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News

MMA, Mennonite Financial to adopt new name

April 19, 2010 by

MMA and Mennonite Financial Federal Credit Union announced March 31st that they will adopt a new joint name, Everence. This new name is meant to help the organizations come together to better serve their current members and to reach new people who want to integrate faith and finances. The change to the new name will be gradual and is expected to begin later this year.

In an internal announcement, Larry D. Miller, MMA president and CEO, told staff and advisors, “Now is the time to step forward and take on a new identity that clearly signals we are becoming something new – a new organization for future generations.”

“Our original vision when we embarked on this journey with MMA was that we would eventually operate under a single name,” said W. Kent Hartzler, Mennonite Financial president and CEO. “That day is now coming quickly, and I am excited about the opportunities it will give us.”

“The MMA board believes the new name will come to incorporate the faith values that are integral to MMA and to its role as the stewardship agency of Mennonite Church USA,” said LaVern Yutzy, chair, MMA Board of Directors. “We see the name as promoting a family of products and services in a way that appeals to people of all ages.”

The new name – evoking the ideas of reverence, everlasting, forever, and permanence – symbolizes the organizations’ tie to faith and the nature of its services. The logo represents a vine (with a cross in the center), symbolizing the faith community and people involved in the organizations.

Everence Financial will be the name of the umbrella organization, and Everence will apply to the names of all its associated and affiliated entities. As MMA’s banking associate, Mennonite Financial will become Everence Federal Credit Union. (The relationship between Mennonite Financial and MMA has been growing for a number of years, beginning formally in August 2007.

MMA’s agency relationship with Mennonite Church USA will continue under the new name. To clarify that relationship – and relationships with other denominations – key MMA (and later Everence) materials will begin carrying the line, “A ministry of Mennonite Church USA and other denominations.”

“I commend MMA for their effective service in stewardship and mutual aid, particularly in helping to initiate The Corinthian Plan,” said Ervin Stutzman, executive director, Mennonite Church USA. “I trust their thoughtful work to create a new brand will keep them vitally linked to Mennonite Church USA at the same time they extend their reach to other groups.”

“The Executive Committee has been in conversation with MMA about the new name and what it means for our denomination,” said Ed Diller, moderator, Mennonite Church USA. “We are supportive of this direction. This initiative has given MMA and Mennonite Church USA the opportunity to commit to even deeper relationships than have existed in the past. We are convinced that those deeper relationships will help in our efforts to join in God’s work to bring healing and hope to the world.”

The branding process formally began the summer of 2009 when MMA hired a branding consultant, FutureBrand. The organizations expect to begin using the name publicly late in 2010. Full conversion is expected to take approximately 12 months. More information is available at www.MMA-online.org.

About MMA and Mennonite Financial
MMA helps people and groups integrate their finances with faith values through its insurance and financial services. Rooted in the Anabaptist faith tradition, MMA also offers practical stewardship education and tools to individuals, congregations, organizations, and businesses. To learn more, visit www.mma-online.org or call (800) 348-7468.

Mennonite Financial Federal Credit Union is a full-service cooperative credit union chartered to serve members of the Anabaptist community throughout the United States. With the once-a-member, always-a-member policy, Mennonite Financial also provides financial services to members who are now scattered throughout the world.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Everence, Larry D. Miller, LaVern Yutzy, Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Financial Federal Credit Union, MMA, National News, W. Kent Hartzler

Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership welcomes news service coordinator

April 16, 2010 by

On April 21, Annette Brill Bergstresser will join the Executive Leadership Communications team in the position of News Service Coordinator.

In this role Bergstresser will be responsible for streamlined news gathering and reporting for Executive Leadership, Mennonite Education Agency, Mennonite Mission Network, MMA, Mennonite Publishing Network and constituency groups. She will collaborate with these groups through regular meetings and will serve as copyeditor for the news that is distributed.

Bergstresser said she was attracted to the position because “it involves communicating about what God is doing across Mennonite Church USA, building relationships with different parts of the church, and extending the church’s witness to the wider world.”

Bergstresser has a bachelor’s degree in magazine journalism from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. For the last seven years, she has served as communications coordinator for Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference in Goshen, Ind. In this role she has developed a deeper understanding of the congregations in the conference—their diverse histories, unique cultures, strengths and challenges. And during that time her connection to the wider church has grown, as she and her co-workers have sought to link the various parts of Mennonite Church USA to their constituents.

Bergstresser is a relatively new Mennonite who did not grow up attending church. Soon after choosing to make a public commitment to Jesus Christ in 1997, she discovered Peace Mennonite Church in Lawrence, Kan., where she was baptized on May 31, 1998. As she became more involved in her congregation, one of the ways she sought to deepen her understanding of the Mennonite Church was by reading denominational publications; she remembers this as a faith-forming experience.

Before joining Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference, she did service learning for half a year in the publishing division of the Latin American Anabaptist Seminary in Guatemala City, as well as a term of voluntary service in Chicago. Following those experiences she studied for a year at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), Elkhart, Ind., where her sense of call to church communications work was strengthened.

Currently Bergstresser and her family live in Goshen and are part of Faith Mennonite Church. She also works part time as communications assistant for AMBS, and plans to continue in that role.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: AMBS, Annette Brill Bergstresser, Latin American Anabaptist Seminary, Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Mission Network, National News

Collaborative missional learning task force formed for Indian Valley initiatives

April 14, 2010 by

by Stephen Kriss

Leaders from ministries and organizations connected with Eastern District Conference and Franconia Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Church USA met on April 5 at Dock Woods Community at Lansdale, Pa, to initiate a conversation about future partnerships toward collaborative missional learning. The gathering has implications for broader cooperation and included representatives from Living Branches (an affiliation of Franconia Conference-related retirement communities), Christopher Dock Mennonite High School, Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Pennsylvania and Biblical Seminary in Hatfield, Pa. The meeting included board members, business leaders, pastors, conference staff and organizational leaders in conversation together.

The group met to discuss possibilities and to engage in storytelling on the movement on education and equipping within a variety of contexts, considering from the pew to pulpit as well as later year learning. Though an informal conversation, the group named a task force to continue the conversation toward more practical realities and paths for mutual enhancement of mission and vision for extending the reign of God and missional engagement locally in Bucks and Montgomery Counties in Pennsylvania.

Franconia Conference is undergoing a conference-wide review while regional conferences of Mennonite Church USA, including Harleysville-based Eastern District Conference, continue to explore collaborative equipping and learning opportunities from an Anabaptist perspective. Christopher Dock Mennonite High School is also in the midst of a marketing review along with Penn View Christian School in nearby Souderton, Pa. Both Biblical Seminary and Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Pennsylvania are expanding options to serve emerging congregational leaders in the Philadelphia region considering both urban and suburban constituencies. With the recent affiliation of Souderton Mennonite Homes and the Dock Woods facilities under the name Living Branches, there is a new opportunity to explore lifelong living and learning among a community of 1500 residents.

The group named a task force set to include:

  • Phil Bergstresser, board member Christopher Dock Mennonite High School, broker/owner, Bergstresser Real Estate
  • David Dunbar, President, Biblical Seminary
  • Steve Kriss, Director of Leadership Cultivation for Franconia Conference of Mennonite Church USA
  • Rich McDaniel, board member Biblical Seminary, president of College Retail Alliance
  • Conrad Swartzentruber, Principal, Christopher Dock Mennonite High School
  • Mark Wenger, Director of Pastoral Studies, Eastern Mennonite Seminary at Lancaster (Pa)
  • Warren Tyson, Conference Minister, Eastern District Conference of Mennonite Church USA

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Biblical Seminary, Christopher Dock, Conference News, Dock Woods Community, Eastern District, Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Franconia Conference, Living Branches, Stephen Kriss

Franconia Conference Review Steering Committee invites additional members

April 9, 2010 by Conference Office

Stephen Kriss

The Franconia Conference Review Steering Committee received nearly 80 nominations for the available sixth position on the recently formed committee. In consultation on April 8, 2010, at the Mennonite Conference Center in Harleysville, PA, the committee moved to increase its numbers and to adjust its members based on feedback from conference constituency.

Additional committee members include:
• Mike Derstine, pastor, Plains Mennonite Church at Hatfield, PA
• Beny Krisbianto, pastor, Nations Worship Center, Philadelphia
• Joy Sutter, Salford Mennonite Church at Harleysville, PA
Previously named member Gerry Clemmer, lead pastor, at Souderton (PA) Mennonite Church has removed himself from the committee to allow space for additional members to represent broader conference constituency. The committee of seven now includes three Franconia Conference board members and four representatives from the Franconia Conference constituent community.

The committee is set with the task of establishing patterns of communication, discernment and decision-making for the upcoming report on the conference-wide review, currently in process under the leadership of LaVern Yutzy, consulting associate with Mennonite Health Services Alliance. The report is intended to shed light on recent events in Franconia Conference; to provide better understanding of issues that will need further processing and to find a path toward a hopeful future while not intending to answer all questions. The report will be available to delegates and constituency by mid-May. The committee intends to have a full report posted at www.mosaicmennonites.org

Yutzy expects to complete his final day of open listening sessions on April 21, 2010, at the Conference Center in Harleysville. To schedule a conversation with LaVern, contact Carla or Melissa, at the Conference Center at 267-932-6050 or email office@mosaicmennonites.org Postcards with questions for perspectives and comments have been sent to all conference delegates and congregations. Postcards should be returned or responses emailed to feedback@mosaicmennonites.org by April 24, 2010. All responses are confidential.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Conference News, Mennonite Conference Center, National News, Review Steering Committee, Stephen Kriss

Franconia Conference names steering committee and review timeline

April 1, 2010 by

Stephen Kriss

The board of directors of Franconia Conference has named a Conference Review Steering Committee to provide oversight for the assessment being performed by consultant LaVern Yutzy. The committee includes:

  • Donella Clemens, Perkasie (Pa.) Mennonite Church
  • Gerry Clemmer, senior pastor, Souderton (Pa.) Mennonite Church
  • Randy Heacock, pastor, Doylestown (Pa.) Mennonite Church
  • Jim Laverty, pastor of equipping and discipling, Souderton Mennonite Church
  • Karen Moyer, Rocky Ridge Mennonite Church at Quakertown, Pa.

The committee will be expanded to include a sixth person. Suggestions of persons who might be considered as a sixth member are welcome from all constituents. Please send suggested names to feedback@mosaicmennonites.org by April 6, 2010, for consideration.

The review being conducted by Yutzy, consulting associate with Mennonite Health Services Alliance, is intended to shed light on recent events in Franconia Conference; to provide better understanding of issues that will need further processing and to find a path toward a hopeful future. The process is designed to review the role, structure and staffing of Franconia Conference, clarifying issues around recent events and underlying concerns while not intending to answer all questions.

The review listening process began on March 18 and initially focused on conversations with 14 Conference staff. Yutzy met with 15 persons on March 29 and 30 including delegates, pastors and other interested persons from the Conference. With guidance from the Conference Review Steering Committee, Yutzy will continue the listening process. He will be available on April 8 and a second April date later in the month. Persons who would like to share their perspective are invited to call the Conference Center at 267-932-6050 and speak to Carla or Melissa to arrange a time to meet with LaVern or email office@mosaicmennonites.org to schedule a face-to-face meeting time on either of those dates.

Yutzy has received a number of e-mails and invites persons to continue to share their perspectives and counsel. Feedback about this communication and any aspect of the review process is welcome. Though LaVern may not be able to respond to every e-mail, counsel and comments are valued and appreciated at feedback@mosaicmennonites.org.

The Conference will send postcards with response questions to all congregations and delegates encouraging feedback into the process by April 24, 2010.

Recommendations that emerge from this review are likely to require further review and processing with persons and groups involved in order to determine appropriate direction. The Conference Review Steering Committee will develop a potential process for reviewing the recommendations and a path for decision-making regarding those recommendations. The report is expected to be available to the board and delegates in mid-May, 2010.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Board, Conference News, Franconia Conference, Review Steering Committee, Stephen Kriss

MCC’s Haiti response continues with medical teams, engineers and food aid

March 29, 2010 by

by Marla Pierson Lester

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) medical teams and structural engineers are providing immediate assistance in Haiti now, and distributions of food and relief supplies are ongoing even as MCC plans the next steps in its multiyear response to the Jan. 12 earthquake.

A five-person MCC medical team from Canada is serving in Port-au-Prince March 7 to 20. A three-person medical team from the United States will be in Haiti from March 21 to April 3.

Short-term teams of structural engineers that began arriving in January have examined more than 250 buildings, and MCC is seeking additional engineers who are interested in serving in Haiti this spring.

MCC continues to provide rations of rice, beans, cooking oil, canned meat and spaghetti to nine communities, reaching at least 6,000 people who have been forced from home by the earthquake. It is likely that food is also being given to additional relatives and friends, echoing the strong emphasis on sharing in Haitian culture.

MCC is also providing materials for bamboo and cement-base showers for people living in camps of displaced people. Those living in the camps had identified the need for a private space to wash, especially for women, said Betty Kasdorf, MCC’s Food, Disaster and Material Resources program manager.

MCC relief kits, tarps for shelter, comforters and flat sheets are being distributed as soon as they arrive in Haiti, and additional shipments are on their way to Haiti. Because of expected Haitian government changes that might slow items coming through customs after April, MCC is striving to ship all its initial emergency material aid in the next three to four weeks.

An MCC assessment team visited dozens of people, including MCC partners and government officials, from Feb. 21 to March 6 – hearing from each the enormity of the tasks before them.

MCC’s response will not only address the needs of people within Port-au-Prince, said Ron Flaming, MCC’s director of international programs, but will also include significant efforts to improve the livelihoods and prospects of people who have moved to rural areas.

The assessment team recommends that MCC can meet significant needs in areas including shelter and housing, economic development, food security, education, peace-building and advocacy, health and trauma healing.

“What struck me most is the complexity of the situation,” stressed Kasdorf, who recently visited Haiti as part of the assessment team. “The whole country is affected by this.”

The assessment team found that while food was being distributed within Port-au-Prince, many rural areas had not yet received any assistance and were struggling to share limited food with new arrivals.

Kasdorf said the group heard from nonprofit organizations, from MCC partners and from government officials that what is needed now is for relief, government services, education and jobs to be made more widely available throughout the country.

The scope of this effort will be far greater than rebuilding in a single geographic location.

“It’s a massive, complex humanitarian disaster,” Flaming said. “Right now people are still focused on trying to clean up, on figuring out how to survive today, tomorrow and for the next few months.”

Even as MCC’s response in Haiti continues, planning for the next five years is also well underway, says Flaming. Longer-term planning includes determining which communities to focus on and top priorities. He noted that in MCC’s response to the 2004 Asian tsunami, some projects that had the most lasting impact were not planned until a full year after the tsunami hit.

Paramount in all MCC efforts will be listening to the voices of Haitian people and partners and providing tools to help Haitians recover from the quake and build up their own communities, said Kasdorf.

To learn more about MCC’s response to the Haiti earthquake, go to mcc.org/haitiearthquake.

Marla Pierson Lester is publications and website content editor for MCC.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Earthquake, global, Haiti, intercultural, Marla Pierson Lester, MCC, medical, missional, Service

MCC Perspective: The place of peace in constructing Haiti

March 29, 2010 by

by Rebecca Bartel and Alexis Erkert Depp

As the world rallies in response to the catastrophic earthquake of Jan. 12, 2010, in Haiti, the global Christian family is invited to consider the place of God’s shalom, God’s peace, in the rebuilding of Haitian lives and infrastructure.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is doing just that, as we provide immediate emergency support, but also plan for medium- and long-term efforts.

MCC’s commitment to working toward the holistic well-being of communities and churches around the world stems from God’s vision of peace and dignity for humanity. The prophet Micah describes this as instruction that goes forth from Zion, “the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,” that “they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.” (Micah 4:4, NRSV)

This vision holds central basic human rights, such as access to food, health care, meaningful employment, security and education.

It also underscores the necessity of justice for the vision to be fulfilled, and the importance of human empowerment.

To understand the strategies needed for Haiti’s construction, it is appropriate to consider the obstacles this country has experienced. Natural disasters are beyond our human control, but the vulnerability of Haiti to their horrific consequences is human-made. There is nothing natural about poverty, hunger and political unrest.

Poverty. Beginning with the exorbitant debt of 150 million francs (the equivalent of $21 billion U.S. today) forced on the population after independence from France in 1804, to more recent structural adjustment policies and conditions on foreign aid, Haiti has been under the heel of external economic policies that exacerbate and systematize poverty.

Until June 2009, Haiti was paying $56 million to $70 million a year to service debts to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Close to 45 percent of that debt was incurred during the U.S.-backed Duvalier dictatorships (1957-1986). Until the forgiveness of $1.2 billion of Haiti’s foreign debt by the IMF and the World Bank last year, the government spent $4 per person on health care and $5 per person on education each year, while paying $5 per person in debt service.

Hunger. Until 1985, Haiti was self-sufficient in rice production – a staple in the modern Haitian diet. Under the tutelage of international financing institutions, such as the World Bank and the IMF, Haiti liberalized its economic policies, opening the door to foreign exports, such as rice.

In 1994 conditions on foreign aid to the country and the reinstatement of ousted President Bertrand Aristide by the U.S. chiseled Haiti’s import tariffs on rice from 35 to 3 percent, the lowest in the region. Because of U.S.-subsidized rice entering the country at half the price of locally produced rice, and because these aid conditions prohibited the Haitian government from subsidizing local production, thousands of rice farmers were put out of business. Many were displaced to urban centers such as Port-au-Prince, where weak infrastructure and the lack of jobs forced millions of people to live in shanty towns and poorly constructed housing.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, now U.N. special envoy to Haiti, publicly apologized on March 10 for championing these policies. Quoted in The New York Times, Clinton said, “It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake. I had to live everyday with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did; nobody else.”

Dependence on foreign food imports magnifies misery in times of crisis.

Political unrest. Haiti has a history of foreign military intervention. This usurping of national authority has weakened state institutions and civil society.

While the foreign troop presence in Haiti is decreasing from the early days following the earthquake, there is still confusion about its mandate. MCC’s Haitian partners say they want military personnel to refrain from carrying assault rifles in public, and for Canadian and U.S. troops to clearly articulate their mission within the framework of the United Nations Mission in Haiti.

Principles that guide MCC’s response. God’s vision of shalom, for the people of Haiti to sit unafraid “under their own vines and under their own fig trees,” calls the Christian family to consider the long-term investment that must be made for Haiti to rise out of the crisis it faced even before the earthquake of Jan. 12. In response to this call, MCC has developed internal principles to guide its part in the work.

These include emphasis on local and sustainable development, Haitian-led decision making about development and investment priorities, demilitarization of aid efforts, and immigration policy that respects the Haitian Diaspora and dignifies the migration process.

It calls us to respond immediately, but also to consider how our governments and institutions make policy decisions that victimize the world’s marginalized people.

It calls us to witness to policymakers, faithfully sharing God’s vision for justice, peace and dignity for all people, and encouraging policy decisions that bring life, not death, to our brothers and sisters around the world.

As relief efforts continue, more opportunities will arise to work for human dignity in Haiti. We cannot control the movements of the earth, but we can control how our voice is heard in government.

The Haitian people call us to share our prophetic voice, as does Isaiah 62:1:

“For Zion’s sake, I will not be silent.” “Jan m’ renmen mòn Siyon sa a! Se pou m’ pale.”

See washington.mcc.org/haiti for more information about the Christian advocacy principles that undergird MCC’s response to the Haiti earthquake.

Rebecca Bartel is MCC policy analyst for Latin America and the Caribbean. Alexis Erkert Depp is MCC policy analyst for Haiti.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Alexis Erkert Depp, Earthquake, global, Haiti, MCC, Rebecca Bartel

The April Pastors' and Leaders' Brekfast features J. Nelson Kraybill

March 29, 2010 by

Filed Under: News Tagged With: AMBS, Conference News, formational, J. Nelson Kraybill, Mennonite Conference Center, Pastor's breakfast, Worship

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