Conference News

The Care & Share Shoppes’ are delighted to present to their customers the opportunity to purchase gift cards which can be used in the Clothing, Variety and Furniture Shoppes. Proceeds from these shoppes benefit Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) which is a relief, development and peace agency of the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ Churches.

These gift cards will be replacing the previous paper gift certificate program. Customers are encouraged to redeem their paper gift certificates by December 31, 2009, whereas after this date they will no longer be accepted.

Sarah Bergin, Executive Director of the Care and Share Shoppes, explained the benefit of these cards. “Your gift card purchase helps many. First, the person you give it too will benefit from a huge selection of high quality merchandise in our shoppes, where your dollar buys much more than if you were shopping at a new retailer. Second, the money spent at our shoppes then becomes your ‘gift to the world’ as MCC uses these funds to assist others.”

“Many people are often surprised to learn that 25% off MCC’s funding supports those here in the United States,” continued Sarah. “Customers and those that donate to our shoppes should feel good knowing that MCC does a remarkable job finding non-profit partners to facilitate our donated dollars in the most effective manner.”

The increasingly popular monthly half-price sale will now be on the third Friday of each month – the next one on March 20. Shop from 10am till 8pm, all items in the three Shoppes are half of the ticketed price with a few exceptions and must be removed the day of sale.

The Care & Share Shoppes have been serving the local community for over 32 years. The Shoppes are centrally located; 10 miles from Doylestown, 10 miles from Quakertown, and 8 miles from Lansdale. Local shoppers benefit from the availability of low cost, high quality items. Donors contribute to the recycling and conservation efforts that affect the broader community in positive ways. Volunteers become part of a special community which embraces service above self. The funds raised for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) provide resources and aid for those in need, in North America and around the world.

During the first weekend in May, Eastern Mennonite University at Lancaster will partner with Sunnyside Mennonite Church to host “Ancient Christian Paths, Contemporary Lives” led by Frederica Mathewes-Green.

Frederica Mathewes-Green is a nationally known speaker and author on Christian spirituality. Her work has appeared in such diverse publications as the Washington Post, Christianity Today, Smithsonian, the Los Angeles Times, First Things, Books & Culture, Sojourners, Touchstone, and the Wall Street Journal. She is a regular columnist for the multifaith web magazine Beliefnet.com, and she writes movie reviews for National Review Online and Christianity Today Movies.

The weekend of events is scheduled for May 2-3 and includes a morning and afternoon session on Saturday and a Sunday morning service. All evetns will be held at Sunnyside Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pa.

Registration is required. For more information and online registration visit  emu.edu/lancaster/seminary

With the resignation of Elaine Moyer as principal at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School (Lansdale, PA), the school’s Board of Trustees has implemented a transition process.

• The board’s executive committee has been named as the Transition Committee: Phil Bergstresser, LeeAnn Bergey, Henry Longacre, and Ruth Yoder.
• The Board reaffirmed and agreed on several foundational beliefs to guide their decisions during the transition. Dock will retain an unapologetic Anabaptist/Mennonite identity considered essential to retain Dock’s vision. Dock is committed to continued collaborative work with Penn View and Quakertown Christian Schools and on the GPS 2012 initiative.
• A Search Committee was named to to find a new principal and prepare a transition timetable. Members include: Joy Sutter, chair; Hunter Hess, Sharon Fransen, Jim Lapp, and Henry Longacre. Their intent is to employ a replacement by the beginning of the new school year.

The Search Committee also released the following employment advertisement. More information relating to the search process can be found online at dockhs.org by clicking on “DockSearch.” The Committee invites prayers and suggestion of possible candidates from leaders and members in the Franconia Conference community.

ADVERTISEMENT for Principal at Dock

Christopher Dock Mennonite High School, a leading secondary school in southeastern PA with 400 students and 40 faculty members seeks an outstanding educational leader rooted in the Anabaptist faith to serve as principal for the school beginning in July 2009. The successful candidate will embody a strong sense of community/team building, demonstrate well-developed leadership and administrative skills, display excellent interpersonal and communication skills, be an educator with a passion for leadership in a secondary school, and be an active member of a congregation affiliated with an Anabaptist church. Master’s degree and educational leadership experience required. Interested applicants should submit letter of intent and curriculum vitae to: Joy Sutter, chair of search committee, 2671 Crabapple Circle, Perkasie, PA 18944, or email to DockSearch@gmail.com. Further information for potential candidates can be found at www.dockhs.org.

On February 21, one of Perkasie Patchwork Coffeehouse’s favorite bands returns to sing and play the night away as we look forward to spring. DayBreak and opening act Glass Roses will perform folk music at the Perkasie Patchwork Coffeehouse in the Perkasie Mennonite Church hall at 4th & Chestnut Streets in Perkasie, PA. Experience the warmth and energy of DayBreak on a winter’s night.

Doors open at 7 pm with performances at 7:30. Adults $9, Adults over 65 $7, Students 13 and up $4, 12 & under free. Refreshments will also be available for purchase.

The musicians of DayBreak have been harmonizing together in and around the Lehigh and Bucks Counties of Pennsylvania since 1990. The group includes Cliff Cole playing the hammered dulcimer, guitar, and percussion; Anna Lisa Yoder on the violin, mandolin and bouzouki; Rob Yoder on concertina, guitar, bodhrán, harp and mountain dulcimer. DayBreak also incorporates the musical skills of their children: Emily Cole on voice and pennywhistle, Trudy Yoder on cello, Lydia Yoder on violin and bodhrán, and Seth Yoder on hammered dulcimer and keyboard. Everyone lends their voices to a growing repertoire of winsome and compelling songs. DayBreak has performed in various settings including The Bethlehem Musikfest, Longwood Gardens, Godfrey Daniels Coffeehouse, The Allentown Mayfair, Foy Hall at Moravian College, Celtic Classic, Perkasie Patchwork Coffeehouse, Kutztown Pennsylvania German Festival and at various clubs and churches. Along with their three recordings, DayBreak is featured in the soundtrack for Expressions of Common Hands, a documentary on Pennsylvania German folk arts. Visit www.daybreakfolk.com for more information.

Opening act Glass Roses features daughter/father duo Emily Rose and Cliff Cole in combination with friend Rob Fedorczyk. This team combines hammered dulcimer, voice, tin whistle, slide and electric guitar, bass guitar, and percussion in genres from folk to folk rock. All three are experienced musicians and composers.

Check out our website at www.perkmenno.org for directions or more information, or call 215-723-2010.

Upcoming Perkasie Patchwork Coffeehouse shows:

• March 21 – Wayfarers and Company + Steve Begley
• April 16 – Ken Kolodner + Boys of County Bucks
• May 16 – Kim & Reggie Harris
• October 17 – Gordon Bok
• November 21 – Charlie Zahm & Tad Marks + Unsafe At Any Speed

In February DreamSeeker Books will release a memoir of a father’s life, legacy and death, entitled Long After I’m Gone, by Deborah Good of West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship. A recent Cascadia Publishing House news release described the book as follows:

In this unique and compelling memoir, the voice of a well-loved father intertwines with that of his twenty-four-year-old daughter, as he fights the ravages of a cancer that eventually takes his life.

Deborah Good was living in Philadelphia,when her life was hit suddenly with terrible news. Her father’s CT scans showed multiple spots of cancer. Deborah moved back in with her parents, Betty and Nelson Good, in Washington, D.C., and as Nelson approached death, spent hours sitting with him while he reflected back on the interlocking pieces of his unconventional job life. Nelson was neither a saint nor a celebrity and, by many measures, was a rather ordinary person, yet he lived with a humble integrity and a commitment to others that touched many.

From his spot on a padded green recliner, Nelson told the stories of seven projects, communities, and organizations he had cared about: a neighborhood community center, an experiential education program for college students (Washington Community Scholars Center of Eastern Mennonite University), an alternative day school for foster children, a retreat center, a house church, a historic building restoration and a unique house renovation.

After Deborah listened, took notes, and tape-recorded their conversations, she added her own reflections. The resulting memoir is a unique intertwining of a father’s history-telling with a daughter’s personal journey of remembrance, loss and grief.

Deborah Good is a writer, editor and, currently, a student and research assistant at Temple University, where she is pursuing a Master of Social Work. Her short essays and poetry have appeared in What Mennonites Are Thinking 2002 (Good Books), Crossroads, The Other Side and Dreamseeker Magazine.

For more information about the book click here.

The Board of Trustees of Christopher Dock Mennonite High School (Dock) today announced that Principal Elaine A. Moyer has accepted the position of Associate Director of Mennonite Education Agency, the oversight organization for education in Mennonite Church USA, and will be concluding her service to Dock at the end of the school year.

“Elaine has faithfully served Dock for the last 26 years—the past 20 in the role of principal,” said J. Philip Bergstresser, chair of the Dock Board of Trustees. “Throughout her tenure, Elaine led the school through significant growth, while strengthening our mission and boldly opening doors to Christ-centered education in our area.”

Moyer is Dock’s fifth chief administrator, and the first woman to fill the role of principal. Her participatory leadership style affirms people in their gifts and abilities. Under her leadership, Dock has built a strong leadership team that will serve the students and community well for years to come.

“Elaine has cultivated a vibrant community of faculty, students, parents and administrators who are committed to excellence in learning, from an Anabaptist/Mennonite perspective,” said Martin Wiens, Dock’s assistant principal.

Over the past 26 years Elaine played a key role in growing and enhancing Dock’s mission, while also championing Anabaptist education and ideals in our region, and around the country. She collaborated with Penn View Christian School and Quakertown Christian Schools to align K-12 curriculum and create the GPS 2012: Boldly Opening Doors to Christ-Centered Mennonite Education strategic plan. Elaine also played a key role in creating the Mennonite edition of Validating the Vision, an accreditation tool used by the Middle States Association, and serves on the Executive Committee of Mennonite Schools Council, a national body dedicated to advancing Anabaptist education.

At Dock, Elaine worked with faculty to enhance the learning experience, introducing such programs as Building Community, which provides students with opportunities to build healthy relationships within the school community and exposes them to service opportunities in the broader community and the world. She also successfully led multimillion-dollar campaigns to build the Longacre Center, which includes a theater, gym and fitness center; the stadium and field house; art building; maintenance building; caretaker’s house; and most recently the Rosenberger Academic Center which includes state-of-the-art science, computer and family and consumer science labs, a library and a guidance suite.

“I have been blessed by the experiences and relationships that Dock has afforded me,” said Moyer. “My love for and commitment to Mennonite education was supported and allowed to flourish. After this school year, I will leave Dock in excellent hands, and will pray for God’s continued blessing on Dock’s mission of developing ‘the God-given abilities of our students, in preparation for responsible stewardship of life as members of God’s people in a global society.’”

The Board has established a Transition Committee that will develop and oversee a leadership transition plan and recruit the next principal for Dock.

“Elaine has built an outstanding team that will ensure continuity of our mission and help to take us to new heights in the future,” continued Bergstresser. “We are grateful to Elaine for her service, and look forward to working with her in her new role with Mennonite Education Agency.”

For more information about the upcoming transition click here to download a letter from J. Philip Bergstresser.