Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Conference News

Perkasie congregation screens award-winning documentary

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by Becky Felton, Perkasie

Perkasie Mennonite Church screened a newly-released international documentary film this September to congregational and community members. The film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, tells the inspirational story of women caught in the middle of a vicious civil war in Liberia who banded together to find ways to bring peace.

Thousands of women — ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunts and daughters, both Christian and Muslim — came together to pray for peace and then staged a silent protest outside of the Presidential Palace. Armed only with white T-shirts and the courage of their convictions, they demanded a resolution to the country’s civil war. Despite bullets and threats of death and torture, the women prayed, demonstrated for nine straight months and helped negotiate a ceasefire and a transitional government which ousted dictator Charles Taylor.

One of the leaders of the movement, Leymah Gbowee, helps narrate her story. Gbowee later was a student at Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. She has won numerous humanitarian awards.

A New York Times columnist described the movie as a story of the “power of ordinary people to intervene in their own fate.” It was directed by Emmy-winning director Gini Reticker.

Contact Becky Felton at Perkasie congregation if interested in purchasing or borrowing a DVD of the film at info@perkmenno.org The film was screened at hundreds of locations in the U.S. and Canada in honor of the International Day of Peace, September 21.

Conference Assembly 2009: Cultivating Healthy and Growing Leaders

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Full Online Docket
Read the full online docket in preparation for Conference Assembly in November!

Conference Related Ministry Reports
Read updates from the wide variety of Conference Related Ministries

Church-wide Agency Reports

Conference Assembly 2009 Schedule of Events

Link to map of Souderton Mennonite Church

Printed Materials
please print and bring the following document with you to Conference Assembly

  • VFP Progress Update 2009

Workshop Descriptions

Please check back soon for the following:

Newly Credentialed Leaders

**information will be posted as it becomes available.**

Conference Assembly 2009 Online Docket

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Section I – Board / Committee Updates
Click here to read updates from the Conference Board, Ministerial Committee, Finance Committee, and FMC Properties.

Section II – Minutes 2008

  • Friday, November 7
  • Saturday, November 8
  • Summary of Actions

Section III – Gift Discernment

  • Ballot 2009
  • Gift Discernment Nomination Form
    Click on the link above to see the blank nomination form we ask delegates to fill out, suggesting names for the gift discernment process. This form will be handed out for delegate input at Conference Assembly.

Section IV – Conferring Documents

Vision and Financial Plan Update

  • Vision and Financial Plan Team Recommendations – November 10, 2007
  • VFP Progress Update document

Franconia Conference leaders meet with initiators of Open Letter

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Stephen Kriss

Franconia Mennonite Conference leaders recently met with young leaders who crafted and signed the Open Letter to Franconia Conference, which calls for a more inclusive Franconia Conference.

Before making the letter available on the Internet, a group of these young leaders requested a meeting with Noel Santiago, Franconia Conference executive minister. The letter is now posted online and continues to garner signatures from those who support the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons in the life and leadership of Mennonite congregations.

Franconia Conference staff Ertell Whigham, Jessica Walter and Randy Heacock, assistant conference moderator and pastor at Doylestown (Pa.) Mennonite Church joined Santiago in the conversation with young leaders–Amanda Yoder of the Blooming Glen congregation, Christian Allebach from Souderton church and Maddie Ruth, Emma Ruth and Justin Yoder all from the Salford congregation.

According to Santiago, “The conversation together between these young persons and conference leaders was cordial, healthy and informative. I believe we were able to hear and understand what these young persons wanted to communicate and commend them for the approach and grace in which they communicated it. While it is evidently clear that we’re at very different places of understanding and practice, nonetheless, this gathering was one expression of the resolution on following Christ and growing together even as communities in conflict.”

The resolution was one of three passed at the Mennonite Church USA denominational assembly in Columbus, OH, in July. Across the church, youth and young adults have been mobilized toward action and engagement out of the conversations in Ohio, particularly around issues of human sexuality.

Franconia Conference continues in dialogue with Alpha (NJ) Mennonite Church toward discernment of future relationship and postures together after the congregation’s move toward openness to members and leaders regardless of sexual orientation. Details on that process will be released in the near future.

 

Conference plans office relocation to further focus on mission and ministry

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Sheldon C. Good

Franconia Mennonite Conference plans to relocate its offices from Souderton to Harleysville to further follow through on the Conference’s Vision and Financial Plan.

“We are confident,” executive minister Noel Santiago said, “that this move will help us make the most of the properties we own in such a way to continue to release more dollars for ministry not only here locally, but regionally and globally.”

The conference will relocate to office space on Yoder Road in nearby Harleysville, adjacent to the Mennonite Historians of Eastern Pennsylvania. The new office — most recently occupied by T.H. Properties — measures 3,200 square feet in usable space, a reduction of 5,800 square feet from the current location in the Souderton Center. The conference plans to sublet the second floor of the Yoder Road property.

Henry Rosenberger from the Plains congregation has been a key resource person serving alongside the conference property committee during the planned relocation. Rosenberger said it makes sense for the conference to relocate near MHEP and that having the two offices together provides “a wealth of resources,” which depict “the story of our local faith community.”

The move stems from a recommendation from the conference Vision and Financial Plan team to downsize office space. According to the “Real Estate Recommendations” from the plan team, the “office should relocate and downsize its square footage…”

Meanwhile conference-related ministry Care and Share Shoppes, which currently operates from the other end of the Souderton Center, has been growing by “leaps and bounds and is in need of more space,” Santiago said. Care and Share will occupy the vacated space, along with an additional section of retail area no longer needed by Berean Christian Stores (formerly Provident Bookstores).

Ultimately, the Franconia Conference Vision and Financial Plan team recommended the move “to solidify the financial base of the conference and focus the leadership of the conference on the leadership of ministry, rather than the management of property.”

“It’s a very good decision financially,” Rosenberger said, “and the new facility is properly sized for the conference.”

Santiago also believes the move from Souderton to Harleysville lines up with the plan team’s goal. “The spirit of [their] recommendation is retained in our move outside the center,” Santiago said.