Steve Kriss

MDS settles into Staten Island for recovery

November 15, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

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.

After Hurricane Sandy—resurrection stories

November 7, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

On Saturday, November 3, conference staffers Steve Kriss and Emily Ralph joined Mennonite Disaster Service in Staten Island, Brooklyn, and Queens to assess the damage left by Hurricane Sandy and identify needs in preparation for sending teams to aid in the cleanup. After returning home, Steve compiled this list of recollections, appreciation, and observations.

1. Mounds of garbage in Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens. And the realization that this is not ordinary trash, but people’s possessions, the stories of their lives in discarded items that had held either purposeful or sentimental value only a few days earlier.

2. Overflowing generosity that meant that the church we were visiting had to stop receiving donations by the end of the day because they had too much. Oasis Christian Center (formed out of the merger of two congregations including a former member congregation of Lancaster Conference) transformed its sanctuary into a distribution center piled high with clothing, water, food, cleaning supplies.

3. We passed by a large 4×4 truck and saw some guys who were gutting an entire house. I commented that this was the right kind of truck to have this week. I asked if we could take a photo of the owner with the truck. He insisted that the whole work crew gather around the truck and that we share the photo with them.

4. New York City is beautiful; the mix of skyline, bridges, architecture, water, and people is stunning even when it’s a mess. Why would people live here? Because it’s so beautiful and energizing, frustrating and amazing.

5. People took what they had and shared it with each other—setting up food tables on the sidewalk, serving meals out of their car. A group of Latino women made sandwiches and soup and told us, “We are poor, but we can help too.” Members of New York’s Sikh community brought their vegetarian meals to the streets rather than keeping them at their temples as would be the norm. We had amazing conversation and curry with basmati rice together while we discussed the community leader’s fascination with Lancaster County. Meanwhile a boy from the community was repeatedly yelling, “Free good hot food!” It was almost like communion.

6. We walked to one of the worst hit areas of Midland Beach where two elderly neighbor women had drowned in their homes. There were flower memorials outside of their homes and buried in the mud we spotted a copy of The Purpose Driven Life.

7. On Facebook, I posted that I’d be driving my pickup truck to Staten Island. Within 24 hours it was filled with donations given in love from Mennonite friends in Philadelphia and another friend loaned me a car so I could leave my truck with friends in Staten Island. I loaded up the truck at night almost to the hilt, but came out to leave in the morning to discover that my neighbors had topped off the load with more bottled water while I slept. I returned that evening to find my yard cleaned and raked from the storm thanks to my other neighbors.

8. We headed out with a Mennonite Disaster Service assessment team to the Rockaways. The entire boardwalk had been lifted off the cement pilings and pushed back into houses. One family reclaimed the boardwalk now as their beachfront deck and set up umbrellas and chairs along with a sign that said, “Rockaway Forever.”

9. While we walked in the neighborhoods, I kept getting sand in my mouth as the wind kicked up. I want to remember the grit of it in my teeth, the sensation of the storm both outside and within me.

10. I was overwhelmed by hope in my encounters with people all day who reflected the Incarnation–the love of the Creator made Real–handing out peanut butter sandwiches, quietly cleaning neighbors’ homes, translating issues in Spanish, Russian, Hindi, offering hamburgers fresh off the grill to passing vehicles, gracious and committed first responders, plain-dressed Mennonite women who kept relief efforts moving efficiently, a woman driving around clean and dry socks to neighbors who were cleaning out their homes.

The human response to the situation was amazingly hopeful despite the challenges of cleaning up, rebuilding. Fourteen-year-old Zach who went along with us remarked, “I wasn’t surprised by the destruction. I was surprised by people smiling in the midst of it all.” People like Zach, who wanted to come along with his big sister, photographer Emily, and my Methodist pastor friend Christine from New Jersey, who told the stories of what she saw on Saturday to her worshiping community the next morning while choking back tears, remind me that the power of the Christian story is that it is comedy over tragedy, not death but resurrection.

If you are from southeastern Pennsylvania and you would like to join a Mennonite Disaster Service team going to Staten Island, contact Rick Kratz, 267-372-4637. Outside PA, contact the MDS representative in your congregation. If you would like schedule your own team, contact Judy Roes, New York volunteer coordinator, 717-823-3020. Facebook gallery of photos from Saturday’s trip.

It IS really all about the relating (To Mennonite Wrap-Up)

August 30, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Steve Kriss, Director of Communication and Leadership Formation

I remember the puzzled look on Ellen B. Kauffman’s face as she tried to place me in her social geography of biological relationships. “Who are you parents and grandparents?”

As a junior high kid at the annual Winter Bible School for the Mennonite Churches of Greater Johnstown (Pa.), I gladly told her my parents and grandparents names. I don’t think it helped either of us to navigate our relatedness together as my family had only recently joined a Mennonite congregation. We were on our own, it seemed, to build a relationship together, to co-construct our Mennoniting.

Over the summer, we’ve had excellent writers reflect on what it means to Mennonite. To many of us and many persons in the culture beyond Mennonite congregations, we know that it’s about the relatedness. These blogs evidence this relatedness in refreshing and hopeful ways that give a real glimpse of Mennonite relatedness as Good News.

When my family became part of a Mennonite congregation, we adopted some cultural practices that seem to epitomize Mennoniting in traditional senses. My mom even took to wearing a netted prayer covering. We bought milk in glass bottles from the local dairy. My parents did some communal gardening with people from our church—they even canned and froze vegetables together. These were all the sorts of things that I’d imagine Mennonites do. It’s easy, from the outside, to assume these marking practices are what it means to be Mennonite, or to Mennonite, whether it’s a verb or a noun. What surprises me about our blogs is that there is little conversation, really, about these cultural practices often rooted in agrarian lifestyles alone.

Our writers this summer have pointed toward something beyond practices, beyond even our radical reformation heritage and distinctive acts of footwashing and believers baptism. From their diverse viewpoints, what emerges to me is the sense that it’s our relatedness that is our distinction. It’s this relatedness that is both our biggest strength and potential as well as our possible Achilles heel.

Mennoniting, as our bloggers have stated, has to do with how we relate to God, each other, the world, our past, and our future. It’s not something ever done in isolation. All of the blogs present authentic encounters and relationship. Some, like John Ruth, Aldo Siahaan, and Ron White, highlight reflective action that pulls us inward to move us outward. Some, like Noah Kolb, Maria Byler and Alex Bouwman, celebrate our historical practices and pacing. Other stories by Donna Merrow, Michael King, and Dennis Edwards highlight holy discontent in the world. Some, like Ervin Stutzman, Emily Ralph, and Ubaldo Rodriguez, are pondering new identities.

What becomes clear is that this Mennoniting thing is about relating—with God in all of God’s interrelated Trinitarian identities (Creator, Redeemer, Spirit), with the world, with our neighbors, with our enemies, with our brothers, sisters, cousins (biological and otherwise). Mennoniting is knowing we are not in this world alone—there are enemies and friends, there is God and there is a universe called forth into being by God. It’s a radical response to contemporary individualism and isolation, to “me-ness.” It’s a witness of love and a response to God’s declaration in Genesis, “it’s not good to be on this good planet alone.”

Sister Ellen was ultimately right; though she couldn’t find the strand of my biological connection that day, she knew that I hadn’t arrived unrelated on this earth (or in her Bible school class). Ultimately, we are all created to flourish in our relatedness. Mennoniting, then, seems to be doggedly and joyfully living in those interrelationships between family and strangers, future and past, enemies and friends, the Creator and the created. And in the midst of that to hold a willingness to be transformed by the grace of God, the love of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

On realizing what it means to be a Mennonite

August 22, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

To Mennonite Blog #12

by Aldo Siahaan, Philadelphia Praise Center

In the past week, Muslims around the world ended their 30 days of fasting for the month of Ramadan. It was around this time of celebration, five years ago, that I realized that I am a Mennonite.

The church I pastor, Philadelphia Praise Center in South Philly, officially became part of Franconia Mennonite Conference in the middle of 2007. The leaders and I were still learning to know more about Mennonites that year and what our membership in the Conference might mean.

I am originally from Jakarta, Indonesia, where Christians are the minority. In Philadelphia among Indonesian immigrants, however, there are more Indonesian Christians than Indonesian Muslims; still, I have Muslim friends.

In the month of Ramadan 2006, knowing the feeling of being a minority, I offered the Indonesian Muslim community the use of our worship space for prayer during their holy month. I spoke with one of the leaders but she never called me back with an answer.

A year later, Ramadan 2007, the same leader called me and asked, “Aldo, do you remember that last year you offered us your church so we can pray? Is the invitation still open?” I told her that for me personally the answer would be yes, but that I would need to talk with our congregation’s leaders first.

After I shared my conversation with the leaders and members of the church, no one objected. The leaders and I remembered, though, that we were now part of Franconia Mennonite Conference and we didn’t know if opening our church building would be the right thing to do according to Mennonite values.

In conversation with Conference leadership, I asked carefully, “Is opening the church building to Muslims a Mennonite way?”

Steve Kriss, our conference minister, responded, “Aldo, that’s what Mennonites do. We build relationships with people, our neighbors, even other faiths. We forgive. We share what we have.”

I realized that that this was Mennoniting—following Jesus’ command to love one another (John 15:17).

Next week, Franconia Conference Director of Communication and Leadership Cultivation Steve Kriss will reflect back on the summer of blogs. Have there been any insights that have touched you, made you think, connected with your experience? How do you “Mennonite”? Join the conversation on Facebook & Twitter (#fmclife) or by email.

Sometimes the Spirit shows up

May 24, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

Reflections with Jews, Muslims, and Christians in the Old City Jerusalem.

by Stephen Kriss, skriss@mosaicmennonites.org

There were about a dozen of us gathered around fresh squeezed orange juice and a couple of tables just inside the Damascus Gate in the Old City. Our group had been traveling for a few days in Israel and the Occupied Territories as part of the partnership between Franconia Conference and Biblical Seminary for intercultural education. It was the third time in a few years that I’d been back, engaging with initiatives supported by Conference congregations—Deep Run East, Philly Praise, and Franconia. In some ways, the once exotic holy land was starting to feel both more familiar and more frustrating.

We were gathering after a long day to meet with two seminary students, both American Jews living awhile in Jerusalem. I had met one of the students at a coffee shoppe in Philadelphia. The second guy was his housemate, a Reformed Jew. Our group had just returned from several days of staying with Palestinian Christians in occupied Bethlehem. We’d heard their stories and seen the dividing wall. It had been overwhelming and gut-wrenching, as usual.

It was tough to turn toward a conversation with Jewish students. I had strategically set it up at a small refreshment stand, owned by a Muslim guy who had spent a lot of time in California. He agreed to stay open late this night for the conversation. The two students told their own predicaments, their own call as spiritual leaders, their struggle as Jews in Israel in the midst of injustices. They told of slipping scared into Palestine, trying to hide their own Jewishness to see the other side of the story. They admitted that they were a little afraid to come and visit with us in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City.

The conversation was both beautiful and tough. The seminary students—both Christian and Jewish—shared openly from their own perspectives. They asked questions. They shared perplexities. There was both wincing and hoping.

But maybe the most remarkable thing that happened that night was as our time was concluding, the shopkeeper chimed into our conversation.

He said, “Listening to you guys gives me hope.”

He said, “We have a long journey together to figure this out. We have much to overcome. It will take many years. But maybe because we gathered tonight it will only take 189 years rather than 200 to move toward peace.”

Our Jewish friends trembled and teared up. We witnessed something holy and lovely. It was listening, it was acting, it was hoping, it was sharing space and moving beyond fears. It was next generation leaders receiving a blessing from a Muslim man probably older than their parents in the Muslim Quarter in front of a group of American Christians.

The moment was pretty amazing. In these kinds of learning experiences, we do a lot of setting up, a lot of planning, but the Spirit shows up wildly and mostly unpredictably in the circumstance. It’s something we hope for as leaders in our preparing and our journeying, something we wait for, but something unexplainable in the careful question, vulnerability and risk; in the exchange across boundaries, between young and old, in the midst of moving toward understanding.

This is why I believe in intercultural education, in missional movement across the globe. It’s the Spirit’s showing up when we take risks. It’s listening across misgiving. Sometimes it requires movement and travel across thousands of miles and sometimes it only requires us to walk across the street, where we encounter the Divine in the face of fear, frustration, difference.

Conference pastors recognized for leading and serving

May 24, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Stephen Kriss, skriss@mosaicmennonites.org

Tom Albright, lead pastor of Ripple, an emerging Anabaptist missional faith community in Center City Allentown was recognized by the Lehigh County Council of Churches with the Ecumenical Service Award for 2012. According to the Council, “the award is not to glorify the individual, but to give witness to the important work of affirming and strengthening Christian unity. The award is given to well-known and little-known individuals, to people deeply involved in the life of the Conference and to those who have offered their gifts elsewhere.”

Ripple is a church-plant that was birthed from Franconia Conference congregation, Whitehall Mennonite Church, just outside of the city. Tom and his wife Carolyn were honored with this award for “hearing God’s call and moving into the city.” He accepted the award on behalf of the emerging community at Ripple, suggesting that this award wasn’t only about him but also about the community of people who gather weekly and who live the Good News every day in their hearts and on the streets of Allentown.

Earlier this year, Ripple called two additional pastors–Ben Walter and Angela Moyer—to serve alongside the Albrights in leading this growing congregation of approximately 100 people. Albright is the first Mennonite pastor recognized by the Council with this award, given since 1981. The award presentation was marked with a dinner on May 15 at Allentown’s Dieruff High School.

Aldo-award — Aldo Siahaan received his award on May 22. Photo by Basil Zhu, China World News.

As part of WPVI ABC-TV’s celebration of Asian American Heritage month in Philadelphia, Aldo Siahaan, lead pastor of Philadelphia Praise Center, was honored for his commitment to the Indonesian immigrant community since arriving in Philadelphia over a decade ago, part of a wave of approximately 10,000 immigrants from Indonesia who settled in Philadelphia in the last 15 years, the majority of whom were Christians escaping religious persecution in their homeland. Siahaan is the first Mennonite pastor to receive this award.

Siahaan was honored for his work in community service and communication among the immigrant community in South Philadelphia along with approximately ten other leaders from the diverse Asian communities in the city. He is the founding pastor of the now multilingual, multiethnic urban Anabaptist congregation of Philadelphia Praise–approximately 250 people, the largest Mennonite Church USA congregation in the city.

An award celebration was held at the historic Joy Tsing Lau restaurant in Philadelphia’s Chinatown section on May 22. The celebration included cultural celebrations of the Delaware Valley’s Asian communities, from Pakistani dance to Japanese Kobuki-style drama.

For Siahaan, the honor was unexpected. But for members of the congregation at Philadelphia Praise, the honor was appropriate and even missional. According to Adrian Suryajaya, a young adult leader from Philadelphia Praise who attended the event along with Siahaan, “The time has come for Godly leaders to rise and be recognized, to be salt and light. Christians are called to being God’s love, passion and Good News to the community where we are placed.”

Nations Worship Center to host fundraising dinner

May 24, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

Nations Worship Center will be hosting a dinner next month to celebrate its ministry and expansion in South Philadelphia. The dinner, which will be held at the Indonesian Restaurant located at 1725 Snyder Ave, Philadelphia, on Saturday, June 16 at 5:30pm, will raise funds for the purchase and renovation of a new worship and ministry center.

The new facility, located on W. Ritner St. in South Philly, is a former catering hall that will provide the congregation with over 8700 square feet of space, out of which they hope to host community meals and offer groceries like rice and noodles to neighbors who need them, according to congregational pastor, Beny Krisbianto.

Up until now, Nations Worship has been renting a building on McKean St., down the block from its sister congregation, Philadelphia Praise Center. The congregation has been ministering to Philadelphia’s Indonesian population since 2006 and hopes to expand that reach while adjusting to a neighborhood just a few blocks south.

Steve Kriss, LEADership Minister for Nations Worship, along with Krisbianto and Aldo Siahaan, pastor at Philadelphia Praise Center, will be present at the June dinner to share about the congregation’s vision and the role this new church facility will play in meeting this vision. “Purchasing a building is an investment incarnation, putting roots in a neighborhood,” said Kriss, “It’s an important part of the journey for immigrant congregations to embrace life and move toward holy stability that allows the Spirit to move in new ways.”

NWC new building — The new building on Ritner St. in South Philly.

The dinner will be free, and all are invited. During the evening’s festivities, participants will be given the opportunity to make a contribution to cover the cost of the meal and support the important work that Nations Worship is doing in South Philadelphia, said Franconia Conference moderator John Goshow in his invitation to the event.

Not only will this dinner be an opportunity to assist the congregation in raising the down payment for the mortgage (which will be held by Everence), it will also provide the chance to enjoy authentic Indonesian food and celebrate the exciting future ahead of Nations Worship, he added.

Vina Krisnadi, a part of the leadership team at Nations Worship Center, is excited about the opportunities this new building will provide. “It’s been a long time that we have been renting for worship space. The congregation has been waiting and this now seems like the right time and space,” she said. “We can worship in any place, but by purchasing this building we will reduce our costs as well as invest in our neighborhood. With this facility, we can expand our work with children and have more space for ministry in the future. We appreciate the input and help from other Mennonite congregations as we look forward to renovations. We are grateful for Everence’s support and other Mennonite sisters and brothers who have contributed already to our efforts.”

Conference focuses leadership and ministry priorities

May 11, 2012 by Emily Ralph Servant

by Stephen Kriss, skriss@mosaicmennonites.org

Board and Staff Retreat — Members of Franconia Conference's board and staff discuss vision and priorities at a January 2012 retreat. Photo by Emily Ralph.

Earlier this year, Franconia Conference’s board identified the fulfillment of its Vision and Financial Plan through the realignment of resources and the movement toward cultivating healthy and growing disciples, leaders, congregations, and connections. In response, the board and Executive Minister Ertell Whigham have discerned continuing priorities for conference staff and ministry.

These priorities are rooted in the intended outcomes of the Vision and Financial Plan along with an emphasis on building formational, missional, and intercultural communities that are witnesses of the peace and love of Jesus Christ.

According to Whigham, “This is not a house cleaning, not a reinventing, this is focusing our work together in a time of needing to more carefully, courageously, and diligently carry out our work of equipping, empowering, and embracing God’s mission from Georgia to Vermont.”

These priorities are an extension of the ongoing work and ministry of Franconia Conference, while recognizing a need to focus ministry and staffing in a way that stewards both financial and human resources. With this focusing, Conference intends to move toward a reduction in staffing while cultivating further opportunities for ministry within and between conference congregations.

Priority #1: Developing missional initiatives

Over the last years, Franconia Conference has provided Missional Operations Grants for congregations and ministries to promote risk-taking for the sake of the Gospel. Over the next years, Conference will renew a focus on these initiatives across conference congregations, to build relationships among congregations and to promote the development of leaders toward the fulfillment of the Great Commission. These grants will be available to all congregations toward creative partnerships and new possibilities for missional engagement both distant and nearby. These partnerships will be intent on mutuality, rooted in considerations of justice, building on strengths, and calling forth new and next generation leaders.

Priority #2: Networking and cultivating intercultural ministry relationships

This process will include an assessment of current and emerging relationships that work cross-culturally while building further capacity toward mutually beneficial relationships among ministries and congregations. Increasingly, these relationships will be defined by reciprocity and transformation rather than paternalism and patronization. Relationships will be built around both work and celebration and both doing and being together.

Priority #3: Building leadership capacities across geographies and generations

Committed people are Franconia Conference’s greatest resources. We are blessed and privileged with a diversity of gifts and high levels of commitment from our congregations and leaders. This is a strength to be further developed toward a goal of creating opportunities for more involvement of leaders from all congregations. Conference will focus on building further capacities in areas of mediation, peace and justice, and other ministries further working toward relevant and excellent venues for training and equipping. Conference staff will be focused toward these considerations with ongoing evaluation and performance reviews in order to be further equipped for future support of the constituent community. Due to decreased congregational giving, however, conference staffing will likely be reduced.

While the overall projection of priorities includes a reduction in staffing and continued work at careful stewardship of conference human, spiritual, and financial resources, Whigham said when he unveiled the priorities to staff this week, “ultimately our goal is to glorify God and to bring others into a relationship with Jesus Christ.”

Conference leadership will begin implementation of priorities immediately; conversations with staff were initiated earlier this year and will continue through 2012.

In a letter released to all conference delegates and credentialed leaders on May 11, 2012, board chair John Goshow (Blooming Glen congregation) and Whigham wrote:

“We believe that God is capable of fulfilling our prayers beyond our dreams. At the same time, we believe that God is honored when we listen and lead in a way that invites us to fulfill our mission with excellence and with justice. This is where it seems God is calling us together, what God is inviting, and where hopefully we’ll have the courage to go in the way of peace.

“We’ll continue to keep you updated as we further develop these priorities. We plan to set up community conversations in the next few weeks for face-to-face time together. We’re going to learn some things. We’re going to make some mistakes. We’re going to have some successes. And we’re going to continue to be willing to witness of faith in Christ, till the kingdom comes.”

Steve Kriss

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