Executive Board receives Diller’s nomination as moderator-elect
Edward Diller
By Marathana Prothro
NEWTON, Kan. (Mennonite Church USA)Edward Diller admits it might seem “semi-strange” that an attorney be chosen to serve Mennonite Church USA as its moderator-elect. However, he says that he’ll rely on the same Mennonite values that shape his daily work to help Mennonite Church USA continue moving forward as a missional church.
The Mennonite Church USA Executive Board received Diller as the Leadership Discernment Committee’s nomination for the next moderator-elect for Mennonite Church USA at the board’s Jan. 18 through 20 meeting in Meridian, Miss. The Delegate Assembly will be presented with the nomination in July at San José 2007.
With the delegates’ affirmation, Diller will be elected to a four-year term, beginning after the 2007 convention. He would spend the first two years as moderator-elect and chair of the Constituency Leaders Council and then succeed current moderator-elect Sharon Waltner, Parker, S.D., as moderator for Mennonite Church USA after Columbus 2009. Roy Williams, Land O’Lakes, Fla., will continue as moderator for Mennonite Church USA through San José 2007. The moderator chairs the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board.
“This seemed like an interesting opportunity to serve Mennonite Church USA, and life is about pursuing the interesting,” Diller said. “Transformation has been a terrific process. It’s lifted our sights to where we need to be working and where we need to align our efforts. Now we need to keep moving forward.”
Chair for the Mennonite Church USA Leadership Discernment Committee Ruth Suter, Brisbane, Calif., said Diller’s passion for the church, familiarity with the transformation of Mennonite Church USA and leadership experience led the committee to choose him as its nomination to the Executive Board.
“Ed brings senior leadership and management skills in both the private sector and various non-profit organizations. His commitment to the church and its affiliated organizations in combination with his unique professional experience and skills make him ideally suited to lead Mennonite Church USA,” Suter said. “We are excited that he is willing to serve and anticipate that his strong administrative and strategic planning background will prove invaluable as the Executive Board moves toward our upcoming denominational review and senior staff transitions.”
Diller believes that as Mennonite Church USA pursues what it means to be missional, it will have the benefit of a strong history of people living in community and valuing the dignity and respect of all human beings. He says those values coupled with a broad world-view have benefited him in his professional work as an attorney and they’ll be an even stronger asset for a denomination seeking to follow Christ. Diller has extensive leadership experience working on behalf of the church and its educational institutions and said he is excited about helping the church further discern its missional calling in the world.
“Ed brings a long record of leadership and service to the church at both the congregational and churchwide levels,” said Jim Schrag, executive director for Mennonite Church USA. “Ed will bring strong analytical and organizational skills to his leadership role with the Executive Board.”
Diller cited two specific areas on which he hopes to help the Executive Board focus. One is ensuring the church’s financial and fiscal stability and the other is follow our missional calling to see where God is at work in the world and join that work. He believes Mennonite Church USA has a “strong core” that will help it be an inviting church.
“A challenge for us is to be open about what we believe and to be inviting to others and say ‘These are the things we hold dear’ and not be too shy or concerned about it,” Diller said. “We need to be out there and mixing it up in the world.”
Diller is an attorney in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he is a partner in the law firm of Taft, Stettinius & Hollister LLP. He is a member of Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship. Ed graduated with honors from Harvard Law School in 1976 and previously studied at the University of Oregon and Bluffton College, where he received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1969.
He and his wife Karen worked as teachers in Jamaica for Mennonite Central Committee from 1970 to 1973. Since then, education has remained a strong focus for Diller’s church-related work. He served on the Bluffton University Board of Directors from 1979 through 2001, which he chaired for about 12 years. He also served on the Higher Education Council in the former General Conference Mennonite Church.
Diller chaired the Education Integration Committee, which was responsible for aligning education within the new churchwide structures, during the transformation of Mennonite Church USA. He currently serves as vice chair of the Mennonite Education Agency Board of Directors.
“Ed is a dedicated and compassionate leader and a strategic thinker, committed to discerning God's call for our missional denomination. His analytical skills, his wisdom and his service both within and beyond Mennonite Church USA make him an exceptional person to lead us into the opportunities and challenges of the future. We will miss his voice greatly in Mennonite Education Agency and wish him God's blessing in his new role.” said Carlos Romero, executive director for Mennonite Education Agency.
Diller says Mennonite Church USA has numerous opportunities to find God’s work in the world and join it. “As long as we maintain the solid core we have as a church across the country, we can make differences in many, many places. We need to be responsible to be representatives of God in our world.”
“Ed’s humble spirit and his willingness to serve the church are accompanied by strong leadership gifts and a deep sense of call. Ed is a gifted and capable leader, and I am pleased that Ed has said ‘Yes’ to this call from the broader church,” Waltner said.
Sidebar: What you don’t know about Ed Diller
He graduated with honors from Harvard Law School.
He has an honorary doctorate from Bluffton University.
He was tri-captain and MVP for the Bluffton College football team in the late 1960s.
He’s been listed in The Best Lawyers in America, Real Estate Section since 1987.
He was a teacher in Frankfield, Jamaica from 1970 to 1973.
He’s been serving on congregational committees at Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship since 1976.
He’s worked with the Boy Scouts of America, Habitat for Humanity, Playhouse in the Park (Cincinnati's Tony Award Winning regional theater) and Cincinnati’s Museum Center at Union Terminal, among multiple other organizations.
His undergraduate degree is in mathematics.
Strengthening ties, building relationships is board’s focus
By Ron Byler
“We need to build strong relationships to build the church,” concluded Roy Williams, moderator of Mennonite Church USA, at the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board meeting Jan. 18 through 20 in Meridian, Miss.
Strengthening ties within Mennonite Church USA and with other church bodies was a common theme during the meeting. The board met with Gulf States Mennonite Conference leaders, affirmed relationships with Mennonite Church Canada, recommended joining Christian Churches Together and blessed members of a church to church delegation that will visit with church leaders in the Democratic Republic of Congo in February.
Board members also enthusiastically received the nomination from the churchwide Leadership Discernment Committee of Ed Diller as moderator-elect of Mennonite Church USA. Diller is a lawyer in Cincinnati, Ohio, and an active member of Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship. Delegates will be asked to affirm this nomination at San José 2007.
The Executive Board was hosted by Jubilee Mennonite Church in Meridian. Pastors Elaine and Duane Maust said the church building served thousands of residents as a Red Cross center immediately following Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Their congregation, like many of the congregations in the conference, was deeply affected by the hurricane.
“We appreciated the support we received from all over the United States that has helped us rebuild our conference,” said Duane Maust. Conference leaders said the aftermath of the hurricane has helped them reassess the need for mutual aid, for helping members of the church, following a disaster.
Conference leaders noted that Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite Disaster Service are well equipped to provide disaster relief, but a systematic way to provide mutual aid to members after Hurricane Katrina was not in place. Conference leader Bob Zehr noted, “You don’t have to be poor to hurt. We sometimes felt like there was nobody there to help us.”
“When a disaster happens again, we want to be better prepared to support our brothers and sisters in the church,” said Jim Schrag, executive director of Mennonite Church USA. “How can we empower local congregations to respond?” asked Nelson Roth, pastor of the Gulf Haven Mennonite Church in Gulfport, Miss. Virtually every home in Roth’s congregation sustained damage during the storm.
“We’re still dealing with Katrina,” said Maust. “Over a year later we’re still numb, but we know that God has also given us an opportunity. With the relocation of a lot of people we think we have an opportunity to plant several churches in our conference. Please pray for us.”
Mennonite Church USA Executive Board members Addie Banks and Sharon Waltner display letters written by board members for congregations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Banks and Waltner are part of a dozen persons from Mennonite Church USA who will visit with church leaders and congregations in Congo, Feb. 2-16, to talk about deepening relationships between Mennonites in the two countries and opportunities for sharing gifts with each other.
A covenant with Mennonite Church Canada
At the January meeting, board members also approved a covenant with Mennonite Church Canada which affirms an ongoing web of relationships and partnerships between the two nationally defined denominations. The board affirmed a joint conference with MC Canada leaders in July 2008 to explore how North American Anabaptists can live faithfully as a contrast community in a global context.
MC Canada general secretary, Robert (Jack) Suderman shared his experiences visiting 229 congregations in MC Canada in 71 days. He noted the rich wisdom members in the pew have to offer the broader church.
Christian Churches Together membership to be presented to Delegate Assembly
The Executive Board received and affirmed a recommendation from the Constituency Leaders Council – a discernment body of churchwide leaders with representatives from Mennonite Church USA’s 21 area conferences, constituency groups and churchwide agencies – that the San José 2007 Delegate Assembly be asked to approve membership in Christian Churches Together, a broad coalition of Protestant, Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox and Pentecostal churches in the United States. The Charlotte 2005 Assembly had earlier approved exploring membership and area conferences have also provided their counsel.
Church-to-church relationships with Congolese Mennonites sought
With assistance from Mennonite World Conference, Mennonite Church USA is trying to develop church-to-church relationships with congregations and church leaders in Congo. The February delegation follows a visit by several Congo leaders to congregations in the United States in March 2006. Board members Addie Banks and Sharon Waltner and staff Jim Schrag and Ron Byler are members of the delegation.
Board receives Mennonite Member Profile update
Conrad Kanagy, of the Young Center of Elizabethtown College, gave board members a preview of Church Member Profile, a comprehensive survey of the attitudes, beliefs and values of 3,000 members and pastors in 120 congregations in Mennonite Church USA. Kanagy said that the extremely high survey response rate of 76% is a positive sign from members about their willingness to engage the church.
Kanagy said the number of Mennonite Church USA members under age 45 has decreased from 45% in 1989 to 30% in 2006. Kanagy also observed that the number of Racial/Ethnic members and congregations is increasing and that indicators show they are bringing new vitality to Mennonite Church USA.
Kanagy said that, as in Jeremiah 31 where road signs and guideposts helped mark the journey, the research survey can help us reflect on the nature of the church today. Kanagy will make a presentation to San José 2007 delegates about the study.
Six-year review
Board member Ed Rempel has been charged by the Executive Board to provide staff support for the beginning of a six year review process of the organization of Mennonite Church USA. Mennonite Church USA officially began at the Delegate Assembly at Nashville 2001. The process has begun with a survey to pastors and area conference and churchwide agency leaders. Responses from the survey will be reviewed at the upcoming joint meeting between the Constituency Leaders Council (CLC) and the Executive Board in March.
“We want to take our temperature to see how we’re doing as a new church,” said Rempel. Delegates at San José will help determine what next additional steps in the review process are needed to help build healthy relationships between all parts of Mennonite Church USA.
Progress toward becoming an Anti-racist church
The board also reviewed the churchwide priority to become an antiracist church and rejoiced with churchwide agency staff that progress is being made. “This is an open invitation to the rest of the church to join in this journey,” said board member Kim Vu Friesen.
Stanley Green, executive director of Mennonite Mission Network, said he feels privileged to be part of a church that takes these antiracism goals seriously and works for accountability in the churchwide system.
“Though we’ve had our share of hurts and failures,” said board member Daryl Byler, “the good news is that we continue to struggle with our hope of becoming an antiracist church.”
In other business, the Executive Board:
Affirmed Steve Garboden for his interim leadership of Mennonite Mutual Aid.
Appointed board members Terry Shue and Sue Miller to the capital campaign for a new regional office building adjacent to AMBS for Mennonite Church USA.
Conducted a review of Mennonite Publishing Network and affirmed the board’s leadership.
Planned for the San José 2007 Delegate Assembly sessions.
Welcomed the debut of an online giving Web site (accessed at www.MennoniteUSA.org).
Adopted a grievance policy for settling disputes between churchwide agencies and related organizations.
Signed letters encouraging legislators to support a bill that acknowledges past abuses of Native Americans and encourages reconciliation.
Received a task force report from the CLC addressing the role of area conferences in the churchwide system and asked for discussion of the report when it meets with the CLC later this spring.
Received a draft report from the healthcare access public policy team outlining advocacy talking points for church members to use with their legislators.
Approved a budget for FYE 2008 for the Executive Board and its Executive
