Articles

Over half of the world’s population is Asian.  Four of the five largest countries (in population) are in Asia: China, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan. (The US is 3rd largest, far behind the over one billion people in both China and India.)  In the US, only about 5% of our population, just under 20 million people, identify as Asian American.

Asia is diverse and spans from Israel to Vietnam, Sri Lanka to Siberia. It is the space of the fertile crescent, the context for much of the Biblical story, and a place of ancient kingdoms and empires. These days it’s the land of rising economies, religious pilgrimages, and sometimes a rub of conflict with the West.  Fareed Zakaria says that “Asia” is a western word for otherness. 

Our hemisphere lies between Asia and Europe, likely settled by Asian migrants who crossed to Alaska thousands of years before European explorers bumped into an unknown land mass.  In reality, our settlement in North America is far closer to Asia than Europe.  Yet our immigration policies have been largely unjust toward Asians compared to Europeans. Ongoing biases show up in how we view the cultural, religious, and social practices of Asian persons even when they are our neighbors and friends.

Over the last year, an alarming uptick in anti-Asian violence has emerged across the United States.  Tonight as I’m writing, eight people, most of Asian descent, have been shot and killed  in Georgia by a lone white gunman.   As my colleague, Hendy Matahelemual, wrote recently, these biases and this violence is not new, but there is an emerging new awareness.

In Mosaic Conference, we have almost a dozen member congregations with a majority or sizable Asian populations.   We produce materials in three Asian languages: Cantonese, Indonesian, and Vietnamese.  Asian communities and leaders are increasingly a significant part of our Mosaic identity.  

Asian communities bring vital ideas about evangelism, community, discipleship, and global connection, challenging and expanding our ideas of neighbor and family.  I’ve been privileged to work closely with the committed pastors and leaders from the Asian communities in our Conference on both coasts. I personally am part of a majority Asian congregation at Philadelphia Praise Center.  My life has been enriched by our work and relationships together.   

As Executive Minister of our Conference, I want to underscore our shared commitment to the Asian persons and communities in our Conference.  We will continue to do our own work to uncover anti-Asian biases in our personal and communal perspectives.  We deplore violence toward Asian Americans in our communities.  We weep with those who have experienced violence, and we commit to listen to the difficulties of ongoing bias and aggression, both big and small, against Asian Americans.  

As a Conference, we continue to search for ways to honor our uniqueness as part of the Mosaic of God. We are a plurality of Black, white, Latino, Asian, and Indigenous.  As part of Mosaic, we are individually unique yet part of a whole that God is transforming beautifully together.   

Our journey together is initiated through the Spirit at Pentecost.  Our commitment is to embody the Good News in our broken and beautiful world.  

In these times, we see the brokenness of the bias against Asian neighbors and friends.  And we celebrate the beauty of each unique Asian identity in language, culture, and personhood.  And in each Asian person, we recognize the imprint of our Creator who has so extended love to us that we might be called the children of God.   

Liberty Ministries was established in 1980 to serve the inmate populations of Montgomery County (PA) Correctional Facility and the State Correctional Institution at Graterford, PA. Since then, Liberty Ministries has positively impacted thousands of inmates and former inmates with the teaching of God’s Word, spiritual, physical, and emotional support, and the life-changing power of Christ. 

Today, we maintain two dormitory style residences for those recently released from prison – Liberty House for men and Ann’s House for women. While enrolled in a twelve-month educational and discipleship program, residents have a full schedule of weekly activities. Our program focuses on assisting these men and women in their vocational, spiritual, emotional, and character development. In addition, there are specific goals that each resident must accomplish in order to graduate from the program that are geared towards teaching them necessary life skills. 

Liberty Ministries has a number of prison and community outreach programs as well. Over 160 volunteers visit incarcerated men and women on a monthly basis: teaching, training, mentoring, and preparing them for life outside of prison. Some of our programs include: Christmas stockings for those incarcerated, summer camp sponsorships for children of those incarcerated or recently released, baby bags for new mothers that have recently been released from prison and Lydia Bags that include personal hygiene items along with the Gospel for incarcerated women. 

Liberty Ministries also operates six thrift stores in PA which offer excellent values to our customers, while providing financial support for the ministry. We have stores in Collegeville, Feasterville, Montgomeryville, Quakertown and two in Pottstown.

Prayer Requests

• That we would be able to send volunteers into the prisons and adapt to new methods of communication and outreach in the meantime during the pandemic.
• Our residents would stay encouraged and focused on the pursuit of their professional, personal, and spiritual goals 
• Restored and renewed relationships between our residents and the people they hope will forgive them for their past actions and behaviors 
• A successful launch of our new residential home in Pennsburg, PA 
• The success of a new mail-in salvation course for those currently incarcerated since we are unable to hold in-person Bible studies during COVID-19

At approximately 4:30pm on March 9, a driver lost control of his truck on Allentown Road in Quakertown, PA and ran into the West Swamp Mennonite Church building. No one was in the church at the time and the driver suffered only minor injuries. 

The collision destroyed the church sign and impacted the church building, breaching the church’s exterior wall and causing interior damage to the fellowship hall and men’s bathroom. Numerous first responders responded to the scene, and a large tow truck eventually removed the septic tank truck from the church property. The fire marshall expressed concern for the structural integrity of the building, so the church is pursuing appropriate action to ensure no further damage occurs. 

Pastor Michael Howes shared, in communication with his congregants about the incident, “It’s good to be reminded at moments like this that, as much as our church building is a valuable resource, passed on to us by prior generations of faithful stewards, we are the church, ourselves.”

For coverage of this event on local news, click here. 

Editor’s note: The following story is an excerpt from the full version, published in MHEP (Mennonite Historians of Eastern PA) Quarterly in Winter 2000. The story is a fascinating piece of our own church history as we honor women’s history month in March.

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In 1916, the Rev. Dr. Ann Jemima Allebach was called to serve as pastor of the Sunnyside Reformed Church in Long Island City, NY. The parish had been without a pastor for more than ten years, and there had been talk of selling the property and relocating the congregation. Allebach served the church for approximately two years. She was a Mennonite, a member of the Eastern District Conference of the Mennonite Church.

The Sunnyside Reformed Church began to recover under the leadership of Pastor Allebach. Attendance at worship doubled. An article in the New York World claimed that attendance at the Sunnyside Church grew from four members to 600 during Allebach’s ministry.  Allebach’s ministry was purposeful, pastoral, lively, and fun. “A Woman Parson Who Really ‘Ministers’” was the title of a feature article about her in the magazine section of the New York World dated December 23, 1917.

Rev. Allebach was recognized as an exceptionally fine preacher and public speaker. Years before pastoring the Sunnyside congregation, she drew great crowds at her home church.  “The three churches were filled with people. The Eden Church in the morning was filled. The Zion main room could not hold nearly all the people, and the folding doors had to be opened. The Harleysville chapel was filled to overflow that many claimed there were never so many people inside that building.”

With so little encouragement from the institutional church, what led her to take the path to ordination? Although her family encouraged and supported her education (which included attending Ursinus College for Normal School, Columbia University, Union Theological Seminary, and New York University), and although she came from a “family of parsons” as she put it, there is no indication that her family encouraged her to enter the ministry.

As a child, Ann Allebach attended the Eden Mennonite Church in Schwenksville, PA where she was baptized in 1892. In 1907, J. W. Schantz became the pastor and, he, with N. B. Grubb, ordained Allebach to the gospel ministry in 1911. The Reformed Church in America would not ordain women until 1973. The Eastern District Conference, her own tradition, would not ordain another woman until 1980.

Response to the ordination was mixed. The Philadelphia newspaper covered the story and printed her picture. The weekly bulletin of the First Mennonite Church reported, “The service this morning is one that is unique in the history of our Church. The ordination of Miss Annie J. Allebach to the gospel ministry; Miss Allebach has been engaged in Gospel work for some years; in fact, for many years, and has proven herself well worthy of the office to be conferred upon her today.”

On the other hand, the minutes of the 113^th Eastern District Conference meeting on May 7, 1911, made no mention of Allebach’s ordination, even though her brother was the President and Schantz (who presided over the ordination) was secretary of the meeting.  Neither Grubb nor Schantz reported the ordination, nor were they questioned about it.

Several years later, when asked about her ordination, Allebach said, “Of course I am eternally apologizing for my existence. That I have a gospel right to it few people know but perhaps you realize that women even better than men have the right to preach the Gospel. Was it not a woman that the risen Christ delivered the message to go and tell and preach what she had seen?”

Click here to read the original article.