|
News archive
| |
|
| Churches Supporting Churches invites Mennonite Church USA congregations to partner with New Orleans churches |
 |
By June Krehbiel
NEWTON, Kan. (Mennonite Church USA) After Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast in September 2005, churches suffered, lacking not only bricks and mortar but emotional unity and stability. Since then a national working group, calling itself Churches Supporting Churches (CSC), is seeing to it that churches along the Gulf Coast are getting the help they need.
In Mennonite Church USA, the African-American Mennonite Association (AAMA) with peace and social justice coordinator Steven Brown calls the churchwide body to support CSC.
“These churches need help, and we in Mennonite Church USA have resources we can draw on to help them,” Brown says from his office at Calvary Community Church, Hampton, Va. He travels monthly to New Orleans for CSC, participating in two-day pastors’ institutes that give leadership training in community development, capacity building and advocacy.
“We need to get our Mennonite churches to consider partnering with CSC,” Brown says. “It is a work that we feel can certainly bring peace and calm. New Orleans is in a bad situation, particularly churches in the community. Half the residents have not come back to New Orleans. They are still missing over 200,000 residents. There’s a lot going on there that the media doesn’t show. You see homes that have not been gutted, churches not rebuilt, jobs not returned, economy bad.”
The CSC project, according to Brown, is assisting African-American congregations in 12 areas of New Orleans where Katrina destroyed or seriously damaged their facilities. The goal is to “restart, reopen, repair and rebuild the churches” so they can once again serve their communities.
“We feel that if churches aren’t backing the churches, who will?” Brown says.
The initial goal of CSC was to help 36 churches, not just with bricks and mortar donations, but with spiritual support. CSC hopes to partner these 36 congregations in New Orleans with 360 congregations nationally on a one-to-10 ratio over three years.
“We now have five of those 36 churches in New Orleans up and running,” Brown said in early April. Brown’s role is to help Mennonite Church USA congregations pair up with churches in the New Orleans area. Both financial resources and supportive relationships are needed.
“If CSC can pull this off, it would overshadow the politics and red tape that has threatened any progress in New Orleans,” Brown says.
The appeal from Brown, speaking for Mennonite Church USA, is for churches to join other congregations that have already committed to CSC.
“The wheels of progress turn very slowly. These congregations have been turned down by other organizations and have suffered a lot of road blocks,” Brown says. “We need some tangible help from congregations who can put legs under their prayers for the people of New Orleans.”
Brown sees this peace and social justice issue as the “beginning of the war on racism and poverty in New Orleans. Dr. King said there were three ills of society: poverty, racial injustice and militarism. Two of the three are present in New Orleans today.”
CSC also has the support of Mennonite Central Committee. Mennonite Disaster Service is considering CSC participation, according to Brown.
“We need the supporting churches to take the lead in this ecumenical effort for Churches Supporting Churches,” Brown says.
Mennonite Church USA churches interested in joining the Churches Supporting Churches effort in New Orleans should contact Steven Brown at (757) 825-1133, ext. 206. Working with him on CSC projects for Mennonite Church USA is Bob Zehr, former Gulf States Mennonite Conference minister.
Donations to CSC can be mailed to African-American Mennonite Association (AAMA), 2311 Tower Place, Hampton, VA 23666.
AAMA, a ministry of Mennonite Church USA, serves as a voice of advocacy, informing, educating and empowering African-American and integrated congregations in Mennonite Church USA.
| |
|
| Preheim named director of Historical Committee |
|
NEWTON, Kan. Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership announces Rich Preheim of Elkhart, Ind., has been appointed director of the Mennonite Church USA Historical Committee. Preheim has been interim director for the Historical Committee on a part-time basis since October 2006, and will begin work as full-time director Sept. 1.
Preheim will work from the Goshen Archives on the campus of Goshen (Ind.) College, one of two archive locations administered by the Historical Committee. The North Newton Archives are located on the Bethel College campus in North Newton, Kan.
The Historical Committee, a ministry of Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership, is responsible for nurturing the denomination’s historical consciousness. It does so through its two archives, publishing Mennonite Historical Bulletin, sponsoring a student research contest, planning conferences and making historical resources available to the church. Understanding past successes and failures can play a key role in shaping the future of a young denomination, Preheim says.
“Our work is especially important right now as we continue to forge our identity as Mennonite Church USA and as worldly dynamics continue to challenge our identity and our beliefs,” Preheim says. “Our present and future are unquestionably and dramatically shaped by the past, and we ignore that at our own peril.”
Preheim graduated from Bethel College in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in history and minors in communication and Bible and religion. He received a master’s degree in journalism from Indiana University in 1992. Preheim also has studied at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind. He is a contributing editor to Mennonite Life and the recipient of a Mennonite Historical Society research grant.
Currently, Preheim is in the process of finishing a book on the history of Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference, one of Mennonite Church USA’s 21 area conferences. He began research for the book while working as a freelance writer after serving nearly 12 years as an editor for the Mennonite Weekly Review and The Mennonite. Preheim’s byline also has appeared in the New York Times, Christian Century, Sojourners and the Washington Post, among others.
Preheim is a member of Hively Avenue Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Ind., and has also lived in South Dakota, Kansas and Pennsylvania. In addition, Preheim is familiar with the broader Mennonite church’s diversity, having visited Mennonite churches and sites across the United States and in Canada, Europe and Latin America.
“I, as someone who adamantly believes in the importance of Mennonite witness, want to contribute to our pursuit of faithfulness by lifting up history,” Preheim says.
Preheim believes part of that faithfulness is accurately understanding Mennonite Church USA’s past as the former Mennonite Church and General Conference Mennonite Church. He says the Historical Committee is “in a prime position to foster understandings and address historical stereotypes and misperceptions between those groups.”
“While we learn from the past, we have to be vigilant to learn correctly and honestly about each other,” Preheim says.
| |
|
| Anabaptist Center for Health Care Ethics. |
|
(GOSHEN, Ind.) The Board of Directors for the Anabaptist Center for Healthcare Ethics (ACHE) and representatives from several other organizations met May 10 in Goshen, Ind. The purpose of the meeting was to review the short history of ACHE, to highlight the most pressing ethical issues for the constituencies represented and to consider how best to respond with limited resources.
Rick Stiffney, chairperson of ACHE, said meeting participants decided that after the summer of 2007, the sponsoring organizations will work in a new way to advance their healthcare ethics agenda.
During the last six years, ACHE was led by George Stoltzfus and more recently Joe Kotva. Stiffney said that both Stoltzfus and Kotva played significant roles in helping to identify emerging ethical questions related to healthcare and in presenting possible ways for Anabaptists to respond.
Kotva devoted substantial time to the development of the Healing Healthcare study guide. He also helped articulate public policy principles that are important to the Mennonite Church USA initiative in healthcare ethics.
In looking to the future, Stiffney said, “Important work remains on issues such as healthcare access, end-of-life decision-making and stewardship of medical resources. However, given tight budgetary limitations, we need to carry work forward in a more agile manner, with minimal staffing.”
Joe Kotva’s work as executive director of ACHE will conclude May 31.
Stiffney said that a steering consortium will be formed to give oversight for coordinating project work across multiple agencies. The consortium will conceptualize projects, arrange up-front funding and focus on desirable outcomes in response to perceived needs among Anabaptist members.
According to Stiffney, participants at the May 10 meeting agreed that they dream of a future where a broader Anabaptist center for professional healthcare ethics is reality.
For more information, contact: Rick Stiffney at 574-534-9689 or rick@mhsonline.org
| |
|
| Of sewing kits, soap powder and Baobab juice. |
|
By Denise Williamson with Laurie Oswald Robinson
When 50 women in the West African village of Pirang met Pennsylvanian Ethel Clugston for the first time in January, they already knew her as a Mennonite sister.
They became sisters through a Sister Link partnership sponsored by Mennonite Women USA (MW USA). The partnership seeks to help structure mutually beneficial relationships in which both groups are givers and receivers.
Ethel’s visit was the first time the West African women had seen pictures of their 11 American sisters. Each American woman attached a note to her portrait. These letters were translated into Jola, the local language, and a camera was passed around so that snapshots of the African sisters could be captured for American women to see once Ethel returned home.
The seed of this partnership was first planted when Ethel and her husband, Dale, of Chambersburg, Pa., became part of the Missionary Support Team for Denise Williamson and her husband, Gary. The Williamsons co-direct the Mennonite Educational and Horticultural Development Associates (MEHDA) in Pirang. When Gary and Denise moved to Pirang in September 2005, they helped a group of more than 100 people make powdered laundry soap to generate income for other projects.
The West African group wrote a proposal that included using $200 for soap making. The group e-mailed their proposal to Rhoda Keener, MW USA executive director, and the women of Denise’s home congregation, Cedar Street Mennonite Church in Chambersburg. Despite the vastly different cultures, the communal aspect of both groups helped to link them, Denise says.
“As this partnership grew, I marveled at how one Sister Link project sparked this extraordinary friendship between Mennonite women and Muslim women in two very different cultures,” Denise says. “African Women work together in their compounds and gardens. When people form a group to pursue a common goal it is often called a kafoo. It is a natural link that Mennonites are community-spirited, too. Sister Link empowered us to create a kafoo among the Jola women.”
With the $200 from Sister Link, the African women bought the oil, caustic soda, perfume and Dettol ™ to make the first batch of soap. A village carpenter, whose wife is part of the Jola kafoo, made the screens to sieve the powder and a table for drying the soap in the sun.
After several months of making a profit from soap, the group invested in doing tie-dye and batik fabric. They sold these products to visitors from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada who came to MEHDA. Within the year, the kafoo had paid back the Sister Link loan.
The same amount of money was then loaned out a second time to a group of Balanta women in Pirang. These women connected with a small Christian fellowship being nurtured by Eastern Mennonite Missions in the village. These Balanta women are ready to return the loan in full to MEHDA. They have requested a meeting to express their thankfulness for Sister Link support. They are planning to use the original loan for a third time, to form a new Balanta soap-making group associated with a Mennonite fellowship in the nearby village of Kitti.
Sister Link is also creating new international friendships and a larger network for creating saleable products. In January, three Christian women from London came to MEHDA to do a series of textile workshops. The leader of the group purchased some of the Jola kafoo’s fabric, which she later made into a handbag and clothing.
“If it had not been for Sister Link, the women from London would not have seen the potential in women here to partner with them in creating new fair-trade products,” Denise says. “When Ethel came, she brought sewing kits made by the Franklin Conference women. A week later, the London partners donated two treadle sewing machines. We are now coordinating the ongoing support of these two groups to create a sustainable program of training, employment and products development.”
For all that their friends in America and Europe are doing on their behalf, the women in Pirang wanted to give some tangible gift to them in return. They decided to pound the dried pods of the native baobab tree to make a refreshing powdered drink mix containing its own calcium, Vitamin C and iron. Ethel took this mix home to share with sisters there as a gift from their partners in Africa.
“We are so grateful for the ‘work of their hands,’ that they gathered and pounded the dried fruit pods from the tree to send us a gift,” Ethel says. “I was inspired by my time with the ladies at Pirang. Their life seems hard, and they are so industrious. As Denise continues to find ways to increase economic growth for the women, the effect is far reaching as a way of sharing Jesus’ love.”
 |
| Having received the sewing kits and notes of friendship, the women gather bark from the Baobob tree and grind into the powder used to make Baobob juice to send back to their Sister-Link friends in the United States |
You may find more information on www.mennokunda.com or garyanddeni@gmail.com. Denise is seeking those who can help create and sell eco-friendly fabric market sacks, hand-made cards with African proverbs, organic soaps, candle, and quilts that display the best of West African fabrics and prints. Cloth samples can be supplied to those who want to experiment with new ways to use hand-dyed and hand-woven cotton fabrics from our area. |
|
