Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

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Lent, Anabaptists, and Sausage 

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As a child, our Mennonite church had a few traditions, but Lent was not one of them. Traditionally, Lent was not observed by most Mennonites.    

Of course, we would celebrate the children on Palm Sunday. And, Shrove Tuesday was a glorious feast of yeasty home-made donuts.  It was Ash Wednesday that started the discomfort. What did those ashes made from last year’s palm branches say about my faithfulness or discipleship? 

Historically, Anabaptists have been reluctant to participate in the rituals of Lent. On the first Sunday of Lent in 1522, in Zurich, Switzerland, a gathering of people seeking church renewal challenged the rules of the Lenten fast by eating smoked sausages.  This action was a symbolic beginning of the Reformation in Zurich and a precursor to the Anabaptist movement.  (To learn more, click here.) 

Today, more Mennonite churches are observing the full liturgical calendar, including Lent. My church is one of them. Why now? Why sacrifice? Why fast as part of the Lent season?   

I like food, potlucks, fellowship meals, and dessert any place, but definitely in church. But maybe now, Anabaptists are hearing a renewed call to seek God. In this seeking of God, we are called to practice the discipline of surrender and sacrifice. And in doing so, we join others on the path to the cross during Lent.   

OK, I can give up donuts.  

But, Randolph Haluza-DeLay says, “Giving up donuts is obviously a superficial example,” even if I think of it as a sacrifice.

Maybe sacrifice and surrender mean opening new space for God to work. For example, a Lenten fast may be a social media fast, or giving up one meal a day to use that time to pray, or avoiding a regular leisure activity and instead spending time with a lonely neighbor.

What if I let the drama of Facebook unfold without my participation for 40 days?  I fast to reduce my attachments and find space for new ways. What if I use that claimed space for spiritual renewal, prayer, meditation?  For me, this is the reason for Lent now.   

Fasting is a personal choice. But I welcome the Lenten season’s focus on the life and death of Jesus as I fast.  I know that Lent doesn’t end at the cross. Easter Sunday is coming – a time for celebration, singing, sunrise services, and Easter cake.     

For we know that – 
God is our only hope, 
Feed us from your mouth, that we may see the poor, 
Listen to the lonely, and nourish our hungry neighbors 
In the strength of your Annointed. 

-from Take our Moments and Our Days: An Anabaptist Prayer Book

Emerging Mutual Transformation

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(This is a shortened version of the full version of this article, from Leader magazine by Marta Castillo. Used by permission of MennoMedia.) 

We at Mosaic Conference are working on an intercultural, missional, and formational puzzle with a thousand pieces. We have that overwhelming feeling most people experience when they open a puzzle box and pour out the thousand pieces onto a table. Where do they fit into the puzzle? How long will it take and who will persevere in the work? How many times will we be sidetracked by pieces that are wrongly placed, even with good intentions? Which pieces are being left out because they have not yet been turned over or have fallen on the floor?  

This year, our Conference Assembly theme was “Mutual Transformation,” based on Romans 12:2–5. We are centered on our mutual need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, by God, and by each other and centered on the work of the kingdom and being the body of Christ together.  

TRANSFORMATION’S COST

The commitment and cost of mutual transformation is high and often unexpected. Most of us do not count on being transformed ourselves. The integrity of the mutual transformation process means that we must identify and decenter ourselves to recenter ourselves in Christ. It means that we must be brave, venture beyond our comfort zones, and stay at a table that is not of our making or design. Mutual transformation means that we must process uncomfortable truth about culture, history, bias, and worldview through the eyes of others.  

Our “Going to the Margins: Kingdom Mission Strategy” statement pushes us to look and move outwardly even as we hold to the center. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to solidarity with those on the margins of the Christian community, our neighborhoods, and society at large, seeking transformation in ourselves, those to whom we minister, and the unjust systems we encounter.

OUR CONFESSION AND HOPE

We confess that we are lacking and have repeatedly tried and failed in several ways. We struggle to be less paternalistic and to develop partnerships that are mutually beneficial in our relationships with immigrant churches and churches of color. We depend too much on using money to solve problems instead of using creativity to build equitable relationships. We have repeatedly failed to confront racism in ways that are life-giving to our African American brothers and sisters and life-changing for our white brothers and sisters and for our system. We have sometimes failed to gather in congregations and people at whatever margin they find themselves.  

The words of John Lewis—our beloved brother, civil rights leader, and US congressman—posted on Twitter in June 2018, ring out to us: “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”  

Noel Santiago, our Leadership Minister for missional transformation, noted in a conversation with me: “One difference between a puzzle and a mosaic is that a puzzle comes with precut pieces that have a similar quality and are pre-designed to fit together perfectly. A mosaic is comprised of very different shaped pieces that may even require some changing of a given piece to help it come together into one unified whole while retaining each unique shape.” 

A mosaic is comprised of very different shaped pieces that may even require some changing of a given piece to help it come together into one unified whole while retaining each unique shape.

NOEL SANTIAGO

We know that we may be reshaped to make space for others—transformed because of their presence as one of us. At Mosaic, we see as though in a mirror, with little glimpses here and there of the reflections of God’s design for us. We expect to be formed and transformed, a mosaic that God can shine light through to draw others. We are “confident of this, that the one who began a good work among [us] will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).  

A special thank you to Yvonne Platts, Noel Santiago, and Emily Ralph Servant, my conversation partners in the writing of this article.  

Choosing Peace in Solidarity with Ukraine 

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Within a few days of the invasion of Ukraine, someone handed me a check and said, “I trust you’ll figure out what to do with this.” As a person of Slavic descent, I have been painfully aware of the situation in Ukraine. I have heard tales of those who left behind family in what would become the Eastern Bloc. I grew up with the fears of the Cold War. I have pastored alongside Ukrainians. The resistance of Ukrainians citizens quickly gets my attention.

At the same time, it has been difficult to figure out how to support and engage while our media blasts out images of the violence. I attended a prayer vigil at a Ukrainian Catholic congregation near my home. I took them sunflowers. I offered support as a neighbor, a Slavic person, and as a representative of Mosaic Conference.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is Mosaic’s primary partner for response to the war in Ukraine. We carry within us the story of the martyrdom of Clayton Kratz. Over 100 years ago, Kratz, from the Blooming Glen (PA) congregation, volunteered to serve with MCC in Ukraine. While responding to the humanitarian needs among Mennonites and others in Ukraine, Kratz was arrested and never heard from again.

(Read more about MCC’s current work in Ukraine.)

We encourage continued support of our Conference Related Ministries (CRMs) that support MCC’s work. By donating, volunteering, or purchasing at the Care and Share Thrift Shoppes or serving to meet material needs through Material Resource Center, we believe that MCC’s long-term responses will meet real needs.

Additionally, some of us desire more immediate ways to be involved. Finland (Pennsburg, PA) Mennonite Church and Garden Chapel (Dover, NJ) have established prayer times for Ukraine. (See details on how to join virtually on in person.) Vincent (Spring City, PA) Mennonite Church is supporting initiatives toward refugee response through RescueNet and Pastor Dave Mansfield’s connections in Poland.

In offering support as members of the historical peace tradition, the challenge to differentiate between humanitarian aid and aid that goes to support the resistance in Ukraine is not easy. In these times, we need to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves in commingling with other responses. We want to be part of Christ’s ongoing witness of peace while also empowering those on the ground to respond to real needs.

Join other Mosaic congregations in prayers for peace in Ukraine:

Finland (Pennsburg, PA) Mennonite Church: Sunday evenings at 7:00pm, in person 

This is a cross-generational gathering, ranging from toddlers to seniors, from many different congregations and denominations. We gather for a combination of hymn singing and prayer for Ukraine and Russia. For details or questions, please contact Pastor Kris Wint at kris@finlandmc.org, as gathering dates and times may vary weekly.  

Garden Chapel (Dover, NJ): Sunday, March 20, 7:30ET, via zoom 

All are welcome to join for a virtual candlelight service to honor those who have perished in Ukraine and to pray for the hand of Christ to move about the nations. For zoom link and other information, please click here.  

For questions, please call/text Pastor Tim (973) 495-9219 or Maria Hart (973) 932-9993 or email thegardenchapel@gmail.com.  

While considering responses to Ukraine, it’s important to remember that there are many armed conflicts also occurring that are just outside of our media views. The conflict in Ukraine is likely viewed differently than other conflicts because we see it more in real time through the media, while our biases and connectivity have put Ukraine in the foreground. Meanwhile, other conflicts have continued in place without the same level of attention, at times even supported by our own US government as aggressor.

Hands, Hand, Together, Prayer, Community, Creative

Pastorally, I’d like to encourage each of us to respond in solidarity with Ukrainians nearby to us. There are Ukrainian communities throughout PA and concentrated in the New York City metro areas. Sometimes, our prayer presence of solidarity will be welcomed if we reach out to these neighboring communities with support, love, and prayer. For many Russian immigrants, this is also a difficult time as well.

The young priest, Father Oslap, who led the emotional prayer vigil I attended, translated his passionate homily to me in a few words afterward: We must resist. But we must not allow this incursion to teach us to hate.

As followers of Jesus, committed to Christ’s peace, we must also not allow this resistance to justify violence in anyway. We must continue to pray for both Ukraine and Russia and our own nation’s response.

Doing Kingdom Work at the Tables

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Faith & Life Gatherings Report 

The Zoom screens at the Faith & Life Gatherings on February 23 and 24, 2022 were comprised of a beautiful mosaic of different cultures and sentiments. There was a lot of reading as we prepared to discuss the current Mennonite Church USA resolutions before us. Some of the content was heavy, and I thought, “As we continue to journey through this life and sit at these tables, there will be other resolutions to consider, maybe lighter or heavier, but this is kingdom work.”

I sat in appreciation of the conversations that were being formed by pressing and hammering away at our faith and worldviews on accessibility for those with disabilities, repentance and transformation, justice, and membership guidelines. We heard stories that touched our hearts from those who have been at the table with these issues for some time. There were affirmations, concerns, and discussions on how our ministries would be impacted by the possibilities these resolutions presented, or the lack thereof. No one stayed silent; good, bad, or indifferent voices were heard. 

This was a difficult gathering space for some. It challenged many of us to envision how much we could be stretched in order to live out our faith. Our Anabaptist values challenge us to live a life of love, peacemaking, and reconciliation. We are called to be at the table to see that injustice is being overcome by good, to be of a mindset that moral authority is more than political power, and that loving, sacrificial service is the highest expression of faithfulness to Christ.  Every day is an opportunity to live into God’s purpose for humanity.  

The question was asked by a participant, “Are we moving toward Jesus, or are we walking away from Jesus?” It was a question to pause and consider. 

As I pondered the question, Psalm 8:3-4 was screaming at me, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” (NRSV) God is constantly walking towards us, pursuing us so that we might experience His love. He pursues the rich and the poor, the wholehearted and the brokenhearted, and He has called us the do the same. Let us not walk away but rather remain at the table, doing the hard work that exemplifies whom we are as Kingdom people.

Our meeting was productive with lots of affirmations and acknowledgments of the work being forged. People lamented and mourned the losses and harms that have been experienced during this process, and it is not over.  

A new birth is taking place in our faith communities and throughout the world. The work feels like a tug-of-war. There is uncertainty, pushing, and pulling. This will continue until all of the complex pieces fit into place. That fit can only be comfortable when the lion is able to lay down with the lamb in peace. A true picture of God’s kingdom!  

This work is a marathon, not a sprint, lest we trip and fall. There was rich conversation that came out of the small groups. But this reflection does not express it all. So come to the table and remember, the race is not given to the swift or the strong, but to the ones who endure to the end.  

Peace and blessing as we continue to sit at the table and engage one another in meaningful kingdom work.

Updates for MC USA Special Delegate Assembly

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Mosaic Conference has named the following delegates to the Mennonite Church USA (MCUSA) Special Session of the Delegate Assembly in Kansas City, MO, May 27-30, 2022:

Mosaic Board representatives: 

  • Cory Longacre, Souderton (PA) Mennonite Church 
  • Janet Panning, Plains (Hatfield, PA) Mennonite Church 
  • Herman Sagastume, Perkiomenville (PA) Mennonite Church 
(from left to right) Cory Longacre, Janet Panning, Herman Sagastume

Mosaic Staff representatives: 

  • Marta Castillo, Associate Executive Minister, Nueva Vida Norristown (PA) New Life
  • Michele Ramirez, Youth and Community Formation Coordinator for Florida, Iglesia Menonita Luz y Vida (Orlando, FL)
  • Aldo Siahaan, Leadership Minister, Philadelphia (PA) Praise Center 
(from left to right) Marta Castillo, Michele Ramirez, Aldo Siahaan

Mosaic Committee representatives: 

  • Michael Howes, West Swamp (Quakertown, PA) Mennonite Church 
  • Emmanuel Mwaipopo, Nueva Vida Norristown (PA) New Life 
(from left to right) Emmanuel Mwaipopo, Michael Howes

All Mosaic congregations are strongly encouraged to select their delegate(s) for the Special Assembly and to register. Contact your Leadership Minister with questions about financial assistance to attend this Assembly. If your congregation’s membership is less than 100, apply for scholarship assistance through Mennonite Church USA. 

Mosaic Conference will hold two delegate equipping sessions with MCUSA moderator elect, Jon Carlson, Pastor of Forest Hills (Leola, PA) Mennonite Church. These sessions are for all congregational and conference delegates planning to attend the Kansas City Special Assembly. 

  • Tuesday, April 26, 7pm: Souderton/Lansdale PA area (specific location TBA) 
  • Tuesday, May 3, 7pm ET/4pm PT: via Zoom (with Spanish interpretation available) 

Following Her Call, Despite the Discouragement

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Honoring Women’s History Month: The First Woman Ordained in Franconia Conference

It’s not easy to imagine a career if you have never seen anyone like you in that role. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Marty Kolb-Wyckoff, the first woman to be ordained in Franconia Conference, never imagined it either.

For Kolb-Wyckoff, who grew up in Spring City, PA, pastoral ministry never entered her mind until she spent four years in Richmond, VA as the director of the discipleship program through Mennonite Board of Mission’s Voluntary Service (VS) program in the late 1970s/early 1980s. “In that context of my own growth and helping others to grow, I began to sense a call to ministry,” recalls Kolb-Wyckoff. “I didn’t know quite what to do with it. It didn’t fit into my own self-understanding.”

To test her interest, Kolb-Wyckoff took some classes at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, VA. She thoroughly enjoyed her classes, eventually accumulating a year’s worth of credits towards a seminary degree. Eventually, she finished her degree at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, IN, where she remembers her years as “wonderful and very affirming.” During her final semester at AMBS in May 1985, she was called to candidate at Park View Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, VA.

Marty Kolb-Wyckoff speaks at her ordination in 1990. Photo by Allen Guntz.

After a positive weekend of candidating (meeting congregational attendees, preaching, and exploring whether there was a shared sense of call), Kolb-Wyckoff returned to Indiana, optimistic that her first pastoral role would soon be solidified. A few days later, however, she received the unexpected news that the congregation did not have enough votes to affirm her call to Park View. Disappointed and very surprised, Kolb-Wyckoff soon accepted a 2-year role as campus pastor at Hesston (KS) College. After her first year, she knew that campus ministry was not for her, and she resigned, returning to Elkhart, IN for a year of Clinical Pastoral Education.

In May 1987, Kolb-Wyckoff was invited to candidate for a pastoral role at Blooming Glen (PA) Mennonite Church. Again, despite a positive weekend of interviews and candidating, the congregational vote was just shy of the number Blooming Glen had determined necessary for Kolb-Wyckoff to join the staff.

In a matter of two years, Kolb-Wyckoff had been voted down by two different congregations. (Kolb-Wyckoff would have been the first female pastor at either of those churches.) Despite the discouragement, she continued to pursue her call to pastoral ministry.

Martha Kolb-Wyckoff was the first woman ordained in Franconia Conference in February 1990. Photo by Allen Guntz.

“I had a pretty clear sense of call. If I wasn’t going to do this, what would I do?” Kolb-Wyckoff reflected. “It’s sort of a mystery to me why I didn’t quit. I think it was the grace of God and supportive people from seminary.” She added, “I wasn’t the only woman who had those experiences. Sadly, they were more common than one would wish.”

In November of 1987, Kolb-Wyckoff was called to and began as pastor of Taftsville (VT) Chapel Mennonite Fellowship. That same fall, Franconia Conference’s Assembly was devoted to the issue of credentialing women. The Assembly vote passed, allowing the ordination of women in Franconia Conference.

In February 1990, Kolb-Wyckoff became the first woman to be ordained by Franconia Conference. (Sharon Williams, currently of Nueva Vida Norristown New Life, transferred her ordination credentials prior to Marty’s ordination.)

Kolb-Wykoff remembers her ordination as a positive experience but knows that there were probably some people in Franconia Conference who didn’t approve. “I didn’t need to know what was being talked about down here [in southeastern PA],” acknowledged Kolb-Wyckoff. “I realized in most churches in the Conference, it couldn’t happen. There were some benefits to being on the fringes in Vermont,” she said with a smile.

Thirty-five years after Franconia Conference approved the ordination of women, girls (and boys) in Mosaic Conference now have many more role models as they discern their own calls to ministry: 25 women are currently ordained in the conference and another nine are licensed. As these women respond to their call, Kolb-Wyckoff and other retired female pastors cheer them on, a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12).

To read some early women’s history in Eastern District Conference, please see last year’s article on Rev. Dr. Ann Jemima Allebach.

Others Helped Us, Now We Help Others

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Helping immigrants in the name of Christ is in Salford’s DNA.  Seventy-five years before Salford (Harleysville, PA) Mennonite Church had a meetinghouse, the original families of the congregation, living in Switzerland, were persecuted and in danger. These families received help from fellow Mennonites, Quakers, and others to be able to start anew.  

After the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), Salford historian John L. Ruth explains that persecuted Mennonites, such as the Landises and Moyers from Zurich, Switzerland, were allowed to get a foothold by cleaning up ruined fields in Germany. In 1671 the Ruth families were expelled from Bern, Switzerland and given equipment by Mennonites to start farming again in the Palatinate region of Germany. The Clemens family immigrated to eastern Pennsylvania in 1709 after receiving traveling money by Quakers in London, England. The first Alderfer member of the Salford congregation had his ocean fare paid by a local Clemmer family.

Later, in the 1870s, the Salford congregation gave money to help immigrating Russian Mennonites. This was the first of numerous efforts to support immigrants and refugees from a variety of countries over the years, including Paraguay, Cuba, South Korea, Iraq, and Ethiopia.  

Moved by the recent needs of Afghan refugees, Salford’s Justice and Peace Ministry donated to Lutheran Immigration Refugee Services (LIRS) to help recently resettled Afghan refugees with basic needs. The church also divided their Christmas Eve offering between an additional contribution to LIRS and MCC’s (Mennonite Central Committee) programs for refugees and immigrants globally.    

In 1923 Salford Mennonite Church took in the Dirks family, stranded in Turkey. Photo courtesy of John L. Ruth. 
The Smoliks fled eastern Europe after World War II and were taken in by a Salford family. Photo courtesy of John L. Ruth. 

Amy Godshall, a Salford congregant and student at Cornell Law School, invited the congregation to consider assisting with humanitarian parole applications with Afghans who are in danger and seeking to come to the United States.  

Humanitarian parole is an immigration program that allows non-citizens to temporarily enter the US for an urgent humanitarian reason. People paroled into the US may be eligible to receive a permanent immigration status such as asylum. 

Humanitarian parole applications must be accompanied by a US-based sponsor who can demonstrate financial capacity to support the applicant when that applicant arrives in the US. Since Afghans paroled into the US will receive public assistance during their two-year parole, the sponsor’s role is anticipated to be limited. 

An Afghan family of 20, including an infant, had been waiting for humanitarian parole sponsors in the US. Thanks to four Salford households, plus one non-Salford household, the Afghanistan Assistance Clinic at Cornell Law School now has sponsors for all 20 applications. 

“Jesus and his parents were refugees,” one Salford couple who participated in the effort said. “As his followers, we are called to welcome the stranger, who is actually Christ. Our family chose to become financial sponsors for humanitarian parole applicants not as an act of charity but as a small yet significant reparative action. Our tax dollars funded death and destruction for two decades in Afghanistan, killing over 70,000 civilians. We felt like sponsoring Afghans in danger to come to the US for safety was the least we could do.” 

The US fee to apply for humanitarian parole is $575/person, a huge burden for many large families. Thanks to financial donations from Salford households, Godshall recently submitted 14 humanitarian parole applications for another family through Cornell’s Afghanistan Assistance Clinic.  

“Jesus and his parents were refugees,”

one Salford couple who participated in the effort said.

“My client is so grateful,” Godshall said. “Without this donation, he was planning to put thousands of dollars for application fees on his credit card. He is eager to have his family join him here in the United States.”  

If you would like to join this effort, either financially or as a sponsor, please contact Amy Godshall at ang66@cornell.edu for more information.  

A Californian Comes East…and Learns a Thing (or 2 or 3)

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God has a sense of humor. After 35 years of cross-cultural and urban ministry in southern California, my wife, Debbie, and I recently loaded up our SUV and drove across the country for me to invest this year as the intentional interim Lead Pastor at Blooming Glen (PA) Mennonite Church. As an urban missiologist, this year will be a deep dive into a new sort of cross-cultural ministry.

The SUV is loaded for the cross-country trip. Photo by Debbie Wright.

In the 2 ½ weeks we have been in Bucks County, PA, I have learned some important lessons:

1. Everyone seems to be related to everyone else in the church. Now, this is not a bad thing. Family is an important dimension of the kingdom of God. People at Blooming Glen have formed a resilient community of faithful disciples by being family together.

Being family, however, has some inherent challenges, such as being transparent in communication. It’s hard to be transparent with family members. But it is also sometimes difficult to be transparent in communication among cultural groups where one should not lose face. I’m learning that being bluntly transparent doesn’t work at Blooming Glen any more than it works among the new immigrant congregations in California.

2. In the church, food can be a powerful tool to unite us. COVID has wreaked havoc on our capacity to sit at the table and fellowship with each other. And it shows. The frayed edges of community require time invested around coffee and funny cake at Blooming Glen…or puff balls and tea at Los Angeles Faith Chapel.

After 2 ½ weeks, I’m even more convinced than ever that the church that eats together will begin to pray together and then will heal together. Food, of course can challenge us…vegan or vegetarian? Gluten-free or not? At the end of the day, what matters is that we sit together and digest our relationships.

3. People in the church “are not afraid of change, they are afraid of loss.” Dr Tod Bolsinger, in his book, Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory (IVP Books, 2015) suggests that change is not what makes us fearful. Rather it is our sense of loss. Loss of control. Loss of the familiar.

For much of the past 35 years, I’ve worked with congregations and pastors who have lost their sense of home and their privilege in their cultures. Most times, these pastors find a new resiliency by collaborating with a conference of churches, like Mosaic Conference. In times of instability and loss (like the last two years), it is our life together as a Conference that brings together diversity and helps us all see change, not as loss, but as opportunity.

Jeff Wright packs up files for his new pastoral role in PA. Photo by Debbie Wright.

God has a sense of humor. As I continue to minister with my friends and colleagues in California, I am learning how to better minister by spending some time looking out over the rural landscape of Upper Bucks County, PA, and walking with good, honest, holy, and faithful Christians here.

Yep. I’m grateful. For family histories grounded generationally to the land. For tables of fellowship rich with coffee and laughter. For change in the midst of these days reframed as opportunity rather than loss. It’s good to be out east…

For awhile.