Church of Our Savior, MCC | |
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Religion | |
Affiliation | Metropolitan Community Church |
Rite | Protestant |
Ecclesiastical or organizational status | Church |
Leadership | Rev. Rick Rhen-Sosbe, pastor |
Year consecrated | 1997 |
Location | |
Location | 2011 S. Federal Highway Boynton Beach |
State | Florida |
Geographic coordinates | 25°45′27″N80°11′34″W / 25.75753°N 80.19286°W |
Architecture | |
Type | Restaurant |
Website | |
https://www.churchofoursaviormcc.org |
Church of Our Savior, MCC, is located at 2011 S. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach, Florida. It is affiliated with the Metropolitan Community Church, a Protestant denomination with special outreach to the LGBTQ community. Like other MCC churches, it celebrates the Eucharist once a week, and practices open communion, meaning that recipients need not be a member of it or any other church to participate.
According to former pastor Renwick Bell, "MCC churches traditionally are a mixture of many faith traditions.... At Church of Our Savior we attempt to reach each and every person on their faith journey. We appreciate the diversity of faith traditions represented by our congregants and we attempt to touch each of these very special traditions at some time during our worship." [1] Many members have experienced rejection from families or other churches and according to Rev. Wendy Woodruff, "we want them to know this is a place of refuge, a place of sanctuary, that they don't have to fear being here." [2] According to her, "I feel called to serve the community as a whole, as well as the church community. We are called to carry the message of God's love for ALL, regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, language, abled-ness, country of birth, or any of the many things that draw us apart." [3]
Pastors of Church of Our Savior have been:
Vivien "Miss Vicki" Keller was long-term Choir Director. [14] [15]
The Church of Our Savior, MCC, began in 1990 as a satellite extension of the Church of the Holy Spirit, now the Sunshine Cathedral, in Fort Lauderdale, to accommodate worshippers from northern Broward and southern Palm Beach counties. The first service was held in a rented space in Boca Raton (4770 NW 2nd Avenue [16] ) in the fall of 1990, and the church was chartered by MCC in 1992. [17]
Finding a permanent home was the primary task of the church in its first years. At one point building a church with a separate "activity building" or "church hall" was considered, [18] but instead the church in 1997 acquired a former Pizza Hut building to use as its sanctuary. Most of the renovation work was done by congregation members. [19]
A unique set of stained-glass windows fill the former restaurant windows. [20] 12 of the 14 were created by McMow Art Glass in Lake Worth, Florida, the other two by a member of the congregation for whom stained glass was a hobby. In five of them a rainbow appears; in the LBTGQ community the colors of the rainbow represent inclusiveness of the wide variety of human beings.
Palm Beach County is a county in the southeastern part of Florida, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's third-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and Broward County and the 26th-most populous in the United States, with 1,492,191 residents as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is West Palm Beach, which had a population of 117,415 as of 2020. Named after one of its oldest settlements, Palm Beach, the county was established in 1909, after being split from Miami-Dade County. The county's modern-day boundaries were established in 1963.
Boynton Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is situated about 57 miles (92 km) north of Miami. The 2020 census recorded a population of 80,380. Boynton Beach is located in the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to 6,138,333 people at the 2020 census. The city is named after Nathan Boynton, a Civil War major and Michigan politician who became one of the first settlers in the area in 1895. Boynton Beach is located north of Delray Beach, south of Hypoluxo and Lantana, and east of Golf, while the municipalities of Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream, Manalapan, and Ocean Ridge are situated to the east across the Intracoastal Waterway.
Lake Worth Beach, previously named Lake Worth, is a city in east-central Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, located about 63 miles (101 km) north of Miami. The city's name is derived from the body of water along its eastern border known as the Lake Worth Lagoon, which was named for General William J. Worth, who led United States Army forces during the last part of the Second Seminole War. Lake Worth Beach is situated south of West Palm Beach, southeast of Lake Clarke Shores, east of Palm Springs, and north of Lantana, while a small section of the city also partitions the town of Palm Beach. The 2010 census recorded a population of 34,910, which increased to 42,219 in the 2020 census. Lake Worth Beach is within the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,138,333 people in 2020.
The Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), also known as the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC), is an international LGBT-affirming mainline Protestant Christian denomination. There are 222 member congregations in 37 countries, and the fellowship has a specific outreach to members of the LGBT community.
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Troy Deroy Perry Jr. is an American cleric and the founder of the Metropolitan Community Church, with a ministry with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities, in Los Angeles on October 6, 1968.
Nancy L. Wilson is an American cleric who served as the moderator of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. Under Wilson's leadership, the denomination became known as "The Human Rights Church" in many parts of the world for its commitment to same-sex marriage, employment and housing non-discrimination laws.
The Diocese of Palm Beach is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in eastern Florida in the United States The patron saint of the diocese is Mary, mother of Jesus, under the title Queen of the Apostles.
West Boca Raton Community High School (WBRCHS) is a magnet high school in Boca Raton, Florida, United States. It was established in 2004 and is part of the School District of Palm Beach County. The school primarily serves students from the western unincorporated part of Boca Raton known as West Boca Raton.
The Delray Beach Seaboard Air Line Railway Station is a historic Seaboard Air Line Railway depot in Delray Beach, Florida, United States. The station is located at 1525 West Atlantic Avenue.
The Lofthus is a Norwegian shipwreck near Boynton Beach, Florida, United States. Built in 1868 in Sunderland, England by T.R. Oswald, the 222-foot iron-hulled vessel was originally christened Cashmere and rigged as a three masted barque. She was painted with false gunports to ward off Sumatran and Javanese pirates. After a career in the East Indian trade Cashmere was sold to a Norwegian firm, renamed Lofthus, and used in the American trade. On February 4, 1898, the Lofthaus wrecked in a storm en route to Buenos Aires, Argentina from Pensacola, Florida. The crew of 16 men, as well as the ship's cat and dog were rescued by the passing vessel Three Friends, which was smuggling guns to Cuba. The ship, however, was declared a loss as it could not be removed from the shallow reef. The cargo, primarily lumber, was salvaged and brought ashore by locals and reportedly used to build homes in the Boynton Beach area.
The Boynton Woman's Club is a historic woman's club in Boynton Beach, Florida. Their 1925 building, located at 1010 South Federal Highway, was designed by South Florida architect Addison Mizner and constructed as a memorial to Major Nathan Smith Boynton through a $35,000 donation from the founder's family. The building provided numerous community services throughout its history. Shortly after construction finished, the building was used as a shelter for residents during the 1926 hurricane. It was also utilized by the Red Cross as a USO center throughout World War II for dances and fundraisers. In the 1950s, the Boynton Woman's Club also initiated the first full-service public library in Boynton Beach, though African American residents were not allowed in the Woman's Club during this time. In 1961, the city purchased a residential building at 116 S. Seacrest Boulevard to serve as the municipal library, officially moving the collections out of the Woman's Club building.
Christ Fellowship is a non-denominational evangelical multi-site megachurch based in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida with more than 28,000 in attendance each week on eleven locations throughout South Florida.
Delray Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population of Delray Beach as of April 1, 2020 was 66,846 according to the 2020 United States Census. Located in the Miami metropolitan area, Delray Beach is 52 miles north of Miami.
The Palm Beach County Library System is the public library system of Palm Beach County, Florida. Its headquarters, the Main Library, is located in an unincorporated area near West Palm Beach, the county seat. The system was established in 1967 and serves Palm Beach County through the Main Library and 20 branch libraries. Its first library branch opened in Tequesta on September 25, 1969, and its first bookmobile five days later. Unlike neighboring Broward and Miami-Dade counties, where most municipalities have joined their county's library system, most municipalities in Palm Beach County continue to operate their own city libraries, leading the county system to focus on the more suburban communities. Instead, a cooperative system model is in place to allow interoperation between county and municipal libraries.
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