Mosaic Mennonites

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First summit of the Mennonite Early Childhood Network

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MEA_Summit_2013March
Front, left to right: Tracy Hough, assistant professor of education, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Va.; Kathryn Aschliman, MECN coordinator and emeriti professor of early childhood education, Goshen (Ind.) College; Linda Martin, former director, Salford Mennonite Child Care Centers, Harleysville, Pa.; Standing, left to right: Louise Matthews, director, The Lion and Lamb Peace Arts Center of Bluffton (Ohio) University; Tami Keim, professor of early childhood education, Hesston (Kan.) College; Elaine Moyer, senior director, Mennonite Education Agency; June Hershberger, founder of Early Childhood Innovative Connections and executive director, Diamond Street Early Childhood Center, Akron, Pa.; Linda Taylor, assistant professor of early childhood education, Ball State University, Muncie, Ind.

by Louise Matthews, Mennonite Education Agency

Eight women, six of whom were current members of the Mennonite Early Childhood Network (MECN) Council, gathered in the home of Linda and Vernon Martin of Salford congregation (Harleysville, Pa.), March 15-17, for the first summit meeting of MECN. Since 2006, members of the MECN Council have been meeting through monthly conference calls to provide information and support for parents and early educators of children, birth through kindergarten, primarily through e-mails to members and on its website.

Kathryn Aschliman, MECN coordinator, and Elaine Moyer, Mennonite Education Agency (MEA) senior director, former principal of Christopher Dock Mennonite High School, and a member of Salford congregation, planned the agenda and facilitated the event for early childhood professionals from Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The three-day summit included time to reflect on the mission statement, to explore current trends in care and education of young children, and to brainstorm about ways that MECN can continue to provide support for others in the early childhood field. The need for additional funding for MECN initiatives and resources was also discussed.

For a glimpse of local programs, Linda Martin provided an opportunity for attendees to visit Salford Mennonite Child Care Centers (SMCCC) in two locations: Salford Mennonite Church and the intergenerational child care program located in the Dock Woods Retirement Community in Lansdale (Pa.). Linda was the director of SMCCC for nearly 20 years and is currently serving on the board.

As an initial outcome of the summit, MECN will invite responses from churches, child care and education programs, and parents through a needs assessment survey to learn how MECN can best serve young children through the adults who teach and care for them. Responses to the survey will clarify the needs and help determine direction for future MECN initiatives.

According to Moyer, “MECN continues to support the very important future of the church—young children. It was a privilege to be with a group of educational leaders dedicated to early childhood education, wondering how MECN can best network and support parents, churches and early childhood centers.”

Louise Matthews, director of The Lion and Lamb Peace Arts Center of Bluffton University, led the Sunday morning worship. Reflecting on the message highlighted in the picture book, Different Just Like Me by Lori Mitchell, she said “We are gifted differently and have unique opportunities to be advocates for young children in direct and indirect ways through our various roles as educators and directors.”  Inspired by her involvement with MECN, Louise is in the early phase of creating an online resource called “Books & More” in the form of short video clips to highlight books and follow-up activities for those who work with young children. These YouTube videos will be accessible at www.bluffton.edu/lionlamb in the near future.

June Hershberger, founder of Early Childhood Innovative Connections  and executive director of Diamond Street Early Childhood Center in Akron, Pa., commented, “As a center director, I would like teacher resources and classroom resources that relate specifically to Anabaptist views on issues such as peaceful reconciliation of conflict, nonviolent classrooms and the use of technology with young children, as well as faith-indicators for MEA accreditation at the prekindergarten level and possibly endorsement of age-appropriate peace and Bible curriculum.”

Aschliman summarized the summit well: “What a memorable weekend it was!—such hospitality of caring for body and soul; such group synergy; such long-term visioning; such inspiration, such passion for young children, their families, and the church.  We departed with the assurance that ‘The God of love and peace shall be with you (II Cor. 13:11).’”

For more information about MECN, visit www.MennoniteEducation.org/MECN.

Executive Board OKs two resolutions for Phoenix

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Mennonite Church USA Phoenix Conventionby Gordon Houser, The Mennonite (reposted by permission)

At its last meeting before the delegate assembly in Phoenix in July, the Executive Board (EB) of Mennonite Church USA met April 4-6 in Kansas City, Mo., and decided to send to delegates two resolutions for their consideration.

One resolution, “Protecting and Nurturing Our Children and Youth,” seeks to raise awareness of child abuse and neglect and encourage the adoption of policies and practices to protect children and youth in the church community. Because of concern for liability issues, the board decided to recommend its adoption, “pending legal counsel.”

Another resolution, on creation care, calls for congregations and members to care for creation as part of the good news of Jesus Christ. EB members recommended this without discussion.

A third resolution, on Israel/Palestine, had gone to the Constituency Leaders Council’s meeting in March for discussion.

However, said Dave Boshart and David Sutter, co-chairs of the resolutions committee, “nearly all table groups at CLC discouraged or had significant reservations about presenting the resolution … to the delegate assembly.”

The committee did agree that the topic was important, and EB’s executive committee asked, What do we want to achieve?

Eventually, EB agreed on the following: “Executive Board desires to have conversation in the church which helps us understand both Israeli and Palestinian narratives and the Christian and American narrative in relation to them, and which helps us understand how we interpret the Bible in regard to these issues, particularly how we understand Christian Zionism.”

In an unprecedented occurrence, much of EB’s business time was spent in executive session, which means the press is not allowed to report on what is said.

In an April 8 email, moderator Dick Thomas said: “We spent about one-third of our meeting in either executive session or in session with agency staff and media present [but] where we requested no reporting of the conversation. Some of this conversation had to do with internal board processes and some with matters of discernment that will be reported after further conversation with individuals or groups that could not be at the board meeting.”

In other business, EB decided to reduced its number of meetings per biennium from seven to six, with one meeting in a non-convention year held by teleconference and the summer meeting in a convention year held at the convention site, with no meeting in the fall. EB members recognized the need for cutting budget but lamented the loss of meeting time.

Larry Hauder said, “It’s hard to build relationships with fewer meetings.”

Executive director Ervin Stutzman noted that the Purposeful Plan, which guides the work of the church, did not say anything about “our need for God.”

The board agreed to add the following to the document:”We recognize that because of sin, all have fallen short of the Creator’s intent, marred the image of God in which we were created, disrupted order in the world and limited our love for others. Therefore, through the reconciling power of Jesus Christ, we seek to walk in righteousness, or ‘right-relatedness’ with God and others.”

And in the section under Holistic Christian Witness, they added the following sentence: “Our allegiance to Jesus Christ calls us to love our enemies, demonstrating our willingness to die for our convictions but not to kill for them.”

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.

Imagine Church as Healing Space

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EMS SLT 2013
Vice President and Seminary Dean Michael A. King addressed the gathering crowd during opening worship at the 2013 School for Leadership Training.

by Joan & Michael King, Salford

We tend to see mental illness as something that happens out there, to stigmatized strangers on the fringe of our churches, when in fact mental illness affects our families, friends, loved ones, congregants, and many of us personally. In short, mental illness is experienced by everyone in church communities – by “us” and our loved ones, not just by “them.”

This was a theme of the 2013 School for Leadership Training (SLT) at Eastern Mennonite Seminary (EMS), Jan. 21-23, which was titled “Imagine Church as Healing Space.” The event attracted over 270 participants and resource persons who sought to “hear, hold, and hope” amid mental health challenges.

Hosted and planned by EMS, the event felt historic: multiple participants said this was the first time in a public church context they had felt part of the group, not in spite of but because of their depression, anxiety, bipolar diagnosis, schizophrenia, and more. This was the first time they had felt normalized, not stigmatized, with their journey held in love, not primarily met with silence or marginalization. We see that experience, so easy to report but so rarely experienced, as a key gift the 2013 SLT offered.

Hearing from those with mental and those who love them

A second gift was space to tell and hear the pain mental illness causes both its sufferers and those who love them. Earl and Pat Martin offered searingly moving glimpses of their journey through their son Hans Martin’s development of symptoms of schizo-affective disorder.

Earl shared journal entries he had written during the sleepless nights after Hans was first hospitalized. In these contemporary psalms of lament, Earl raged at a pitiless God who treats his creatures like vermin, snapping off their limbs, leaving them soaked in their own blood. Earl railed at this God as the sick one who should get treatment for insanity. He reported that after he stopped writing of his own volition, spent, his pen kept going and offered words from God, who said that God’s own son was in fact in treatment and was the roommate in a neighboring bed whom Earl had feared would hurt Hans.

Not a cheap hope

A third gift was hope. This was not a cheap hope. Many at SLT, from participants through resource persons, told of confronting the anguish caused by suicide. To name just one example, in a laughter-yet-tear-stirring blending of drama and storytelling, Ted Swartz told of his journey through his comedy partner Lee Eshleman’s battle with depression and of how the suicide to which it drove Lee so shattered Ted’s own life and career that years have gone into rebuilding. Yet precisely in this heartrendingly open naming of the torment, Ted offered hope—hope for himself and hope for those still grieving the loss of their own loved ones.

Hope was also movingly offered through stories of persons seeking to live recovery-focused lives even amid the diagnosed illnesses once thought to be themselves virtual death or at least imprisonment-in-miserable-conditions sentences. John Otenasek, himself a “consumer,” as he put it, in recovery, led a panel of men (including Hans Martin) and women who told of enduring addictions, joblessness, homelessness, and more. Yet they also spoke of finding hope—often from peers confronting their own illnesses—enabling them to live meaningful and even joy-tinged lives while navigating ongoing bi-polar episodes or hearing voices.

And hope was offered when Tilda Norberg modeled what can happen when we attend to the “God icons” in our lives and dreams. She risked a live Gestalt pastoral counseling session with a courageous Sherill Hostetter. Drawing on insights from one of Sherill’s recent dreams, Norberg led Sherill in working through how her mother’s undiagnosed and untreated mental illness had affected her as a child and even now as a leader.  She more fully claimed her own empowered voice as a recently ordained minister and congregational consultant.

Recovery, love and acceptance

Fittingly enough, just days after the 2013 SLT concluded, the New York Times published a hope-filled article on Jan. 27, 2013 by Elyn R. Saks, diagnosed with schizophrenia yet a successful law professor at the University of Southern California. As did many at SLT influenced by the recovery movement in mental health, Saks stressed, “An approach that looks for individual strengths, in addition to considering symptoms, could help dispel the pessimism surrounding mental illness. Finding ‘the wellness within the illness,’ as one person with schizophrenia said, should be a therapeutic goal.”

In a conclusion that movingly echoes the convictions SLT participants took with them, Saks reported: “’Every person has a unique gift or unique self to bring to the world,’ said one of our study’s participants. She expressed the reality that those of us who have schizophrenia and other mental illnesses want what everyone wants: in the words of Sigmund Freud, to work and to love.”

Claiming our stories

When we checked with the Martins to make sure our references to their stories were acceptable, Pat said, “One of the SLT statements that stuck with me… pulled us all into the common task of being human: ‘Recovery is about claiming one’s story. The tools are the same for all of us whether struggling with mental illness or an overwhelming job.’” At EMS we’ll continue to ponder how, whatever the details of our stories may be, we help each other claim them.

Joan K. King is senior integration consultant, The National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, and owner of Joan K. King Consulting and Counseling LLC. Michael A. King is dean of Eastern Mennonite Seminary and a vice president of Eastern Mennonite University.

Reflections on one day with MDS on Staten Island

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by James M. Lapp

On November 8, following Superstorm Sandy, I was privileged to participate with one of the early Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) teams to Staten Island.  There amidst the front end loaders lifting wet debris from the streets into dump trucks, we encountered a busy community of local people and volunteers like us attempting to be helpful.  One thing became immediately clear.  MDS and Mennonites did not have a corner on compassion and care.

Along the street in front of the Oasis Christian Center building, men worked over a grill preparing chicken for anyone, including us, to eat for lunch.  The church (with partial Mennonite roots) had moved their worship to another setting to make the building available as a center of distribution for clothes and food.  In the background we heard the purr of generators providing power for the activities going on in the church.  Beside the church, at a makeshift table under a canopy, two people gave direction to the many people milling about who were seeking to be helpful.

Located only a few blocks from the bay, this church, like all the homes in the area, was vulnerable when the high tide and storm surge came roaring down the street.  Across the front of the church a distinct waterline indicated the height of the water during the storm—about neck high for an average-sized adult.  Basements and the first floor of homes throughout the neighborhood had been flooded.  Near to the church were several homes where the residents had drowned.

Inside the church, we sorted clothes and food donated for those in need.  “Do you have any hooded sweat shirts?” someone inquired.  Such a request was not hard to understand on this cold November day.

“We lost everything,” a woman reported through tears, with deep gratitude for jackets to wear.

Toiletries, clothes, and food of every kind appeared.  Twice during the day a U-Haul truck pulled up to the curb with contributions gathered around the city for distribution.  Others in our group worked at restoring electrical systems destroyed by the water, or in removing drywall so that the interior of the walls could dry without mildew.

The residents of this Staten Island community have lived near the water all of their lives.  Never has anything of this sort happened before.  How quickly the fury of the storm shattered the lives of these otherwise stable middle-class families!  It was hard for them and for me to make sense of such devastation.   I could almost hear in the background the taunting voices the Psalmist experienced in the wake of such a personal tragedy: “Now where is your God?”  (Psalm 42:3)

About dark we began our journey back to Lansdale, Pa., and to the safety of our homes. The team was united in gratitude for being able to participate in such a day of service to others.  But beneath the reward of having been privileged to serve, I sensed an unspoken sober awareness of the fragility of life, and the reality that natural disasters such as we witnessed were seemingly becoming more frequent.  At least that is what some of our public figures suggest.  What might that mean for our nation, for us?  That question, plus the inexplicable destruction we had just witnessed in this Staten Island community remained for us to ponder as we returned home that evening.

Jim Lapp is a retired Franconia Conference pastor who has served broadly in congregational, conference and denominational roles.   He and his wife Mim Book have returned to Southeastern Pennsylvania this fall after serving in an interim pastoral role in Nebraska.

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Individuals and teams from many Franconia Conference congregations have served with Mennonite Disaster Service since Superstorm Sandy, including Salford, Plains, Philadelphia Praise Center, Doylestown, Salem, Blooming Glen, and Ambler.  If you have served in this way and have reflections to share, email your thoughts to Emily.

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

MDS volunteers provide help and hope at Thanksgiving

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by Stephen Kriss, Director of Communication at Franconia Mennonite Conference, on assignment with MDS

Staten Island after Hurricane Sandy
Mennonite Disaster Service is anticipating a long-term presence in New York as the cleanup from Hurricane Sandy continues. Photo by Dawn Ranck.

A new normal is emerging in Staten Island’s Midland Beach neighborhood where Mennonite Disaster Service has set up alongside the ministries of Oasis Christian Center, to clean up and rebuild following the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. The one-story-high mounds of debris are gone. Traffic signals are working and electricity is back. Most houses have been inspected and are marked with red, green or yellow placards signaling the level of work required for habitation, or condemnation.

The Oasis Christian Center has been a hub of activity in the battered neighborhood. The church sanctuary is now full with donations—clothes, cleaning products, food. Supplies are in order and sorted. A sign out front says, “No More Donations.” The church’s basement has been gutted and new metal studs stand waiting for finishing. But there are still signs of the rolling wave that overtook the neighborhood. Flood damaged cars line the streets. Heavy equipment continues to roll in. There is a visible police presence.

Mennonite Disaster Service day volunteers are working and groups are scheduled into December. An average of 100 volunteers work each week. Long-term coordinators are living in a RV in the church yard next to Oasis. On these days before Thanksgiving, groups of volunteers were coming from the north, south and west: Amish and Mennonites from Lancaster County (Pa.),  diverse teams of Mennonites from Delaware and the Philadelphia area, members of the Bruderhof in the Hudson River Valley.  Teams from Franconia Conference congregations continue to arrive on a weekly basis.

Volunteers are busy with about 50 jobs waiting. Residents are working alongside volunteers. The process of tearing out and cleaning up is dirty, smelly, musty. Even on crisp fall days, the air inside the flooded houses is damp and heavy. The church is still receiving lunch donations. Food just shows up from Staten Island businesses. The overflowing generosity is increasingly better organized. A truckload of quilts and knotted comforters arrived from upstate New York, made with love and gifts of human grace.

Staten Island--Dawn Ranck
Members of Plains, Zion, Salford, Methacton, Perkiomenville and Swamp congregations served with MDS two weeks after Hurricane Sandy.

These days before Thanksgiving, the gratitude is evident. Staten Islanders still tear up quickly alongside volunteers. It’s tough to find temporary housing. It’s tough to imagine getting through this and getting to the other side. It’s tough to sort through belongings and to remember the surprising wave of water that submerged the neighborhood as it never had before. Everyone knows Midland Beach won’t ever be the same or feel the same. There’s a sense of loss alongside a sense of genuine hope.

In these days before Thanksgiving, the efforts seem persistent, patient, generous, unhurried, less frantic. There’s still much to be done. And yet, there’s still much to be thankful for even in the midst of an unthinkable disaster.  Hope and help keep showing up. Thanks be to God.

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MDS accepts monetary donations to support the clean up work in all areas affected by Hurricane Sandy. MDS does not accept donations of food and other items.Monetary donations can be made on the MDS website, mds.mennonite.net, by phone (717) 735-3536, or by mailing a check to MDS, 583 Airport Road, Lititz, PA 17543. To designate the donation for Hurricane Sandy, write “Hurricane Sandy” in the memo line of the check.

MDS responds to disasters in Canada, the United States and their territories. Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) responds to disasters in international settings. MCC is responding to the damage from Hurricane Sandy in Haiti. For information on MCC’s work in Haiti, check their website, mcc.org.

MDS settles into Staten Island for recovery

by

by Steve Kriss, skriss@mosaicmennonites.org

Two weeks ago Hurricane Sandy pummeled the Northeast Corridor, landing near Atlantic City, NJ with high winds and high tides that pushed water into New York City neighborhoods, reshaped New Jersey’s barrier islands, and caused widespread wind damage and power outages across eastern Pennsylvania.   In the days after the storm, the scope of damage continues to emerge.   The needs in the midst of clean-up and recovery change day-to-day.  But undoubtedly, the recovery is going to take awhile.

Mennonite Disaster Service has established a binational project in Staten Island’s hard hit Midland Beach neighborhood, which, according to the New York Times, contained the highest concentration of deaths from the storm.  Midland Beach is a collection of cottages densely packed together along New York Bay with views of the Verrazano Bridge in the distance.  It’s a tight neighborhood of long-term generations of residents alongside newly arriving immigrants from Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Neighbors were trapped by what some residents call a tsunami wave that rolled in from the bay to the east, through marshes in the north and from a large field that had been an aircraft landing area in the south.   Water poured through the streets, rising rapidly, trapping neighbors in houses for hours.   New York Police evacuated residents stranded on rooftops and in attics by boat while neighbors helped neighbors by evacuating with four wheel drives and canoes.  Some residents died in their sleep as the water rose quickly.  Bodies were still being recovered last week, wedged amongst furniture and debris.

Mennonite Disaster Service teams began arriving in Staten Island from Followers of Jesus Mennonite Church in Brooklyn a few days after the storm.   Within the first week an assessment team from Mennonite Disaster Service New York came to survey storm damage in Staten Island and Queens.  The team quickly recognized the extent of damage and bumped up responsibility to the binational office.  A week after the storm, teams from Pennsylvania began arriving at Midland Beach’s Oasis Christian Center.

Oasis was formed from the merger of two congregations, one of which had been a member of Lancaster Mennonite Conference.  A member of the church whose house had been damaged had served on a MDS team in Arizona a decade ago.  The church buzzed with activity as they received donations from various sources and reached quickly into the neighborhood by offering food, clothing, and guidance.  Pastor Tim McIntyre made sure that the space could be used as an aid center.  The church’s sanctuary was turned into a makeshift warehouse with weekly worship moved off-site.  Food was cooked outside in the church’s courtyard.  Bottled water and cleaning supplies overflowed onto the church’s porch.

Mennonite Disaster Service followed the lead of New Yorkers in lending a hand, including NYC Mennonites.  A group from United Revival Mennonite Church responded to needs in Coney Island a few days after the storm.  Volunteers from Followers of Jesus Church went to work in Staten Island, helping with cleanup and organizing the cleanup efforts.   After initial surveys, MDS sought to establish an operation center in Staten Island, bringing in volunteers from upstate New York along with Ray Zimmerman, Region 1 coordinator and Mel Roes from Lowville, New York who leads MDS New York.  Isaac Zehr and Vernon Long have moved south to organize the operations.

Meanwhile, volunteers began to trickle in from Southeastern Pennsylvania, coming from Allentown, Lancaster, and Philadelphia regions for long days of travel and work.  Lodging options on Staten Island are limited.  Many persons affected by the disaster are bunking with other family members.   MDS efforts are beginning with a focus on families in the neighborhood near the church building and with families involved in Oasis Christian Center itself.

MDS expects to be in the neighborhood awhile; they pulled in a RV for temporary lodging and made some negotiations for housing for long-term volunteers in the neighborhood angling toward some possible facilities for week-long workers as well.   The devastation across the city is extensive.  Many families expect to be displaced for months.  Some homes have been condemned.  Other families aren’t sure they want to return to their once-flooded homes as they recognize their beautifully-situated neighborhood will always be vulnerable.

Staten Island is one of New York City’s five boroughs.  With a population of nearly a half million people, its only connection to the rest of the city is by the Verrazono Bridge and the Staten Island Ferry.  Its bridge crossings to New Jersey provide easy access to groups coming from the south or west.  To schedule a day of volunteering in Staten Island, call (800) 241-8111.  There are no options for longterm volunteers at this point beyond day trips.