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Monica Haas, Alpha
mohaas3@yahoo.com

I am 38 and a new Mennonite Christian in the beginning of my peace journey. I can’t share big sophisticated words or any biblical theology with you but I can share what my heart is singing. When God puts people in my life to help motivate me on my journey, I am overjoyed and grateful.

I grew up within Roman Catholicism. After my confirmation, I didn’t attend church regularly or have a relationship with God. My family and community always agreed that war is necessary to protect our freedom. Growing up I thought this didn’t seem right, yet I never heard otherwise. I dismissed the thought and went on with my life figuring I was fine as long as I didn’t have to kill anyone or actually see anyone being killed. It became normal not to question it.

You can imagine my shock at age 36 when the Lord of Peace revealed to me that I am the Beloved Daughter of God. I was led to a nurturing, healing Mennonite church, a huge leap for me considering I had never heard of a Mennonite before. Ever since I have been hungry for Jesus’ teachings and studying Anabaptist ways.

Recently, I attended the annual Peace Retreat at Spruce Lake to hear Father John Dear speak about active nonviolence. It was music to me. These are the clear messages that I heard as essential for peacemaking: The Sermon on the Mount should not be only read and studied but taken literally and actively. We should engage in intimate prayer with God, form community, and become fearless. We should not be afraid to speak in a passionate manner, tell we are followers of Jesus, and that all acts of violence on any of God’s children is wrong and is not Jesus’ way.

As brothers and sisters we’re all in this together. We might be from different religions, ethnic backgrounds, or at different places on the peace path, but we are in this world together. We are all needed to help with the everyday struggles against violence, even when it is unpopular. Simple pacifism is not good enough anymore. We need to unite for God’s same purposes.

Father John talked about making time to listen to what God wants us to do and simplifying our lives so that we are not distracted. Between our jobs and accumulating possessions we’re so busy that we get off the path of peace. Gandhi used to meditate an hour in the morning and at night. I have been practicing giving my fears to God so that I am able to hear what God asks of me.

One of our small group sessions raised this question: Where are you going and how far are you willing to go on your peace journey? I used to have my life all planned out, but those days are over. The day I was baptized at Alpha Mennonite Church, at age 37, was one of my most life changing experiences. That was the day I said, “I am yours Lord; do with me as you please.” Now I live one day at a time, lovingly embraced by God, and willing to follow the Lord wherever he leads.

In mid-February Franconia Mennonite Conference welcomed Denise Alderfer as Associate Bookkeeper. Denise works at the Souderton, PA, Conference Center twice a week assisting Conrad Martin, Director of Finance, with bookkeeping duties.

Denise was looking for a change in her life when her shoulder was tapped to apply for this position. She wanted to work in a place where she could serve others. She was encouraged by the opportunity to work with Franconia Conference in bookkeeping because of the possibility of service with her skills. “I felt like this role would allow me to serve the church and use the gifts I already have,” she explains.

Denise is also glad for the opportunity to be more involved with the Mennonite church and hopes to gain deeper understanding of what it means to be Mennonite. Denise lives in Souderton and is a member of Covenant Community Fellowship, Lansdale, PA. She and her husband Mark have two sons, Jordan and Evan.

Sandy Landes

What does the ministry of prayer have to do with Franconia Conference? In November of 2006 I began seeking the answer to that question as the newly appointed Prayer Ministry Coordinator. My overall goal is to see the church grow in unity as stated in Ephesians 4 so that we as a body of believers will grow in maturity and make known the mysteries of the gospel to this community, region, and the world.

God is already at work building houses of prayer around Franconia Conference as congregations are developing active prayer ministries. While Noel Santiago and Jeannette Phillips have worked at encouraging the intercessors, Noel felt the need to have someone on staff to encourage and connect the prayer ministries of the different congregations.

I hope to connect with what God is already doing in congregations through prayer, to provide an environment of encouragement and resourcing for those in prayer ministry, and to provide a network of prayer support for conference related needs. I also hope to reinforce a clear message to our members of the value and importance of prayer in the local church.

We are hoping to have regular times of gathering for those involved in prayer ministry to resource and encourage them. We held our first meeting at the end of January with representatives from 17 congregations. It was a time of connecting with others and hearing their stories of answered prayer, struggles in growing the prayer ministry and the excitement of where God is leading the body of Christ as we walk in obedience.

I hope to see the church grow in its understanding of prayer as a gift of intimacy. I want to see prayer become entral to everything we do, not an add-on at the beginning or end of a meeting. Without acknowledging the power of the Spirit we fall into the trap of doing things by our own strength. God wants our churches to be “houses of prayer” for all who come and for us to take that ministry of prayer into our communities. My hope and prayer is that we will grow in prayer
and understanding God’s heart for us as a body.

(click the header to read all stories)

Read the articles online:

• Rich Moyer retires after nearly 30 years -M. Christine Benner
• Strong and Healthy Congregations? -Steve Kriss
• Engaging Anabaptism across the pond– Blaine Detweiler
• Peaceful Living releases Spring Hymn Sing– John L. Ruth
• Rockhill members serve locally and abroad– Amanda Moser Arkans
• Transformed through service, listening, and humble hearts– Jeanette Baum
• Native Assembly provides Blessings and Questions– Sharon K. Williams,
• A walk leads to better health for 50,000 children– Claude Good
• New Administrative Services Manager follows calling
  to support Franconia Conference mission– Melissa Landis
• 10 compelling reasons to go to San Jose 2007– Gay Brunt Miller

View/download the printable PDF

M. Christine Benner, Peace Mennonite
m.christine.benner@verizon.net

I have known Rich Moyer for most of my life. Rich baptized me, he was the pilot on my one and only toboggan ride, and he introduced me to computer solitaire. If I don’t stop myself, I can lapse into all of my Rich stories here and now. It is a common inclination among others I talked with who know Rich.

Conrad Martin, Rich’s coworker at Franconia Mennonite Conference, shared about a time when there was not a secretary at the office and Rich unquestioningly assumed duties that were not his own. Lee Howard, Rich’s good friend since their college years, told me about the day he walked into Dayton Mennonite Church in Virginia, not intending to attend the church more than once, and was greeted by Rich at the door. He stayed for years.

My father, David Benner, has known Rich since they were children. Many times I have heard the story from Dad’s bus driving days when he subdued an unruly nephew of Rich’s with the mere mention of his name. Fern, Rich’s wife, reflected back to Rich’s role as a Sunday School teacher during their years in Boston. We who know Rich cannot help but tell stories about him.

Maybe we get our inspiration from Rich’s example. In preparation for writing this article, I sat down with Rich for breakfast at the Energy Station inVernfield where Rich told me about his life. Rich tells his own stories straightforwardly without excessive detail or explanation. An insertion of any sentimental digression is poignant. I realized, as we spoke, that I never really knew much about this man who had grown up across the creek from my father, had been my pastor, and always asked earnestly about me.

Rich grew up on a Salford Township farm full of honest work that prepared him for a life of service. Growing up in the Perkiomenville Mennonite congregation, Rich was exposed to examples of leadership both in his own family and in the church body. These role models set the ideal for Rich’s life in ministry. “They gave hours to study, picking up people for church, teaching classes,
and praying for those not committed to Christ.”

Rich and his wife Fern went to Boston to offer a few years of their lives to peace and healing in the city in response to the military draft, and the pattern of service in their life was set. Soon after they returned from Boston the first time, they were called to return as “career disciples” who would work in the community while supporting an Anabaptist church in the area. They stayed for six years living in a culturally diverse neighborhood where they saw both tension and growth among their neighbors.

Rich and Fern adapted even further when the draft ended, reducing the flow of young Anabaptists into Boston. The church eventually closed.Rich was disappointed, but they remained in Boston and joined an Assembly of God congregation. Rich began taking courses at a local college and something clicked. “My mind was opening up again,” he reflected.

The Moyers traveled to Eastern Mennonite College to explore the possibility of further training. Rich completed his undergraduate degree in three years and spent a year in seminary. As school was finishing, Rich remembers feelings of uncertainty that plagued him at the time. He was left, like many young graduates, asking the questions, “What do I do now? Where do I go?”

In September of 1979, the congregation at Perkiomenville was looking for a pastor and called Rich to serve. It was not a full-time role. Rich worked a few days a week at Franconia Mennonite Conference. Since Boston, where he had worked his way to supervisor in cost accounting for a meat packing company, Rich has been managing the books in one way or another.

Rich’s friends and family atttest to his integrity. “My goal is to be able to have people who send money to the conference know that they can trust that the money will be handled with integrity, with no concern for fraud.” As treasurer, Rich worked with congregations to manage their money and understand the ins and outs of budgeting. He expressed special concern for people who were new to the job, who would not
otherwise know how to handle the complicated finances and tax forms for their congregations.

Rich’s interest in people extends beyond confusion over tax forms. Rich has appreciated the connections that his job allowed him to make. “I met church people, new people in the church, missionaries, pastors . . .” In the work of the conference, Rich acted as pastor and bookkeeper simultaneously.

Stephen Kriss
skriss@mosaicmennonites.org

Gulf States Mennonite Conference leader Steve Cheramie-Risingsun said last month at Deep Run East that the church needs Franconia Conference congregations to be strong and healthy. He said that in native tradition the strong, straight trees growing around Deep Run’s meetinghouse suggested good earth and good care-taking.

Steve’s assertion and observation made me ask questions. What does it mean for congregations to be strong and healthy? How is that achieved or maintained? How do centuries old communities remain healthy and strong rather than fragile and disintegrating? What does it mean to be strong, well stewarded and rooted in good earth?

Strong and healthy congregations are careful about what they consume and what consumes them. We live in an age of buffets (both China Wok and Shady Maple) with so much food in the offing that we can easily overeat and ingest more resources than necessary. Consuming too much makes it difficult to move quickly and stresses our bodies. We live in an age of access to information and images that enables us to graze and gaze in ways we never could before. This access can move us into a stupefying information overload in which we confuse knowing, caring, and acting. We even become consumers of the most holy actions – service, worship, learning, travel, rest – which rather than bring us closer to God serve to disconnect, disengage, and disenchant.

Strong and healthy congregations stretch while strengthening their core. I took a pilates class once and the instructor insisted that the body’s core is strengthened through sometimes painful and awkward stretching. The instructor said the body’s core bears much of the ability to move and to deal with tension. Jeanette Baum writes about Deep Run East’s experience building a home for “Shelter of Life” which led to Steve Cheramie-Risingsun’s visit which led to an article in the Allentown Morning Call and regional Native leaders visiting the congregation. In strengthening a core of service in the name of Christ, the church is being stretched in unexpected ways.

Strong and healthy congregations develop relationships that result in new commitments and growth. In Blaine Detwiler’s encounter with Anabaptists in the United Kingdom, we witness a challenging and hopeful emerging relationship. What does it mean for the Western Hemisphere’s oldest Mennonite community to learn from new Anabaptists across the pond?

Could these new relationships and fresh commitments inspire us to create communities that might look radically different from our historic realities? Could the British perspective provide a path for new generations to embrace Anabaptism in a postmodern, global information age? Both the Franconia congregation and Philadelphia Praise Center are building new relationships with Spanish-speakers in their settings. These possibilities have grown from Franconia Conference relationships in Mexico. What commitments will
emerge as these relationships grow?

Strong and healthy congregations train and practice in preparation for witness, response and decision-making. As followers of Jesus, we train and practice our actions in community. Training and practice builds strength and capacity for public witness and response. We sing and pray together. We listen and study together. We eat, laugh, disagree and cry. We wash each other’s feet both literally and figuratively. We share our questions, doubts and possessions. We practice the faith so that we are fully prepared to give witness to the nonviolent way of Christ relevantly and redemptively. According to Mennonite Weekly Review, the top media stories about Mennonite life in 2006 were related to radical forgiveness (the Amish at Nickel Mines and the holding of Christian Peacemaker Team members in Iraq). These moments of profound public witness are rooted in practiced shared action and commitment.

Menno Simons would suggest that strong and healthy congregations are active and cannot be dormant, becoming all things to all people in diverse incarnations of the love that is God. It’s not enough for congregations to be strong and healthy for our own sake, aiming alone to build edifices and program. Instead, this health and strength enables us to move toward vulnerability, openness and risk that becomes the presence of Christ in the world.

Blaine Detweiler, Lakeview
detwiler@nep.net

On the fourth day of our London journey after Charlie and Sarah had put their three young children to bed, the four of us adults took up an energetic conversation. Charlie is a pastor who along with his wife Sarah were giving Matt Hamsher from Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference and me the benefit of their waning hours of Sunday work. Nearing 10:00 and sensing the tone of conversation had gone irretrievably theological in nature, Sarah smiled and excused herself for the night. Before she left, Matt and I thanked them both for their hospitality. I related to them my best understanding of ‘hospitality’ being one in which both ‘guest’ and ‘host’ come away from a table being richer from the experience and that for my part, at least, I could say that my three days with them in their London house had been rich indeed.

Earlier that day I accompanied Sarah and the children to worship at Holy Spirit Church Centre on Ferrier Estate. Church of England is its official registry but through a unique arrangement Charlie Ingram, a Baptist, provides leadership to this congregation. Charlie explained to me the term ‘estate’ in British parlance is an area defined by similar housing units. Ferrier Estate is a section in south London on which government funded housing units were built to accommodate low income residents. Built with the Utopian ideals of early 1970’s Ferrier Estate his since fallen into a state of decline, both structurally and socially.

Charlie admitted his inspiration for serving on Ferrier Estate came from Jesus’ own lips, about preaching ‘good news to the poor…’ words that provoked a near riot in those gathered for a pleasant Sabbath in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30). He is keenly aware of the accumulative effect on the human spirit that prolonged neglect can have; how suspicions arise and how alternative lifestyles emerge when the life of a community, its stores and services, close their doors. Noises echo off the vacant buildings which surround Holy Spirit Church Centre but Charlie is committed to his community and determined their church be a place of blessing to those who profoundly need one.

While Charlie is purposed and measured in his demeanor, Sarah, displays unusual calm given the circumstances. They long agonized but then decided for safety reasons and for the sake of young children to purchase a house within brief walking distance off the Estate. As Sarah readied her three children all under the age of five for the Sunday walk to church she displayed an almost ‘holy’ composure. None of the dangers Charlie earlier related to us such as robbery, general hooliganism and the progression of knives to guns on Ferrier Estate seemed to deter Sarah and the children from their purpose.

Sarah’s poise reminds me of Mary, Jesus’ mother, who, for all of what we can garner, took with assurance the news of God’s pregnancy. When I looked at Sarah and Charlie I gained a real sense of the radical risks involved with the kingdom of God and I gained confidence for any future absurdities I may be confronted with at Lakeviewor at Franconia Conference. I took from the table of Charlie’s and Sarah’s hospitality a clear impression of Jesus’ words ‘do not be afraid’ and can only wonder what I might have given them in return.

This learning trip was designed to explore and better understand the present unfolding phenomenon dubbed ‘post-Christendom.’ English author Jonathan Bartley refers to its precedent ‘Christendom’ as ‘an arrangement’ or a ‘ power structure’ and as having ‘a culture’ of its own. Christendom is the marbling of Jesus’ gospel with the power brokers of a given political system. As such, Christianity has long been granted ‘pride of place’ within the functioning of an empire and has long been assumed to be of great benefit to the state. However, in many settings that place of privilege is shifting and we’re entering a new and unsettled age.

On day two of our journey, several of us boarded a red double-decker bus towards our appointed meeting time with Jo Frew. She had just gotten off work and when the nine of us had gathered in the street she scouted the neighborhood for her choice of a suitable meeting place. It turned out to be the rear of a rather noisy pub. After ordering, we sat down to eat and to hear her talk about her work with SPEAK, a network of young people with a bent for prayers and fairness and the kingdom of God. Jo sat in the center of our table. One other person sat between us but I could not hear Jo. I bent my ear and strained to no avail. A pub is an active place and the din proved to be the winner that night. Jo is a pensive, soft spoken woman. She did not force the issue.

In Jo, I saw a spiritual presence, a posture I saw represented in others we met as well. If ‘Christendom’ favored ‘dominance’ and ‘compliance’ what I saw in her and others differed considerably. Where ‘Christendom’ sought order and preferred visible delineated structures, what I began to see was more fluid and engaging. Where Mennonites in the US have been more keen on
properly maintained boundaries of community and theology and would much prefer to meet in areas set aside for sacred activities, Jo took us to a pub. It seemed to matter not so much where we met but whom we were with. I took note. Anabaptists in the UK are a series of networks, people connected by e-mail, interest and Jesus. Dotted throughout their land from London to Lockerbie, from Oxford to Bristol all the way to Northern Ireland is a network of learning communities. Anabaptism in the UK is more of a verb than a noun, a movement seemingly born by search. I got a real sense that UK Anabaptism lives, as a movement, a verb, acting very consistently with something Jesus once said about the kingdom, that it is like “…yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.” Seeing Jo Frew, dressed in a mottled ensemble of colors, seated in the rear of a London pub may press for some the matter of ‘post-Christendom’ past comfortable, but for me it was a focused picture of church on the margins. It was a reminder that although Jesus went to local synagogues and to Jerusalem’s large temple, the places he so often showed up at were because of people already there. We must not forget that.

It is Jesus talk. I know Jesus didn’t say it, but many of the Christians I saw in the UK lived into their post-Christendom disadvantage, graciously. I saw in the Ingrams’ and others a truly attractive approach to their work. If asked to account for the buoyant spirit of the folks we encountered on this journey, I would guess it has to do with their status. In ‘Christendom’ the issue was citizenship. ‘Post-Christendom’ is the birth pangs of a new and unsettled world, but it comes with a healthy recognition that, in the realm of God, one is a pilgrim, with freedom and confidence to be on the move.