Mosaic Mennonites

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Updates from Eastern District & Franconia Conference

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During this time of responding to the public health emergency of COVID-19 (coronavirus), Conference leadership has encouraged localized decision-making that prioritizes both love of God and love of neighbor. 

Many of our congregations have chosen to experiment with new technologies (and many have successfully been using these technologies for a while now!).  As you experience God in the challenges and inspiration of these creative worship spaces, please share your stories by emailing communication@mosaicmennonites.org or posting on our Facebook page!

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(Updated as of March 26, 2020 at 10:00am EST)

Congregations:

  • Alpha (Alpha, NJ) – shared, at-home worship service
  • Ambler (Ambler, PA; Montgomery Co.) – worship service by Zoom (or join by phone at
    312-626-6799)
  • Bally (Bally, PA; Berks Co.) – worship services canceled 
  • Bethany (Bridgewater Corners, VT) – worship services canceled  
  • Bethany Elevation (Queens, NYC) – online streaming
  • Blooming Glen (Blooming Glen, PA; Bucks Co.) – worship service recorded and posted on website;  4/4 Easter Egg Hunt is cancelled; 4/5 Pathways, Passion and Promise is cancelled
  • Boyertown (Boyertown, PA; Berks Co) – worship services canceled  
  • Centro de Alabanza (Philadelphia, PA) – live streaming worship service
  • Christ Fellowship (Allentown, PA; Lehigh Co.) – worship services canceled  
  • Church of the Good Samaritans (Holland, PA; Bucks Co.) – worship services canceled  
  • Covenant Community Fellowship (Lansdale, PA; Montgomery Co.) – worship services canceled
  • Deep Run East (Perkasie, PA; Bucks Co.) – online worship service
  • Deep Run West (Perkasie, PA; Bucks Co.) – Facebook Live
  • Doylestown (Doylestown, PA; Bucks Co.) – March 29 service cancelled; 4/5 Sam Sandler presentation cancelled; 4/12 Easter breakfast cancelled
  • Ebenezer (Souderton, PA; Montgomery Co.) – worship services canceled  
  • Fairfield (Fairfield, PA; Adams Co.) – worship services canceled 
  • Finland (Pennsburg, PA; Montgomery Co.) – worship services canceled 
  • Franconia (Telford, PA: Montgomery Co.) – Scriptures, prayers, & sermon posted online
  • Frederick (Frederick, PA; Montgomery Co.) – worship services canceled  
  • Garden Chapel (Dover, NJ) – worship service by Zoom
  • Indonesian Community Christian Fellowship (Colton, CA) – worship services canceled  
  • Indonesian Light Church (Philadelphia, Pa) – online streaming
  • International Worship Church (San Gabriel, CA) – worship services canceled  
  • Jemaat Kristen Indonesia Anugerah (Sierra Madre, CA) – streaming sermon
  • Lakeview (Susquehanna, PA; Susquehanna Co.) – Zoom worship service
  • Line Lexington (Line Lexington, PA; Bucks Co.) – live streaming, via YouTube; all activities cancelled until further notice
  • Mennonite Bible Fellowship (Morris, PA; Tioga Co) – worship services canceled 
  • Methacton (Norristown, PA; Montgomery Co.) – shared, at-home devotionals
  • Nations Worship Center (Philadelphia, PA) – Facebook Live
  • Nueva Vida Norristown New Life (Norristown, PA; Montgomery Co)
  • Perkasie (Perkasie, PA; Bucks Co.) – Zoom worship service
  • Perkiomenville (Perkiomenville, PA;  Montgomery Co.) will livestream services on Facebook at 10:15 am
  • Philadelphia Praise Center (Philadelphia, PA) – dispersed worship
  • Plains (Hatfield, PA; Montgomery Co.) – recording of worship service online, connecting through Zoom on Wednesday, March 25 at 2:00 pm
  • Providence (Collegeville, PA; Montgomery Co.) – Zoom worship service
  • Rocky Ridge (Quakertown, PA; Bucks Co.) – virtual worship with interactive blog
  • Salem (Quakertown, PA; Bucks Co.) – worship services canceled  
  • Salford (Harleysville, PA; Montgomery Co.) – simulcasting online with children’s activities
  • San Francisco Chinese (San Francisco, CA) – YouTube sermon
  • Souderton (Souderton, PA; Montgomery Co.) – live streaming
  • Spring Mount (Spring Mount, PA: Montgomery Co.) – Facebook Live
  • Swamp (Quakertown, PA; Bucks Co.) – all activities canceled through May 3
  • Taftsville Chapel (Taftsville, VT) – Zoom worship service
  • Towamencin (Kulpsville, PA; Montgomery Co.) – live streaming on website
  • Upper Milford (Old Zionsville, PA; Lehigh Co) – Zoom worship service
  • Vietnamese Gospel (Allentown, Pa; Lehigh Co.) – worship services canceled  
  • Vincent (Spring City, PA; Chester Co.) –  worship service on Facebook Live (10am)
  • Wellspring Church of Skippack (Skippack, PA; Montgomery Co.) – Zoom worship
  • West Swamp (Quakertown, PA; Bucks Co.) – worship services canceled 
  • Whitehall (Whitehall, PA; Lehigh Co.) – Facebook Live
  • Zion (Souderton, PA; Montgomery Co.) – live streaming (9am)

Partners in Ministry:

  • 7 Ways Home Fellowship (Bowie, MD) – Zoom gatherings
  • Arise (Harleysville, PA; Montgomery Co.) – worship services canceled 
  • Homestead Mennonite Church (Homestead, FL) – worship services canceled 
  • Iglesia Evangelica Menonita Shalom (Tampa, FL) – gathering in small prayer groups
  • Iglesia Menonita Luz y Verdad (Lakeland, FL) – worship services canceled 
  • Iglesia Menonita Seguidores de Cristo (Sarasota, FL) – YouTube worship service
  • Nueva Esperanza New Hope Fellowship (Alexandria, VA) – worship services canceled 

Conference Related Ministries:

  • Care & Share Thrift Shoppes (Souderton, PA) – closed through March 28
  • City School (Philadelphia, PA) – closed through March 30
  • Dock Mennonite Academy (Souderton & Lansdale, PA) – closed through March 30
  • MCC Material Resource Center (Harleysville, PA) – closed through March 30; MCC Meat Canning is cancelled
  • Mennonite Heritage Center – closed through March 30
  • Penn Foundation – see info here
  • Quakertown Christian School – closed through March 30
  • Retirement Communities – Almost all retirement communities are restricting visitors and have cancelled any large group gatherings or services. If you plan to visit, please be sure to call ahead. Please call residents of the retirement communities to stay in contact with them rather than visiting during this time, if at all possible. 
  • Spruce Lake/Pinebrook – closed until April 1

Other Conference events that have been cancelled (rescheduled, TBA):

  • “Women of Remarkable Faith” Gathering (March 28)

We know that this list will continue to grow and change. We hope to keep you updated as much as possible–if you have updates or changes to this list, please send them to communication@mosaicmennonites.org.

*The Shalom Fund supports pastors, congregations and ministries in direct response to the Coronavirus and the ensuing economic crisis.   We will seek to respond to the most vulnerable within our membership and neighborhoods by empowering local ministries to meet real needs with Christ’s love and generosity in a time of fear and anxiety.

The news is biased

by

Steve Krissby Steve Kriss, director of communication
(originally posted on Mennonite World Review, reposted by permission)

I’ll start with a confession: There is no such thing as objective reporting. I know this after working around journalism for 20 years. If you and I were to see the same thing occur, we would likely see it differently. Experiences etched into our brains cause us to interpret the same scene through different lenses.

Often the more information we have, the more complicated the scenes become. Then there are the limitations: deadlines, language barriers, short attention spans of readers (and editors!), lack of space on a page. We are trapped by the inadequacy of communicating human experience through words. Yet, we try.

And then there are the biases, even in the newspaper you are reading. MWR is rooted in the General Conference Mennonite tradition, valuing autonomy and unity. We are biased toward the positive possibilities of Mennonite Church USA and other Anabaptist denominations. We are biased toward relationships within Mennonite World Conference’s big tent. We believe there is something good in us being together.

If you watch Fox News or MSNBC, there are obvious partisan preferences. The funding sources of RT (Russian) news or Al-Jazeera (Qatari) shape reporting and information gathering in quite different ways from U.S.- or U.K.-based sources. This summer’s unrest in Ferguson, Mo., played differently in China (where they are also afraid of insurrection within the nation’s diverse ethnic groups) and Russia (where the incident was viewed as an example of internal American imperialism).

In Ferguson, Gaza, Iraq and Ukraine, we’ve seen how conflict is interpreted in different ways. I’ve written very little on any of these topics, fearing I might be wrong. It’s my privilege to be silent when I don’t have a deadline or the conflict isn’t at my doorstep. I’ve found myself silent, knowing all too well that my biases can get in the way of good judgment.

In the Midwest, the Middle East or Ukraine, it’s easy for me to identify oppressed and oppressor. My biases form quickly. I don’t trust Israeli offenses in Palestine. I am leery of police who shoot the unarmed. As a great-grandson of Eastern European immigrants, I am suspicious of Russian assertions of power and cheer on Ukraine’s move to align with the European Union and NATO. But the more I learn, the more I wonder about my easy-to-come-to conclusions. It’s like the more I know, the less I know.

More and more these days I trust these complex stories to on-the-ground interpreters. I hear the words of friends in Israel/Palestine. I hear their fears from inside Israel’s “Iron Dome” and the West Bank. I listen to the stories of those who witnessed the scenes that unfolded in Ferguson. I struggle to interpret what is happening in Ukraine, Syria and Iraq because of limited access to firsthand sources in English. Online I found an interpreted account of a Yazidi woman who is pleading for intervention to save her people in Iraq. It brought me to tears.

I am glad I am not entrusted to make foreign policy, particularly when I recognize how hard it is even to interpret what is happening in Missouri. Yet it is important to me, as a Christian leader/ writer/follower, to keep listening to those who bear witness to the justice, injustice, violence and hope of their own communities. And to believe that the Spirit is upon us as Jesus-followers to bear good news of freedom and possibility. And to know that I cannot persist in silence.

Stephen Kriss is a teacher, writer, pastor, student and follower of Jesus living in Philadelphia.