News and Announcements

If you were not able to attend  the orientation held in December, please plan to attend a “make-up”  session being held on Saturday, January 14, 2012 from 10:00 a.m.  to 12:00 p.m. at the  church.  Important information will be covered about the history of the  Class System and the responsibilities of class leaders.  For more information, please contact the  following:  Thedford Collins (thedford.collins@gmail.com), Celeste Garcia (cagarcia68@aol.com), Joan Oxendine (willie-joan@comcast.net), or Flavia Walton (fwalton71@verizon.net).

Join the Metropolitan AME Church team in a day of community service in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King on Monday, January 16, 2012 from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.   Registration is $25m which includes supplies, snacks, and a T-shirt for each registered participant.

To register:

1) Visit http://mlk2012.kintera.org
2) Click Register Now
3) Accept the Volunteer Waiver
4) Click Join a Team
5) Select the Metropolitan AME Church Team from the drop-down menu
6) Add your personal contact information and you will be registered!

This is an opportunity for us to take Metropolitan into the community and to fellowship with one another. Please register by January 2, 2012. The Love and Peace Unit of the Sarah Allen Missionary Society (SAMS) is sponsoring our team. For more information contact Marsha Botts at  metro_mc@yahoo.com or Celeste Garcia at cagarcia68@aol.com.

Church members, do you want to become a better steward of your finances? Church Leaders, do you want to help your members become financially fit and giving according to biblical principals?

Please join Capital Area Asset Builders (CAAB) and Metropolitan AME Church on Saturday, January 7, 2012, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., for a free, three-hour seminar that answers the question, Can I Afford My Life? CAAB and Metropolitan AME Church successfully partnered with Moneywise with Kelvin Boston on November 5, 2011 and delivered an amazing, full-day event that drew over 500 participants! If you want to build on what you learned at Moneywise, or just start the New Year on the right financial footing, this is the workshop for you. Moderated by Linda Easley Stroman, Director of Financial Education for CAAB, and facilitated by Financial Coach, Geoffrey Tate, author of “The Series of Seven” this workshop will take you on a journey toward financial freedom. Mr. Tate has helped hundreds of individuals balance their finances and he will help you to answer the question: “Can I Afford My Life?”

Register online or call 202.419.1440 or email ocoleman@caab.org for more information.

Warmest Regards,
Capital Area Asset Builders

Download the “Can I Afford My Life?” Flyer!

Have you liked the Metropolitan AME Facebook page? Visit our page to keep up with the latest AME news and events, photos and more.

View photos of Christmas 2011 on our page.

Church Web Site

The Metropolitan AME website has received over 114,000 visits this year from over 34,000 unique visitors.

84,681 of those visits came from the United States, 17,173 from China and 3,695 from the Russian Federation.

The highest number of unique visitors was in January with 4,067 after President Obama’s visit.

The highest number of visits overall has been this month, December 2011 with 14,843 visits.

Sunday is our most popular day for web site visits and 7 PM is the most popular time.

Annoucements Blog

Our announcements blog is tracked separately from the website. This year, the top 5 posts on the announcements blog were the following:

Obama Family Visits Metropolitan AME  3,648
View Photos of the 2011 Restoration Crab Feast 429
The 2011 Washington Annual Conference at-a-glance 411
View Photos from Youth Sunday 303
Introducing Reverend Jonathan V. Newton 273

The most popular page on our blog is the Home page with 12,474 views this year.

Here’s hoping our outreach next year will be even better!

Presiding Elder Louis Charles Harvey
December 18, 2011

Rev. Dr. Louis-Charles Harvey, Presiding Elder, 2nd Episcopal District, AME Church
Metropolitan AME Church
Sunday, December 18, 2011
www.metropolitaname.org

Scripture: Matthew 1:20-22, Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). NIV Version

This is the 4th Sunday in Advent. This time last year, we celebrated Advent by worshipping over at the Madison Hotel, due to the renovations that were underway. I preached that the glory of this “present house” would be greater than the glory of the “former house” – the former Metropolitan AME Church.

Metropolitan AME is a church in which there are many “departed saints”; many of you were baptized in this church; some of you are the 3rd, 4th, or 5th generation of families worshipping in this church. From the souls of sinners come shouts of praise and thanksgiving as we “Celebrate the Birth of Christ in a New House.”

God does not only specialize in physical building, but also in spiritual restoration. God established a covenant with His people, and He wants us to build a new spiritual house. Matthew says it took 40 years and two generations, but God’s covenant to his people was fulfilled. In order to fulfill the covenant, God had to lay His divinity down, and take on human flesh, and dwell among us.

In this season of Advent, the scripture reminds us to do several things:

1. REPENT. Metropolitan, today you celebrate Christ in a “new house”. But we must be prepared to make this house a BETTER house. In order to make this a better house, we have to do what God tells us to do. Tell Him: “Jesus, I want you to come into my heart and renovate me; I need a new foundation, for my own foundation is leaking.”

2. REMEMBER. Remember what God has already done for you. Remember that He was my companion when I needed Him to walk with me; to talk with me. He separates the wheat from the chaff. .

3. REJOICE. Rejoice because Jesus is Emmanuel – which means “God is with us”. Emmanuel means he is always present and accounted for. I can rejoice, in my brokenness, in my disappointment; when the storms of life knock me down; when dark nights, pain and illness overtake me – I can rejoice because God is with us.

Repent, remember, and rejoice because you’ve got something that the mortgage company cannot repossess. Rejoice! “This joy I have, the world didn’t give it, and the world can’t take it away!”

Calendar of church events through January 1, 2012.

Member Edith Buffalow. Photo by the Washington Informer

Metropolitan A.M.E. member Edith Buffalow and her showroom, the Adobe Design Center & Showroom, were recently profiled in the Washington Informer.

African-American Merchant Thrives on H Street

The interior of the Adobe Design Center & Showroom. Owner Edith Buffalow is seen here.Some African-American merchants have disappeared from the H Street,NE corridor. Others such as Edith Buffalow forge on.

Here, at 654 H Street, NE in the showroom of her Adobe Design Center, Buffalow is surrounded by a collection of art and furniture she finds in far away corners of the globe. Her clientele has a taste for the unique which has led Buffalow to many exotic places, such as Indonesia, India, Taiwan, Mexico and South Africa. Read more. . .

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – It was an impressive gathering of spiritual leaders from denominations that rarely mingle together or remain separated by ideology.  However, the Washington Interfaith Network (WIN) successfully collaborated with faith leaders from around the District to come together for a common cause –  jobs and affordable housing.

Muslims, Jews, Orthodox Christians, Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Catholics, Presbyterians and  non-denominational leaders joined forces to address the District’s growing
unemployment rate and insufficient units of affordable housing.

The gathering held on Dec. 5 at the historic Metropolitan AME Church was filled with  residents eagerly waiting to receive directions for action. WIN members demand  that $45 million from the city’s surplus be allocated towards employment and affordable housing by Jan. 17, 2012 or pressure for a citywide a moratorium on subsidies for major development projects will occur. Read more. . .