Agape' Metropolitan Community Church
This Week's News and Updates
May 12, 2020
Click Here to view last week's virtual worship experience.
COVID-19 Community Gathering Update
from your Board of Directors

As the governing body of this community, tasked with the decision of when to begin gathering again publicly, our number one priority remains keeping our community safe. We have a significant number of folks in our community that are considered "high risk" for COVID-19. For now, we will continue with exclusive live streaming of our worship services with some staffing changes.

The Board of Directors met online Monday night (May 11) to discuss how and when to reopen the Agape' Campus. Our target date to begin a limited reopening is May 31st. We will begin reopening by increasing the number of worship team and security team members to assist with the virtual streaming of our services. Each worship/security participant will be trained in the opening and closing sanitizing procedures. 

Our "soft" reopening date is contingent on the number of newly reported COVID-19 cases in Tarrant County over the next two weeks and recommendations from the CDC. As always, we will keep you updated via the Weekly Update and Facebook.

The Board of Directors has been doing our homework over the past few weeks by attending webinars and viewing online materials related to reopening safely. We have created a phased reopening plan, a checklist for cleaning/sanitizing our space before/after each use and are now procuring the items needed to keep the Agape' community safe.

A few things for you to keep in mind for our impending reopening:

1) Social distancing will remain in effect. We are currently marking safe seating zones in the sanctuary to ensure we have a minimum of 6' social distance between our community.

2) No personal contact (no hugging, handshakes etc.)

3) We will ask you to wear face masks while on campus. We will have a limited supply on hand for those of you who do not have one.

4) If you fall in the high risk category, we encourage you to shelter in place and join us online.

Again, our main goal is to provide a safe worship environment for all who gather and we take this responsibility seriously. We love you all and miss you so very much. You remain in our hearts, thoughts and prayers.

If you need anything please reach out to us. You can email the BOD and/or Pastoral staff at agapemccchurch@gmail.com. The church email box is being monitored by our BOD and we will respond as quickly as possible
Woman Praying
A note from Rev. David...

Greetings Prayer Warriors! I've been in contact with Rev. Gina Purcell, who is a Chaplain at Texas Health Resources HEB Hospital and still calls Agape' MCC her home. They are inviting churches to pray for their staff and patients for one hour, one day a week. I signed Agape' up for Wednesdays from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.  Please set an alarm in your phone to pray for them during that hour! May the healing presence of love and connection surround us all!  

Community Corner
Blessing bag donations:
Toothbrush/toothpaste
Bottled water
Granola bars
Individual tuna salad kit
Individually wrapped snacks
Vienna sausage
Our community has come together and created blessing bags, blessing boxes and feminine bags.
Blessing bags are for individuals who may be street dependent or simply in need.
Blessing boxes are for families in need.
Feminine bags are for individuals in need.

If you have a donation or know someone in need of any of these items feel free to contact us at agapemccchurch@gmail.com or call Amy Ashton at (682) 301-2245.
Blessing box donations:
Cereal
Toothpaste
Canned Meat
Peanut Butter
Oatmeal
Canned vegetables
Pasta and Pasta sauce
Boxed dinners


We are hosting our mid-week social online this coming Wednesday, May 13, 2020 at 6:30PM.

This week's theme will be:
SUPERHEROS!
Who is your favorite Superhero?
Join us and let's discover something new about each other!
See you online!!

You can view the event on the Agape' Facebook page .
Click here to join our Zoom Meet Up on Wednesday.
Enter the meeting using ID: 822-357-550
You can join us using any smart phone device, tablet or computer with webcam and headset/mic.

If you have access, please download the Zoom app on your smart device. Open the app and enter the meeting number to join the fun. This is a great chance to see and interact with our Wednesday night crew. We believe laughter is good for the soul and we provide lots of laughter.


All Psychic Class Offerings with Jayme O'Donnell have been cancelled. Jayme will notify us when classes are to resume.
God we cry out to you in times of great distress and chaos, did you cause this? Why is this happening? Why aren't you stopping all this suffering? You could prevent this, so why don't you?

God, your son Jesus, asked these same questions, as have all your prophets, priests and writers of scripture.

God, we pray you would bless us with comfort in knowing that to ask and to question suffering is natural and indeed holy. It shows concern for our fellow human beings and that is sacred.

We pray we would understand that You sent Jesus to experience all of what it means to be human. Jesus loved as we love. Wept as we wept. Bled as we bled. Mourned as we mourned. Suffered injustice as we suffer injustice.

Through Jesus you showed us that you love us so much that you became one of us.

All knowing God, you loved us so much that you created us, blessed us, called us your beloved knowing that just as a parent suffers when their child suffers, so do you suffer when we suffer.

You suffered when your children died of HIV AIDS. You felt the pain of being othered when our HIV Positive siblings suffered stigma.

You also suffer when we suffer from COVID 19.

God we pray that as you suffer as we suffer, we would draw closer to You and to each other. Draw us closer into the Godhead. Closer than we have ever been.

Let us uphold the sacred tension of questioning why suffering happens with the sacred solidarity that you are with us.

May our love be shown in public as we call for justice that governments around the world would respond to the poor and oppressed who suffer the most in these times.

In Jesus name we pray.

Amen


PRAYER SUBMITTED BY

REV. ALEX PITTAWAY
MCC Brisbane
May Birthdays
May 03 - Judy Hudson
May 07 - Mark Vega
May 16 - Helen Smith
May 23 - Teresa Mallott 
May 29 - Candy Davidson
May 31 - Tyler Spence
Streaming Worship - May 17, 2020
6th Sunday after Easter

Join us at 10:30AM virtually for a service that includes more of your favorite songs and a message of hope, "The Wounded Heart", from Rev. David.

Be sure to have your "unique communion elements" on hand for our "Common Union" time, a candle and a heart/worry stone.

We encourage you to take a selfie during our worship time and post it on Facebook showing us a snapshot of what your worship experience looks like.

We are the church!

Click here to join our service on FaceBook Live.


Be sure to like us on Facebook if you have not already!
Agape' MCC is a Reproductive Justice Congregation.
817-535-5002 / agapemccchurch@gmail.com / https:// www.agapemcc.com /