Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Heritage

Gifts handed down: God still at work beyond our imagination

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Joe Hackmanby Joe Hackman, Conference Board Member and pastor of Salford congregation

Last summer my family spent some vacation time at our cabin in Central Pennsylvania’s Big Valley.  I always love going there to visit my grandmother, which often means returning home with some sort of sinfully sugary gooey treat, most often a pecan pie that I’m certain would bring the highest bid at any of our church youth auctions.

On this most recent trip, however, I returned with something different. My grandmother has been downsizing for several years and this time she asked me if I wanted the woodbox. The woodbox has been in our family since 1837, or so we’re told, and has held firewood for Yoder families in the Valley for generations.

Our Harleysville townhouse has a propane gas fireplace, so my family doesn’t need a box to hold wood.  We do, however, need a box to hold toys.  With a three-year-old who seems to have an endless supply of dolls, stuffed animals, and countless forms of colorful molded plastic, I’m always looking for something — anything — that can contain our avalanche of toys.  Our handed down woodbox has become a toy chest resting next to our bay window and is now the home of Dora and Pooh Bear.

Franconia Conference has a lot in common with wood boxes that have been converted into toy chests.  The first bishops of our conference could not have imagined what we’ve become today — a network of theologically and culturally diverse congregations spanning the East Coast from Vermont to Georgia who worship in four languages.  We communicate with both hashtags and snail mail.  We gather at both the Heritage Restaurant in Franconia and Umai Royal in Center City Philadelphia.  We raise our hands to worship and wash one another’s feet.  We are a people blessed with diversity.

The board statement for conferring (see your docket if you don’t know what I’m talking about) is an affirmation of God’s gift of diversity and a signal that this diversity will increase in coming years — praise be to God!  How do we continue to be a united church amid increased diversity?

For 300 years, our Franconia Conference ancestors have passed on to us a legacy of faithful Christian witness, and this history of faithful witness is a gift that we must treasure and use.  But to continue adding to and strengthening this witness, we also must acknowledge the changing world around us. What is most needed to continue being a faithful conference– a woodbox or a toy chest?

Our board believes the future of our conference is bright because our leaders and congregations are made up of people who truly believe Paul’s words to the Ephesians — that we serve a God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.  God is [still] at work within us, throughout all generations.  This is our hope!  I encourage you to come to Conference Assembly this year ready to confer and to ask and imagine where God is still at work in this beautiful, faithful, diverse network of congregations that we call Franconia Conference.

Mennoniting my way (To Mennonite Blog #4)

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Noah Kolbby Noah Kolb, Plains

I was born into a Mennonite family with lineages that go back many generations as Mennonites in Europe. I was raised in a Mennonite family and went to a Mennonite church all my life. I was taught in Mennonite schools by Mennonite teachers. I have been an ordained leader in the Mennonite Church for more than forty years. I am glad to be a Mennonite most of the time.

But I am more than Mennonite. ‘Mennoniting my way’ has been about discovering Jesus and the call to follow him each day with other followers of Jesus. Much of what shaped me also brought me to Jesus.

I have not held onto everything I received from my Mennonite heritage and culture, however. And some things I deeply appreciate are not of significant importance for following after Jesus. I recognize that every expression of faith takes on some cultural expression. Mennoniting is partly about discerning what is of Jesus and what is of culture.

In the last few years I have reflected on my identity at many levels. I love my family of origin—it reflects a rich variety of colors and faith expressions. I am very comfortable and at home as a Mennonite, but sometimes its fragrance  is so varied that I wonder if it comes from the same tree. Being Christians is even less cohesive and clear for me. The leaves and fruits of its trees are so confusing that at times I feel sad and ashamed to be associated with it.

Much of my journey has been shaped by right beliefs and prescribed practices. These have helped to bring me to Christ. In recent years following Jesus is not so much about having the right beliefs as about observing the way of Jesus, listening to his Spirit, and living in obedience. Living in a heritage so broken and splintered by differences of both belief and practice, I am compelled to seek unity and peace in the bond that is in Christ, who is our peace.

My deep longing is to be at peace and at home with God. This has been found in following Jesus who calls me to unity and peace in his body, the church, to love even my enemies and to care for the good earth where God has placed me.

‘Mennoniting my way’ has helped me find the way to Jesus, to unity in the Spirit, and peace in the fellowship of all who follow Jesus. It is bringing others with me to Jesus who enables us to be at peace with God, to live in peace with each other, and to peacefully love the earth on which we live together.

Next week, Ubaldo Rodriguez, pastor of New Hope Fellowship/Nueva Esperanza (Baltimore, Md.), will reflect on Mennoniting on the river and the pond.  How do you “Mennonite”?  Join the conversation on Facebook or by email.

Who am I?  (To Mennonite Blog #1)
Serving Christ with our heads and hands (To Mennonite Blog #2)
Quiet rebellion against the status quo (To Mennonite Blog #3)
Mennoniting my way (To Mennonite Blog #4)
Generations Mennoniting together (To Mennonite Blog #5)
Body, mind, heart … and feet (To Mennonite Blog #6)
We have much more to offer (To Mennonite Blog #7)
Mennonite community … and community that Mennonites (To Mennonite Blog #8)

Perfect Fellowship

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by Emily Ralph

“We didn’t grow up hearing about this,” one of the bishop’s staff members told me.

Some of the leaders gathered at the Southeast Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s assembly had heard about the reconciliation process, but for others, this was a brand new story.  “In the 16th century, the early Lutheran reformers, furious that the so-called Anabaptists did not share the same theology of baptism, used their influence and power to persecute Mennonite Christians,” Lutheran Bishop Claire Burkat said.  Her words were greeted with an audible response and she nodded her acknowledgement at the horror.  “Not just harass,” she added, “but torture and murder those with whom they disagreed theologically.”

The familiar platform at Franconia Mennonite Meetinghouse was covered by the symbols of the Lutheran faith: the bread and the cup on the altar, the staff and the cross, the large bowl of incense, and candles, lots of candles.  The room was packed with people of all shapes and sizes, men and women, white-haired clergy in collars and trendy young adults.

Pastor Charlie Ness and Bishop Claire Burkat share tears and exchange symbols of reconciliation. Photo by Emily Ralph.

Bishop Burkat was emotional as she offered Pastor Charlie Ness from Perkiomenville Mennonite Church an apology on behalf of her Synod.  And as Pastor Ness accepted and extended forgiveness, he too choked up with the power of this moment.  Twice, the congregation spontaneously rose to their feet to join in with applause.  This action was not just one of denominational leadership—the Lutheran laypeople wanted to participate in the healing as well.

And as I stood there, frantically snapping pictures of their smiles and tears, I felt loved.  Truly and completely loved.

Growing up, I was aware of my heritage.  I was proud of my ancestors who stood firm in the face of persecution and terror.  I ached to have the same strength, the same passion.  I struggled to respect Martin Luther as a hero of the faith when in my eyes he was tarnished by the persecution he endorsed.

I knew the story and I knew it well.  And here I was, surrounded by brothers and sisters in Christ some of whom had only discovered this story in the last decade.  Their hearts were broken as they came to grips with an ugly chapter of their history.  And they were reaching out to us for restoration.

As Mennonites, we’ve always identified ourselves as the martyrs.  Our peoplehood is wrapped up in being the oppressed, the rejected.  But as I experienced the grace of these lovely people, saw the seats of honor they gave to our pastors, their submission as we worked on crafting common language, I realized that, for the first time in nearly five hundred years, we were respected, accepted, and loved.  Truly and completely loved.

There is disequilibrium in this place.  How do we function here?  If forgiveness means releasing others from their experience of guilt, if it means no longer lingering in the pain of the past, then how can we forge a new identity that still honors the sacrifices of our ancestors while recognizing that we are no longer rejected, but loved?

This is the task of God’s people, said Bishop Burkat.  “In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us (2 Corinthians 5). . . it means [reconciling] those who are at odds with each other, to return to a state of harmony, and receive a former enemy into good favor.”

That morning, we were surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, both Lutheran and Mennonite, who, in the presence of Jesus, have found that Christ’s blood brings about complete reconciliation.  As they worship God together, these former enemies—saints—of long ago are no longer broken by doctrinal or political differences; they are, even now, in perfect fellowship with the Father . . . and with one another.  What they have experienced for five hundred years, we now realize on earth.

We are no longer persecuted; we are called to defend the oppressed.  We are no longer rejected; we are called to love the forsaken.  “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5 NIV)  May we become a people who extend our healing to the world!

Read more.

Reconciled Communities in Christ

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By Rev. Sue Lang, with Pastor Emily Ralph
(May 6, 2011)

Franconia, PA — Lutherans and Mennonites stood side by side at the communion table to receive the bread and the wine. Together, they then went out into the congregation to distribute the elements to those present at the 2011 assembly of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The unity observed at the table was further acknowledged during a time of reconciliation at the start of the assembly. Bishop Claire Burkat, representing the Lutherans, apologized to Pastor Charles Ness, a Franconia Mennonite Conference pastor who has been involved in the global Anabaptist reconciliation movement, for the sins of 16th century Lutherans who persecuted and murdered Anabaptists during the Reformation because of doctrinal differences.

“Lutherans, by and large, developed a historical amnesia about this shameful part of our Reformation heritage,” said Burkat.

In 2006, The Declaration of the ELCA on Condemnation of the Anabaptists stated the following: “No church should use the state to impose its own beliefs and practices on others. We [therefore] express our deep and abiding sorrow and regret for the persecution and suffering visited upon the Anabaptists during the religious disputes.”

Bishop Burkat made an emotional apology to Pastor Ness on behalf of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod who has held their assembly at Franconia Mennonite Church since 1997. She then presented him with a pitcher, basin, and towel representing the washing away of past sins through Jesus Christ. The towel was embroidered with the symbols of both the Mennonite Church USA and the ELCA.

In his own emotional acceptance of the gifts, Pastor Ness quoted the President of the Mennonite World Conference, Danisa Ndlovu, who responded to a similar apology from the Lutheran World Federation last summer in Stuttgart, Germany. Ndlovu said: “Today in this place, we together—Lutherans and Anabaptist Mennonites—are fulfilling the rule of Christ. We cannot bring ourselves to this table with heads held high. We can only come bowed down in great humility and in fear of the Lord.”

Ness then presented Bishop Burkat with a painting depicting the story of Dirk Willems, a Dutch Mennonite who successfully escaped across a frozen canal but returned to save his captor who had fallen through the ice. Willems was later put to death for heresy.

“These words and actions today point to the truth that the Kingdom of God is more than denominational labels and distinctions,” said Ness. “Through these confessions I believe that Christ will heal the wounds of history and free us to become whole persons and spiritually renewed churches.”

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Read Emily’s blog about this event or watch the reconciliation (begins around 15:00):

Video streaming by Ustream

New book discusses the 'bare essentials' of a radical faith

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by John Longhurst

What does a naked Anabaptist look like? That’s what Stuart Murray wanted to know.

“Anabaptism has been around for almost 500 years, and for much of that time it has been clothed in Mennonite, Hutterite and Amish traditions and culture,” says Murray, who helps direct the Anabaptist Network in Great Britain and Ireland.

“But what does Anabaptism look like without that clothing? And do people have to become Mennonite to be an Anabaptist?”

His quest for answers to those and other questions led him to write The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith (Herald Press).

“More and more people in Great Britain are seeing Anabaptism as an exciting way to live out their faith,” he says. “They want to know: ‘Where did Anabaptism come from? What are its core convictions?’ And, ‘Do I have to give up my own church tradition to become one?’ The Naked Anabaptist is my effort to provide some answers.”

For Murray, there are seven bare essentials, or core convictions, that make up Anabaptism.

“The first and foremost conviction is about following Jesus,” he says. “He is our example, teacher, friend, redeemer and Lord.”

Other core convictions include seeing Jesus as the focal point of God’s revelation; belief in the separation of church and state; being committed to finding ways to be “good news to the poor, powerless and persecuted”; a commitment to discipleship and mission; and seeking to live more simply.

Seeing peace as central to the gospel is also a bare essential, he says, but it is not “the center of the gospel—Jesus is the center. As followers of Jesus, we are committed to finding nonviolent alternatives to violence in our world.”

Although the book was written for people in Great Britain who are interested in Anabaptism, Murray hopes it will inspire people in North America, too—including Mennonites.

“It seems to be those of us who didn’t grow up as Mennonites who are far more excited about the Anabaptist tradition than traditional Mennonites,” he observes, noting that he has been “amazed by the lack of interest in Anabaptism that I find among many North American Mennonites today. Maybe this book can help change that a bit.”

In the end, though, his goal is not to “promote Anabaptism for its own sake. My interest is in promoting a way of living that helps people to become more faithful followers of Jesus . . . I am interested in the Anabaptist tradition only as a means to an end, and that end is to point us to Jesus as the one we are to follow and worship.”