Articles

Protecting God’s Gifts: Congregations Prepare for New Child Protection Laws

June 4, 2015 by Conference Office

Barbie Fischer

As Pennsylvania rolls out new Child Protection laws, Franconia Mennonite Conference is working to support congregations and leaders in the updating of their child protection/safety policies. In this effort, Franconia and Eastern District hosted a Child Protection Seminar held at Towamencin Mennonite Church on May 13^th and May 20^th. The seminar enabled pastors, associate pastors, youth leaders, along with children and family ministry directors to learn about the new Pennsylvania Child Protection laws that are now in place to help preserve the family.

“We need to set high standards as communities of faith for creating safe spaces for our children to grow in the image of God. The state is setting certain standards for us. This is an opportunity to be a witness in our communities for the value we place on our children and youth,” said John Stoltzfus, conference youth minister.

The seminar was presented by Mandy Mundy, from the Network of Victim Assistance (NOVA) in Bucks County. She reviewed briefly how the new child protection laws came to be, and gave an overview of what the laws say. She explained what and who a mandated reporter is. Noting that the new laws expand who is required to be a mandated reporter. For the Conferences and congregations this includes all pastors, credentialed leaders, and paid and unpaid staff who are responsible for children during a scheduled church activity or function. This would include nursery/childcare volunteers, and youth sponsors for all church related activities/events.

Mundy also explained that “a mandated report is required to report suspected child abuse.” She briefly explained what is meant by “suspected” and the information a mandated reporter would need to make a report. Participants were reminded that a report does not mean a child will be removed from their home. Mundy also reminded participants that child abuse is not just physical or sexual but also mental and emotional. Some of the definitions of child abuse have also changed with the new laws and those changes were noted in the presentation.

Following that, Mundy reviewed the basic process for reporting suspected child abuse. She also discussed with the participants who under the new laws would be required to have background checks (referred to as clearances).

At the end of the seminar participants were given an opportunity to share what is already in place at their churches and what changes they have been making to address the new laws. Many ideas were exchanged and discussed.

Stoltzfus stated, “Attending this seminar made it clear to me that while many of our churches already have good child safety policies in place, we also have much work to do in updating our policies to meet new state requirements and in better aligning our vision of who we are called to be as a people of God with our practices of creating safe spaces for our children.”

Franconia Conference continues to work to aid congregations in this transition with the new laws and will be posting a page on the website dedicated to Child Protection. On this page the Conference plans to post the updated Conference Child Protection Guidelines and looks forward to being able to provide sample forms for congregations. If your congregation is willing to share your policy or forms for others to use as an example please contact Barbie Fischer at BFischer@FranconiaConference.org. Stay tuned to Intersectings for the announcement of when the new Child Protection Page is up and running.

To download the slides presented by Mundy at the Seminar click here.

Conferences Meet with MC USA Executive Director

June 4, 2015 by Conference Office

Colin Ingram

Ervin Stutzman, executive director of Mennonite Church USA, met with Franconia and Eastern District Conference members on May 28 at Zion Mennonite Church. The meeting aimed to educate attendees on the MC USA structure and what is happening in the denomination, along with preparing delegates for the upcoming Convention.

“We are gathered this evening to know what it means to be delegates at Kansas City this summer,” Stutzman said.

About one-fifth of the 68 attendees to the meeting were first time delegates. Stutzman reminded delegates their role includes prayer, open discussion, and discernment regarding resolutions. A delegate job description can be found on the MC USA website.

One of the responsibilities of the delegates at the 2015 Convention, Stutzman pointed out, will be discerning what a “majority” is when approving resolutions. Previously, this has been 51 percent of delegates. MC USA is suggesting using a two-thirds majority approach. Delegates will be given time to discern what approach they would like to use prior to voting on the resolutions at Convention.

Throughout the evening, Stutzman highlighted parts of Mennonite Church USA: An Overview, the Purposeful Plan, the updated 2013 Membership Guidelines, and the five Resolutions.

Mike Derstine of Plains Mennonite Church said, “The Purposeful Plan was helpful to see exactly what they’re doing and to hear [Stutzman’s] desire to help the church focus on our common strengths and common vision.”

The Purposeful Plan contains the “seven priorities” of the MC USA Executive Board. Page 20 starts a list of the priorities and displays specific goals intended to fulfill them.

Stutzman reviewed the five Resolutions last. The first three resolutions were addressed individually: Israel-Palestine Resolution, Faithful Witness Amid Endless War Resolution, and the Churchwide Statement on Sexual Abuse. The other two resolutions relate to one another and therefore were talked about together. Those resolutions being the Resolution on the Status of the Membership Guidelines, and Resolution on Forbearance in the Midst of Difference.

The Membership Guidelines were reviewed before assessing the resolution regarding them. Number 3, 4, and 5 of Part I of the Guidelines were highlighted to show the relationships of authority between congregations, conferences, and MC USA. Stutzman made note that this is important to remember when considering the resolutions on the guidelines and the resolution regarding forbearance.

Stutzman also noted that Part III of the Membership Guidelines was added in 2001 and reviewed why and how it was added. He spoke of this section of the Guidelines being reviewed with the resolution as there is continued tension around the content of Part III.

Memorial Day & Pentecost

May 28, 2015 by Conference Office

by Samantha E. Lioi

Every three years or so, Pentecost Sunday falls on Memorial Day weekend in the U.S. I think it’s an irony worth exploring each time, but this year I had nothing to say. Maybe I didn’t have words for the gaping grief that attends every encounter I have with combat veterans who are willing to trust a room of well-meaning and mostly clueless civilians with a piece of their experiences. No words for my anger at the logic that we have to wreck human lives—our children’s and other people’s children’s—to be free. I want to believe a new miracle of Pentecost proportions is always just around the bend, ready to answer the latest of creation’s groanings. Yet, the more I learn of the vast caverns of trauma carried in the chest and brain of every veteran…well, the more I know we need transforming power from on high. And I believe it’s none other than the Spirit of Christ who is opening Mennonites to confessional friendships and partnership with veterans.

The prayer below is adapted from one I wrote and prayed as a gathering in worship on Pentecost 2012, the last time it coincided with Memorial Day. May we face the soul wounds of people we don’t understand, and so find the Holy Breath speaking new life in all of us, a wideness of mercy that cannot be contained.

God of wind and fire,
You for whom no language is foreign—
Creator of every people—Creator of friendship among enemies—
we are here to give you praise.
Thank you for keeping us breathing, tasting, touching, seeing;
thank you for your good creation,
for the soil which gives us food,
for the people who help us feel safe and loved.
We have come with hope,
and also with doubt that anything will be different.
On this day when you sent wind and fire,
we want to welcome you, however you might come near, but
in our waiting we can find it hard to expect very much. Surprise us.
Send your Spirit anyway,
through our locked doors. We are here –
and you are God, and we are not.
And also, on this day families are gathered with food, remembering
soldiers who were sent into desert wind,
who saw and made and felt another kind of fire.
Breathe again new life in mothers and fathers and children and spouses,
and send your healing Spirit among the wounded of mind and body and spirit in Iraq,
in Afghanistan, in the United States, in Syria, in Pakistan—and send us
to participate in healing wounds of war—
send us to sit in silence, open to hear
the memories that return and return.
Keep bringing your new creation:
trust where there was fear, sharing where there was taking…
and let your fire,
which brought new words to the lips of the waiting disciples,
burn in us and open our ears
to practice listening to strangers, still curious about what you might do.
Holy One, we know we are not at the center of things.
If it were not for your Spirit, we would dry up like cracked earth.
Send too the renewing rain of your abundant love for every kind of person,
every withering plant and trembling creature.
We ask this because of Jesus,
with hope
and doubt
and gratitude that you stick with us. Amen.

Samantha Lioi is the interim pastor at Taftsville Chapel in Taftsville, VT.

Conference Welcomes Summer Intern

May 28, 2015 by Conference Office

This week the Conference welcomed Colin Ingram who will be serving as a communication intern with Franconia Conference and Finland Mennonite Church, where he attends. As a Liberty University student, he is completing a degree in Communication Studies: Advertising/Public Relations. During his internship, Colin will be responsible for writing articles, covering conference events, managing social media, and doing some work on the Conference website.

Previously, he has served two summer pastoral internships at Finland and one at Infinity Mennonite Church in Harlem, New York (Lancaster Conference). From his experiences he has found an interest in preaching, discipling, and visitation. In his time at Liberty he co-hosted a weekly radio show called The Late Night Request for 90.9 FM The Light. Hosting the show required writing and performing scripts for on-air content. Some public relations principles he has gravitated towards are media writing, graphic design basics, and Thought Leadership. Regarding the Mennonite world, Colin has served on service trips with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) to New Orleans and Gary, Indiana. At Liberty University he went on two Ministry Exposure Trips to Baltimore and Boston. On the Boston trip Colin observed church planting, taught a Brazilian Church youth group, and street evangelized at Harvard University and in Boston suburbs. In Baltimore he observed ministry reaching women in prostitution and/or sex trafficking. In his free time Colin enjoys exploring new towns and coffee shops.

Quakertown Christian School to Start a High School

May 27, 2015 by Conference Office

Quakertown Christian School (QCS), a Franconia Conference Related Ministry, is starting a High School! The Pennsylvania Department of Education has accepted and approved a request to add a Secondary Educational Program. This will allow QCS to graduate its first class of high school seniors in the spring of 2016.

The High School will adopt a blended approach, embracing the emergence of Cyber education in concert with the great aspects associated with traditional learning. This pioneering endeavor, will add to the rich history of Quakertown Christian School. Dr. Mark Slider, the Executive Director, is an expert in the realm of cyber learning with a decade of experience as a teacher, administrator and researcher in this innovative sector of education. Slider states, “We can no longer afford to educate our students the way we always have. The future of education embraces virtual learning opportunities and new ways of communication and collaboration in order to make an impact upon our increasingly global society. Our students will compete for jobs with others from across the world, and it is our responsibility to prepare our students for their success!”

For more information, please go to www.quakertownchristian.org and click on the link for the High School.

Learning to Love our Neighbors: Why I’m for Forbearance

May 20, 2015 by Conference Office

by Joseph Hackman

On a Sunday several weeks ago, my family and I had several neighbors over to a “goodbye party” for our next door neighbor John, who had decided to move to an apartment closer to his son’s family after suffering the sudden loss of his wife in October. As we gathered together, we ate hoagies and Tandy cakes, and had pleasant conversation about what was happening in our neighborhood and in our lives. At 4 p.m., we awkwardly hurried the neighbors out the door to make room for our small group from church. For a few minutes, our neighbors and our small group shared the same space, one group cleaning up and moving out and the other group waiting for a space to move in and sit.

What struck me about these two gatherings is how similar the conversations were in the two groups. There were neighbors suffering from struggles in professional and personal relationships. Church members maxed out by frenetic schedules. Everyone in need of supportive community.

In thinking about supportive communities, a press release I read several weeks ago following the MCUSA’s Executive Board meeting came to mind. Buried at the end were several sentences about the EB counseling staff to include a new overarching priority within The Purposeful Plan that emphasizes a commitment to outreach, evangelism and church revitalization. The EB recognizes that many congregations are struggling with identity and many Mennonites are not comfortable with evangelism, and so the board urged staff to give greater time and energy to these initiatives. Reading about this new priority raised both excitement and anxiety.

I thought back to something I heard Andre Gingerich Stoner, Mennonite Church USA interchurch relations coordinator, say at one of the recent conventions: Mennonites tend to love service, flirt with peace and are allergic to evangelism. I think this description mostly fits my orientation to faith, as well as many in my congregation.

In my neighborhood, people identify as Muslim, Hindu, nominal Catholics, and others claim no faith at all. They know I’m a pastor, and especially with those who have negative perceptions of church, I don’t want them to associate my family or Mennonites with strong armed evangelism. I notice in conversations with these neighbors how sensitive and deliberate I am in talking about my experience of Christian faith. On Sunday, even though the stories my neighbors and small group shared were not all that different, the way in which I shared my own was.

This summer the delegate assembly will discuss a resolution on forbearance, an attempt for the church to remain united in the midst of our disagreements. I confess my spirit is fatigued by the seemingly never ending discussion on LGBTQ inclusion. There are days when I’m not sure I want to be in relationship with people who don’t have the same views as me. Yet, I don’t believe division is our destiny. Forbearance is more than a solution for how we can live together in this difficult season of the church. It can be a signal to our world that we believe the church does not only exist for those who are already a part of it, but for those who are yet to come. It can be a statement that rather than being driven by asking who is most right, we are driven by a vision of creating a community where people of all nations, backgrounds, and beliefs are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It can be a statement that difference and diversity is blessing in Christian community, rather than a curse.

Whether it’s with my neighbors or small group, most people are not looking for community that is consumed by the quest to be right, but rather one that cares deeply about one another, even when it’s difficult. Division is to follow the “course of this world” as Paul puts it in Ephesians 2. Neither my neighbors nor my small group need further polarization and divisiveness in their lives. Our families and communities are divided enough already.

I support forbearance, not because I doubt or want to compromise my own conviction, but because my neighbors are just like you and me. They experience all the joys and hardship that life brings. Just like you and me, they deserve to be invited into the healing power of transformative Christian communities that give people the opportunity to experience faith, hope, and love.

If all across our denomination we would make it a priority of inviting people to be part of our communities of faith, hope, and love, perhaps we too would remember the potential for the uniting love of the church that’s been there all along.

Joseph Hackman is lead pastor at Salford Mennonite Church and lives in Harleysville, PA.

Ministerial Committee Update

May 20, 2015 by Conference Office

by Stephen Kriss

The Ministerial committee of Franconia Mennonite Conference board met on May 6th at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School. The committee approved and recognized the following changes in credentialed minister status.

Penny Naugle from Plains Mennonite Church was licensed toward ordination for her work as a chaplain at Rockhill Mennonite Community. Nathan Good, associate pastor at Swamp Mennonite Church, was licensed toward ordination.

Ministerial Committee Update 5-21-15 web — Angela Moyer was ordained on May 17, 2015.

In addition, the Ministerial committee approved Kris Wint, pastor at Finland congregation, for ordination which will take place at Finland Mennonite Church on June 28th. Josh Meyer, teaching/preaching pastor at Franconia congregation was also approved for ordination and his ordination ceremony will be on June 28th as well. The Committee is pleased to announce that the ordination of Angela Moyer took place this past Sunday, May 17th at Ripple in Allentown.

Other changes to credentialed minister status include, Doris Diener, Franconia congregation, who was received by transfer from Southeast Mennonite Conference has been moved to retired. James Longacre, Bally congregation, was shifted to a retired credential as well.

Gerry Clemmer, former lead pastor at Souderton congregation, John Bender, former interim associate pastor at Franconia congregation, and Mark Derstine, who completed his work as Chaplain at Living Branches, were moved to active without charge.

Steve Kriss is Director of Leadership Cultivation & Congregational Resourcing , as well as a LEADership Minister, in Franconia Mennonite Conference.

Liturgies of Healing and Hope

May 20, 2015 by Conference Office

by Chris Nickels, Pastor at Spring Mount Mennonite Church

For two days (May 13-14, 2015) a group of thirty-one individuals gathered at Salford Mennonite Church to learn about the experience of veterans and how to provide support for veterans and their families. The title of this seminar was “The Journey Home from War,” a branch of the STAR: Strategies for Trauma Awareness & Resilience program from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University. This learning community consisted of veterans, spouses of veterans, representatives from social service and community development agencies, veterans network leaders, and members of congregations from a variety of denominations.

Each person in attendance felt a call to this gathering, and opportunity was given to share about our personal connection with military veterans. As a body, we had combat veterans and war protestors, those suffering post-traumatic stress and those providing care for friends and loved ones who do, pacifists and non-pacifists, clergy and laity. Our differences did not prevent us from discovering that we have so much in common. All of us have been touched by war in some way, and are feeling the need to respond in compassion, care, and support of veterans and their families.

As the seminar concluded we were sent out to embody what we had learned together. Some action steps I noted include:

Raising awareness about the physical and spiritual needs of veterans (and their families).
Developing mutuality in our relationships as we commit to learn from each other.
Being committed to helping returning veterans find “meaningful work…that rewards the soul,” as my friend Glen articulates so well.

Looking back, it feels like a good description of this experience could be a liturgy of healing and hope. Sometimes liturgy is thought of as “the work of the people.” Liturgies consist of work that is intentional and repeated, and so I’m reminded of the important ongoing work that will emerge from this training and these relationships. Liturgy is also a way we are drawn into the restoring, reconciling, healing work of Jesus Christ, who announces hope and good news for all.

In the midst of the work of these two days, my mind kept recalling words from Psalm 34:

“seek peace, and pursue it…
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.”

May we find ways to embody these words, and may God extend this space of healing and hope deeper into our communities and into our hearts.

Articles

Footer