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Pastor

the Rev. Dr. Candace R. Shultis

Attendance

about 130

Service Length

2 hours

Sample Worshipper Dress

orange baseball cap, lime-green golf shirt, vegetable-patterned trousers

e-Savviness

Weekly podcasts of Sunday sermons and music are available on iTunes.

Congregational Fervor

Ministering to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered faithful of the District, MCC celebrates its diversity with no fewer than four rainbow flags. At a recent service, the congregation displayed an equal enthusiasm for celebrating the Lord. “That woman in the blue shirt!” shouted Music Minister Shirli Hughes, singling out a particularly spirited worshipper. “She came in singing! Looks like her shoes are on tighter than mine.” HHHHH

Food for the Soul

Though her sermon—titled “Don’t Look at Me!”—was a bit long-winded, Shultis atoned for her loquaciousness with some astute cultural analysis: “9/11 conspiracy theorists! We know what happened—we all saw it live on TV—yet still there are conspiracy theorists,” the preacher told the congregation. “There are conspiracy theorists about Jesus, too! We believe he married Mary Magdalene and had kids; isn’t that what happened in the movie?”HHHHH

Food for the Body

At a recent service, the MCC supplemented its usual coffee hour—which included coffee, cookies, and lemonade—with a special fundraising brunch to benefit the church’s Buchanan Ministry Center. For $6, congregation members could purchase delicious made-to-order omelets, fruit salad, and fresh orange juice.HHHHH

Overall Worship Power

In addition to film commentary, Shultis’ sermon included a college-admissions hint. While trying to reinforce the virtues of servanthood, the pastor related an anecdote in which a God-fearing university hopeful denies that she is a leader on her application. “When she received her acceptance letter back from the school, it read, ‘Next year, we will have thousands of leaders attending our institution; we would like them to have at least one follower.’”HHHHH

—Aaron Leitko