Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Articles

The news is biased

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Steve Krissby Steve Kriss, director of communication
(originally posted on Mennonite World Review, reposted by permission)

I’ll start with a confession: There is no such thing as objective reporting. I know this after working around journalism for 20 years. If you and I were to see the same thing occur, we would likely see it differently. Experiences etched into our brains cause us to interpret the same scene through different lenses.

Often the more information we have, the more complicated the scenes become. Then there are the limitations: deadlines, language barriers, short attention spans of readers (and editors!), lack of space on a page. We are trapped by the inadequacy of communicating human experience through words. Yet, we try.

And then there are the biases, even in the newspaper you are reading. MWR is rooted in the General Conference Mennonite tradition, valuing autonomy and unity. We are biased toward the positive possibilities of Mennonite Church USA and other Anabaptist denominations. We are biased toward relationships within Mennonite World Conference’s big tent. We believe there is something good in us being together.

If you watch Fox News or MSNBC, there are obvious partisan preferences. The funding sources of RT (Russian) news or Al-Jazeera (Qatari) shape reporting and information gathering in quite different ways from U.S.- or U.K.-based sources. This summer’s unrest in Ferguson, Mo., played differently in China (where they are also afraid of insurrection within the nation’s diverse ethnic groups) and Russia (where the incident was viewed as an example of internal American imperialism).

In Ferguson, Gaza, Iraq and Ukraine, we’ve seen how conflict is interpreted in different ways. I’ve written very little on any of these topics, fearing I might be wrong. It’s my privilege to be silent when I don’t have a deadline or the conflict isn’t at my doorstep. I’ve found myself silent, knowing all too well that my biases can get in the way of good judgment.

In the Midwest, the Middle East or Ukraine, it’s easy for me to identify oppressed and oppressor. My biases form quickly. I don’t trust Israeli offenses in Palestine. I am leery of police who shoot the unarmed. As a great-grandson of Eastern European immigrants, I am suspicious of Russian assertions of power and cheer on Ukraine’s move to align with the European Union and NATO. But the more I learn, the more I wonder about my easy-to-come-to conclusions. It’s like the more I know, the less I know.

More and more these days I trust these complex stories to on-the-ground interpreters. I hear the words of friends in Israel/Palestine. I hear their fears from inside Israel’s “Iron Dome” and the West Bank. I listen to the stories of those who witnessed the scenes that unfolded in Ferguson. I struggle to interpret what is happening in Ukraine, Syria and Iraq because of limited access to firsthand sources in English. Online I found an interpreted account of a Yazidi woman who is pleading for intervention to save her people in Iraq. It brought me to tears.

I am glad I am not entrusted to make foreign policy, particularly when I recognize how hard it is even to interpret what is happening in Missouri. Yet it is important to me, as a Christian leader/ writer/follower, to keep listening to those who bear witness to the justice, injustice, violence and hope of their own communities. And to believe that the Spirit is upon us as Jesus-followers to bear good news of freedom and possibility. And to know that I cannot persist in silence.

Stephen Kriss is a teacher, writer, pastor, student and follower of Jesus living in Philadelphia.

Passing the keys

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by Ron Landes, Blooming Glen congregation

Ron Landes
Ron Landes

I knew that it was going to happen. I’ve seen it happen to others many times. I wasn’t really dreading it. But, even though they wouldn’t have to pry them from my “cold, dead hands,” I knew that the trustee set of building keys would have to pass from me to the next, newest member of the group. And so they did, with only the slightest bit of remorse, that of leaving something enjoyable and moving away from something that has been an important part of my life for the last 12 years.

I had grown quite used to having and using that motley collection of some six or seven door-lock openers. There were newer ones and older ones, usual and unusual ones. Differing shapes to fit the various locks found around our building. There was even one that no one was even sure of either use or origin; I carried it anyway. Somehow the keys came to me with a brass Goshen College tag attached to the key ring. I passed that on as well.

Even though these keys have an obvious physical function, that of accessing our church building, they took on a symbolic meaning for me. They represented my responsibility to our congregation in assisting in the task of maintaining our building as a place of comfort and security. I am humbled to see all those who work toward these goals that I believe enhance our worship together.

It has been both a privilege and a blessing to have served with all of the current and past trustees.

The set of keys and many new opportunities await Peter Giesbrecht as he joins the present group of trustees as the next, newest member. We ask God’s blessing on Peter, the ongoing work of caring for our meetinghouse, and on each member of our church family who passes through our unlocked doors each week.

Ron Landes is a member and former trustee of Blooming Glen Mennonite Church. He first shared this story in Glen News, the church’s newsletter. Reposted with permission.

Salford leader to chair MCUSA structure committee

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by Mennonite Church USA staff 

Mennonite Church USA’s Executive Board (EB) met Sept. 25–27 in Kansas City, Missouri, focusing on questions of denominational structure, data from a survey of credentialed leaders, and various other topics in preparation for next summer’s Delegate Assembly in Kansas City.

Mennonite Church USA executive board members at their June 2014 meeting.
Mennonite Church USA executive board members at their June 2014 meeting.  Joy Sutter (back row, second from left) is a member of Salford congregation.

EB members appointed an ad hoc committee to explore possibilities for new denominational structures, and are intending to bring an action to the Delegate Assembly at Kansas City 2015 (June 30–July 5).

Joy Sutter, EB member from Salford congregation, will chair the group. The EB also appointed the following board and Constituency Leaders Council (CLC) members to the committee: Isaac Villegas, EB member and pastor of Chapel Hill (North Carolina) Mennonite Fellowship; Katherine Jameson Pitts, conference minister for Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference, Portland, Oregon; and Keith Weaver, executive conference minister of Lancaster Mennonite Conference. One more committee member is yet to be appointed. The impetus for forming this committee grew out of feedback received at the March 2014 CLC meetings held in North Newton, Kansas.

The committee has begun to prepare questions for exploration at the Oct. 6–8 CLC meetings in Schiller Park, Illinois. The questions will invite CLC participants to reflect on the ways in which denominational agencies add value to the work of area conferences and congregations and to identify the denominational services that are most essential. CLC participants will also be invited to dream about what a new denominational structure might look like and to assess the benefits and drawbacks of potential new forms.

The committee will plan to bring an action before delegates at the Mennonite Church USA convention in Kansas City, that will include CLC feedback, data from the recent churchwide survey of credentialed leaders, and responses to a survey of Mennonite Church USA delegates planned for early 2015.

Additionally, the EB reviewed an initial report from a summer survey of credentialed leaders across Mennonite Church USA that asked respondents to reflect on questions regarding Mennonite Church USA organizational structure, LGBTQ inclusion and the sense of belonging they felt to area conferences and the denomination. The board affirmed staff recommendations to conduct a survey of Mennonite Church USA delegates in early 2015, as well as to organize a promotional campaign inviting Mennonite Church USA congregations to identify their delegates this fall.

The EB also  commended a list of resources on same-gender sexuality for study across the denomination. The resource list represents a spectrum of perspectives and is meant to encourage dialogue and understanding among diverse groups.

The board spent time in worship and prayer, asking and listening for God’s spirit to move among them. Several board members took turns leading devotions focused on Luke 24, the theme text for the Kansas City 2015 convention.

In Memory: Dr. Abraham Israel Bolaños

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by Benjamin Bolaños and staff

Dr. BolañosDr. Abraham Israel Bolaños of Allentown died peacefully at his home on Tuesday, September 16, 2014. He was 88 years old.

Dr. Bolaños was born in El Salvador, and was a pastor in the Nazarene and Mennonite churches for more than 45 years. He and his family came to the Lehigh Valley in 1987, when he began a church planting ministry with Franconia Mennonite Conference. He had first become acquainted with the Mennonite church in El Salvador in the 1960s, when one of his brothers immigrated to Canada and received assistance from Mennonites there. Dr. Bolaños  studied in Texas and lived in El Salvador off and on until the late 1960s. He left during that country’s civil war.

He received a doctorate in theology in 1987. Though he achieved much academically, Dr. Bolaños remained a “people’s pastor” and was deeply committed to the Hispanic community.  Over the course of his professional life, he founded several Hispanic churches in El Salvador, Arizona, Ohio, New Jersey, Iowa, and Pennsylvania.

Dr. Bolaños’ family will remember him as deeply pious, tender and generous. He wrote much poetry in Spanish and wrote several books on theology; He loved playing the guitar and had a strong tenor voice. His love of reading and playing guitar was equally matched by his love of humor and joke telling.  He was extremely funny and always had a trick or joke to tell.

Dr. Bolaños leaves behind a loving wife, Alma; four children, Marina Toala Bolaños, Israel Edmundo Bolaños, Jose Alberto Bolaños, Benjamin Bolaños; twelve grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.   He also leaves behind his surviving siblings, Eva Machado, Marina Herrador, and Napoleon Bolanos.  He was preceded in death by five other siblings.

Services were held  September 22 at the Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana in Bethlehem. He was buried Hazelwood Cemetery in Rayway, New Jersey.

Introducing Indonesian Light Congregation

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Indonesian Light Church (ILC) was founded on January 22, 2012 in Philadelphia, in the home of one of the elders.  On that day, the first service took place with other nine congregations and was led by Pastor Pison Sinambela. When it began, it was known as Indonesian Lutheran Fellowship.ILC2

In July 2013, the congregation moved to its present location at 1612 South Broad Street.

We also meet in the church for our weekly bible study, led by the elders or one of the rotating preaching team.

In March, the congregation changed its name to Indonesian Light and began the process to join the Mennonite family.

Our Mission: Indonesian Light Church (ILC) is a Christian Family of Believers providing spiritual and physical aid to the Indonesian community in the Philadelphia area. ILC is a growing congregation and aspires to be a good servant to the people of Philadelphia and beyond,  and as a role model with the purpose of sharing God’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:8).

Our Vision: ILC’s vision is to be a church and a body of Christ which gives light, has strong roots, and is fruitful for the purpose of sharing with others (Matthew 5:14).

New Anabaptist ministry starts at Penn State

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by Lora Steiner, managing editor

As college students head to campus this fall, one congregation, University Mennonite Church in State College, Pennsylvania, is beginning a new initiative: an Anabaptist campus pastor, called by the church to minister to students.

University Mennonite Church is located just a few miles from Penn State University. It began over 50 years ago, when faculty and staff of Penn State began gathering in a classroom on campus.

Until about four years ago, the congregation was involved in an ecumenical effort known as United Campus Ministries. But it dissolved, and the congregation began talking about the need for an Anabaptist presence on campus. For about three years, University Mennonite worked at how to make it happen, clarifying the vision for that ministry, figuring out how to fund it, and also determining how it connected larger denominational needs.

Ben Wideman
Ben Wideman

This year, they hired Ben Wideman as Anabaptist Campus Pastor, and helped to establish an officially-recognized Penn State club known as the 3rd Way Collective.

The goals are varied: To connect with Mennonite students at Penn State who want to stay connected with their faith tradition; to connect with Christian students who may be frustrated and looking for an alternative like Anabaptism; and to connect with those who are interested in peace and justice but don’t necessarily know how faith connects to that.

“There are a lot of groups [at Penn State] talking about faith formation,” says Wideman, “and a number of groups talking about peace and justice issues. But there’s almost no one pulling these two groups together.”

Wideman hopes that the 3rd Way Collective will be a bridge for such groups, and help make something new in the gap.

Wideman will have office space at the church, and is on a waiting list for an office at Penn State’s Pasquerilla Spiritual Center, which offers meeting space to some 65 multi-faith student organizations on campus.

He isn’t worried at this point about having an office to call home: he won’t need a desk to write sermons or respond to emails, and, as he notes with broadly accepted truth, “You can do a lot with coffee.”

He says that the position is so new, and so outside of the traditional box of pastoral ministry in the Mennonite church, that it still isn’t clear exactly what it will look like. One of the biggest challenges is building awareness: There are 46,000 students at Penn State, and no particular way of knowing who the Mennonite students are unless someone lets Wideman know, or shares about the 3rd Way Collective.

Pastor Marv Friesen says that University Mennonite is committed to covering all expenses for the first three years, and is exploring ways to expand that support. They’re also talking about how the initiative might be expanded in the future: owning a community house, or creating a collaborative structure where Mennonite-related university communities could connect to each other.

Wideman is finishing his role as youth pastor at Salford Mennonite Church in Harleysville, Pennsylvania, and will start his new position in State College at the end of September. He says he’s excited to see what the transition brings.

“I’ve been thinking about [campus ministry] for a long time, but never expected it to look this way.”

Women and changing roles in the church

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by Helen Lapp, Plains

PlainsChange can take a lot of time. And it is very unsettling for many—no surprise there! This past summer Plains congregation (Hatfield, Pa.) decided to explore together, during the usual Sunday school hour, some changes the church has weathered in the past several decades. Several of these changes are:

  • Musical choices: They can bring us together in worship but also can divide.
  • War and peace: It has impacted many lives in our congregation; a number of young men chose not to participate in war, but some also shared stories of serving in the military.
  • Rural to suburban: The trend of moving off the farm brought profound changes to our church.
  • Becoming a diverse church: People from a variety of countries shared the challenges and blessings they experienced as they became an enriching part of our church community.
  • Divorce and remarriage: There was discussion of the sadness and pain of divorce, as well as stories of healing. Joyful remarriage meant more change for our caring community.
  • Gender: The changing roles of women in the church

For the session dealing with changing roles of women at Plains, I led a panel of six women of various ages in sharing of their own experiences at Plains. We reflected on how the Bible we valued was written chiefly by and for men, and also taught by men. Candid sharing about the impact wasn’t easy. And, our own personal journeys continue.

Lois Clemens
Lois Gunden Clemens was the first woman to teach Sunday School at Plains.

The women listed some of their role models and helpers along the way; One was Lois Gunden Clemens, who was the first woman to teach a Sunday school class at Plains—the “young adults,” that is. Lois later served as one of our first elders. She was the editor of “The Voice,” the first church periodical specifically published for women. In 1975 Lois also released her book, WOMAN LIBERATED, a gentle guide during the time the secular liberation movement was also finding its voice.

It was clear that most of the women who took part in our panel grew up as loved little girls and privileged women.

My own story was similar.

After I married my husband, Sam, but before coming to Plains Mennonite, I had attended a small country church where the women seemed to make the wheels go round, and I remember them with appreciation and affection. I did notice that only men stood behind the pulpit—several leaving an imprint on my heart with their sermons. But I did weary of a male-centered church, and hungered for more.

During my college years at Eastern Mennonite College, having several women professors brought a learning curve; teaching English for several years likely also pushed me.

And I have always been touched by Jesus’ open-hearted conversation with the Samaritan woman.

A turning point came for me when Sam and I lived for two years in mid-Kansas while he finished his undergraduate college work. While there I met wise Mennonite women, Elaine Sommers Rich and Katie Funk Wiebe, who became mentors and role models as they explored and wrote of God’s clear calls to women in today’s world.

On that Sunday morning panel, all six women shared stories. Generally, personal change happened with little fanfare. Several told of courageous personal choices.; most of these choices led to welcomed role changes. At times change was scary, and sometimes annoying. Was it easier, some wondered, when little was asked but the care of our children?

Panel members found that congregational life had been enriched by having women as pastors alongside Pastor Mike Derstine during the past 15 years.

We acknowledged on this August Sunday morning that both our sons and our daughters accept most of this role flexibility as the new normal. And with God’s help, we usually can also. Healthy change requires open hearts and minds and a commitment to live in love with our fellow life travelers.

Christian educators gather for resourcing event

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by Lora Steiner, managing editor

One participant makes a creation scene out of homemade scented play dough.
One participant makes a creation scene out of homemade scented play dough.

About 50 Sunday school teachers from Franconia and Eastern District conference churches gathered on August 12 in preparation for the new school year.

Teachers met with other teachers of the same age levels and were led through a sample lesson in the new Shine curriculum, which is co-published by Brethren Press and MennoMedia.

Among the group was one person teaching for the first time, and two people who had taught for over 50 years.

The resourcing event was organized by the Franconia and Eastern District Conferences School for Leadership Formation. Perkiomenville (Pa.) congregation hosted the event and arranged logistics. Feedback from the day was very positive, and Christian educators in both conferences are looking forward to meeting again.

Jessica Hedrick, director of children’s ministry at Souderton (Pa.) congregation, offered a prayer at the event. It is printed here with permission, for all children as they begin a new year.

God, you took the children on your knee and blessed them when everyone else pushed them aside; help us to be fully present with the children in our homes, our churches, and our communities.

As we walk with the children on this journey of faith we know that you will give us everything we need.

Help us to see them with your eyes, so that we are not blind to their strengths or oblivious to their gifts.

Help us to love them with your heart, so that they may trust you more deeply and know you more fully.

Help us to listen to them with your ears, so that we may understand the significance of their thoughts and the value of their voices.

We are weak and imperfect, and we realize sometimes we may feel like we have failed.

Help us remember that you are a God who brings glory from the mess.

Help us to embrace the mess of our ministry.

When we do not have the answers, may the children be inspired by our faith.

When we make mistakes, may they see God’s grace at work in our lives.

When we feel too lost to lead, may they see our trust in your leading.

As we go into the rest or our evening, and then return home to our ministries, fill us with your Holy Spirit and renew our passion for your kingdom.

Surround us with your peace, love, and light so that we may shine brightly igniting the fire of your love in the hearts of the children.

May they see you in us and may we see you in them.