Mosaic Mennonites

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Ministerial Committee Update – December 2025

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The Ministerial Committee makes decisions on ministry credentials and policies that promote the support, health, and training of credentialed leaders and safe church practices for congregations. They meet quarterly to act on recommendations from the credentialing committee, review and revise current policies around credentialed leaders, and provide leadership in cases of misconduct. 

Report from the December 3, 2025, Ministerial Committee Meeting   

Committee Actions

Credentialing 

Transfers of Ordained Pastors 

  • Rigoberto Negrón – Iglesia Menonita del Cordero (Brownsville, TX)
  • Maria Alma Solis – Iglesia Menonita Fuente de Agua Viva (Los Fresnos, TX) 
  • Jose Alejo Solis – Iglesia Menonita Fuente de Agua Viva (Los Fresnos, TX) 
  • John Holsey – Providence Mennonite Church (Collegeville, PA) 

Updates, Discussions, and Upcoming Conversations  

Credentialing Requests in Process – There are currently 15 leaders in process for licensing towards ordination, licensing for special ministry, transfers, and ordination. 

Credentialing Procedure Update – An overview was given of the recent changes and updates reflecting the change in relationship with Mennonite Church USA. Further revisions will be presented at the next meeting. 

Posture Document Application in Ministerial Committee and Credentials Committee –There was a review of the Credentialing Profile for Leaders (replacing the Ministerial Leadership Information/MLI form). The committee shared feedback, including additional questions for the profile and thoughts concerning the interview process. 

Healthy Boundaries Training – Due to difficulty accessing healthy boundaries training, the proposal to use Mosaic policy documents as a basis for a training course was met favorably. Mosaic policy documents were shared, and necessary revisions were discussed. Staff will continue to revise these documents and present them to the committee at the next meeting. 

Allegations of Misconduct – Mosaic will partner with GRACE (netgrace.org) to process misconduct claims and investigations and to work at developing new policies and procedures. 

Mosaic values two-way communication and encourages our constituents to respond with feedback, questions, or encouragement. To share your thoughts or send a message to the author(s), contact us at communication@mosaicmennonites.org.   

When Generations Pray Together

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by Jim McCarthy

It is beautiful when younger and older people come together for prayer. Mosaic Conference-Related Ministry (CRM) Indian Creek Foundation’s (Souderton, PA) December Prayer Brunch brought together more than 50 pastors, staff, residents, and friends for a morning of worship, storytelling, and purposeful prayer. Held on December 5 at CRM Living Branches Souderton Mennonite Homes, leaders from both organizations, Ed Brubaker, CEO of Living Branches, and Dr. Tim Barksdale, the new CEO of Indian Creek Foundation, joined the group, offering encouragement and gratitude for the prayerful support. 

The brunch reflected the diversity and creativity of the community. Attendees were treated to poetry and rap performed by Indian Creek employees, drumming and vocals by Makinto of CRM Amahoro International (Bombo, Uganda), and thoughtful reflections from historian John L. Ruth on faith, science, and life. A shared meal and time of conversation created space for meaningful connections across generations and roles. 

Young and old leaders gather for prayer for Indian Creek Foundation.

These monthly Prayer Brunches are part of a renewed emphasis on communal prayer at Indian Creek Foundation, an emphasis that reaches back to the organization’s earliest days. Founded more than 50 years ago out of local Mennonite congregations, Indian Creek was built on the conviction that spiritual care mattered as much as housing, vocation, and daily support. Helping individuals with intellectual disabilities find belonging and community was central to the mission from the beginning. 

That foundation continues to shape Indian Creek’s values today. Mennonite principles of compassion, mutual respect, and a Philosophy of Care grounded in relationships remain central to the organization’s work. Indian Creek relies on area churches and people of faith for volunteer involvement, financial support, and especially prayer. 

In September, I sensed it was time to intentionally elevate that prayer support. Retired Executive Director Joe Landis (Salford Mennonite [Harleysville, PA]) helped launch a new series of monthly Prayer Brunches designed to bring together pastors, Indian Creek staff and residents, and community members in a welcoming, church-based setting. 

From left, Makinto, John L. Ruth, and Joe Landis at the Dec. 5. prayer gathering.

The first brunch, held in September at Salford Mennonite, was a small gathering but laid the groundwork for what was to come. In October, the group grew and took on new depth as staff members and guests were invited to share their stories. 

Among them was Carol Menser, who has received support from Indian Creek in various ways since its incorporation in 1975. Menser attended the brunch with friends and shared her story of perseverance and growth, a testimony to what is possible when individuals receive consistent, compassionate support. October’s gathering also introduced Dr. Tim Barksdale to local pastors, creating space for informal connection and relationship-building. 

By November, attendance had grown to around 50 people, including additional staff members and Indian Creek residents. The atmosphere was one of encouragement and gratitude, as participants prayed together and put faces to names. 

“The Prayer Brunch was amazing,” shared Susan Guida, Director of Nursing at Indian Creek. “It was nice to socially engage with everyone in such a meaningful and purposeful way.” 

While faith-based activities have always been part of Indian Creek’s programming, their scale and visibility have shifted over the years. The monthly Prayer Brunches represent a new expression of a long-held tradition that keeps Indian Creek present in the prayers of local congregations while also building new relationships.  

“I sincerely thank Dr. Jim McCarty and Joe Landis, Founder of Indian Creek Foundation and Peaceful Living, for their vision and leadership in organizing this unifying and powerful Prayer Breakfast,” shared Tim Barksdale, CEO of Indian Creek Foundation. “Their commitment to creating deeply meaningful opportunities for individuals supported by Indian Creek Foundation to not only attend local churches, but to stand as ambassadors, offer prayers for this community, and voice their own needs. This ministry reflects the power of inclusion and mutual faith, and it strengthens the entire community.” 

Each gathering includes a devotional offered by a local pastor, followed by focused prayer. The vision for these gatherings is that individuals from Indian Creek will attend as ambassadors, representing their own needs for prayer and their concerns. We are looking for local church support and hosts as we seek God’s direction and purpose for our work. 

Indian Creek Foundation invites pastors, congregations, and community members to join this ongoing rhythm of prayer. The next Prayer Brunch will be held Friday, January 9, 2026, from 9:30–11 a.m. at Souderton Mennonite Homes (207 W. Summit Street, Souderton, PA). Margaret Zook, Director of Collaborative Ministries for Mosaic Mennonite Conference, will be the guest speaker. Please RSVP by January 5. To attend, host a future brunch, or learn more about ministry opportunities, contact Jim McCarty at jmccarty@indcreek.org.  

Jim McCarthy

Dr. Jim McCarty serves as Coordinator of Faith Services for Indian Creek Foundation. He is an ordained elder and graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary.

Mosaic values two-way communication and encourages our constituents to respond with feedback, questions, or encouragement. To share your thoughts or send a message to the author(s), contact us at communication@mosaicmennonites.org.   

Anabaptism at 501: Rooted, resilient, ready for what’s next

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by Josh Meyer

Editor’s Note: Originally published on Dec. 22, 2025, in Anabaptist World and reprinted with permission.  

We’ve celebrated 500 years. That’s no small thing. But anniversaries are never just about what’s behind us. They’re also about what’s ahead. 

Anabaptism at 501 and beyond must be more than a historic label. It must be a living, breathing way of following Jesus. 

So, what do I think the future holds for our tradition? What do I hope it holds? 

I see both danger and promise. I’ll name three tensions I believe the church must navigate with wisdom and courage, plus three hopes I pray will take deeper root. 

Tension No. 1: Nostalgia vs. imagination

There is a temptation in anniversary years to romanticize the past. We tell the stories of Michael Sattler and the Schleitheim Confession, and rightly so. But we sometimes forget that those stories were forged in risk, innovation and improvisation. 

Anabaptists didn’t start out with a clear road map. They started with conviction, community and costly trust in Jesus. We honor them not by copying their methods but by joining their spirit, rooted and responsive, unafraid to follow Jesus into new terrain. 

In a rapidly changing world, nostalgia will not sustain us. Imagination will. What will church look like when it’s no longer centered around buildings, bulletins or Sunday mornings? What will discipleship look like in a digital, disembodied age? 

The Anabaptism that flourishes in the next 500 years will not depend on how well we preserve our traditions but on how faithfully we follow Jesus, even when it means letting go of the ways we’ve always done things. 

Tension No. 2: Isolation vs. interdependence 

Historically, we’ve drawn boundaries to preserve faithfulness. And there’s wisdom in that. But in a global church increasingly connected and postdenominational, we risk becoming siloed, even self-righteous, if we define ourselves only by what we are not. 

Our tradition has deep gifts — peace witness, mutual aid, community discernment, nonconformity, simplicity — but they are meant to bless the broader body of Christ, not stay locked in our theological cupboards. 

I believe the future of Anabaptism will be ecumenical and intercultural, or it will shrink into irrelevance. I’m seeing this already in younger leaders who are less concerned about denominational lines and more focused on lived discipleship. They want to learn from a Benedictine monk and a Mennonite farmer. They want to plant churches that look like the Kingdom, not like 1980s White rural America. 

That means partnerships, mutual learning and a posture of humility. It also means cross-cultural leadership, translation of our core convictions into new languages and trust that the Spirit is not only behind us but ahead of us. 

Tension No. 3: Burnout vs. hope 

I’ve seen it in my peers — pastors weary from polarization, exhausted from culture wars, unsure how to lead congregations that span five generations and 10 worldviews. Some are quitting; others are staying, but struggling. 

The future of Anabaptism cannot rest on hero pastors or perfect programs. It must be carried by a community of hope, one where leadership is shared, where vulnerability is honored and where the Spirit breathes new life. 

This is a time for reimagining how we care for leaders and communities. It’s time to embrace spiritual formation not as an optional add-on but as the heart of our life together: sabbath rhythms and shared meals, spaces to grieve and to question, opportunities to learn and to practice our faith, invitations to play and to pray together. These are not distractions from the mission. They are the mission. 

A burned-out church will not bear good news. But a hopeful church — even a small one — can. 

Hope No. 1: A church that looks like the neighborhood 

My prayer is that Anabaptist congregations would look more and more like the communities they’re rooted in. Not just demographically, but in language, practice and relational depth. 

That will mean letting go of uniformity. It will mean embracing bilingual worship, lay-led expressions of church and a willingness to be uncomfortable. It will mean investing in leaders who weren’t formed in our systems. It may mean giving up control. 

But it will also mean that our churches feel less like enclaves and more like households of hospitality — sacred spaces where immigrants, refugees, seekers and skeptics find belonging and where Jesus is encountered in shared life, not just shared doctrine. 

Hope No. 2: An economy of enough 

We need a renewal of economic imagination. In a world addicted to accumulation and defined by scarcity, the early Anabaptists embodied a radical form of mutual aid. 

I see glimpses of this today: churches paying off medical debt, co-housing experiments, alternative retirement models, congregational sharing funds and people using donor-advised funds for joyful, intentional generosity. 

What if we became known not just for rejecting violence but for rejecting greed? What if we lived “enoughness” in such compelling ways that our neighbors began asking questions? 

We cannot preach peace while bowing to capitalism. We cannot talk about community while ignoring inequality. Anabaptism must remain a spiritual movement and embrace its potential as an economic movement as well — rooted in justice, generosity and joyful resistance. 

Hope No. 3: A church awake to the presence of Christ 

Finally, I hope we stay awake. Awake to the presence of the Risen Christ among us: in scripture, in creation, in the breaking of bread and the breaking of bodies. 

I hope we keep listening for the Spirit: in silence, in song, in shared discernment.  

I hope we recover a sacramental imagination: for communion and baptism, yes, but also for compost bins and conflict transformation, for parenting and protest, for financial planning and footwashing. 

Anabaptism at its best has always been about lived faith and embodied discipleship. Not just right belief, but right practice. Not just Sunday worship, but Monday courage. 

That is what the world needs now. And that, I believe, is what Christ is calling us toward: a church rooted in love, resilient in hope and ready for whatever comes next. 

Josh Meyer

Joshua Meyer is a Leadership Minister with Mosaic Mennonite Conference. He also serves as a Financial Consultant with Everence and as an adjunct professor at Eastern University.

Mosaic values two-way communication and encourages our constituents to respond with feedback, questions, or encouragement. To contact Josh Meyer, please email jmeyer@mosaicmennonites.org.

The Cost of Awareness

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by Charlene Smalls

The certainty of children being safe at school has been taken away. Racism has our souls weighed down in either struggle or pride. 

As a pastor, I am tasked with being a witness to both faith and the world. To lead effectively, I must stay informed. 

Last night, as I put in the daily effort to stay informed, what do I witness? The shadow of a school shooting. The horror of a recent attack on the Jewish community. The persistent, crushing racism like nothing I’ve encountered in my 65 years. 

Watching the news last night, the sheer weight of it all was too heavy. I cried out to God, asking the question that is a primal scream of the soul: Why must our differences—color, culture, creed—fuel this profound hatred? 

This is a cry from a weary heart, not a call for blame. May our collective awareness of this suffering stir us, at last, to a compassion as boundless as the love we preach. Let us pray: 

O God of boundless love and endless compassion, 

We lift up the aching weight of tonight. We pray for the victims of senseless violence, for students, for families, and for the Jewish community who bear the relentless pain of hate. 

Grant us the courage to confront the deep roots of racism and prejudice—the roots we see thriving in the news, and the roots we encounter even in the most sacred of spaces. 

Sustain the weary hearts that carry multiplied burdens. Strengthen our resolve to move beyond mere awareness into transformative action. May we, your people, reflect a compassion stronger than any hatred, and a unity that overcomes every division. 

In the spirit of hope, Jesus, we pray. Amen. 

Reposted with permission from Facebook on December 15, 2025.  

Charlene Smalls

Charlene Smalls is co-pastor of Ripple in Allentown, PA.

Mosaic values two-way communication and encourages our constituents to respond with feedback, questions, or encouragement. To share your thoughts or send a message to the author(s), contact us at communication@mosaicmennonites.org.   

Sitting with ICE Detainees: Proclaiming that God Knows Their Suffering

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by Mark D. Baker

I sat in a circle of inmates in the county jail. That is not unusual. I have led a jail Bible study weekly for over fifteen years. Recently, however, I started doing a second study in Spanish. It is in the pod of federal prisoners in the Cumberland County Jail (Maine). Most of the men gathered around me were ICE detainees. I could have repeated the study I had just done in another pod, but these men’s situations and concerns were so different. I had prayed that morning for an idea that would connect with and comfort them. 

We began reading Hebrews 4:14-16. After making a comment that priests in the Old Testament served as the people’s representatives before God, I underscored that in Jesus, the Son of God, we have a priest who as a human has suffered as we have. I said, “Let’s list some ways Jesus suffered.”  

Aware that some of the men sitting beside me had fled violence in Venezuela and Central America, I began with the observation that as a boy Jesus’s family had lived as refugees in another country—fleeing the threat of violence. Different men stated other things Jesus suffered: hunger, betrayal, false charges, seeing others suffer. Without getting into details of why I think “construction worker” is a better translation of “tektōn” than “carpenter,” I simply stated that Jesus was a construction worker and I asked them what difficult working situations he may have suffered. I listed a few other things he suffered: shame of being from a town with a poor reputation, living under an oppressive political power, and persecution by a judgmental religious system. 

I then told them of my experience seeing the remains of Caiaphas the High Priest’s house in Jerusalem—including walking through the basement that had served as a jail. I showed them a picture I took outside Caiaphas’ house, and said, “While we stood beside this old pathway, our guide said, ‘These steps are from the first century. This is the path from the Kidron Valley.’ I immediately thought, ‘Jesus walked on these stones.’ Then, standing there looking down the steps I imagined guards leading Jesus up this lane after his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.” I looked at the men and said, “God in the flesh, as a human, has, like you, been seized by guards, taken to jail, stood before a judge.” God knows what you have experienced. 

Caption: Caiaphas steps. Photo by Mark Baker.

Spanish has two different words for “know.” Saber is to know information. Conocer is to know through experience. I saber about China, but I conocer Honduras—I lived there. Looking in their eyes I said, God does not just sabe about your suffering, Dios conoce what you have experienced. 

I invited them to name ways they were suffering—just stating a word or saying more if they desired. Then, as we entered into a time of prayer, I suggested they imagine Jesus at God the Father’s right hand—and pray with the full confidence that God conoce their situation. After a time of silent prayer, I prayed for them, said amen and proclaimed to them: “God is with you and God conoce what you are experiencing.” 

Each week now I leave in sadness. From what I read in the news I can offer these men little hope that they will be released. In fact I fear they will face worse conditions at an ICE detention facility before they are deported. Yet, as I did this past week, I proclaim to them from Romans 8 what I do know is true for them and us—nothing can separate us from the love of God. 

Mark D. Baker

Mark Baker is Professor Emeritus of Mission and Theology, Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary (formerly Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary). He now lives in Portland, Maine. He previously was a missionary in Honduras for ten years. He has written a number of books in English and Spanish, including, Centered-Set Church: Discipleship and Community Without Judgmentalism and Ministering in Honor-Shame Cultures: Biblical Foundations and Practical Essentials.

Mosaic values two-way communication and encourages our constituents to respond with feedback, questions, or encouragement. To share your thoughts or send a message to the author(s), contact us at communication@mosaicmennonites.org.   

Reflections on Hospitality Ministry in Calais, France

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Editor’s Note: Mennonite Mission Network has issued an urgent call for winter volunteers at the St. Maria Skobtsova House in Calais, France. Learn more about this hospitality ministry from Mosaic Partner in Ministry Peaceful Borders, and from a former volunteer who is part of a Mosaic congregation. 

Building Community in a Calais, France Suburb 

By Simon Jones 

Surrounded by a high wall and secure gate is a liminal place between hardship and home that offers the hope of respite and refuge. Up to fourteen women and children at any one time live there. 

The well-appointed house is filled with the carefree laughter of preschoolers, its kitchen alive with the smells of cooking, as women, starved of the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families, now cook and gossip and share food with everyone in the house. 

This is La Maison St. Maria Skobtsova (MSH), opened a decade ago to provide a place of safety and rest for displaced people from across North Africa and the Middle East. Over that time, it has been home to Eritrean men, volunteers working across the city, and now to women and their children. It has occupied two sites, moving to this present one in the summer of 2025. 

For the last three years, the house has been overseen by Mennonite Mission Network workers, Joseph and Rachel Givens, who moved to Calais with their two boys in 2022. They work with a group of volunteers overseen by a management committee, to ensure the smooth running of the house and to accompany the guests throughout their stay. 

Gathered around the kitchen table. Photo by Joyce Hunsberger.

Volunteers come from across the world, though mainly Europe; they serve for a few weeks to three months or more. Some come only once, but others come for a term, return home and come back once they have refreshed their bodies and bank balances. Volunteers share the running of the house and the serving of the guests. The work is joyous and demanding–from cleaning bathrooms to accompanying guests to medical appointments, playing with children, shopping for supplies, and most importantly, joining the daily prayers of the house community. MSH exists to be a prayerful presence among the displaced in Calais. 

Life in the house is rich and complex. One of the volunteers, a retired French nun, says, everyone in the house is always on the point of leaving. Leaving is a constant that everyone lives with. She adds that “the community is a dynamic place, full of life, hope and energy, full of young people keen to make something of their lives.” These people make the community what it is. 

The house is full of difference—different countries and continents, different life experiences, different religious understandings and denominations. It works because Givens and the volunteers help these different people to get along, form community, and support one another. 

You can get more information about the house from me at simon@peacefulborders.org.

A Month of Hospitality in Calais 

by Joyce Hunsberger

The Mennonite Mission Network SOOP assignment in Calais, France, offers the chance to be a caring presence in the Maria Skobtsova House. Named for a Russian Orthodox saint who cared for refugees, migrants, the unhoused, and Jews in Paris during the second world war, the house is a refuge for women and children who have fled their home countries and hope to cross the English Channel to seek asylum in England. Smugglers charge high fees for dangerous crossings in overcrowded inflatable boats; drownings occur each month. One guest I met had already tried to cross six times. 

I spent a month living with 13 guests from Iraq, Iran, Eritrea, Libya, and Sudan. Volunteers came from across Europe, and together with guests we shared daily chores. Since my stay in 2024, the community has moved to a beautifully renovated building with more space, including a large new kitchen. The days follow a gentle rhythm of Taizé songs and prayers, plus occasional outings to the beach, a café, or the canal. Arabic was the most common language in the house, though I enjoyed speaking French in town and even used some German with an Eritrean family who had lived their for a time. Google Translate helped us bridge the rest. 

The author at work in the kitchen. Photo courtesy of Joyce Hunsberger.

The main “qualification” for being here is simply to treat residents as siblings, children of the same Father. It is not hard to do! Guests are grateful for a safe home. I offered English lessons, and they participated eagerly. Each evening the whole household shared dinner; Berbere (a favorite Eritrean spice) and fresh injera (a spongy sourdough bread) filled the kitchen daily. Donations of French bread were always on hand, along with Cheerios for breakfast. 

Other organizations support refugees in Calais, and the house collaborates closely with them. The men live in a camp outside town, which authorities dismantle every 48 hours, though the men return the next day. One day we chopped wood for them to use for cooking and warmth. 

Though the experience was challenging, volunteers were well supported. Whatever gifts you bring are enough. I came home changed, and from Pennsylvania I still whisper prayers for the house in Calais, a place filled with courage, welcome, and hope. 

Simon Jones

Simon Jones is a writer, activist, theologian, and Baptist minister. He co-founded Peaceful Borders in 2016 to support community formation in the Calais Jungle. He also co-founded the safe house in Calais in 2016. He is the author of 10 books on New Testament themes and ecclesiology.

Joyce Hunsberger

Raised in New England, Joyce Hunsberger moved to PA to teach French. Her two daughters were raised at Perkasie (PA) Mennonite, where she continues to be an active member. She has been happily living at Souderton Mennonite Homes for the past seven years.

Mosaic values two-way communication and encourages our constituents to respond with feedback, questions, or encouragement. To share your thoughts or send a message to the author(s), contact us at communication@mosaicmennonites.org.   

We Won’t Stop till Homelessness Drops

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by Joe Paparone

Editor’s note: Originally published on November 24, 2025, in Anabaptist World, and reprinted with permission.    

I was helping at a drive-through food distribution. Before the line started, the Catholic Sister who coordinated things called all the volunteers together to thank them and pray. As she spoke encouragement, I thought, “It is good that we’re doing this. It’s infuriating that we have to.” 

I find this contradiction in every charity and service space, whether it’s the community breakfast where our Homeless Union organizes or in line with people signing up for Thanksgiving meal baskets: “I’m so glad you’re here. Isn’t it outrageous that we have to do this?” 

In the United States, we live in the wealthiest nation to ever exist, yet one of the most unequal societies on the planet. The people who maintain and benefit from these wealth disparities go to great lengths to obscure the underlying causes. 

The winter holiday season in particular is a space of contradiction. On the one hand, we are inundated with appeals for charity and care for those who suffer under this economic system. At the same time, the engine of commerce shifts into overdrive as firms seek to grow their profits by the end of the year and paint a positive financial picture for their shareholders. 

Into this confusing narrative, the National Union of the Homeless seeks to bring clarity through a “Winter Offensive.” Between Thanksgiving and Martin Luther King Day, Homeless Union chapters challenge these distorted narratives and assumptions through public action and political education. 

We seek to unveil the truth and level a moral indictment: It is outrageous that anyone should sleep on the street when there is more vacant housing than unhoused people. Any system that creates and maintains such levels of inequality must be abolished. 

When in the Homeless Unions we say “Power, Not Pity” and “Homeless, Not Helpless,” we provide a counternarrative: The poor are not objects to be manipulated but subjects of history and agents of change. 

We challenge a civic religiosity that would worship a homeless man on Sunday but step over one on Monday. When we interrogate the Gospel stories, we see Jesus, Mary and Joseph as refugees fleeing persecution, who could not afford adequate housing. 

Mary’s Magnificat, far from being merely a song of praise and worship, is a revolutionary call for a fundamental transformation of society, sorely needed now as much as in Mary’s day. Inspired by this, the leadership and collective action of the poor dispels surface narratives, and gives life and direction to a movement for dramatic social change. 

The Winter Offensive provides clarity, even in the name. We call it an offensive because in our economy, ruled as it is by the ultrawealthy, poor and working-class people are continually on the defensive. The ruling class controls not only the economic and political terrain but the mental terrain as well. Amid millions of poor people scrambling to survive, the misleading narratives promoted during this season represent an attack. Despite the good intentions of many who seek to be caring and compassionate toward their neighbors, the charitable acts promoted in this season, when divorced from action against the root causes of poverty, are a diversion. They are a safety valve for the system, relieving some of the economic pressure the system creates while easing mental pressure by enabling people to feel like they’ve done something. 

But this time of year is also when ruling-class narratives are most vulnerable. As more and more people are thrust into the ranks of the poor, the season’s saccharine-sweet, Hallmark-movie narratives will sour and turn to ashes in our mouths. 

When we are desperate for hope in confusing and dangerous times, we must follow the leadership of the organized poor, those who have the least to lose from ending the present system and the most to gain from its transformation. 

Last year, the first public action of the Albany Homeless Union was on Dec. 21, Homeless Memorial Day. On the longest night of the year, in biting wind and cold, at the front steps of the New York State Capitol Building, we built a memorial to people who’ve died due to poverty. Our leaders, most of whom had never spoken publicly before, shared their stories, struggles, poetry and demands that their rights to housing and healthcare be upheld. We committed to the struggle to end this unjust system. 

One leader brought a new chant: “We won’t stop till homelessness drops.” 

Joe Paparone

Joe Paparone is an organizer with the Nonviolent Medicaid Army, National Union of the Homeless, and the New York State Poor People’s Campaign. He is a credentialed leader in Mosaic Mennonite Conference and a member of Bethany Mennonite (Bridgewater, VT).

Mosaic values two-way communication and encourages our constituents to respond with feedback, questions, or encouragement. To share your thoughts or send a message to the author(s), contact us at communication@mosaicmennonites.org.   

Anabaptism at 500: Remembering the Story, Renewing the Call

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by Noel Santiago

On Sunday afternoon, September 14, 2025, the sanctuary of Towamencin (PA) Mennonite filled with voices, stories, and song as we gathered to mark an extraordinary milestone: 500 years since the baptism that launched the Anabaptist movement. 

The service was simple yet rich, woven together with the themes of: Remember, Rejoice, Reckon/Reconcile, and Recommit. It was a journey that carried us across history, through joy and lament, and into fresh hope for the future. 

After a warm welcome from Charlie Ness, pastor of Towamencin Mennonite, and the first notes of congregational singing led by Michael Bishop, associate pastor of Blooming Glen Mennonite (PA), we began by looking back.  

Joel Horst Nofziger, Executive Director of Conference-Related Ministry Mennonite Historians of Eastern Pennsylvania (MHEP of Harleysville, PA) helped us remember the religious landscape of the early 1500s. He reviewed the heavy hand of church and empire, the stirrings of reform, and the courageous decision of a small band of believers on January 21, 1525, to be baptized upon confession of faith. Their act of trust and defiance set in motion a movement that would spread like wildfire, often at great cost. 

From there, Pastor Milson Ndlovu of Silverdale Brethren in Christ Church invited us to rejoice in what God has done through those seeds of faith. He spoke of how the Anabaptist vision of adult baptism and discipleship traveled across Europe and, in time, across continents, shaping communities of believers worldwide. Hearing the scope of that growth reminded us that the story of 1525 was not the end but only the beginning of God’s work through ordinary people who longed to follow Jesus. 

But we did not only celebrate. Together, we also reckoned with the shadows of our past. Ness named moments when our spiritual ancestors failed to embody the fullness of the gospel they proclaimed, times when brokenness, division, and violence contradicted the vision of peace. Yet even here, hope rose. We heard stories of recent acts of reconciliation, where Anabaptists, Catholics, Lutherans, and Reformed Christians have sought healing and forgiveness. It was a tender reminder that God continues to make all things new. 

Photo provided by Noel Santiago.

Finally, I led us in a time to recommit. With prayers of surrender, we invited the Spirit to breathe afresh, asking for courage and renewal in our own day. Just as water was first poured out on those believers five centuries ago, so we too are invited to receive afresh God’s outpouring, to live as faithful witnesses of Jesus, here and now, with humility and boldness. 

Throughout the service, songs lifted our voices and hearts. They became more than music; they became prayers of remembrance, joy, confession, and hope. The afternoon concluded with Mennonite historian and pastor John Ruth (Salford [PA] Mennonite) offering a final word of remembrance, encouragement, and blessing, sending us out with gratitude, courage, and renewed vision. 

Though Towamencin left Mosaic Conference in 2023, they continue to partner with the MHEP. Where there is a shared mission and purpose, we are glad to collaborate and walk together in ministry.  

The gathering was more than a commemoration of history. It was a living testimony of God’s faithfulness across the centuries, and an invitation to continue walking the path of discipleship together. As we left Towamencin that day, many carried with them both a sense of awe at the story behind us and deep hope for the story still unfolding. 

Noel Santiago

Noel Santiago is the Leadership Minister for Missional Transformation for Mosaic Conference.

Mosaic values two-way communication and encourages our constituents to respond with feedback, questions, or encouragement. To contact Noel Santiago, please email nsantiago@mosaicmennonites.org.