July 2005
At General Conference 2005, Rev Perry was presented with a book of photos showing altars from around the denomination. The intent was to give him a collection of something common to all MCCs, around the world. This was also a "thank you" to him for opening the Communion table back to all God's GLBT children, something that had been denied to many of us before finding MCC.
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Dedication This collection is dedicated with much love and appreciation to Rev Elder Troy Perry. From the MCC churches, around the world, who are able to share Holy Communion with their flocks because of your actions 37 years ago and in the years since. |
Over 100 MCCs responded. Due to the desire to ensure that each church was equally represented , only one photo (or a montage of photos) was placed on each page, 1 page per church. Now that the book is in his home, and we have the space of the web to work with, those churches that submitted multiple images have each image presented on the web site.
It is hoped that sharing these collected images will offer inspiration to those who set the altar and to, once again, show that, in our diversity and international expressions of faith, we have more in common that is usually realized.
Please know that Rev Perry really treasures this project and hopes that we will continue to keep it growing on his website. You are invited to submit pictures of your altar (please, no people) from special events or every Sunday. Whether your church has a picture here already or this is your first contribution, please send up photos of your altar for inclusion on this project!
For those with Adobe Acrobat Reader, here is a 15Mb PDF copy of the book as presented in July 2005 (it'll be a long download - on Windows: right-click and "Save Target As").
Altars by church name as web pages:
| A | B | C | D | E |
| F | G | H | I | J |
| K | L | M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 | N | O |
| P Q | R | S | T | U |
| V | W | X | Y | Z / Special Altars |
Please note, this project started July 27th and may take up to two weeks to complete. Your patience is appreciated.
One last thing to bear in mind. This is a snapshot of our denomination from early 2005 - we have added churches, had churches change names or even move. Names and locations in the altar collection may differ now from then.
My personal thanks to all the congregations and their photographers who responded to the calls for altar pictures. I know Rev Perry was touched by the outpouring of love this book provided.
Feedback is encouraged. Let's keep this going - and continue sharing altar photographs - both to inspire those who set and decorate the altar and to celebrate more of our diversity. There are churches who dress their altar especially for Pride weekends, Christmas and Easter. We will make this a ongoing, living work. Send your photographs (of the altar, no people please) to photos@revtroyperry.org.
Your faithful webster,
Mark