Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Stephen Kriss

Three Things Shaping Mosaic Four Years Later 

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by Stephen Kriss, Executive Minister

It’s been four years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic; ¿Qué onda? (Spanish for “what’s the wave?” or “what’s up?”). 

Last Sunday, I sat in the living room of Josué and Nohemi Gonzalez’s home in Pembroke Pines, Florida for the worship gathering of Resplandece Mennonite Church. Resplandece is one of the half-dozen new congregations that have emerged with connections to Mosaic in the last year. And it is one of three Mosaic communities that meet mainly through Zoom This Sunday, the worship was moderated from Florida by Josué and the sermon and music-leading from Barranquilla, Colombia by church-planting pastor Manuel García Noriega and his family. 

Admittedly, I was skeptical of this model. I have been skeptical about Zoom worship since the first time I preached with Wellspring Church of Skippack (PA) from my front porch at the beginning of the pandemic. I was frustrated with the seemingly disembodied reality of Zoom worship and technological glitches. However, even that Sunday, while I focused on what was lacking, the worship moderator, Eloise Meneses, made sure that everyone was seen, heard, and acknowledged. In the isolation of the pandemic, that was the most important thing. The good news was less about my sermon and more about the community, gathered in the way that we could, in a time of confusion and disconnection. 

Four years later, we are using this technology differently, and it is changing us. Several of our worshipping communities offer hybrid worship and many more stream their services online. Bible studies and meetings are on Zoom. The work of the church continues with technology, and we are navigating how to be church differently.  

Resplandece highlights something else for us: Human migration is also transforming Mosaic. Those who gather online are scattered from Colombia to New York City, and most are from Colombia or Venezuela. We have added Spanish-speaking staff to keep up with the rapid growth of the Spanish-speaking community in our midst. New Russian-speaking and Haitian communities have also emerged.  

In Philadelphia, which is also a center for our growth, some immigrant communities have almost doubled in size since 2020. We have three Spanish-speaking communities in Philadelphia led by pastors from the Dominican Republic, Central America, and Mexico. Migration will continue to shape Mosaic as it has since our beginning as a Conference 300 years ago when the first families arrived in Pennsylvania from Europe. 

The third thing shaping Mosaic is the political landscape. We are in an election year, like we were in the onset of the pandemic. However, it is not only U.S. political realities that challenge us. The elections in Indonesia last week deeply affect the 10% of Mosaic with roots there. The sociopolitical collapses in Venezuela and Haiti also shape us as persons flee those countries under new U.S. visa policies. The war in Ukraine and the recent death of Russian opposition leader Alexander Navalny impact our communities too. We have always been shaped by political climates, and we must remain focused on our Jesus-centered faith despite political differences.  

Changes in technology, human migration, and global and local politics are not new. Our Anabaptist movement was spurred on by the printing press that made Bibles accessible, by migration in Europe and into the Western Hemisphere, and by the politics of the time. Though they may appear as threats, they are “waves” we have navigated in the past and will continue to experience. Ignoring them is not an option.  

We don’t always need to agree on the best responses to these challenges to live faithfully and vibrantly into the future. We have a history of learning to ride the waves. And Jesus, who demonstrated how it is possible to even walk on water, and who can calm the storms around us and within us, is always still with us. 

Stephen Kriss

Stephen Kriss is the Executive Minister of Mosaic Mennonite Conference.

Take Heart, It Is Almost the End of Advent Again

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by Stephen Kriss

It is Advent again. We call this time Advent because it reminds us of what comes from God for the creation of his kingdom on earth. We who are here have been led in a special way to keep what is coming on our hearts and to shape ourselves according to it. That which comes from God—that is what moves our hearts, not only in these days but at all times.

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

Waiting is part of the human experience. We live in the in-between space, where the reign of God is upon us and not yet, where there is grieving and rejoicing, when things are both lost and found. However, as we see in the Gospel of Mark (this year’s primary lectionary text), there are moments when things are suddenly upon us.  

The Christmas season brings out a level of tenderness in many of us, a time when gift-giving and remembering those less privileged than ourselves is part of the US cultural practice rooted in a Christendom story. It is also a season where we are sometimes the most overtaxed or aware of our lack. The seasonal time of longer nights and less sunlight can make us more acutely aware of all that is not right or well, including ourselves. 

…we practice waiting for light and for Christ’s inbreaking in the midst of long darkness.

As a Mosaic of Christ-followers, a diverse people of God following Christ’s way of peace, we practice waiting for light and for Christ’s inbreaking in the midst of long darkness. We practice pensive waiting more than we might embrace overflowing joy. We know that all is not well in a world where wars wage, injustice dominates, and Herodian leaders call for violence against innocents even now. 

My opening passage excerpt from German theologian Christoph Blumhardt is an invitation to engage with our heart and to respond to the things of our hearts. It reminds me of the Emmaus Road story in Luke 24, the disciples’ post-resurrection encounter with Jesus. The disciples’ hearts warmed while they talked together about all of the difficult things they had experienced, even though they did not recognize Jesus with them. That conversation was not a glossing over the struggle, but a willingness to listen, to validate, to accompany, and eventually, to eat together. There is something within us beyond our head, feet, and hands, deep in our body, that knows the holy from the inside out. 

There is something within us beyond our head, feet, and hands, deep in our body, that knows the holy from the inside out. 

While we wait for Christmas, what does it means to acknowledge all that is fraught, all that we are waiting for, all that is “not yet the reign of God” and yet, still gather and celebrate? We know that wars and rumors of wars rage, we know the personal failures, theological, and political disagreements among us, and we seek to listen and be heard. Even so, we still gather around the table, or a Christmas tree, around a fire or in worship, knowing we are participating in the inbreaking of God–knowing it in our hearts, and enacting it in our bodies, in our communities, and in our relationships. We celebrate this not just now, but always, because we are always waiting, and the reign of God is always breaking through. “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19, NRSV). 

Stephen Kriss

Stephen Kriss is the Executive Minister of Mosaic Conference.

From Artificial Harmony to Just Diversity 

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By: Stephen Kriss

This summer our Mosaic Board, along with some staff and committees, participated in training with Carlos Romero (long-time former Executive Director of Mennonite Education Agency) on the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). The IDI is an internationally recognized tool used to gauge individual and group intercultural levels. The gauge ranges from denial and minimization to acceptance and adaptation. It provides vocabulary and a framework for sometimes difficult conversations around intercultural transformation.  

As a core priority and reality of Mosaic, we continue to discern and discover what it means to be intercultural. We aim to stay rooted in the Biblical narrative of the Spirit’s work, evident in the Gospels and the early life of the church.  

In our training, Romero pointed out that Mosaic has spent a lot of time talking about what we have in common. We have yet to find ways to discover, unveil, and name our differences. This is part of the intercultural journey. 

Romero acknowledged that we are a community that officially formed in 2020 and is still developing a sense of shared identity. We have only met fully in-person with our delegates once. We are still learning what it means to include communities from Vermont to California and Florida with our Pennsylvania roots.  

Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich

In her book, The Space Between Us, Betty Pries highlights Patrick Lencioni’s metaphor of “artificial harmony.” In this reality, differences remain under the surface and undiscussed. There are multiple reasons this happens. 

In Mennonite and Protestant church settings, I believe we hold “artificial harmony” not because we fear conflict as much as we fear the outcome of conflict, which has often meant that we split and sever relationships. If we had healthy models of how to acknowledge, embrace, and work through differences together, we might not be so conflict-averse. 

When we don’t regularly work through conflict, the outcomes are often separation, leaving the room, scapegoating, and demonization. In our context of cultural polarization, we walk away from each other rather than give the Spirit time and space to work. 

Our Pathways strategic planning process has uncovered that we need to spend time cultivating the practice of talking about our differences and navigating conflict without allowing only the loudest voices to be heard while others withdraw to avoid conflict.  

If we knew that our commitments to each other would keep us together even in disagreement, we would be better able to manage conflicts and interpersonal storminess. This will require both strategic and Spirit work, utilizing our hearts, heads, and guts.  

In contrast to artificial harmony, Safwat Marzouk, in his book Intercultural Church, calls for “just diversity.” We are not always aware of the ways the early church struggled and worked at this … from Jesus’ boundary-breaking, to the martyrdom of Stephen (who was named to a role to address an issue of equity based on his qualifications and ethnic identity), to the struggles of keeping kosher, the roles of women, the realities of slavery, and the ethnic divisions of Jews and Gentiles … it was constant negotiation as the Good News crossed boundaries into new communities. 

Conversation about our cultural, theological, ethnic, language, political, and personal differences will be part of seeking “just diversity” within Mosaic. This is God’s work with us, strategic and holy, hopeful and hard.

Stephen Kriss

Stephen Kriss is the Executive Minister of Mosaic Conference.

Seeking Peace in our Broken and Beautiful World:   A Mosaic Response to Recent Violence in Israel/Palestine

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by Stephen Kriss

This painting of ​Jerusalem was created by Heba Zakout, a Palestinian artist who was killed during the bombing of Gaza last week. Used by permission of Daniel Kovalik.

The first person who invited me to sit down next to her bed at Nazareth Hospital in Philadelphia during my unit of Clinical Pastoral Education this summer did so on a Friday during a tornado warning.  The woman was Jewish, from Odessa, Ukraine.  

She told me that, before the Berlin Wall fell, her Jewish community had been afraid to outwardly practice their faith under the Soviet regime. Toward sundown that day, I brought her a battery-operated candle for Shabbat.  

Not long after, a Muslim man in his 30s invited me to pray with him as he lay waiting in the Emergency Room. He followed my English prayer with a prayer in Arabic as he held the painful spot on his abdomen.  

I bring these tender, holy moments into my response to the rising tensions in the Holy Land over the last weeks.  A primary question I worked on this summer was “How do I provide spiritual care to Jewish and Muslim patients?” 

My friend David Landis recently shared a saying on Facebook: If you visit the Holy Land for a week, you write a book; if you visit for a month, you write an article; if you live there for a year or more, you find you can’t write anything at all—you are at a loss for words.  

David grew up in Franconia Conference communities and, over a decade ago, helped to establish the Jesus Trail in Galilee. He partnered there with Maoz Inon, a man whose parents were killed last Saturday (October 7) at their home just outside of Gaza. In an interview, Maoz shared that he weeps, not just at the loss of his parents, but at the war that is unfolding in his homeland.  

We have been slow to develop any formal statements from Mosaic to respond to the increasing violence in Israel/Palestine. Quick reactions can result in perpetuating stereotypes and projecting our own biases and trauma onto others.  At the same time, I hope to move us beyond “thoughts and prayers” and “I stand with Israel” or “I stand with Palestinians.”  What is a response that allows us to extend love and is rooted in Christ’s peace? 

This latest episode in Israel/Palestine is horrific in its scope and builds upon generations of injustice and trauma.  It is not an isolated event.  It is fueled by both antisemitism and Islamophobia, by colonialism, and by varied theological perspectives that seek to justify a series of systems and behaviors that can seem incomprehensible.  

Mennonite presence in Israel/Palestine has often worked to understand and amplify the perspectives of Palestinians. Because they are often marginalized, the voices of Palestinian Christians should be valued and centered (see the recommendations from the Mennonite Jewish Relations Working Group). The initial statement from the patriarchs in Jerusalem and the Holy Land was one of the most helpful responses I have read so far. On Sunday morning, while preparing my sermon for Homestead Mennonite Church, I listened to a haunting Arabic chant posted to social media by the Orthodox Christian community in Gaza, “God is with us.”  This community, which had been sheltering dozens of persons in its sanctuary, was bombed last night.  Latest reports show at least 40 have died there.

At the same time, Mennonites also need to acknowledge that our tradition has its own difficult history with antisemitism that requires humility and repentance. We share much in common with Jewish communities, including a large exodus from Europe and the former Soviet Union in the 20th Century. When speaking about actions in Israel/Palestine, we cannot forget our shared stories and experiences, both positive and negative, as religious communities.  

The complexity of the Holy Land cannot be minimized.  

Although we often perceive the conflict as having two sides, the situation is usually multi-faceted.  Last week, in an NPR interview, a Bedouin Palestinian doctor suggested that the “sides” of the conflict are actually those who believe in violence and those who do not.  Long-term Palestinian/Mennonite partner Friends of Sabeel Institute has argued that non-violence is a necessity if Israel and Palestine are to find a path toward mutual flourishing.  

As people who seek to represent the “reconciling love of Jesus in our broken and beautiful world,” we renounce violence in all of its forms, from terrorist attacks to governmental policy that doesn’t allow the fullness of human flourishing (shalom).  We lament the lives lost and we weep with those who are weeping.  We believe that killing, whether in the name of God or in the name of the state, is always sin.  

We remain committed to the Prince of Peace and invite people of conscience to the table for conversation and even heated negotiation, rather than seeking solutions on the bloodthirsty battlefield. We commit to extending God’s grace, justice, and peace to our neighbors and friends, near and far, even to those who might be thought of as enemies.     

Although challenging at times, my experience in providing spiritual care to people of both the Jewish and Muslim faiths this summer reminded me that what many of us most need and desire in difficult times is simply gracious acknowledgement. While we watch the horrors unfold in real time in front of us through social media, it’s easy to become paralyzed by fear and frustration.  In the meantime, there are ways to make small steps toward peace and neighborliness here and now. 

For our nearby neighbors and friends who feel deeply tied to the conflict, we offer our ears, our time, our sympathies, our centered faith, our prayers, our advocacy, and our ongoing work to embody and express God’s love for all people in this broken and beautiful world. 

For the ongoing reality in the Holy Land, we pray for restraint, we pray for peace. And yet, I also hear Maoz’s invitation, in the midst of his tears, “to do all that we can to stop the war.” 

The Hard Work of Pentecost 

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by Stephen Kriss

Editor’s note: Executive Minister Stephen Kriss began a sabbatical on May 22. He will return to his Mosaic role on August 30. He wrote this article before he left on sabbatical. 

In mid-May, Rose Bender and I taught an intensive “Introduction to Mosaic” class. This Mosaic Institute class is for recently credentialed Mosaic leaders or those who are exploring credentialed ministry in our Conference. It’s a quick immersion into Anabaptist theology, intercultural practice, Mennonite history and polity, and our Mosaic story.   

In this class, students shared their life stories with each other.  Because of the diversity of this group, the contexts took us from Africa to Argentina, California to New York.  Listening to each other’s stories requires calmness, attentiveness, and curiosity. There were stories of trauma and hope, of hurt and healing. I continue to be amazed by the depth of faith that new leaders in our Conference bring to our community. 

This past Sunday we celebrated Pentecost, which also marks the third anniversary of naming ourselves “Mosaic Conference.”  Pentecost seems full of possibility. I’ve often thought that Pentecost is about sharing and expressing, receiving and speaking.  But it is also about listening.  It is about hearing in a language that is familiar but not to all.  It’s about the Good News being expressed in multiple ways (see Acts 2).   


He Qi © 2021 All rights Reserved

The hard work of Pentecost is listening.  We imagine the vigor of tongues of fire, the forceful rush of wind, the murmur of words spoken in our preferred language. But it also required attending our minds to listen to the words in the midst of it all.   

We are now in our third year of being Mosaic, and it is hard work. We have experienced shared joys and traumas. We face the risks of both secularism and Christian nationalism, which in very different ways, can make authentic, Jesus-centered witness controversial and difficult.  In this last year, we lived into our brokenness more than I would have hoped and have been challenged by differences in decision-making and disagreements.   

Yet, I strongly believe in the possibility of Mosaic, and I believe that it is Good News of reconciliation and welcome.  We are now in the work of the fruit of the Spirit of Pentecost. That fruit consists of listening, discerning, and understanding how to be together across cultural, language, political, economic, geographical, and theological differences.  For some of us, this can seem like a lot to bear, for others, it’s ongoing joy.  It can be both. 

It takes concerted effort to not jump to conclusions but to allow stories to unfold and to hear perspectives that are usually more complicated than we originally imagined. The hard work of listening allows those who are wounded to also find ways to speak, to be heard.   

The hard work of Pentecost is welcoming holy hope and curiosity in wondering what the Spirit is doing in bringing and binding us together.  May we continue to be transformed by the Spirit of Pentecost. 

Don’t miss the Conference-wide Pentecost Worship Service!

Sunday, June 11, 2023
7:30 PM ET / 4:30 PM PT

Organized by Mosaic Worship Cohort

Stephen Kriss

Stephen Kriss is the Executive Minister of Mosaic Conference.

When We Are Not of One Accord: Moving Forward on the Pathway

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By Stephen Kriss 

Mennonite historian and retired pastor John Ruth once told me that if you don’t have gelassenheit, you really don’t have anything as a community.  Gelassenheit (yieldedness) is a hallmark of our Mennonite story. In our historical moment, it’s a counter-cultural thing.   

Gelassenheit is a willingness to put my own conscience or belief in the context of community and to yield my own position to the discernment of the group. It is the opposite of fight or flight. It’s remaining, staying, maybe even holding to your own viewpoint, but yet yielding. 

While this yieldedness has possibilities for abuse, it also has an immense power in our time of individualism and consumerism.  Typically we humans think of ourselves first and then those we consider like us (by biology, ethnicity, geography, politics, faith, language, or citizenship.) Our commitment to those who are different diminishes within diversity, rather than strengthened through intentional engagement.   

It is the opposite of fight or flight. It’s remaining, staying, maybe even holding to your own viewpoint, but yet yielding. 

In Mosaic, we are trying what can feel like an impossible thing by holding together some of those differences under the Spirit of Pentecost. We choose this community together, continuing the commitments of baptism to give and receive counsel and to identify with Jesus by walking together.  We choose, in the face of diversity and adversity, not fight or flight, but engagement and connection. 

At our recent Conference Assembly, we discerned a pathway together, a compromise with a two-year maximum timeline.  While 81.5% of us found this to be an affirmable option, 20% of us didn’t. Our task now as Mosaic leaders is to hear the reservations of that 20%, some who think the process is too quick while others too slow, and to diligently include those concerns going forward. 

We are not a community that simply allows the majority to rule.  We take the concerns of everyone seriously.  In this way, the church can bear witness to the reconciling love of Jesus in a way that isn’t evidenced often in political or economic realms.  We are still one community, with one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God who is above all and through all and in all even when we are not quite of one accord.   

I am committed to hearing the concerns and cautions (I read all the ballot comments before writing this article). A red vote didn’t mean you don’t love or know what it means to be Mosaic, nor that you weren’t ready to go the second mile in the spirit of Chesed.  It meant you thought the plan was imperfect, not the best option, or you hoped for something else.  I hear that. We all need to hear that, and also continue to move forward. 

As a leader, I am committed to the principle of leaving no one behind.  It comes from battlefield tactics and understandings.  But it also comes from my sense of faithfulness in believing that the loudest or quickest person doesn’t negate the perspectives of those who speak more quietly or slowly or have yet to discern.  God speaks in rolling thunder and in the still small voice as well. We need space for both and time to consider our way.  There are times when we need to be quick and responsive, but also times when we need to be slow and contemplative.  We will need to balance these realities together. We are both broken and beautiful, strong and weak. 

In the next weeks, the Board and staff will begin to work at implementing pathway recommendations.  There will be opportunities to begin to help shape this process further together.  All of us will be invited to engage across our varieties of difference in Mosaic.  I hope we will be able to yield to the process of our imperfect discernment for now, trusting the Spirit to keep working within us on the way and beside us in paths of mutual transformation and renewal. 

Stephen Kriss

Stephen Kriss is the Executive Minister of Mosaic Conference.

The Steadfast Love of God in a Time of Change

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by Stephen Kriss

In June, I wrote a Mosaic response related to the outcomes of the Mennonite Church USA Special Delegate Session at Kansas City.  In a second article, I outlined essentially nothing had changed in our relationships together as Mosaic Conference.  Now we are preparing for our annual Assembly, six months after those denominational meetings, and the waters have not calmed for us as a community.  It has become a difficult time to lead and navigate together. Yet, the steadfast love of God is still present. 

In response to the Kansas City meetings, we planned a series of listening sessions in June. The sessions were well attended, but we needed a more focused and intentional effort to hear across the breadth and width of our conference.  The Mosaic Board approved a Listening Task Force made up of gifted and committed leaders.  I am grateful for their steady work.  They set out to listen to every community and ministry.  Though they didn’t accomplish that fully, some clear themes emerged which give a possible way forward together. 

Meanwhile, some congregations and leaders have become increasingly frustrated. And some days that includes me. I have had numerous people repeat to me, “You have a tough job,” or, “I wouldn’t want your job.”  I’m grateful for the recognition of the difficulty of the work.  However, I am committed to walking us through this time together.  We can do the difficult work, and we can do it while allowing the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control — Galatians 5:22-23) to be cultivated within each of us and our communities. 

We can do the difficult work, and we can do it while allowing the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control — Galatians 5:22-23) to be cultivated within each of us and our communities. 

The Task Force has done important work of taking time to listen and brought significant recommendations back to the Board. There is a sense of urgency within some of us.  We live in a time of quick responses.  We want to be responsive. At the same time, the transforming work of God often has a different sense of timeliness than we might often prefer. 

As staff, we have begun to work in several areas that are highlighted by the Task Force.  We are working on clarifying the information and needs to help us make good decisions.  We do not all have the information we need.  We will work to identify and define these issues in the next weeks and months.   

I have been in conversation with key partners, including Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite World Conference, Everence, Mennonite Mission Network, Mennonite educational institutions, other MC USA Conferences, and leaders of other US-based Anabaptist networks.  We want to be able to make informed decisions about our future together. 

As Mosaic, our diversity is a strength and a challenge.  We are being mutually transformed together as a community, yet at the same time we also struggle to fully understand how to listen and discern well in ways that will allow us to make decisions together.  What we learned from Kansas City is that we are not at our best with processes that lead to divided votes resulting in winners and losers rather than inclusive discernment. Voting by ballot is one of the least communal forms of decision-making.  I believe we can work at decision-making differently that is honest, patient, and maybe even joyful Spirit-work.

I believe we can work at decision-making differently that is honest, patient, and maybe even joyful Spirit-work.

We are sharing the recommendations to the Board by the Task Force in preparation for the upcoming Assembly scattered sessions where we will hear more from Task Force members and continue conversations together. It’s excellent work. And it’s incomplete work.  We still have work to do. 

Mosaic Conference was born from our commitment to reconciliation; it has grown through our commitments to becoming missional and intercultural.  We are now being tested in our formation and discipleship, how we make decisions about essential and tough issues together.   

Our Mosaic vision to embody the reconciling love of Jesus in our broken and beautiful world is still unfolding even within us. We will physically gather to embody this for the first time next month in the midst of turmoil. Jesus will be present with us. 

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.  His mercies never come to an end.  They are new every morning.  (Lamentations 3:22-23, ESV)  

Stephen Kriss

Stephen Kriss is the Executive Minister of Mosaic Conference.

Choosing Peace in Solidarity with Ukraine 

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Within a few days of the invasion of Ukraine, someone handed me a check and said, “I trust you’ll figure out what to do with this.” As a person of Slavic descent, I have been painfully aware of the situation in Ukraine. I have heard tales of those who left behind family in what would become the Eastern Bloc. I grew up with the fears of the Cold War. I have pastored alongside Ukrainians. The resistance of Ukrainians citizens quickly gets my attention.

At the same time, it has been difficult to figure out how to support and engage while our media blasts out images of the violence. I attended a prayer vigil at a Ukrainian Catholic congregation near my home. I took them sunflowers. I offered support as a neighbor, a Slavic person, and as a representative of Mosaic Conference.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is Mosaic’s primary partner for response to the war in Ukraine. We carry within us the story of the martyrdom of Clayton Kratz. Over 100 years ago, Kratz, from the Blooming Glen (PA) congregation, volunteered to serve with MCC in Ukraine. While responding to the humanitarian needs among Mennonites and others in Ukraine, Kratz was arrested and never heard from again.

(Read more about MCC’s current work in Ukraine.)

We encourage continued support of our Conference Related Ministries (CRMs) that support MCC’s work. By donating, volunteering, or purchasing at the Care and Share Thrift Shoppes or serving to meet material needs through Material Resource Center, we believe that MCC’s long-term responses will meet real needs.

Additionally, some of us desire more immediate ways to be involved. Finland (Pennsburg, PA) Mennonite Church and Garden Chapel (Dover, NJ) have established prayer times for Ukraine. (See details on how to join virtually on in person.) Vincent (Spring City, PA) Mennonite Church is supporting initiatives toward refugee response through RescueNet and Pastor Dave Mansfield’s connections in Poland.

In offering support as members of the historical peace tradition, the challenge to differentiate between humanitarian aid and aid that goes to support the resistance in Ukraine is not easy. In these times, we need to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves in commingling with other responses. We want to be part of Christ’s ongoing witness of peace while also empowering those on the ground to respond to real needs.

Join other Mosaic congregations in prayers for peace in Ukraine:

Finland (Pennsburg, PA) Mennonite Church: Sunday evenings at 7:00pm, in person 

This is a cross-generational gathering, ranging from toddlers to seniors, from many different congregations and denominations. We gather for a combination of hymn singing and prayer for Ukraine and Russia. For details or questions, please contact Pastor Kris Wint at kris@finlandmc.org, as gathering dates and times may vary weekly.  

Garden Chapel (Dover, NJ): Sunday, March 20, 7:30ET, via zoom 

All are welcome to join for a virtual candlelight service to honor those who have perished in Ukraine and to pray for the hand of Christ to move about the nations. For zoom link and other information, please click here.  

For questions, please call/text Pastor Tim (973) 495-9219 or Maria Hart (973) 932-9993 or email thegardenchapel@gmail.com.  

While considering responses to Ukraine, it’s important to remember that there are many armed conflicts also occurring that are just outside of our media views. The conflict in Ukraine is likely viewed differently than other conflicts because we see it more in real time through the media, while our biases and connectivity have put Ukraine in the foreground. Meanwhile, other conflicts have continued in place without the same level of attention, at times even supported by our own US government as aggressor.

Hands, Hand, Together, Prayer, Community, Creative

Pastorally, I’d like to encourage each of us to respond in solidarity with Ukrainians nearby to us. There are Ukrainian communities throughout PA and concentrated in the New York City metro areas. Sometimes, our prayer presence of solidarity will be welcomed if we reach out to these neighboring communities with support, love, and prayer. For many Russian immigrants, this is also a difficult time as well.

The young priest, Father Oslap, who led the emotional prayer vigil I attended, translated his passionate homily to me in a few words afterward: We must resist. But we must not allow this incursion to teach us to hate.

As followers of Jesus, committed to Christ’s peace, we must also not allow this resistance to justify violence in anyway. We must continue to pray for both Ukraine and Russia and our own nation’s response.