Conference Assembly

by Lora Steiner

When lunch was served to the delegates of the oldest Mennonite conference in the Western Hemisphere, the buffet table held Vietnamese egg rolls, fried tofu, peanut sauce, candied yams and fried chicken. Interpreters translated business agenda and updates into three languages. At the Franconia Mennonite Meetinghouse close to Telford, PA, where Franconia Conference began nearly 300 years ago, attendees sang hymns in Spanish and offered prayers in Indonesian.

Representatives from churches and pastors gather each November with conference staff to worship, welcome new pastors and congregations, discern future movements for the conference and learn about the ministries they support together. But for some, the event is also a reminder of how rapidly the face of the Northeast corridor–and Franconia Mennonite Conference with it–is changing. The churches of Franconia Conference range from Vermont to Washington, D.C.; including congregations initiated by waves of Swiss German immigrants who settled along the Skippack and Perkiomen creeks in the late 1600’s to two Indonesian-speaking churches in South Philadelphia filled with recent immigrants who arrived in the United States after riots in Jakarta in the late 90’s.

The gathering opened on Friday evening with worship. Gilberto Flores, who is a denominational minister with Mennonite Church USA, presented the evening message. Speaking on the theme for the event, “Centered in Christ, Embracing God’s Mission,” Gilberto encouraged the audience to consider the mission to which God has called the church, a mission that includes all people from all places.

“Mission has to be embraced, not discussed,” said Flores. “To walk on water, you just have to walk on water.”

The evening service included a time to officially welcome two new congregations, Nations Worship Center of Philadelphia and Peace Mennonite Church of East Greenville, PA, while newly credentialed pastors were introduced on Saturday morning. Items on Saturday’s agenda also included to in-depth discussion and affirmation of Vision and Financial Plan Team recommendations. Blaine Detwiler, pastor of Lakeview Mennonite Church in Susquehanna, PA, was affirmed by vote as the new conference moderator; he will replace Merrill Moyer of Souderton, PA. in January.

While those who gathered for the assembly recognized that with increasing diversity comes increasing challenges, they also found it to be a hopeful thing.

“There are a number of challenges, living in a traditional kind of church community which has long deep values,” says Noah Kolb, Conference Pastor of Ministerial Leadership “And trying to value them while we open ourselves up to new ways of experiencing God’s grace and God’s mission among us–there’s tension in that.” Kolb highlights that church leaders now come from many different places–not just from other Mennonite churches or institutions, but often from different cultures and countries.

“I think a lot of the hope that I find comes just from relating to these people and seeing God at work within them, and the desire to work together because there’s some common mission that we’re all wanting to move towards.”

Marta Castillo, an associate pastor at Nueva Vida Norristown (PA) New Life Mennonite Church, shares that hope.

“I see hope, as a new leader, in Franconia Conference, in our church, in the way God is working,” says Castillo. “God is the hope for me, because the things I expect will happen don’t always happen, but all these unexpected things I didn’t know God was already working on beginning to happen. There’s so much hope in the fact that God is bringing more and more people in the Conference that are not like us. In the Bible it talks a lot about ‘the others,’ the unexpected people that God used in miraculous and wonderful ways . . . Sometimes it is ‘the others’ that God needs in this place and in this time.”

“It’s all about trust in God,” says Yvonne Platts, who serves on the Conference board. “It’s all about listening, discerning and really trying to hear what messages God is saying for our church–and understanding that it’s not about us. Anything new can be uncomfortable. Unfamiliar territory can make us afraid. But if we just trust and lean on Jesus, he will guide us.”

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Marathana Prothro with Lora Steiner

This weekend, representatives from the congregations, partners and ministries that make up Franconia Mennonite Conference will gather for the 2007 Fall Conference Assembly, but the president of the Mexico Mennonite Conference will not be among them. Ofelia García’s application for a visa to travel to the United States was denied last month.

García, who lives in Mexico City, had planned on traveling to the United States to participate in a gathering for women of color called “Encountering the Face of God,” which was held at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary of Elkhart, Ind. in October. After the conference, García was to travel to Pennsylvania for more meetings and the Franconia annual assembly.

García said she was frustrated because the consulate asked for information it had never needed before and did not read the invitation letter she had been given by Mennonite Central Committee, which helped to organize the conference. And García said that while she’s grateful for the concern of her brothers and sisters in the United States, her experience is a common problem for Mexicans. She says it’s infuriating to see the way in which families, women and the elderly are treated at the U.S. embassy. The visa request of Sidonie Swana Falanga of Kinshasa, Congo was also denied.

In response to the denied visas, Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership, MCC U.S. and others have been writing letters of protest to the State Department expressing concern over the situation. Iris de León-Hartshorn, director of Intercultural Relations for Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership, says the letters also will help Garcia and Falanga feel the support of their sisters and brothers in the United States.

The U.S. State Department cited a lack of assets as a key reason for denying the visas, says de León-Hartshorn. “Apparently,” she said “the government does not see their work, churches, communities and families as assets” that would bring them back to their home countries.

Franconia Conference has long-term partnerships with the congregations in Mexico City. This is not the first time that visa complications have made visits difficult. According to Steve Kriss who serves as the Conference’s primary liaison with the Mexico City congregations, “We lament that Ofelia is unable to join us this year as a representation of our relationships with the congregations in Mexico City and even more lament the ongoing situation and fear-based policies that prohibit the free movement of global church leaders into our midst.”