Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

intercultural

Gathering on Holy Ground

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by Stephen Kriss, Philadelphia Praise Center

Rev. Dr. Dennis Edwards encourages Franconia and Eastern District Conferences to follow the example of Christ. Photo by Stacy Salvatori.

Gwen Groff, pastor at Bethany Mennonite Church in Bridgewater Corners, Vermont, drove the seven hours south for the joint Franconia and Eastern District Conference Assembly on November 11-12 for what she suggests became a “beautiful cacophony.”

Groff and more than 300 others from across both Conference communities along with Mennonite Church USA representatives gathered Friday night at Penn View Christian School in Souderton, Pa, in the first joint worship service for both Conferences since 1999. The opening worship, which featured a combined cross-conference, multi-ethnic and multilingual worship team, kicked off the gathering switching swiftly back and forth between Creole, English, Indonesian, Spanish and Vietnamese—the worshipping languages of the 60 congregations that make up both conferences.

The worship team lead by Emily Ralph gathered for months together in preparation to lead interculturally and multilingually in Creole, English, Indonesian, Spanish and Vietnamese. Photo by Stacy Salvatori.

Groff describes her experience, “I always look forward to the singing at Conference Assembly worship services. Coming from a small congregation, I enjoy the big sound, the full harmony. When I come into an Assembly worship space, if I see that we’ll be using the blue Worship Book hymnals I like to sit in the center of it all to be surrounded by the four part harmony. When I see a screen and projector, instruments and microphones, I usually take a seat on the periphery.

“This year I found myself most moved by the kind of singing I usually hang back from. Singing all together, with some singing in Indonesian, some in Spanish, some in Vietnamese, some in English and some in Creole, was disorienting in a way that was challenging, enlightening and beautiful.

Friday worship. Photo by Stacy Salvatori.

In worship there is often an invitation to sing or pray each in our own language, but this year the multicultural worship team was leading in all the different languages, switching languages between verses, between lines, singing in different languages at the same time. There was no right language to be singing in at any particular moment. We all could experience how it felt to be singing new words and not knowing if we were pronouncing them correctly. We all knew how it felt to be a little off balance. It wasn’t about political correctness (or it was what political correctness should be). It was about leveling the ground as we worshipped together, and it was holy ground.”

While energetic music and multiple languages marked the shape of the worship, Rev. Dr. Dennis Edwards, pastor of Peace Fellowship Church in Washington, DC, a Franconia Conference Partner in Mission, focused intensely in an evening message that explored the possibilities of the assembly theme, “Unity and Maturity in Christ” based on Ephesians 4. The whole of the worship gathering was broadcast in five worshipping languages and available online through a live stream. Over a dozen persons from a variety of congregations helped to coordinate technology, translating, and communication for the event.

Saturday joint session. Photo by Emily Ralph

The spirit of gathered worship was framed further through Saturday’s joint delegate session held around tables that considered the further cooperation between both Conferences in a move toward healing the 1847 historic rift between the groups. Overwhelmingly, representatives from both conferences gave permission by raising green cards that suggested a continuation to explore life together more extensively and collaboratively. Considering the future of the conferences, Sam Claudio, Jr., associate pastor at Christ Fellowship in Allentown said in a time of reporting, “Hopefully we’ll be able to be a positive witness [in a way that people will say], look how they came together after this long division in love, in peace, in charity, in grace.”

After recognizing the affirming move, Dave Hersh, moderator of Eastern District Conference responded, “I’m really excited about what we’ve accomplished. Your direction to us is loud and clear. We’re going to continue working together.” The conferences divided for business sessions, but re-gathered for lunch and a commissioning worship that recognized each person’s role and contribution in both conference communities.

Brent Camilleri, Deep Run East, and Derek Cooper, Doylestown, enjoy Friday’s ice cream social. Photo by Stacy Salvatori.

In general business, Eastern District Conference marked the transition of Ron White of Church of the Good Samaritan (Holland, Pa) into the moderator role succeeding Hersh of Grace Mennonite Church (Lansdale, Pa). Marta Castillo of Nueva Vida Norristown (Pa) Mennonite Church was affirmed as assistant moderator for Franconia Conference for a special one year term.

First time Franconia Conference delegate Derek Cooper of the Doylestown (Pa) congregation said, “I appreciated the worshipful tone. Beginning and ending the assembly in worship united the community and guided our interaction throughout the weekend. I also appreciated the prayer ministry. It created a Spirit-led presence that saturated the building.”

Reflections on Conference Assembly 2011:

Mary Martin (left), shown preparing to lead worship with fellow worship leaders and church friends Tuy Tran and Hoai Huynh from Vietnamese Gospel. Photo by Stacy Salvatori.

“I enjoyed singing with young people in several languages. I was inspired in (the) bringing together (of) a group of singers and instrumentalists with limited preparation time.” —Mary Martin,  Vietnamese Gospel

I thank God for what felt like a renewed sense of vision, energy and hope among our Conference body. Worshiping our Lord together in several languages was inspirational! God is preparing us for heaven, where followers of Jesus “from every tribe and language and people and nation” will bow down before the Lamb in worship. (Rev. 5:9) — Steve Landis, Franconia

For me the recognition, acknowledging, and welcoming of the different leaders was very inspiring; I believe the greatest asset of any organization is people. As someone from the global South, I still feel that we have a long way to go in order to have some of our leaders in higher leadership positions. — Ubaldo Rodriguez, New Hope Fellowship, Baltimore

Friday worship. Photo by Stacy Salvatori

It was particularly touching to see elements of my parent’s homeland incorporated in the assembly. When I asked my mother afterwards on Saturday what she had thought, she smiled and said the celebrating, unity, and sense of community made her feel warm inside. —  Theresa Nguyen, Plains

Assembly was a welcome opportunity to share space across our cultural diversity. Especially Saturday morning, moving in the direction of healing the long time division between Eastern District Conference and Franconia Conference. — Bob Walden, West Swamp

I think that Friday and Saturday was just a glimpse of what the kingdom of heaven will look like and that is a certain hope that God puts in us. The longing to just worship God regardless of our differences. I appreciate the fact that the Holy Spirit is moving around and uniting people from different languages. — Adrian Suryajaya, Philadelphia Praise Center

Thank you to:

  • Penn View Christian School for the use of facilities and the support of janitors, staff, and audio/visual personnel.
  • Dancers from Nueva Vida Norristown New Life for sharing your gifts as we gathered for Friday night worship.
  • Worship Planners and Worship Team Members for the time and energy you invested into planning, practicing, and leading our congregation in worship.
    • Saturday delegate session. Photo by Emily Ralph
  • Translators for helping us to understand one another.
  • Everence for sponsoring Friday night’s ice cream social and Bally Mennonite Church for providing and serving the ice cream.
  • One Village Coffee for donating coffee for the weekend.
  • Perkasie Mennonite Church for providing snacks and serving coffee on Saturday morning.
  • Zion Mennonite Church for use of your hymnals
  • Salford Mennonite Church for providing and serving lunch.
  • Franconia and Eastern District Board and Committee Members for supplying baked goods and deserts.
  • Litany Writers for your creative energy in tying everything together.
  • Prayer Ministry Participants for covering the gathered assembly in prayer.
  • Technology assistants who insured that the glitches were managed and that the flow of the worship was enriched and participation enhanced through our use of the web.

 

Editorial: Working together to forward the Reign of God

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by John Goshow & Ron White, Moderators, Franconia & Eastern District Conferences

The Mennonite Church is a church of peace and reconciliation, yet we hold the record for splits, said historian John Ruth in the video produced for our last Conference Assembly. The 1847 split between Franconia and Eastern District Conferences was a defining moment in the history of Mennonites living in eastern Pennsylvania. The question for our conferences now is whether we should continue to walk different roads.

On Saturday morning of our joint assembly, Warren Tyson, Eastern District Conference Minister, and Ertell Whigham, Franconia Conference Executive Minister explored this question with the delegates of both conferences. They pointed out the numerous ways that we share a similar vision. Both place value on maintaining an Anabaptist/Mennonite peace witness. Both share Christ’s message of peace with God and fellow humans through nurturing vital congregations, which in turn plant new churches. Both embrace an intercultural identity that clearly identifies cultural bias and racism as sin and works to populate healthy, dynamic, intercultural congregations. Both provide accountability, connection, and resources for our pastors and church leaders. Both are working to develop intercultural systems that welcome new language groups and embrace development of culturally diverse congregations of one body; we continue to grow what it means for dominant people groups to let go of
established patterns of how churches function and what are acceptable expressions of music and faith.

The table group conferring and reporting that followed this presentation clearly indicated a desire for Franconia and Eastern District Conferences to continue to work together cooperatively. Conference leadership will now take this strong affirmation to engage in dialogue on developing further ways of working together to forward the Reign of God.

Conference Assembly 2011 found many ways of modeling the values of both conferences. Our conferences worshiped together on Friday evening and heard an inspiring message on Unity and Maturity in the Body of Christ by Dennis Edwards, pastor of Peace Fellowship Church in Washington D.C. The assembly planning team consisted of members of both conferences. The worship teams included individuals from both conferences and represented the diverse languages of our conferences including English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Creole. The Peace and Justice Committee presented Walking in the Way of Peace 2012, a year-long emphasis on the Gospel of Peace that includes Bible study, bridging intercultural boundaries and teaching on becoming salt and light through peace witness. The Ministerial Committees of our two conferences introduced individuals who were credentialed for ministry in the past year. The Saturday afternoon service integrated worship and business in a seamless and inspiring way.

Luke and Dorothy Beidler received the Everence National Journey award, which was presented by Randy Nyce, an Everence Church Relations Representative and a member of the Franconia Conference Board. This issue of Intersections includes an article that celebrates Luke and Dot’s life-long commitment to serve Jesus in whatever way he leads.

Assembly 2011 provided the first opportunity since 1999 for Eastern District Conference and Franconia Conference to come together for business and worship. The blending together of two conferences, different cultures and five languages was both inspiring and energizing. Someone suggested that this experience may be a small glimpse of what Heaven will be like:
After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. (Rev. 7:9)

Delegates from both conferences overwhelmingly support continued conversation on partnership between Eastern District Conference and Franconia Conference. Photo by Emily Ralph

Enter into life with all your heart

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by Emily Ralph, Swamp Mennonite

Luke and Dot Beidler were recognized for their lives of ministry, service, and stewardship at the joint Franconia and Eastern District Conference Assembly on November 11. Everence representative, Randy Nyce, presented Luke and Dot with the organization’s National Journey Award for excellent stewardship of time, money, and service.

“We’d like to return that honor and praise to God,” Luke responded. Dot agreed.  “My heart is really warmed by a God that provides paths for us to go on,” she shared. “And as we say yes to the opportunities we have in life, we find God is all-sufficient. . . . Even if what we have doesn’t seem like enough, God makes it enough.”

From a young age, Luke and Dot experienced the sufficiency of God. As children, they moved with their families to Haycock Township (Pa.) to join a mission effort that led to the planting of Franconia Conference congregations like Rocky Ridge, Salem, and Steel City.

High school sweethearts, Luke and Dot married after graduating from Eastern Mennonite College in 1965. They wanted to participate in mission and enthusiastically accepted an inivitation to serve as missionaries in Vietnam with Eastern Mennonite Missions.

In Vietnam, they saw the reality of war up close. Some friends and fellow missionaries didn’t make it home. Luke and Dot struggled with their need to depend on a government to airlift them out when the fighting intensified and their children’s lives became endangered. How should a pacifist respond?

Back in the states, Luke returned to school, this time at the University of Pittsburgh to study anthropology and international education. In that university environment, he and Dot discovered that their Vietnam experience made them particularly sensitive to the anti-war crowd. “We were as hippy as you could be,” Luke recently told a class of seminary students. Then he laughed. “On the inside.”

Luke and Dot Beidler with their son Ken and daughter Marta when they were serving in Indonesia.

But their heart was still for mission and in 1976 the Beidlers joined Mennonite Central Committee in a partnership with local missionaries in Indonesia. Their years on the island of Borneo shaped their identities as they learned about true simplicity: living without electricity, washing clothes and bathing in the river, and eating whatever food was available.

When their children reached high school age, Luke and Dot returned the family to Pennsylvania where the teens enrolled in Christopher Dock Mennonite High School. Luke served as the Missions Secretary for Franconia Conference while Dot taught at Penn View Christian School.

After ten years of serving in the conference, Luke and Dot were ready to move back to the fringe. Luke was invited to serve as an associate pastor of Nueva Vida Norristown New Life in 1995 and, one year later, he and Dot purchased a home next door to the church building. It had been converted into apartments by a former missionary to provide low-income housing. The Beidlers felt called to continue this mission.

For the last 15 years, they have lived alongside their residents and they have come to love their home as well as their neighbors. Luke tends the gardens around their building and the church property. “We feel safe in community with a household,” Dot believes. “Urban issues have taken on faces as we live in this place. We hope to grow old here. “

Dot has worked for 15 years in a before- and after-school program in Norristown.  Luke continued in his pastoral role at Nueva Vida until 2007 while also serving at Methacton beginning in 2003. Although he formally retired in March, he and Dot continue to worship at Methacton. Ministry, for them, is a life-long calling.

“Get involved in a local congregation, serve in every way you can, take opportunities to cross cultures and learn from others at home and abroad,” they encourage young leaders. “Enter into life and faith with all your hearts.”

Conference Finance Update: October 2011

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The 2011-12 fiscal year is two-thirds over. Congregational giving has fallen behind expectations these past two months by $16,500. Expenses have exceeded the budget by $7,500 at this point in the year. This is the time of year when we typically would see the conference fall behind on its net income, but we’re a little more behind than expected.

A sampling of the various activities of the conference during the months of August & September:

Bobby Wibowo, Philadelphia Praise Center, and Keith Schoenly, Bally (Pa.) Mennonite, work on a new song at the Eastern District and Franconia Conferences Worship Cohort, which met this autumn in preparation for the joint Conference Assembly.
  • $10,050 in Missional Operations Grants (MOG) was disbursed during this period. Two congregations received grants for leadership development (Georgia Praise Center and Oxford Circle Mennonite). Two other congregations received grants for outreach ministries (Greensburg Worship Center and Nations Worship Center). To apply for a MOG, see your LEADership Minister.
  • $15,393 in Area Conference Leadership Fund scholarships were disbursed during this period for 8 current and future ministry leaders.
  • Franconia Conference hosted the “In The City For Good” church planters conference in Allentown, in cooperation with Mennonite conferences from Virginia to Ontario. About 80 persons from nearly a dozen ethnic and language groups attended.
  • Franconia Conference launched a new website, which we hope will be more user-friendly. We have also started live video-streaming Pastors and Leaders Breakfasts and other conference events. If you have not been able to attend these events, look for them online.
  • Noel Santiago led a seminar “Transforming Our Region: Church and Marketplace Partnerships” for local pastors and business leaders.

Other tidbits:
LEADership Ministers logged over 19,000 miles on the road so far this year, mostly in meetings with their assigned congregations and leaders.

Where do funds for Missional Operations Grants (MOG) come from? Estate gifts are put into the Ministry Resource Fund, held with Mennonite Foundation. Twenty percent of this fund is used annually for MOGs. Please keep MOGs in mind when you are doing your estate planning.

Eastern District and Franconia gather on “holy ground”

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by Stephen Kriss, skriss@mosaicmennonites.org

Gwen Groff, pastor at Bethany Mennonite Church in Bridgewater Corners, Vermont, drove the seven hours south for the joint Franconia and Eastern District Conference Assembly on November 11-12 for what she suggests became a “beautiful cacophony.”

Groff and more than 300 others from across both Conference communities along with Mennonite Church USA representatives gathered Friday night at Penn View Christian School in Souderton, Pa, in the first joint worship service for both Conferences since 1999.   The opening worship, which featured a combined cross-conference, multi-ethnic and multilingual worship team, kicked off the gathering switching swiftly back and forth between Creole, English, Indonesian, Spanish and Vietnamese—the worshipping languages of the 60 congregations that make up both conferences.

Groff describes her experience, “I always look forward to the singing at Conference Assembly worship services.  Coming from a small congregation, I enjoy the big sound, the full harmony. When I come into an Assembly worship space, if I see that we’ll be using the blue Worship Book hymnals I like to sit in the center of it all to be surrounded by the four part harmony. When I see a screen and projector, instruments and microphones, I usually take a seat on the periphery.

“This year I found myself most moved by the kind of singing I usually hang back from. Singing all together, with some singing in Indonesian, some in Spanish, some in Vietnamese, some in English and some in Creole, was disorienting in a way that was challenging, enlightening and beautiful. In worship there is often an invitation to sing or pray each in our own language, but this year the multicultural worship team was leading in all the different languages, switching languages between verses, between lines, singing in different languages at the same time. There was no right language to be singing in at any particular moment. We all could experience how it felt to be singing new words and not knowing if we were pronouncing them correctly. We all knew how it felt to be a little off balance.  It wasn’t about political correctness (or it was what political correctness should be). It was about leveling the ground as we worshipped together, and it was holy ground.”

While energetic music and multiple languages marked the shape of the worship, Rev. Dr. Dennis Edwards, pastor of Peace Fellowship Church in Washington, DC, a Franconia Conference Partner in Mission, focused intensely in an evening message that explored the possibilities of the assembly theme, “Unity and Maturity in Christ” based on Ephesians 4.   The whole of the worship gathering was broadcast in five worshipping languages and available online through a live stream.   Over a dozen persons from a variety of congregations helped to coordinate technology, translating, and communication for the event.

The spirit of gathered worship was framed further through Saturday’s joint delegate session held around tables that considered the further cooperation between both Conferences in a move toward healing the 1847 historic rift between the groups.  Overwhelmingly, representatives from both conferences gave permission by raising green cards that suggested a continuation to explore life together more extensively and collaboratively.  Considering the future of the conferences, Sam Claudio, Jr., associate pastor at Christ Fellowship in Allentown said in a time of reporting, “Hopefully we’ll be able to be a positive witness [in a way that people will say], look how they came together after this long division in love, in peace, in charity, in grace.”

After recognizing the affirming move, Dave Hersh, moderator of Eastern District Conference responded, “I’m really excited about what we’ve accomplished. Your direction to us is loud and clear.  We’re going to continue working together.”

The conferences divided for business sessions, but re-gathered for lunch and a commissioning worship that recognized each person’s role and contribution in both conference communities.  In general business, Eastern District Conference marked the transition of Ron White of Church of the Good Samaritan (Holland, Pa) into the moderator role succeeding Hersh of Grace Mennonite Church (Lansdale, Pa).   Marta Castillo of Nueva Vida Norristown (Pa) Mennonite Church was affirmed as assistant moderator for Franconia Conference for a special one year term.

First time Franconia Conference delegate Derek Cooper of the Doylestown (Pa) congregation said, “I appreciated the worshipful tone. Beginning and ending the assembly in worship united the community and guided our interaction throughout the weekend.  I also appreciated the prayer ministry. It created a Spirit-led presence that saturated the building.”

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Three Bhutanese-Nepali churches emerge across Pa.

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By Sheldon C. Good, Mennonite Weekly Review
Reprinted by Permission from the Oct. 17 issue

Ser Darji, left, translates from English into Nepali a sermon by Donna Mast, far right, during Darji’s licensing service Sept. 4 at Crafton Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh. — Photo by Dale Miller

More than 20 years ago, 13-year-old Ser Darji lay paralyzed in a refugee camp in Nepal. He could barely talk and had an irregular heartbeat and swollen hands and legs.

He had developed beriberi, a disease caused by lack of nutrition, that was killing 30 refugees a day in the camp. Barring a miracle, doctors said, Darji wouldn’t live more than three months.

“I was sent home that day, but the word ‘miracle’ kept ringing in my ears,” said Darji, now 35, speaking to Allegheny Mennonite Conference on Aug. 6.

The story of Darji’s recovery, his journey from Bhutan to India to Nepal to Pittsburgh, and his passion for church planting, are a testimony to his unwavering faith in God and Jesus Christ.

Today, he’s a licensed minister in Allegheny Conference of Mennonite Church USA and pastor of Bhutanese Nepali Church of Pittsburgh. The church is one of three Bhutanese-Nepali Mennonite groups emerging across Pennsylvania.

Darji wasn’t always a Christian. In Bhutan, his home country, he was a deeply religious Hindu boy.

“My family belonged to a Nepali-speaking tribe,” he said. “Buddhism is the official religion of Bhutan, and practicing Christianity was and still is absolutely forbidden in the country.”

After doctors diagnosed Darji with beriberi, the mother of one of his friends — who was a Christian and a nurse — said she would pray to Jesus for healing.

Darji and the woman made a deal.

“If Jesus did not heal me as she claimed he would, she had to become a Hindu. But if Jesus did heal me, then I had to agree to become a faithful follower of Christ for the rest of my life,” he said. “Praise God, I started feeling better the very next day.”

In a month, Darji was almost completely healed.

“Since that day I have tried to live my life following Jesus and being faithful to him,” he said.

In the ensuing two years, his family renounced him, and he was beaten mercilessly, but he “tried to be faithful always.”

Darji, who now lives in Pittsburgh, says he still has a burden for Bhutan.

“I strongly believe that God’s plan in bringing me and other Bhutanese to the United States is so that we can be well-trained to re-enter Bhutan as missionaries,” he said.

That’s partly the role of Bhutanese Nepali Church of Pittsburgh, where Darji pastors. The congregation meets at Crafton Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh and is in the process of joining Allegheny Conference. About 80-100 people attend Sunday worship. All are political asylees.

Darji has translated parts of MC USA’s Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective into Nepalese. He has other plans too.

“We would like to establish a strong church among the Bhutan­ese-Nepali community in Pittsburgh, that will be able to train and send out missionaries to Bhutan,” Darji said. “It is my desire that any missionary sent through our church will represent the unique Mennonite witness for Christ.”

In August, Donna Mast, conference minister for Allegheny Conference, presented to the conference her dream for the Bhutanese-Nepali congregation.

“I dreamt that the conference would embrace Ser [Darji], and that we would be ale to find it in our hearts to contribute to his salary,” she said Oct. 5.

As a church plant pastor, she said, the conference is working toward supporting his salary.

A voice for the voiceless

Sandeep Thomas, a fellow Allegheny Conference licensed minister, has been working with the Bhutanese-Nepali group since 2007. He helped connect them to Mennonites.

“I was kind of the bridge-builder,” said Thomas, who immigrated with his family to the U.S. from India in 2000.

Thomas hosted a gathering at his home near Pittsburgh that included Darji and conference representatives.  Darji, he said, soon “found he was comfortable with and liked Mennonites, especially [their belief in] adult baptism and peace witness.”

Since the church joined Allegheny Conference, Thomas’ bridge-building role now includes navigating the church through the denominational systems.

“I am helping them put together their legal and financial framework,” he said. “That’s not particularly what an immigrant church thinks about when they set up the church.”

Thomas thinks the relationship between the Bhutanese-Nepali congregation and Allegheny Conference can be mutually beneficial.

Like many Mennonites, he said, the Pittsburgh congregation is good at “practicing poverty and justice issues and helping people.”

But the Pittsburgh group also has a strong desire for outreach and evangelism.

“That’s something the denomination has been a bit reticent about,” he said.

Thomas noted the Bhutanese-Nepali group’s vision of sending missionaries back to Asia.

“This is something that could energize the Allegheny conference and get them thinking in ways and challenge them in ways they haven’t been before,” he said.

Overall, Thomas sees a natural connection between Mennonites and persecuted groups like the Bhutanese and Nepalis.

“Mennonites are good at giving a voice to the voiceless,” he said. “This connection is happening because Mennonites are paying attention to people on the margins.”

Spreading statewide

Bhutanese-Nepali Mennonite congregations are also emerging in eastern Pennsylvania.

Aldo Siahaan, pastor of Philadelphia Praise Center, a Franconia Mennonite Conference congregation, is coaching a new church plant in Scranton.

“My friend took [a group of Nepalis] to an Indonesian church, but they want to have their own group, with their own language, so we’re trying to help them,” Siahaan said.

Siahaan is coaching the Scranton group with help from Shankar Rai of Lancaster. Rai is pastor of Bhutanese Nepali Church of Lancaster, which has been gathering since 2009.

The congregation joined Lancaster Mennonite Conference in March. About 50-70 people worship on Saturday at West End Mennonite Fellowship in Lancaster.

Rai, a Bhutanese Lancaster Conference licensed minister, originally connected with Mennonites through a refugee friend sponsored by Mountville (Pa.) Mennonite Church.

Rai said his church is planning a “grand event for all Nepalese-Bhutanese Christians in the U.S.” The event will include worship, speakers and seminars for church leaders, youth and new believers.

He is planning the event for Aug. 31-Sept. 2, 2012, somewhere in Lancaster.

Like Darji in Pittsburgh, Rai resonates closely with Mennonite beliefs of adult baptism and a trinitarian God.

“I read the Confession of Faith and realized we believe the things that are in that document,” he said.

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Communing with each other and the world

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by Emily Ralph, eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org

Every year, followers of Jesus around the world join together in remembering his death and resurrection through the act of communion. World Communion Sunday is a celebration marking that through his death, Jesus broke down the wall of hostility between people groups and that through his resurrection, Christ formed a new family of disciples world-wide.

Swamp’s children walk around the globe
Swamp’s children encircle and walk around the globe singing “I am the Church” on World Communion Sunday. Photo by Abby Mason.

Whether wearing clothes from countries around the world, as they did at Plains in Hatfield, Pa., or sharing a spaghetti dinner with the church down the street, as they did at Ripple in Allentown, Pa., Franconia Conference congregations spent October 2nd remembering this holy communion with the world-wide church.

“This remains one of my favorite services of the year,” said Sharon Ambrose, a member of Swamp (Quakertown, Pa.). “I find it so meaningful to celebrate with Christians around the world.” In addition to sharing communion bread from other countries and reading Scripture in multiple languages, Swamp’s service focused on expanding circles of concern from the congregation to the world, both locally and globally.

Church elders pray behind the communion table
Church elders pray behind the communion table at Nueva Vida Norristown New Life. Photo by Emily Ralph.

At Nueva Vida Norristown New Life, Pastor Marta Castillo also encouraged her congregation to evaluate how their actions affected believers around the world. “On World Communion Sunday,” she said, “we need to think about how we commune with the Body of Christ that is hungry . . . with the Body of Christ that is persecuted. . . with the Body of Christ that are immigrants.”

Souderton (Pa.) Mennonite Church celebrated with the theme of hospitality from Acts 2, which describes how the early church worshiped and ate together, sharing their possessions. The congregation used a braided bread of different colors to remind them that people from many nations were celebrating the Lord’s Supper with them. As members of the congregation approached the communion tables, they were joined on the big screen by photos of people celebrating communion around the world.

Souderton--world communion bread
Souderton used a braided bread to remind them that people from many nations were celebrating the Lord’s Supper with them. Photo by Alyssa Kerns.

Ambler celebrated more than World Communion Sunday—the congregation also hosted a regional CROP walk to end hunger that afternoon. Ambler’s preschoolers mixed and bagged trail mix for those who would be “praying on their feet” and, with issues of global hunger on their minds, the congregation worshiped around tables. On each table was a cut-out of the earth with facts and quotes about the condition of the world printed on it, said Pastor Donna Merow. “These became part of our silent confession as we prepared for Communion,” she reflected. “We served one another [around the tables] and then enjoyed an international meal together before heading out to walk to raise funds for global relief efforts.”

On World Communion Sunday and throughout the rest of the year, we are being formed as Jesus-followers, joining God’s world-wide mission to invite all people to participate in God’s kingdom. “Marking this day gives us an invitation to remember our sisters and brothers in places far from us,” said Samantha Lioi, associate pastor at Whitehall Mennonite. “Hearing scripture in three languages and being asked to choose from a variety of breads reminds us we are sojourners as Jesus was, not quite at home but creating welcome places wherever we pitch our tents.”

Franconia Conference launches new website

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Harleysville, Pa.–Franconia Mennonite Conference has launched a new website design as part of an ongoing restructuring that will provide better communication and a clearer presentation of the purpose and function of the conference.

The new site continues to provide popular features like the conference calendar, photo galleries, and a redesigned directory of conference congregations, conference related ministries, and staff.  In addition, it now includes cleaner navigation, localized video and audio pages, an easy-to-search church locator, and integration with conference social media like Twitter and Facebook.

“The new website offers a clear visual and virtual image of the real postures of ministry of Franconia Conference,” says Director of Communication, Steve Kriss.

The new design by graphic artist Tim Moyer (timoyer.com) incorporates the conference’s core values of being formational, missional, and intercultural with rotating photographs on the homepage, submitted by Conference congregations.  Clicking on the photos takes web visitors to a feed of articles related to each core value.

Ertell Whigham, Franconia Conference’s Executive Minister, encouraged the design team to draw attention to these values.  “It’s for two reasons, really,” he said.  “First, so that everyone who is a part of Franconia Conference gets a consistent message and second, so that we all have clarity on the conference’s direction.”

In addition to the beauty and functionality of the new design, the site has also been cleaned up on the back end (the structure of the site that ordinary visitors don’t see), which will lead to improved site performance and security as well as more efficiency for staff.  “It will take less time to maintain the site while being easier to keep up to date,” says Emily Ralph, Associate Director of Communication.  “That means it’ll be more cost effective in the long-run.”

“It’s been a labor of love, creativity, and persistence,” said Kriss.  “We hope that it not only informs and shapes the Conference identity, but also invites into an ongoing conversation through more effective connectivity, equipping, and empowering.”

Continue the conversation:

  • Submit photos of how your congregation has been formational, missional and intercultural for possible inclusion in the homepage rotation. (eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org)
  • Share videos from your congregational life on Vimeo or YouTube.  (send suggestions to FranconiaMC)