by Rev. Neil Thomas and now part of the MCC complex in West Hollywood, CA). Foreshadowing the diversity that was to flower in the next decades, the congregation that morning encompassed people of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish backgrounds, including one person of color (a Latino), one Jew, and one heterosexual couple. In the following decades, the Reverend Perry received innumerable human rights awards as he guided MCC to growth and maturity.

In 1968, before the Stonewall Riots and the Christopher Street Parades, the Reverend Troy Perry founded Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles to serve the spiritual needs of gay and lesbian people. His action was revolutionary -- and transformational. For nearly thirty-seven years, Metropolitan Community Churches have stood in the face of adversity serving as a safe haven for those rejected by other religious communities and becoming an essential, life-affirming link in the chain of lesbian and gay identity and affiliation. Local Metropolitan Community churches have been the birthplace of dozens of different gay and lesbian organizations and projects across the world, and has played a vital role in the development of the global gay and lesbian community.

All people - gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and heterosexual -are invited to new life through the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ in the Metropolitan Community Churches. MCC puts its faith into action by creating a global community of healing and reconciliation, and by confronting the injustices of homophobia, sexism, racism and poverty through Christian social action.

Since its founding in 1968, MCC has grown into a denomination of approximately 300 churches in 18 countries throughout the world. Worldwide membership surpassed 40,000 in early 2000. In many small communities, the Metropolitan Community Church is the only local lesbian and gay-oriented organization.

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Who MCC is

Metropolitan Community Churches: Statement of Faith

Doctrine

Rites of the Church

Duly authorized ministers of MCCs perform the following Rites:

History of Metropolitan Community Churches

History of Metropolitan Community Churches