When Philadelphia pastor Leonard Dow was invited to participate in a dialogue between U.S. and Canadian religious leaders and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he accepted because he felt that the gathering had implications for his own work.
“What’s going in Iran affects Philadelphia,” says Dow.
The event was convened by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and supported by a number of organizations including the American Friends Service Committee, Mennonite Church USA and the Church of the Brethren General Board.
More than 100 people gathered in New York at the the Church Center for the United Nations to listen to President Ahmadinejad and ask questions on topics ranging from the Holocaust to Iran’s nuclear program.
The September 2007 meeting is a part of an on-going effort by MCC to facilitate discussion between Christians in the United States and the people and government of Iran. MCC began its work in Iran in 1991, following an earthquake in the region.
Dow, who was invited to participate by Mennonite Church USA, says that the dialogue helped him to better understand the issues surrounding U.S. foreign policy as well as Christian-Muslim relations, issues which relate to his neighborhood. Dow is African-American and pastors a multiracial congregation, and notes that the numbers of Arab Muslims as well as African-American Muslims is growing in cities across the United States. He says that religious diversity is increasing all around the city– in west Philadelphia, Germantown, and even at the corner of Howell and Landgon, where Oxford Circle Mennonite Church (a Franconia Conference Partner in Mission congregation) is located. Imams and mosques can now be seen in the community working on housing, food programs and other justice initiatives traditionally served primarily by churches.
“The Muslim community here is keeping a close eye on how we interact with those they would affirm as their brothers,” says Dow. With the rumors of war and U.S. intervention in Iran comes another concern: the possibility of a military draft. Dow has a number of teenagers in his congregation and wonders what would happen to them if there were another war.
“I hope that we won’t go to war,” he says. “That another life will not have to be lost . . . That our young people in our community who do not even know who the president of Iran is, will not be placed in a position where they’ll be called to kill.”
For Dow, having a better understanding of these issues “is very beneficial” but that doesn’t mean that he agrees on all points.
“I don’t think that just because one is in dialogue, one is in agreement,” he says. Dow wants to make it clear that participation in these discussions is not an affirmation of any of Iran’s policies, but hopes instead that such meetings might help to reduce the possibility of war.
“If we are interacting, if we are conversing, there’s hope. I believe the church, not the state, has the ultimate responsibility of moving towards that hope.”
“We really do have to try to reduce the lunacy of a war,” he adds. “Those conversations are a piece of the puzzle that would reduce the likelihood of the U.S. and Iran entering into a conflict.”
Dow says that given his limited interaction with President Ahmadinejad–a four-hour event–he can’t speak with certainty to the charges leveled against the man, but says that he’s not a lunatic. But the event did allow participants to ask very pointed, strong questions and raise criticisms related to the Holocaust, the damaging language Ahmadinejad uses to refer to Israel, nuclear proliferation and human rights violations.
Prior to attending the meeting, Dow was concerned about how his presence at the meeting might be interpreted, and how easily it could be misunderstood. But he hopes there will be more opportunities for people to sit and talk about international issues, issues that are being played out in the streets of Philadelphia and other cities around the United States.
“We can’t just wait to do what’s popular, we have to be there standing in the gap. We’re a peace church; if we’re not there, who else is going to be there? If not us, who? If not now, when?”
photos by Melissa Engle/MCC
Nearly 200 people packed the old church located on Deep Creek Road for a time of praise and thanksgiving. Pastor Charles Ness rehearsed the history of the church, which was founded in 1935, noting how the ministry of the church expanded with each generation until the need for a larger facility became paramount.
Congregations often go through transitions and shifts in leadership and churches reimagine their visions. Franconia Mennonite Conference has recognized this ebb-and-flow, inviting Jenifer Eriksen Morales has to join the conference ministry as the Minister of Transitional Ministries, a forward-leaning position for a conference that has recently revised its mission.
“We all have disagreements on all kinds of issues, but we pretend that doesn’t happen on Sunday morning or say we can’t talk about these in church,” said one person.
On Sunday, March 25, a group of 75-100 assorted youth, parents and young adults forsook their afternoon naps to gather at Franconia Mennonite Church for Why Object?, an event that included worship, discussion and pizza and was jointly sponsored by youth leaders from both the Franconia and Eastern District Conferences and the Peace and Justice Committee. Titus Peachey of 
onflict between the Israelite nation and their neighbors the people of Aram in 2 Kings 6:8-23. Even from my lofty role as “King†in our spontaneous skit, I wrestled with the choice that lay in my hands as the conflict was not so much between people groups, but more so the clash between emotions over what God would ask of me and what the people would see as just. What choice was the best to make? Mercy didn’t quite make sense even with the wise counsel from our resident prophet Elisha. Yet in this account from Scripture mercy became the move that was made. The captured army was not only released unharmed they were also fed! The surprising result: Peace!
I chose to serve and that choice changed my life. Not to say that life would not have changed had I chosen a different path with different people. I ask, along with many of you: To serve or not to serve? When are we merely serving ourselves and when does our focus turn outwards? What causes the change of heart? What is required of us all as we profess Christ with our lives? I have often experienced the powerful pull of servant hood as it brings people into that buzzword of Christian faith today—community. I know it is often used and broadly defined, but I’m a fan. Service crosses boundaries–any time, any age. Doesn’t it need to? What other way can one willingly become part of a greater movement; a larger body of people?
Franconia Mennonite Conference (FMC) and 