Metropolitan offers a variety of opportunities for Christian service throughout the Washington area, including:
The Ballet Studio that provides all-scholarship, professional-caliber ballet training to inner-city children whose families are unable to afford lessons at a commercial studio. Contact: Barbara Gaskill, 202-244-3635 or by e-mail at barbarabillclem@erols.com.
Rebuilding Together, an all-volunteer project that repairs owner-occupied homes of limited income, elderly and disabled citizens at no cost to the homeowners. read more Contact: Lee Crockett.
Clothing Collection Team that collects and distributes clothes to individuals and families in need. Contact: Faith Lewis 202.363.4900
Friendship Place Community Resource Center that offers direct services aimed at securing benefits, employment, and housing for homeless men and women in upper northwest Washington. Contact: Dick Schleicher, 301-229-2385 or by e-mail at rschlei@verizon.net.
IONA Senior Services that provides personalized professional and volunteer assistance to people 60 years of age and older and their caregivers. Contact: Irving Biscomb, 202-966-4430.
Project 5000 that collects and provides emergency food to hungry people. Contact: Sue Wadel Smith, 703-413-4241 or by e-mail at wadelse@netscape.net.
The St. Elizabeth's Project that regularly visits patients at St. Elizabeth's Hospital for the mentally ill. Contact: Kay Poynter, 301-424-6796.
The Sandwich Brigade that makes and delivers sandwiches weekly to the Infirmary of the homeless shelter at 2nd and E Streets, NW. Contact: Bonnie Edwards, 202-686-9087.
Scouting Ministries that help young people, boys and girls, become committed Christians and responsible citizens. Contact: Randy Stoudt, Scout Liaison, 301-260-8881 .
Shelter at Metropolitan that houses homeless men during the winter months and homeless families in the spring and fall. Contact: Dick Schleicher, 301-229-2385 or by e-mail at rschlei@verizon.net.
Advocacy
Reconciling Ministry
Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church affirms that all individuals are of sacred worth without regard to race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, religion, education, marital circumstances, economic status, physical and mental condition, or criminal history. We declare ourselves in support of the reconciling movement and welcome the full participation in the church of gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered persons and their families, as a reflection of God’s unconditional love. At the same time, we recognize differences of opinion on issues of sexuality and seek to journey together in faith toward greater understanding and mutual respect.
MMUMC is proud to be a reconciling congregation. After a period of prayerful discernment, we joined the reconciling ministries network in June 2008. read more.
WIN
Washington Interfaith Network (WIN) is a coalition of congregations, community organizations, unions, tenant associations, and schools in the District of Columbia that work across racial, religious, and economic lines to insure that Washington, DC remains a place where families can afford to buy a home, educate their children, and a secure a living-wage job. Metropolitan Memorial was one of the founding congregations of WIN and along with nearly 50 other congregations created a broad-based, multi-racial, strictly non-partisan, District-wide citizens organization that develops neighborhood leaders, addresses community issues, and holds local elected officials accountable. Contact: Rev. Sandy Rector at 202-363-4900 ext. 19 or at srector@mmumc-dc.org or Ann Michel at 202-885-8582 or at amichel@wesleyseminary.edu.
Diversity
Advocacy Team Initiates a Focus on Diversity
In America, the church is still the most segregated major institution in America. At 11:00 on Sunday morning, when we stand and sing that Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segregated hour in this nation. - Martin Luther King, Jr., 1964
Unfortunately, the observation that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made forty five years ago, that 11:00 on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America, is still true today despite advances in diversity in many other sectors of American society. In light of Metropolitan’s new vision of radical hospitality and our reconciling statement’s emphasis on openness to all, the Advocacy Team is launching a congregational conversation around the subject of diversity. The short-term goals are to talk candidly, to learn from the literature of diversity and from sister congregations in our area, and to identify issues of congregational life that are relevant to the diversity question. The longer-term goals are to seed a larger conversation and to formulate a set of recommendations for the congregation.
This diversity initiative will begin with two alternating Sunday morning activities this summer:
Congregational Visits. On the third Sunday of each month, beginning Sunday, July 19, the Advocacy Team will be organizing a series of group visits to worship with some of our sister congregations in the area. The visits scheduled to date include:
•Sunday, July 19, Asbury United Methodist Church. Gather in the MMUMC foyer to depart at 9:45 a.m. for their 10:30 a.m. service.
•Sunday, August 16, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, “the National Cathedral of African Methodism.” Gather in the MMUMC foyer to depart at 10:15 a.m. for their 11 a.m. service.
•September 20, Shiloh Baptist Church. Gather in the MMUMC foyer to depart at 10:15 a.m. for their 10 a.m. service.
Rev. David Young, Metropolitan’s Deacon for Advocacy and Global Engagement, will be coordinating this activity. For more information, contact him at 703.786.8911 or dndweiszyoung@yahoo.com.
Discussion Forum. On the other Sundays during July and August, we will hold a discussion forum on diversity in the Terrace Room during the Sunday School hour (10:10 a.m. - 11 a.m.) Leaders from the Advocacy Team will be leading these conversations. Dates for these sessions are Sundays July 5, 12 & 26 and August 2, 9, 23, and 30. For more information, contact Advocacy Team Chair Ann Michel.
