Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Mennonite Church USA

We’re fit, prayerful, and we stick together

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Phoenix prayer walkby Emily Ralph, eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org

As we neared the park, the police officer guiding our prayer walk through the streets of Phoenix thanked Mennonite Church USA’s leaders for allowing her to participate in the event.  “Many groups string out and lag behind,” she said, “But you guys stick together, you’re fit, and you’re prayerful.  You’ve made my day.”

Her words produced a chuckle that toasty summer evening, but I’ve continued to chew on them as I’ve accompanied Elizabeth Soto Albrecht on the last two weeks of her cross-country journey to visit Mennonite Church USA congregations.

We have visited congregations who gather three or four times a week for prayer meetings, congregations who participate in acts of civil disobedience, congregations who march in parades, who hold community fairs and weekly laundry outreaches, who open their facilities to the homeless, who wrestle with Scripture and sometimes one another.

We met leaders who speak Spanish, English, Indonesian, French, Vietnamese, German, Creole, and Garifuna.  We worshiped with congregations who sang out of hymnbooks, who sang off the wall, who sang from memory.  We prayed with our hands lifted in the air, in silent moments of meditation, and on awkward but delightful walks through city streets.  We had conversations with people who are concerned about the future of Mennonite Church USA, with people who are excited about it, and with people who didn’t even know they belonged to Mennonite Church USA.

In some ways, the police officer’s observations are a reflection of who we want to be, who we are on our best day.  We’re fit, active, working to bring about God’s reign on earth.  We’re prayerful, throwing ourselves and our hopes and dreams on the mercy of a faithful, just, and loving God.  We stick together, knowing that faith must happen in community, even when members of that community don’t agree with or even like one another.

On our journey, Elizabeth has often reminded congregations that our denomination is only 12 years old.  Like most preteens, we’re still trying to figure out who we are, how we should behave.  The next few years, our teen years, will show us what we’re made of as we face increasingly difficult and potentially divisive issues.  Will we stay fit and prayerful?  Will we stick together?  Will our neighbors, like the police officer, want to participate in what God is doing in our midst?

Maybe her words were less an observation and more a prophetic word on that final evening of Convention.  Maybe our prayer walk was less for the people of Phoenix and more for ourselves, a symbolic act that marked the transition between what has been and what could be.  Maybe it was an act of hope, of promise, a way of assuring ourselves, even as we worry and doubt, that with some cold water, exercise, and plenty of prayer, we can stick together.  Even in the Arizona heat.

We see ourselves

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Gutsy women
Elizabeth Soto Albrecht and Patty Shelly ask Phoenix delegates if they are ready for two women to lead Mennonite Church USA. Photo by Emily Ralph.

I would have told you that I didn’t need a woman leading our denomination.

I would have been wrong.

When Elizabeth Soto Albrecht was given her charge as moderator of Mennonite Church USA on July 5, I felt a thrill run through me.  We had been on the road for a week at that point and I wondered, “Is this what a campaign worker feels like when she sees her candidate take the oath of office?”

A few moments later, Elizabeth and Patty Shelly, the moderator-elect, stood before the delegate body and asked, “Are you ready for two women to lead Mennonite Church USA?”  The crowd applauded and I almost bounced up and down with excitement.

Where was this coming from?  There have been other women who have served as moderator, although most of them were before I was involved enough to be aware.  Why was Elizabeth’s appointment so special for me?

In our first trip together, Elizabeth and I traveled to New York City.  As we ate dinner with a Mennonite pastor in Brooklyn, his face lit up.  “This is an important day,” he said.  “For years, we urban Mennonites have been looking at our leadership, looking for a face we recognize.”  And now, with Elizabeth as the first Latina moderator of Mennonite Church USA, they finally looked to their leadership and saw themselves.

Everywhere we have traveled so far, Elizabeth has been greeted with enthusiasm and warmth.  But when we visit Hispanic congregations, something is different; the energy in the air is palpable, the prayer is fervent.  These congregations sent her to Phoenix in the same way that God sent prophets to Israel: as one individual representing something greater than herself.

I knew this was the case; I have even explained to others on a number of occasions how important Elizabeth’s appointment is to the Hispanic community.  Until the moment when she received her charge, however, it was just knowledge.  In that moment, I felt a dawning awareness of how personal that identification could be: This is what it feels like to look at the moderator and see myself.

When I told my spiritual director that I was going to be traveling with Elizabeth this summer, she laughed.  “That’s one gutsy woman,” she said.  Then she stopped and looked at me.  “But you like gutsy women.”

It’s true.  I do like gutsy women.  And my heart’s desire is that I will be one.

To all the gutsy women who have challenged the status quo, battled through sexism, engaged the hard questions, bridged cultures and theologies and relationships, and sacrificed for the good of the wider church, thank you.  May you more and more often look to our leadership and see a reflection of yourselves.  And may our children and grandchildren look to our leadership and see you.

Incoming moderator launches nationwide tour

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Pastor Byron Pellecer, conference minister Owen Burkholder, Soto Albrecht, and executive director of MC USA Ervin Stutzman answer questions at Iglesia Discipular Anabaptista. Photo by Emily Ralph.

by Emily Ralph

Mennonite Church USA’s incoming moderator Elizabeth Soto Albrecht has begun her journey around the United States to visit MC USA congregations. Soto Albrecht will receive her charge as moderator this Friday, the final day of MC USA’s Phoenix convention.

A native of Puerto Rico, Soto Albrecht is visiting some of the congregations that are not attending MC USA’s convention in Phoenix because of Arizona’s rigorous anti-illegal immigration legislation; she will also drop in at pastors’ breakfasts, home communities, and regional gatherings to listen to the concerns and hopes of the diverse people who make up Mennonite Church USA. Many of these events in the coming week will be streamed live on her website.

After several short trips in May and June to Norristown (Pa.), New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C., Soto Albrecht, along with a three-person support team, began the three-week circuit on June 28 with a service of blessing and sending at James Street Mennonite Church in Lancaster (Pa).

During the service, Janet Breneman, Soto Albrecht’s pastor, presented the moderator elect with a photograph of the members of her home congregation, Laurel Street Mennonite Church, as a symbol of their presence with her, sending her and praying for her. Two days later, Soto Albrecht showed that photo to Lindale Mennonite Church (Harrisonburg, Va.) before she preached, saying, “I could not have taken this journey without my home congregation—they have made it possible.”

The sending service concluded with a prayer walk in the west side of Lancaster city. This was the second of what Soto Albrecht hopes to be many prayer walks on her journey; the first was with Philadelphia Praise Center in South Philadelphia. “It is so meaningful when those gathered in the church facility leave the comfort of those four walls and people witness our presence in the neighborhood,” Soto Albrecht observes. “We prayed for the peace of the city and people are more than willing to do that as part of their worship.”

In addition to preaching at Lindale, Soto Albrecht visited Iglesia Discipular Anabaptista (IDA) in Harrisonburg, where she spoke on discipleship and joined Ervin Stutzman, MC USA’s executive director, in a time of Q&A with the congregation.

During that exchange, one member of IDA asked how those who remain behind will be remembered in Phoenix. “On the last night, we’re going on a prayer walk,” Soto Albrecht told him. Thousands of Mennonites will walk the streets, stopping to pray outside the detention center, and finally converge in a park to pray and sing together. “The prayer walk is the peace church making itself visible,” she said.

Both the prayer walk and Soto Albrecht’s keynote address Friday evening will be streamed live on her website.

After their Saturday and Sunday morning visits in Harrisonburg, Soto Albrecht’s team continued on to Chapel Hill, N.C., where members of Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship, pastored by Isaac Villegas, made their way through five inches of rain and flooded roads to worship together.

“The ongoing message that I’ve been receiving is people affirming my decision to have this journey, saying, ‘We’re with you. We understand why you decided not to attend Phoenix and to instead have this long journey before arriving at the delegate session on Friday,’” reflects Soto Albrecht. “Those comments affirmed over and over again that this journey is part of God’s plan for us and how important it is that we connect with one another.”

At the same time, however, her thoughts and prayers are also with the delegates gathering in Phoenix and she looks forward to joining them on Friday for the final delegate session and evening worship.

Although only a few days into the journey, Soto Albrecht has already reconnected with many old friends and become acquainted with many new ones. “I’ve found that people are pleasantly surprised that I’m taking time to stop and join smaller churches or larger churches, to listen to them,” she says. “It is especially important to connect with Spanish-speaking congregations, to let them know that I know their struggles and that we are committed as a church to seek justice on their behalf. I’m looking forward to journeying with them in their struggle and to continue to be sent for and by them to Phoenix.”

The vision sounds different

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by Emily Ralph, associate director of communication

Primera Iglesia Menonita de Brooklyn
Elizabeth Soto Albrecht prays with two pastors who are struggling through immigration issues. Photo by Emily Ralph

Admittedly, I’ve not been a huge fan of Mennonite Church USA’s vision statement.  It’s felt cliché as we’ve reiterated a utopic collection of Anglo American Mennonites’ favorite words strung into a sequence.

This past weekend, as I accompanied Elizabeth Soto Albrecht, Mennonite Church USA moderator-elect, to worship with Mennonite congregations in New York City, I realized something.

Our vision sounds different in Spanish.

It’s not just that the words sound different, although they do.  The meaning of the words takes on new depth when it’s being said by men and women who are faced with oppression, racism, anger, and uncertainty; nice words become a challenge to live like Jesus in the midst of struggle.

At Primera Iglesia Menonita in Brooklyn, immigration advocates gathered downstairs to connect immigrants with resources and an immigration lawyer guided them through the massive paperwork maze needed to achieve adequate documentation.  Upstairs, the congregation worshiped a faithful God who cares for widows, orphans, and “aliens” and shared their own stories of fleeing persecution, enduring economic oppression, and struggling to keep their families together.

How do we let la esperanza de Dios fluyan a través when we are paid less than minimum wage and when we watch helplessly as our families are needlessly deported?

At Garifuna Iglesia Menonita in Harlem, members of the American Garifuna community (people from Honduras, Belize, Nicaragua, and Guatemala of African descent) worshiped enthusiastically in Spanish and Garifuna accompanied by four sets of drums, flowing back and forth between languages as fluidly as the call and response of their leaders and congregation.

How do we grow as comunidades de gracia, gozo y paz when people tell us to “go back where we came from” or when simply walking the streets might lead to a stop and frisk from the New York Police?

At Iglesia Menonita Unida de Avivamiento in Brooklyn, where we said the vision together in Spanish, one of the congregation’s pastors sat across from Elizabeth over dinner and said, “Those of us in urban churches have been looking at our denomination’s leadership for a long time, waiting for someone we recognize.  This is a historic moment.”  It is a moment that could lead to la sanidad de Dios.

I’m beginning to realize that healing sounds different in Spanish.  And that true healing and hope also move us toward a new understanding of God’s justice, “that flows like a mighty stream.”

“God calls us to be followers of Jesus Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit,
to grow as communities of grace, joy and peace,
so that God’s healing and hope flow through us to the world.”

“Dios nos llama a ser seguidores de Jesucristo, y por el poder del Espíritu Santo,
a crecer como comunidades de gracia, gozo y paz,
para que la sanidad y la esperanza de Dios fluyan a través de nosotros al mundo.”

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Emily is accompanying Elizabeth Soto Albrecht on her Journey to Phoenix this summer. 

God knows why we won’t go to Phoenix

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Steve Krissby Steve Kriss, Philadelphia Praise Center (reposted from Mennonite World Review, by permission)

My church is made up of immigrants and migrants. We are political refugees. We have arrived here because of economic realities. We’ve been granted religious asylum. We’ve come to Philadelphia to find ourselves, to find flourishing space. We all landed in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Compassion for different reasons, and we’ve become the largest Mennonite Church USA congregation in the city.

This summer, though, we won’t be going to Phoenix to join with other Mennonites to discern and fellowship. We’re staying home from the MC USA convention because we’re honoring those among us who are undocumented and would risk too much in making the trip to Arizona. We know that bearing witness this summer is important, but we won’t put our most vulnerable members at risk by traveling there.

While other churches in our denomination wonder what it might be like to break the law to assist the undocumented, we have no question about our call to ministry. We know that Jesus ministered to those who were on the outside. We know that in taking that call seriously we must live in grace and recognize that our community of Mennonites includes both the legally documented and those who are underdocumented in the eyes of the law. We know that God knows our statuses and names, can count the hairs on our head and extends to us all the grace of daily bread.

Over much of our congregation’s history, placards up front in our worship space have called for immigration reform. They are underneath our cross, behind our pulpit and next to our drums. This call for justice is interwoven into the life of our congregation and our existence as a community. We are not insiders or outsiders based on our citizenship. We are a community of people who have decided to journey together as Mennonites in the very locale where the Mennonite seed took root in this hemisphere.

We applaud and seek to support the efforts of churches that take the issues of immigration seriously. Immigration reform will happen when the hearts of citizens change. We celebrate all that will be learned at Phoenix for those who attend. We hope the hearts of all in our churches will continue to be touched by the complexity of the situation and the simplicity of grace. I hope that somehow in this journey to Phoenix we’ll realize that immigrants — documented or undocumented — aren’t outsiders in our Anabaptist/Mennonite communities.

The journey to Arizona invites all of us to reflect on our own stories of migration. For many of us, a journey’s purity is polished in the retelling. We have not all landed on these shores willingly, legally or peaceably. The reasons for migration and the outgrowth of those realities are just as complicated now as when the streams of Swiss/ German/Dutch Mennonites made their way into colonial Pennsylvania — where Africans were being sold on auction blocks along the shore, ripped and trafficked from their homes across the Atlantic.

Early Anabaptists followed the invitation of the Spirit toward witness — knowing that at times it required actions that were contrary to the law and that risked relational harmony. This summer at Philly Praise and in other MC USA congregations across the country, our absence at Phoenix will be a witness to our denomination.

As we journey and seek first God’s sovereignty, may we also discover the breadth of God’s love and re-encounter the Spirit that binds us together across language, ethnicity, culture and status, inviting us all to be redefined under Christ.

Conference leaders join multicultural national gathering

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Hope For The Future 2013
Roy Williams, a Mennonite Education Agency board member and former Mennonite Church USA moderator; and Madeline Maldonado, associate pastor at Iglesia Evangélica Menonita Arca de Salvación in Fort Myers, Fla., and a Mennonite Mission Network board member, participate in small group discussions during the Hope for the Future II Conference. (Photo by Carol Roth.)

Racial/Ethnic leaders from Franconia and Eastern District Conferences joined Mennonite Church USA leaders from around the country at the “Hope … for the Future II: Persevering with Jesus” conference, January 25-27 in Leesburg, VA.  According to the conference’s press release, the purpose for the event was to “encourage unity, celebrate the denomination’s multicultural progress, and begin outlining specific ways to help the entire church thrive as its membership rapidly becomes more diverse.”

Yvonne Platts, a leader in Nueva Vida Norristown New Life (Franconia) attended with Ertell Whigham, Franconia’s Executive Minister, Ron White, Eastern District’s moderator, and Noel Santiago, Franconia’s Minister for Spiritual Transformation.  The conference had an atmosphere of solidarity, Platts reflected, even a lightness of spirit despite the heaviness of the topic and weariness of travel.  “I am always moved by the gatherings that bring people of color together in a significant way,” she said.  It was a “chance to celebrate just how far we’ve come as a people of faith in helping the church to live out its call.”

White was particularly struck by the call to unity, noting that “our future work as a multicultural group will only go as far as our unity will allow.”  In order to experience and express that unity, leaders need to learn about and understand one another’s cultures, he added, which could be a challenge since the diversity within the church is great. “It has to start with how we best demonstrate that we care about each other,” he said.

The conference included recognition of the number of positions filled by leaders of color on the national level, including positions in the denomination as well as in Mennonite agencies.  It is a sign of progress, observed Whigham.  “We are positioned to speak into the culture while the culture may not necessarily embrace what we bring.”  Meeting together with other leaders and sharing similar experiences was powerful, he said.  It was a time of naming the difficulty of leading as a person of color in the midst of the dominant white culture, “not to beat up on our white brothers and sisters,” he said, “but describing a reality … they might not be aware of.”

Representation in positions of leadership is increasing, but is still not what it needs to be, noted Whigham.  A number of young leaders at the conference—gifted, intelligent, visionary leaders—“said to us older folk, ‘Don’t give up—we commit ourselves to take the baton and keep moving forward, standing on your shoulders and continuing to engage,’” Whigham said.  “That was hopeful.”

That raises the question of how current leaders are working to expand the leadership capacity in people of color within the Mennonite Church, White said.  “Are we putting our young people of color in position to be our future leaders and how can we best equip them and create effective leadership among our cultures, and what can we do to support each other in this work?” he asked.

A highpoint in the conference was a sendoff blessing for John Powell, who recently retired after 23 years of anti-racism work with Mennonite Mission Agency.  It was a bittersweet moment for Platts, knowing that “his work and that of others confronting the powers-that-be to look at systemic racism has gotten us this far and in the room together but there still exist huge … challenges to overcome.”

The future challenges could be overwhelming, but Platts remembers the words of one of the songs they sang together: “The journey is long.”  Going forward, she said, she will hold onto those song lyrics and “pray for the wisdom, strength, and knowledge about how to best work with others to advance the kingdom of God in my church community and … conference.”

Read the press release from Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Mission Agency, and Mennonite Education Agency, the conference’s sponsors.

Resolutions are back, but with a difference

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Executive Board issues guidelines for developing resolutions for Phoenix 2013

Mennonite Church USA Phoenix ConventionBy Annette Brill Bergstresser

After collecting input from across the church, Mennonite Church USA’s Executive Board (EB) has adopted a revised process for developing resolutions and church statements for adoption at the denomination’s biennial delegate assemblies. This new process applies to resolutions to be proposed for discussion at the Phoenix 2013 Delegate Assembly in July.

At the Pittsburgh 2011 assembly, delegates affirmed the “Pittsburgh Experiment,” a proposal from the EB to set aside discussions of church statements and resolutions at that assembly in favor of using a process to discern together a 10-year “purposeful plan” with goals and priorities for the church. Part of the motivation for the experiment was that questions and concerns had been raised across the church about the process used to develop and adopt assembly statements and the subsequent use of the statements.

“Following the Pittsburgh Experiment,” says Mennonite Church USA Moderator Richard Thomas, “we wanted a discernment process that would be open to all and would be based on biblical discernment at the local, area conference and national levels of our church.”

In the new process, any member of a Mennonite Church USA congregation—not just delegates to the assembly—may propose resolutions for consideration.

The revised guidelines offer a specific framework for developing resolutions based on the denomination’s vision and purpose statements and Purposeful Plan. (Developed in 2011, the Purposeful Plan is organized around seven churchwide priorities: Christian formation, Christian community, holistic Christian witness, stewardship, leadership development, undoing racism and advancing intercultural transformation, and church-to-church relationships.)

The revised guidelines also lengthen the process for bringing resolutions and create space for deeper discernment by involving the Constituency Leaders Council (CLC), an advisory board comprising representatives from area conferences and constituency groups that meets in the spring and fall.

According to Thomas, the impetus for the revised guidelines is to grow in the practice of faithful spiritual discernment.

“An important biblical model for this new way of discernment is to reach an understanding that ‘seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us’ (Acts 15:28),” he says.

Previously, delegates were able to bring resolutions to a Resolutions Committee during the days of the assembly itself, and this committee was the only group responsible for discerning how to proceed. For the 2013 assembly, resolutions must be received by the Resolutions Committee at least four months before the beginning of the delegate assembly. If the committee members determine that a resolution fits within the framework described above, they will submit it to the CLC, which will discern whether to bring it to the delegate body and recommend the percentage needed to adopt it. The CLC may also recommend that a resolution be considered at a later assembly if it requires more time for discernment.

“The reasoning here,” says Ervin Stutzman, executive director of Mennonite Church USA, “is that if the CLC can’t agree that it’s a worthy resolution to adopt, it’s probably not a good use of time to put it in front of a group 10 times that size.”

The Resolutions Committee will then work with the CLC’s recommendations—usually in interaction with those who initially submitted the resolution. The committee will determine which resolutions to take to the assembly, prepare a study guide for area conferences and congregations for discernment and prayer prior to the gathering, and distribute all related materials to delegates.

There are still other ways for resolutions to come to the delegate assembly. Resolutions proposed less than four months prior to the assembly will require signatures of 10 or more delegates from each of at least three different area conferences and must be approved by the EB. Also, at any time prior to the end of the delegate assembly, the EB and Resolutions Committee may each propose resolutions for action.

Donna Mast, conference minister for Allegheny Mennonite Conference, sees the change as an improvement.

“The new procedures for resolutions will help us think more carefully about the resolutions we choose to make,” she says.  She also affirms the fact that “conferences will have a larger voice in the making of resolutions through the voice of the CLC.”

The EB took action to adopt the revised guidelines for developing resolutions at its Sept. 20-22 meeting in Kansas City, Mo., and invited counsel from CLC members at the Oct. 22–24 CLC meeting in Wichita, Kan. The EB also moved to provide copies of the guidelines to all current pastors and all delegates who participated in the 2011 assembly, and to post the document online for church members who may wish to submit a proposal for consideration by the 2013 assembly. (See http://mennoniteusa.org/resources/statements-and-resolutions/)

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Las resoluciones volvieron, pero con una diferencia
La junta ejecutiva presenta pautas para desarrollar resoluciones para Phoenix 2013

Mennonite Church USA Phoenix ConventionPor Annette Brill Bergstresser

(Iglesia Menonita de EE. UU.)—Luego de recibir opiniones de todos los sectores del cuerpo, la junta ejecutiva de la Iglesia Menonita de EE. UU. (de aquí en adelante, JE) ha incorporado un procedimiento revisado para desarrollar resoluciones y declaraciones de la iglesia en pos de su adopción en las asambleas bienales de delegados de la denominación. Este nuevo procedimiento se aplica a las resoluciones que se propongan para su discusión en la asamblea de delegados de Phoenix 2013, a realizarse en julio.

En la asamblea de Pittsburgh 2011, los delegados confirmaron el “Experimento Pittsburgh”, una propuesta de la JE para separar debates de declaraciones de la iglesia y resoluciones en esa asamblea que favorezcan el uso de un procedimiento de discernimiento conjunto del “plan con propósito” con metas y prioridades a diez años para la iglesia. Parte de la motivación para el experimento fue que en toda la iglesia habían surgido preguntas y dudas sobre el procedimiento utilizado para desarrollar y adoptar las declaraciones de la asamblea y el uso posterior de las mismas.

Richard Thomas, moderador de la Iglesia Menonita de EE. UU., dice: “Luego del Experimento Pittsburgh quisimos diseñar un proceso de discernimiento abierto a todos, basado en el discernimiento bíblico, en los distintos niveles de la iglesia: el local, el de la conferencia y el nacional”.

Con el nuevo procedimiento, cualquier miembro de una congregación de la Iglesia Menonita de EE. UU.—no sólo los delegados para la asamblea—puede proponer resoluciones para su consideración.

Las pautas revisadas ofrecen un marco específico para desarrollar resoluciones, basadas en la visión, la declaración de propósito y el plan con propósito de la denominación. (El Plan con Propósito, elaborado en el 2011, está organizado en torno a siete prioridades para toda la iglesia: formación cristiana, comunidad cristiana, testimonio cristiano integral, mayordomía, capacitación de líderes, deshacer el racismo y fomentar la transformación intercultural, y relaciones entre iglesias.)

Las pautas revisadas también amplían el procedimiento para la presentación de resoluciones y crean espacio para un discernimiento más profundo al incluir al Concilio de Líderes Constituyentes (CLC, por sus siglas en inglés), un gabinete de asesores compuesto por representantes de conferencias regionales y grupos de constituyentes que se reúne en primavera y otoño.

Según Thomas, el ímpetu de las pautas revisadas es el de crecer en la práctica de un fiel discernimiento espiritual.

El dice: “Un importante modelo bíblico para esta nueva forma de discernimiento es lograr una comprensión que ‘nos parezca bien al Espíritu Santo y a nosotros’ (Hechos 15.28)”.

Antes, los delegados pudieron presentar resoluciones ante el comité de resoluciones durante la propia asamblea, y este comité fue el único grupo que estuvo a cargo de discernir cómo proceder. Para la asamblea del 2013, las resoluciones deberá recibirlas el comité de resoluciones al menos cuatro meses antes del inicio de la asamblea de delegados. Si los miembros del comité determinan que una resolución cabe dentro del marco descrito arriba, lo presentarán ante el CLC, el cual discernirá si deben llevarlo ante el cuerpo de delegados y recomendar el porcentaje necesario para adoptarla. El CLC también puede recomendar que una resolución sea tratada en una asamblea posterior si requiere de más tiempo para el discernimiento.

Ervin Stutzman, director ejecutivo de la Iglesia Menonita de EE. UU., dice: “La idea es que si el CLC juzga que se trata de una resolución que no vale la pena adoptar, es probable que no sea sabio emplear tiempo para tratarla en un grupo diez veces mayor”.

De esta manera, el comité de resoluciones trabajará luego con las recomendaciones del CLC—generalmente en interacción con aquellos que presentaron la resolución. El comité establecerá qué resoluciones llevará a la asamblea, preparará una guía de estudio que ayude a las conferencias regionales y las congregaciones en, el estudio y discernimiento previo al encuentro, y distribuirá todos los materiales relacionados entre los delegados.

Existen otros modos de llevar resoluciones a la asamblea de delegados. Las resoluciones propuestas menos de cuatro meses antes de la asamblea requerirán firmas de diez o más de los delegados de al menos tres conferencias regionales, y deben estar aprobadas por la JE. Además, en cualquier momento previo al final de la asamblea de delegados, la JE y el comité de resoluciones pueden proponer resoluciones de acción por separado.

Donna Mast, ministra de la conferencia Allegheny Mennonite, considera que el cambio es un avance.

“Los nuevos procedimientos para las resoluciones nos ayudarán a pensar más cuidadosamente acerca de las resoluciones que elegimos elaborar”, dice. También afirma que “la opinión de las conferencias será mayor al crear resoluciones a través del CLC”.

La JE adoptó las pautas revisadas para el desarrollo de resoluciones en su reunión del 20 al 22 de septiembre en Kansas City, Misuri, y recibió recomendaciones de los miembros del CLC en la reunión de dicho grupo llevada a cabo del 22 al 24 de octubre en Wichita, Kansas. La JE también repartió copias de las pautas a todos los pastores actuales y todos los delegados que participaron de la asamblea del 2011, y publicó el documento en internet para aquellos miembros de la iglesia que deseen presentar una propuesta para su consideración en la asamblea del 2013. (Ver http://mennoniteusa.org/resources/statements-and-resolutions/)

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Traducción: Alex Naula, Zulma Prieto

Observing together what God is saying and doing

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To Mennonite Blog #9

Ervin Stutzmanby Ervin Stutzman, executive director, Mennonite Church USA

I’ve been a follower of Jesus in the Mennonite tradition for many years. Therefore, for me “to Mennonite” is to instinctively follow the many rhythms and routines that express my core beliefs about Christian discipleship. I engage in particular rhythms of corporate worship and private devotion, action and reflection, exercise and rest, (lots of) work and (sometime too little) play, (too much) speaking and (too little) listening, communal discernment and personal choice. I could expand on each of these routines but I have chosen to address only the last of these several pairs.

For me, “to Mennonite” is to engage in communal discernment about the most important issues in the Christian life. Some newcomers to the Mennonite church quickly observe that our insistence on processing decisions can lead to undue cultural conformity and inertia. To new leaders eager to make changes in the church, processing often appears as a weakness, if not a downright annoyance. Stuart Murray, an Anabaptist from Great Britain, once cited a Mennonite friend who said that “process is the Mennonite drug of choice.” Ouch!

Recently, I met with a congregation of individuals who were mostly new to the Mennonite Church. Although they were part of Virginia Mennonite Conference as well as Mennonite Church USA, some members were hesitant about being identified as Mennonites. They feared that being Mennonite would drag them down, perhaps even lead them down the wrong path. They wished for greater independence from the larger body of Mennonite Christians. They seemed worried that the choices we are making as a national conference, even after communal discernment, might not reflect God’s best for them.

While the downsides of endless discussion and processing seem painfully obvious, there are clear upsides that keep me walking on the Mennonite path toward communal discernment of God’s chosen future. To Mennonite, then, is to join with others in circles of respectful and prayerful conversation, observing together what God is saying and doing in a community of faith. To Mennonite is to listen for God’s call. To Mennonite is to determine to follow where God leads, no matter what the cost.

This does not eliminate the need for effective group leadership. Indeed, it takes courageous leaders to blaze a trail into God’s future. Communal discernment can determine what God is calling us to do; getting it done is another matter! Further, coming to a group consensus can build a strong sense of ownership that will help to move the group along, especially during hard times. I have found that everybody is always lazy toward someone else’s goals. Good processes of communal discernment help us all to own the group’s goals for ourselves.

“To Mennonite” this way requires a strong sense of trust in the group. It appears that many leaders fear to engage groups in a search for consensus. I suspect they are worried that an ambitious radical will wreck the process or that a band of foot draggers will slow progress to a halt. Even more, I sense their anxiety that someone else will get the credit for any forward progress.

After years of leading groups, I have found that God can allay such fears. Consequently, I trust group processes more than ever. I am more likely now to bring my (supposedly brilliant) ideas to groups for testing. More likely to listen for the wisdom of even the quietest members. More likely to trust the Holy Spirit to point the way toward the future. If that’s what it means “to Mennonite,” count me in.

How do you “Mennonite”?  Join the conversation on Facebook & Twitter (#fmclife) 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)