Mennonite Church USA delegation to visit with churches in Congo
ELKHART, Ind. After more than three years of cautious exploration and joint discernment, two Congolese Mennonite conferences and Mennonite Church USA are preparing to take a significant step toward closer church-to-church relationships in early 2007. A delegation of 12 Mennonite Church USA representatives plans to visit leaders and congregations in the Democratic Republic of Congo for a two-week period in February 2007.
Delegates from the Congo Evangelical Mennonite Church (CEM), the Congo Mennonite Church (CMCO) and Mennonite Church USA first met at the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) Assembly gathering in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe in 2003, with the purpose of exploring a new church-to-church relationship.
“We didn’t know where this conversation would eventually take us but we wanted to be open to where the Spirit would lead us,” said Jim Schrag, executive director of Mennonite Church USA.
The February delegation will divide into smaller groups to visit Congolese Mennonite congregations and communities in different parts of the country. They’ll visit urban centers like Kinshasa, Tshikapa, Kikwit and Mbuji Mayi. The groups will also travel to visit with more remote rural congregations. “We want to get as broad of an exposure as possible to our brothers and sisters in Congo,” said Mennonite Church USA moderator-elect Sharon Waltner.
In March 2007, in connection with the MWC General Council meeting in Pasadena, Calif., Adolphe Komuesa Kalunga, pastor, theologian and national president of CMCO, and Matthieu Shimatu Kapia, pastor, the former general secretary of the Congo inter-Mennonite organization CONIM and current vice president of CEM, visited with churches in the Chicago area, northern Indiana and central Kansas.
Mennonite Church USA, CMCO and CEM already have many points of historical connections. Both of the Congolese conferences grew out of the work of the Congo Inland Mission – later known as the Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission – in the early 20th century. Since the early 1960's many Mennonite Church USA members have served with the Congolese Mennonite churches through Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). This new relationship reflects the desire of all three
class=Section2> of the national conferences to relate to each other more directly as churches. For Mennonite Church USA, the growing relationship reflects the denominational priority on becoming a missional church by developing global connections.
In addition to listening to Congolese Mennonites and building relationships, the delegation wants to learn more about the churches in the Congo and the challenges they are facing and discern how the relationship can be nurtured in the future. The delegation also wants to find opportunities for its members to share what they’ve learned with Mennonite Church USA congregations and leaders when they return.
The delegation will include Executive Board members, churchwide staff, pastors, laypersons, young adults and journalists. Mennonite World Conference staff has served as consultants for this USA-Congo relationship from the beginning and MWC staff person Tim Lind is serving as coordinator for this trip. MCC is providing logistical support.
The Congolese churches and people face difficult challenges as a result of centuries of interference from outside powers and decades of a dictatorship that stripped the country of its wealth, resulting in the widespread collapse of the state and open rebellion in many parts of the country. A lengthy process of peacemaking and democratization culminated in national elections, which were completed in October of this year. It is not yet clear whether the decisions of these elections will be accepted by all.
A recent MWC census shows that the number of Mennonites in Congo is more than in any other country except the United States. In addition to CMCO and CEM, a third Mennonite conference, the Congo Mennonite Brethren Church, is made up of about 90,000 members. Mennonite Church USA and CMCO are the second and fourth largest church bodies relating to Mennonite World Conference.
Delegation members include Addie Banks, Bronx, N.Y.; Ron Byler, Goshen, Ind.; Ruth Keidel Clemens, Baltimore, Md.; Stanley Green, Goshen, Ind.; Anna Groff, Harrisonburg, Va.; Suzanne Lind, Three Rivers, Mich.; Steve Penner, Reedley, Calif.; Marathana Prothro, Newton, Kan.; Jim Schrag, Newton, Kan.; Vicki Smucker, South Bend, Ind.; Sharon Waltner, Parker, S.D.; James Wenger, Baltimore, Md.; and Keith Wilson, Chicago, Ill.
Mennonite Member Profile study complete
NEWTON, Kan. Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership will release a national study about Mennonite beliefs, values and commitments at San José 2007. Initial results will be shared with selected church leaders in the coming months.
Mennonite Member Profile 2006 is the most comprehensive study ever completed about Mennonites in the United States and includes four components: a representative sample of Mennonite Church USA members, an additional sample of Racial/Ethnic members in three urban areas, a sample of pastors nationwide, and a congregational profile of participating congregations. The study parallels earlier research studies conducted in 1972 and 1989, as well as other national and denominational surveys.
“Mennonite Member Profile 2006 is the most comprehensive study ever of Mennonites in the U.S. It’s importance is magnified, however, by the earlier studies conducted by Howard Kauffman, Leland Harder and Leo Driedger in 1972 and 1989, giving us a window through which to view nearly 35 years of social and religious change among Mennonites,” said Conrad Kanagy, director of the Mennonite Church USA segment of the project.
The data collected in this study will help church leaders and members gauge how Mennonite Church USA beliefs and values have changed in the last 17 years. Members, ages 18 and older, from 120 Mennonite Church USA congregations received surveys, and more than 76 percent of these 3,080 members who received surveys returned them. Most denominational surveys only yield no more than a response of about 30 percent, according to George Gallup, a leading researcher in the field.
“The high level of response to the survey again confirms for me the strong commitment Mennonite Church USA members have to their church,” said Ron Byler, associate executive director of Mennonite Church USA.
While their response to the basic survey matched the current proportion of members, additional surveys were distributed in Racial/Ethnic congregations in Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles.
“This survey is the first time we will have reliable survey data from our Racial/Ethnic members, the fastest growing part of our denomination,” said Byler. “And we’re indebted to the research team that made this possible.”
More than 300 members in 22 congregations participated in this additional segment of the survey. Pastors in several non-English or Spanish-speaking congregations orally translated questions and responses for their members as they completed the survey.
Of the 500 Mennonite Church USA credentialed pastors who received surveys, almost two-thirds responded. Ninety-four percent of the 120 participating congregations returned their congregational profiles.
“The consistently high response rate across the church is evidence of a membership that wants to be engaged in conversation about their faith and church, even while there is substantial diversity in beliefs and opinions among the members,” Kanagy said. “The response rate in 2006 was higher than in 1989 and allows us to talk with confidence about the beliefs, practices and social position of Mennonites in the U.S.”
Kanagy is currently writing a book entitled Road Signs and Guideposts based upon the findings of Mennonite Member Profile 2006. The book will compare findings from previous Mennonite member studies as well as include comparisons with members of other Christian traditions in the United States. Road Signs and Guideposts and other congregational resources focusing on the study will be released at San José 2007 by Herald Press.
The Mennonite profile is part of a three-denominational study called Church Member Profile, conducted by the Young Center of Elizabethtown College and managed by Donald Kraybill. The broader study also included the Church of the Brethren and the Brethren in Christ denominations. The Mennonite Church USA portion of the study was conducted in cooperation with Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership and funded by major grants from Mennonite Mutual Aid and the Schowalter Foundation, as well as contributions from other Mennonite Church USA churchwide agencies and Mennonite Central Committee, Mennonite Disaster Service, Mennonite Financial Services, Eastern Mennonite Missions, Goodville Mutual Casualty Company and private contributors.
Resources available for Special Sundays in February
NEWTON, Kan. In preparation for Mennonite Church USA’s Special Sundays in February, one for education and another for healthcare access, Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership wants to remind congregations that churchwide ministries have created resources to help observe these Special Sundays.
The first Sunday of February, Feb. 4, is Church Education Sunday. For 2007, Mennonite Education Agency (MEA) offers worship resources and a bulletin insert on the theme, “Called to be missional.” Health Sunday will be the third Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007, and focus on “Carried to Jesus the Healer.”
Resources for Church Education Sunday will be included in the January issue of Equipping in English and Spanish and on the MEA Web site, www.MennoniteEducation.org. The worship resources include Scripture, song, prayer, story and sermon ideas. The bulletin insert is ready to copy and distribute.
MEA invites congregations to pray for the missional calling of Mennonite education. Mennonite educational institutions, from pre-kindergarten schools to seminaries, and the Racial/Ethnic Leadership Education programs of the church prepare students for church membership and leadership. They also are missional centers of activity as students, teachers and staff seek to discover and get involved in God’s purposes for the world.
A free worship resource titled “Carried to Jesus the Healer” was created by an MMA team led by Ingrid Friesen Moser with the help of Glen Miller, M.D., Healthcare Access program manager for Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership. It is available online at www.MennoniteUSA.org/healthcare by clicking on “Health Sunday Worship Resource.” The Web site also includes information on what Mennonite Church USA congregations and area conferences are doing to study and address healthcare access issues.
The Mennonite Church USA Delegate Assembly acknowledged in July 2005 the growing crisis of healthcare access for Americans. The group passed a resolution committing itself and calling on the rest of Mennonite Church USA to promote health and access to healthcare. Since then, Glen Miller, M.D., has been working with Executive Leadership to carry out the delegates’ calling.
In response to what delegates said at Charlotte 2005, work in this biennium is focusing on healthcare for church workers, public policy advocacy and congregational use of the Healing Healthcare study guide, as well as the stewardship of health.
Those congregations that have not studied healthcare access or who are interested in forming a study group on the issue are encouraged to use Healing Healthcare: A Study and Action Guide on Healthcare Access in the United States, which also can be accessed by logging on to www.MennoniteUSA.org/healthcare.
For more information on Mennonite Church USA’s work related to Healthcare Access, e-mail Glen Miller at GlenM@MennoniteUSA.org or call (574) 533-8788. For more information on MEA resources, contact Cheryl Zehr Walker via e-mail at cherylzw@MennoniteEducation.org or by calling toll-free 1-866-866-2872.
