Resources on Sexual Abuse Response and Prevention
Women in Leadership Project
When Mennonite Women USA called for an audit of Mennonite institutions in 2009, an opportunity for systemic change was created. After an examination of the numbers of women leaders in Mennonite institutions, it was clear that quantitative analysis was not enough. Thus the Women in Leadership Project (WLP) was born—an initiative to name and transform sexism in Mennonite Church USA.
Discernment Group on sexual abuse and the church
In response to calls from across the church, Ervin Stutzman, executive director of Mennonite Church USA, and Sara Wenger Shenk, president of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana, convened a discernment group to continue healing and reconciliation work in the wake of John Howard Yoder’s abuse of women and ongoing questions about how the church responded to it. They said in an earlier release: “We hope this work will lead to churchwide resolve to enter into lament, repentance and restoration for victims of sexual abuse by other perpetrators as well.”
Learn more about this group’s work.
Sexual abuse prevention panel
In response to the Churchwide Statement on Sexual Abuse, which was passed by the Delegate Assembly of Mennonite Church USA at its biennial convention in Kansas City in the summer of 2015, the Executive Board staff Cabinet has called together a panel to continue the work of healing and prevention of sexual abuse within the denomination. The panel will work together over the next two years to carry out the commitments described in the churchwide statement.