Women's History Month

by Eileen Kinch

When Donella Clemens was nominated to be the Mennonite Church’s moderator-elect in 1990, she took time to pray and think. She was the first woman to be nominated for this position, and she knew some people might not appreciate it. But, as she pointed out in Franconia Conference News at the time, “The call came from the church; therefore, it must be the church’s issue to deal with, not mine.” 

Clemens grew up in Belleville, Pa., in what had been the Conservative Mennonite Conference, now Rosedale Network. Her uncles were in leadership positions, and two of them were bishops. They strongly believed that if the church calls someone to do something, one must say yes; the voice of the church is as the voice of God. So Clemens said yes to the invitation to be the Mennonite Church’s moderator. 

She also said yes to other invitations. She became Franconia Conference’s first woman moderator in 1997. She was also the first woman board chair of Christopher Dock Mennonite High School (now Dock Academy).  

“Countless times I was the only woman on a committee,” she said. Sometimes she suggested ideas and the men did not listen. Then a man on the committee would make the same suggestions, and the rest of the committee implemented them. At times Clemens felt resistance from men but chose to interpret the resistance in a productive way. Her background in social work helped her navigate that resistance on many occasions. 

Clemens never sought leadership roles; they came to her. “I … feel so strongly that it’s out of God’s call on my life, that these calls came…. It’s what God put in front of me.” 

During her time as Franconia Conference moderator, Clemens felt it was God’s direction that Eastern District and Franconia Conference work together. 

“Jesus so clearly talks about having us come together…to work together and to be a light that loves each other,” Clemens said in a recent interview. She enjoyed the many committees that formed between members of Franconia Conference and Eastern District Conference around common interests and activities. One committee involved passionate librarians from each conference. 

A challenge for Clemens during her time as Franconia Conference moderator was discussion around homosexuality that resulted in Germantown being removed fromout Franconia Conference. The way people were treating each other at the time “was much worse than any decision that we would make” as a conference, she said.  

Clemens hopes that energy that goes into division can instead be put toward the love of Jesus. When the body of Christ comes together and learns to know each other through the love of Jesus, Clemens said, “everyone benefits.” 

Clemens served briefly as Franconia’s delegate to the General Board of the Mennonite Church. In 2000, she joined the Franconia Conference Ministry Team for six years and worked with Pennsylvania congregations Blooming Glen, Plains, Perkasie, and Deep Run East, as well as the congregations in Vermont. 

Since then, she served on the board of what is now called Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. She has helped congregations with pastoral searches. She has also served on numerous committees and the ministry team at Perkasie (PA) Mennonite, her home congregation.  

We are grateful for Donella Clemens’ work to help lay the foundation of what would become Mosaic Conference, as well as to encourage others to respond to the call of God and the church. 

Eileen Kinch

Eileen Kinch holds a Master of Divinity degree, with an emphasis in the Ministry of Writing, from Earlham School of Religion. She and her husband, Joel Nofziger, who serves as director of the Mennonite Heritage Center in Harleysville, live near Tylersport, PA. They attend Methacton Mennonite Church. Eileen is also a member of Keystone Fellowship Friends Meeting in Lancaster County.

by Eileen Kinch

Mary Jane Lederach Hershey’s interest in history runs deep. She was born in Trooper, PA, and grew up with a library and an archive in her house. Jacob Mensch, Hershey’s great-grandfather, collected books from previous generations. When his son Abe Mensch came to live with Mary Jane and her parents, who were workers at the Mennonite Gospel Mission in Norristown, so did the books.

Many visitors would stop by Hershey’s childhood home in Trooper, and later when her family moved to Lederach, PA, to view the books. These volumes were also storage spaces for fraktur. Her mother would open the books and handle the unique fraktur pages very carefully. “From my teenage years I knew that fraktur was really special, and was important to this community,” Hershey said. 

Fraktur is a folk art form with European roots that Pennsylvania Germans created between 1740 and 1860. It features hand lettering in a German script and is characterized by decorative motifs, such as flowers and birds, as well as special calligraphy. Pennsylvania German Lutherans and Reformed used fraktur to make birth and baptismal certificates. Since Pennsylvania German Mennonites did not practice infant baptism, they created fraktur in educational settings. Christopher Dock, a schoolteacher who taught in Skippack and Salford, often rewarded his students with a special fraktur. Students also made fraktur to practice penmanship, a practice that continues today in some Mennonite schools. 

In the 1960s and 1970s, many Mennonites in southeastern Pennsylvania sold their farms. Often family treasures, such as fraktur, were put up for sale at estate auctions. Hershey was troubled when she saw non-Mennonite antiques dealers and shops purchasing these items, so she and her husband, Hiram Hershey, began to buy as much fraktur as they could. She tried to become involved with the Franconia Mennonite Historical Society, but the group, which consisted entirely of men, did not know how to welcome her. 

Wanting a Mennonite historical organization that was more inclusive, Hershey and others started their own in 1974. Hershey served as the first director of Mennonite Historians of Eastern Pennsylvania (MHEP). She wrote regular reports in the organization’s newsletter, often listing acquisitions and donors. “Our heritage is not a bondage, but is a beautiful gift from God from which we can learn,” she wrote in 1976. Hershey later served on the board of MHEP and now serves as a volunteer in the library and archives. 

“The theme of my life is to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God,” Hershey said. Creating a historical organization that was open to women was a justice issue. So was finding a place for Mennonite family treasures that were being dispersed. Instead of selling or giving their history away, Mennonites should be collecting and interpreting it. A member of Salford Mennonite Church (Harleysville, PA), Hershey’s desire for justice has also led her to take part in other protests and demonstrations. 

Hershey published This Teaching I Present in 2003, a book that she had been working on for many years. This Teaching I Present focuses on fraktur created specifically in the Skippack and Salford meetinghouse schools. Hershey also has an interest in textiles and wrote her master’s thesis on dress in Franconia Conference. The thesis, her journal articles, and her book on fraktur are all available in the library at the Mennonite Heritage Center (Harleysville, PA). The Mennonite Heritage Center archives also houses the books and papers collected by Hershey’s great-grandfather, Jacob Mensch. Her family’s careful stewarding of Mennonite heritage shaped the course of Hershey’s work. Her love of heritage can now shape ours. 

Eileen Kinch

Eileen Kinch is a writer and editor for the Mosaic communication team. She holds a Master of Divinity degree, with an emphasis in the Ministry of Writing, from Earlham School of Religion. She and her husband, Joel Nofziger, who serves as director of the Mennonite Heritage Center in Harleysville, live near Tylersport, PA. They attend Methacton Mennonite Church. Eileen is also a member of Keystone Fellowship Friends Meeting in Lancaster County.

Honoring Women’s History Month: The First Woman Ordained in Franconia Conference

It’s not easy to imagine a career if you have never seen anyone like you in that role. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Marty Kolb-Wyckoff, the first woman to be ordained in Franconia Conference, never imagined it either.

For Kolb-Wyckoff, who grew up in Spring City, PA, pastoral ministry never entered her mind until she spent four years in Richmond, VA as the director of the discipleship program through Mennonite Board of Mission’s Voluntary Service (VS) program in the late 1970s/early 1980s. “In that context of my own growth and helping others to grow, I began to sense a call to ministry,” recalls Kolb-Wyckoff. “I didn’t know quite what to do with it. It didn’t fit into my own self-understanding.”

To test her interest, Kolb-Wyckoff took some classes at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, VA. She thoroughly enjoyed her classes, eventually accumulating a year’s worth of credits towards a seminary degree. Eventually, she finished her degree at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, IN, where she remembers her years as “wonderful and very affirming.” During her final semester at AMBS in May 1985, she was called to candidate at Park View Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, VA.

After a positive weekend of candidating (meeting congregational attendees, preaching, and exploring whether there was a shared sense of call), Kolb-Wyckoff returned to Indiana, optimistic that her first pastoral role would soon be solidified. A few days later, however, she received the unexpected news that the congregation did not have enough votes to affirm her call to Park View. Disappointed and very surprised, Kolb-Wyckoff soon accepted a 2-year role as campus pastor at Hesston (KS) College. After her first year, she knew that campus ministry was not for her, and she resigned, returning to Elkhart, IN for a year of Clinical Pastoral Education.

In May 1987, Kolb-Wyckoff was invited to candidate for a pastoral role at Blooming Glen (PA) Mennonite Church. Again, despite a positive weekend of interviews and candidating, the congregational vote was just shy of the number Blooming Glen had determined necessary for Kolb-Wyckoff to join the staff.

In a matter of two years, Kolb-Wyckoff had been voted down by two different congregations. (Kolb-Wyckoff would have been the first female pastor at either of those churches.) Despite the discouragement, she continued to pursue her call to pastoral ministry.

“I had a pretty clear sense of call. If I wasn’t going to do this, what would I do?” Kolb-Wyckoff reflected. “It’s sort of a mystery to me why I didn’t quit. I think it was the grace of God and supportive people from seminary.” She added, “I wasn’t the only woman who had those experiences. Sadly, they were more common than one would wish.”

In November of 1987, Kolb-Wyckoff was called to and began as pastor of Taftsville (VT) Chapel Mennonite Fellowship. That same fall, Franconia Conference’s Assembly was devoted to the issue of credentialing women. The Assembly vote passed, allowing the ordination of women in Franconia Conference.

In February 1990, Kolb-Wyckoff became the first woman to be ordained by Franconia Conference. (Sharon Williams, currently of Nueva Vida Norristown New Life, transferred her ordination credentials prior to Marty’s ordination.)

Kolb-Wykoff remembers her ordination as a positive experience but knows that there were probably some people in Franconia Conference who didn’t approve. “I didn’t need to know what was being talked about down here [in southeastern PA],” acknowledged Kolb-Wyckoff. “I realized in most churches in the Conference, it couldn’t happen. There were some benefits to being on the fringes in Vermont,” she said with a smile.

Thirty-five years after Franconia Conference approved the ordination of women, girls (and boys) in Mosaic Conference now have many more role models as they discern their own calls to ministry: 25 women are currently ordained in the conference and another nine are licensed. As these women respond to their call, Kolb-Wyckoff and other retired female pastors cheer them on, a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12).

To read some early women’s history in Eastern District Conference, please see last year’s article on Rev. Dr. Ann Jemima Allebach.