Stephen Kriss

by Stephen Kriss

The conflict between Paul and Barnabas in Acts has always unsettled me. Why couldn’t the brothers work it out? Their conflict was about who to include in their journey, and it was also about a difference in posture.  

They were at an impasse. The need to share the Gospel far and wide was better served by parting ways than remaining in their relational quagmire.  

Were there personalities at play? Absolutely. Were the frustrations real? Certainly. Were their separate endeavors successful? Seemingly, yes. Was the Gospel harmed in their solution which meant separation? Ultimately, no. But this story reminds me that even necessary partings can be painful.  

Mosaic Mennonite Conference faces a similar moment. We have spent significant energy and time considering how Mosaic might realign our relationship with Mennonite Church USA. After years of negotiation, the Mosaic Conference Board is advocating that it’s time to discontinue the relationship in its current form. 

The Mosaic board’s recommendation is an invitation to focus on what is possible together outside of our current denominational alignment and toward global relatedness through Mennonite World Conference. 

I believe this is the best choice for our Mosaic future. Though I am deeply rooted in the communities that make up Mennonite Church USA, I recognize that the fragmenting of our denomination has been part of our Conference’s beginning. 

Eastern District Conference split in half rather than join Mennonite Church USA. Southeast Mennonite Conference split into multiple parts. Over a half dozen former Franconia Conference congregations have left Mosaic since our formation in 2019. We have not always been prepared for how costly the journey would be. Shifting alignments and connections are part of our Anabaptist story. It is not new. 

Paul and Barnabas were not caught in an impasse for as long as we have been with Mennonite Church USA. Though at the beginning of Mosaic Conference, the question of alignment with the denomination came into play, the struggle boiled over in 2022. Questions of inclusion of BIPOC and queer persons have driven much of this conversation (not dissimilar from the ongoing conversations in the Book of Acts). These questions address how people are honored and their voices valued.   

In our conversations with Mennonite Church USA, some of us have, for years, felt minimized and that our concerns were not validated.  

Though Mennonite Church USA is now only about one third of the size it was when created, the denomination operates with bylaws and structures that were created for a much larger system, and that at times have not responded to concerns from people of color, have taken years of advocacy for inclusion of queer persons, and been slow to respond to changing financial and demographic realities. Many in the denomination have accepted a narrative of decline while hoping for renewal. 

We sought to negotiate with Mennonite Church USA open handedly. We followed through on all that was requested from us. We showed up consistently. We asked for counsel. We met face-to-face and on Zoom. We moved forward in good faith. We maintained relationships with other Conference leaders in the USA and Canada. 

We believe that we are struggling with systems and powers, not individuals. We believe that our siblings in Christ are acting with good intentions. We recognize that change is difficult and takes time in large structures. 

At the same time, communication has been difficult. Public communication that has come from Mennonite Church USA has often felt condescending rather than collaborative. We have been willing to lean in and share resources. Yet there has been very little movement.   

Mennonite Church USA’s invitation for mediation in May came too quick for our board. We followed up in July with a willingness to move forward with a conversation (mediated or not) between Mosaic moderators and executive staff with Mennonite Church USA moderators and executive staff. 

We have received no indication of a willingness to move forward. We are left owing our delegates a recommendation without what feels like good faith negotiation or clarity from leaders in Mennonite Church USA. 

At the same time, we are ready to pursue a path as Mosaic. After settling on the affiliation question this week, our board affirmed a centering document (also available in Spanish, Indonesian and Haitian Creole) that names how we have been operating and represents the direction we are moving.   

We are recognizing Jesus as our Center. We are orienting around Mennonite World Conference’s Seven Shared Convictions (an intention that we delayed at the formation of Mosaic due to counsel we received from Mennonite Church USA). We are living into restorative practices rather than punitive conversations around our differences.   

This will allow Mosaic, and the diversity of communities that already exist within us, to flourish. This is our path ahead. 

Sometimes we have to let go of the familiar to discover our future. Our Mosaic future is bright though the way forward might be turbulent.  

We will seek to cultivate partnerships that allow us to both give and receive. We will be gracious and generous. We will anticipate that the Spirit will bring forth and sustain the fruit we need. We come to this place with humility, with lament, and with hope for Jesus’ ongoing redemption for us and for our broken and beautiful world.   

by Stephen Kriss

For my 40th birthday, I traveled with a group of students to hike Mount Sinai. At the time, Sinai was experiencing a series of kidnappings and a significant decrease in the number of tourists. It was the best time and a precarious time to go. 

Though our guides had assured us our safety, at one stop along the way they ushered us quickly back into the bus due to a suspicious looking approaching vehicle. Our small tourist bus was accompanied by armed guards in a separate vehicle. This was the only time I’ve traveled abroad with a group and second guessed my decision to go. 

Our hotel, seemingly empty except for our group, was foreboding and it felt like something could go awry at any moment. We were among the first wave of returning tourists and may have been the only U.S. American group there. 

The hike to Mt. Sinai is often done to catch the sunrise. It’s a trek up the mountain alongside other pilgrims–most walking, and some on camels or horses. Even in these riskier circumstances, there was a rush of people. I managed to find a few meaningful moments there and the group enjoyed the memorable experience. Afterward, we spent a lovely few days at a seaside resort near the Israeli border that provided opportunity to swim in the Gulf of Elat. 

My experience of Sinai was better in retrospect. While the sunrise hike and the resort were highpoints, what I remember most is the doubt I felt about bringing a group there at that precarious time. 

There are parallels here with the Biblical story. The children of Israel asked, “Has God taken us to this wilderness to die?” Wandering in the Sinai for 40 years before entering the promised land sounds excruciating.  

The liminal space of “not yet” is hard to endure, especially in a culture with instant gratification and same-day delivery. In times of stress, change, and turmoil, we often long for quick answers when we actually need time: time to process and to be formed together. 

Leading with Mosaic Mennonite Conference in this season has involved, for me, some second-guessing and a lot of questions. How did we get here? What is God’s intention for us?   

I declared a few weeks ago that I was done trying to understand systems, whether our government, our church systems, or the Steelers’ decision to hire Aaron Rodgers. Sometimes these processes don’t factor in our perspectives or experiences, especially those of us who don’t regularly have access to points of power and decision-making. 

The reality is that we are almost always living in liminal space. That dash on a tombstone that marks the span of our life is full of experiences of here, but not yet.  

So here we are, many of us leading and wandering in a kind of wilderness. It’s a space and time that doesn’t always make sense to us. We face systems and powers that often seem misaligned with what we need for full individual and communal flourishing. And yet, it is in this space that we are formed. We become more fully ourselves, more fully the people God intends for us to be. It is here we can learn to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit, which requires patience, pruning, and care to grow.  

The process of becoming God’s people and representing the reconciling love of Jesus in this time will be full of paradox–requiring strength, power, and humility.  

The way will emerge. The Way, The Truth and the Life is always in front of us, behind us, beside us and even within us. So, in these in-between times, how are we preparing to embody that Way—in our flesh, blood, heart, mind, soul, and strength—both individually and together? 

by Stephen Kriss

Out of a desire for a voting process that includes more discernment, Mosaic Mennonite Conference has moved to a three-fold green, yellow, red pattern for our gathered delegate sessions. The colors allow a more nuanced response and at times have made our voting process seemingly more complicated. We are still learning what it means to be community together and to allow space for the Spirit while working within our legal realities.  

At Assembly on November 2, the primary discernment that required a response was to move forward in receiving the recommendation of the Pathway Steering Team on affiliation with Mennonite Church USA (MC USA). The recommendation toward partnership advocates for a different kind of relationship with MC USA, one that is currently undefined. In the meantime, MC USA has also embarked on its own re-imagination process. 

At the November Mosaic Board meeting following Assembly, we tallied all the yellow, green, and red responses on the wall in the meeting room, so that we could see the spread of how congregations and Conference Related Ministries (CRMs) voted. With a vote of roughly 1/3 in each category of red, yellow, and green votes, there were some identifiable trends. 

Red votes were dominated by historic Franconia Conference congregations. They likely came from two different perspectives on our relationship with MC USA. Some of our congregations would like further distance, and others would like the status quo in relating to MC USA. About 1/3 of the red votes were abstentions, some of which were people who left the gathering before voting. There are some outliers in this category but if we’re looking at an overall message, we can make these broad considerations. Many of the red votes had elements of defining this discernment primarily around how queer-identifying persons are engaged in the life of the church. 

Green votes were at least half from congregations that are urban and/or BIPOC majority along with a strong representation of former Eastern District and Southeast Conference congregations. For many of these congregations, the relationship with Mosaic Conference has emerged as substantive and sustaining. Many of the green votes likely saw their concerns represented in the work of the Pathways Steering Team along with the leadership of the board. Their comments represented a willingness to trust the leadership’s discernment and to move forward with partnership. These votes may or may not be deeply shaped regarding issues on queer inclusion. 

The yellow votes were more of a mix of who we are as Mosaic. Their concerns included a need for more clarity about partnership and some comments about what a redefined relationship with MC USA might mean for queer-identifying persons. Some yellow voters have long-term relationships with other Mennonite communities or institutions and don’t want to lose those connections.  

Some congregations voted as a block. Some congregations had votes spread across three categories. CRMs showed up in all of the categories. Some comments included a lament of possible lost relationships in a changed status with MC USA. Others questioned the value of membership in Mosaic Conference based on the outcome of the process.   

In the table group feedback, there was an underscoring of the value of ongoing communication between Mosaic Conference leadership and congregations. Over the next year as we figure out what partnership with MC USA might mean, we have work not only with the denomination but also in listening deeply to the life of our congregations, ministries, and leaders. 

I am committed to this work together and to listening as best as we can to the diversity of perspectives that make up our Mosaic realities. To navigate these challenges together, we will need the Spirit’s wisdom and wildness. To quote one of our leaders who shared reflections with me after Assembly, “The Spirit is up to something; I want to be part of it.”   

The Spirit usually brings a mix of life and chaos. After Assembly, I was reminded how being Mosaic together is both holy and at times with some confusion (Acts 2 reminds us how the first time the Spirit descended, it was both of these). I also notice that for some of us there is a sense of loss, and for others, a sense of being found, seen, and heard. 

My hope is that the red, yellow, and green process is just one of the ways we recognize the diversity of our experiences and perspectives. And that we find many ways to listen and to honor our diversity, centered in the reconciling love of Jesus. To be Mosaic requires us all to bring open postures toward creative and life-giving chaos and how the Spirit is still descending among us in a broken and beautiful world. 

by Stephen Kriss

My last vote as a Franconia Conference delegate was to reconcile with Eastern District Conference in 2019. After years of process and negotiation, a 150-year-old schism was reconciled. It was joyous and hopeful. There were tears and senses of finally. It was the fruit of long processes, listening, and laboring. It included a carefully constructed formation document that was designed to bring as many of us between the two conferences into relationship as seemed possible at the time. While this was happening in fall 2019, we expected those in Southeast Conference that wanted to remain in fellowship with Mennonite Church USA (MC USA) to join us in fall 2020. 

No one could have predicted that our Eastern District/Franconia Conference reconciliation process would be impaled by a pandemic and months of social unrest, including protests related to George Floyd’s murder and an uprising at the U.S. Capitol during a presidential transition. Our increased social isolation and polarization came to the surface as anger and frustration.  While many U.S. cities were experiencing protest, we took on the new hopeful name Mosaic. We believed that a new identity was necessary to move forward and find our way together. 

There were already some challenging points in our formation document. The question of affiliation with MC USA was raised, but as both Eastern District and Franconia were members, the team deferred it. There was conversation about switching our basic belief document from the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective from 1995 to the Seven Core Convictions of Mennonite World Conference. At the time, that would have put us outside the boundaries MC USA had formed. And there were already tensions around the inclusion of queer people, with some of us needing the Grace and Truth and Going to the Margins statements, and others seeing this as a time for revision. We took the most conservative route and held onto all the documents and positions already in play, deciding that a new organizational system didn’t need that challenge yet. 

After our historic, joyous vote to reconcile, we had two online annual assemblies due to Covid concerns. We didn’t meet face-to-face again until after a special delegate session of MC USA in summer 2022. Some of us came to the 2022 Mosaic assembly with heated concerns about its process and outcome, particularly related to the passing of the Repentance and Transformation Resolution. There was a mosaic of opinions and responses, with rumors of schism already. In response to issues around human sexuality, Mosaic lost five member congregations and delegates allowed an opt-out of MC USA, which another seven congregations took. We focused on hesed, extending loving-kindness. We tackled a two-year process of Pathways to help us find our way together. 

In teaching about Anabaptism, I’ve come to love Walter Klassen’s work Anabaptism: Neither Catholic nor Protestant. His later addition would be that we are “both/and.” We have much in common with the Protestant movement and its fracturing ways. We have much in common with the orders of Catholicism in their orientations to distinct practices. As someone shaped by Catholic background and education along with Mennonite education and practices, I’ve tried to find a way for us to live in the in-between of this reality. Martin Buber, a Jewish philosopher/theologian, calls it the “narrow ridge.”