KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Mennonite Church USA) – Approximately 300 youth, young adults and their sponsors gathered in Kansas City at the Kansas City Convention Center on July 7, 2023, for the Youth & Young Adult Climate Summit, a day-long event, directly following the denomination’s national convention, MennoCon23. The summit focused on climate change, including climate anxiety, social justice and advocacy themes. The summit day began with an opening worship service, scripture reading from Romans and a centering exercise. Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz, MC USA denominational minister of Peace and Justice introduced the summit planners, Jennifer Halteman Schrock, leader of Mennonite Creation... read more →
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by Hilary J. Scarsella Erica, what is your current leadership position in the Mennonite church? I work with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Central States with the Indigenous Vision Center (IVC). I connect with indigenous organizations already doing social justice work in the United States and support their work. I also connect with work being done on indigenous issues in Canada through the Aboriginal Neighbors program. I recently had the opportunity to study in India through an MCC connection with the School of Peace and learn with and from indigenous people from around the world. Another part of my role is... read more →
MC USA honored seven community elders at its 11th Hope for the Future Conference, Feb. 9-11, 2023, in Dallas, Texas. Read more about the conference here. See the Hope for the Future photo album here. Bishop L.W. Francisco III is the oversight pastor of Calvary Community Church (C3), Hampton, Virginia, and presiding bishop of Calvary Covenant Ministries Inc., an... read more →
ELKHART, Indiana (Mennonite Church USA) — Mennonite Church USA (MC USA) has signed a letter to Congress, along with 62 faith-based organizations, asking for strengthened funding for Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grants. VOCA grants are the primary source of federal funding for victim services, including programs supporting victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, stalking, human trafficking, elder abuse, community violence, homicide and other crimes. The letter was written by the Interfaith Coalition Against Domestic And Sexual Violence, an organization convened by Jewish Women International that works to advocate for national legislation and public policies that... read more →
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Approximately 118 people per day die by gun violence in the U.S. Gun violence is a complex issue that intersects with poverty, racism, discrimination, criminal justice, education and the environment. This “Learn, Pray, Join: End Gun Violence” initiative calls us to understand this crisis through the lens of our faith and seek ways to bring God’s hope and healing to our hurting communities, through education, disarming practices, advocacy and... read more →
The Mennonite Church USA Delegate Assembly acted on three proposed organizational resolutions at its meeting on July 7-8, 2023, in Kansas City, Missouri. The assembly of more than 300 registered delegates approved resolutions to clarify the MC USA bylaws and streamline its agency structure, while narrowly voting down a proposal to meet less frequently. Resolution 1: Change the MC USA Delegate Assembly to a triennium cycle The vote on the Executive Board’s... read more →
More than 1,400 Mennonite youth and adults are arriving today at the Kansas City (Missouri) Convention Center, for the opening worship service at MennoCon23, Mennonite Church USA’s biennial convention and leading faith formation event. The theme for the convention, which runs from July 3-6, 2023, is “Be Transformed,” and it is a call to spiritual transformation. “It is time for us to recommit ourselves to our values and renewed commitments,” said Glen Guyton, MC USA executive director. “Mennonite Church USA has a vital role to play in our society. The world needs... read more →
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This post is part of the MennoCon23 #BeTransformed series. MennoCon23 will be held in Kansas City, Missouri, July 3-6. Lisa Longacher loves building relationships as a development officer for Hesston College. She is an alumna of Hesston College and Eastern Mennonite University and is a member of First Mennonite Church of Denver (Colorado). Along with creating fiber art, she loves reading, running trails and spending time with her family. Lisa will be co-leading the "Art for Change: Exploring Your Creativity" youth seminar with Dr. Joseph A. Manickam on Tuesday, July 4. ______________________________ “Give peace a chance!” “Protect children, not guns!”... read more →
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This blog post is part of the "I choose to be Mennonite because ..." series. See the call for blogs and submit your own here. Nathan Perrin is an emerging writer and pastor of Christian formation at Lombard (Illinois) Mennonite Church. He holds a Master of Arts in Quaker studies and a certificate in Anabaptist studies. He is a doctoral student, studying Christian community development at Northern Seminary. His doctorate work centers on creating a writing program for nonprofits and churches to use to help under-resourced communities process trauma. His fiction has been published in the Dillydoun Review, Bangalore Review,... read more →
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Kiron Mateti attends Plains Mennonite Church in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, and lives in Telford, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Rachel, and three kids. He also serves on the Mosaic Mennonite Conference Board. He spends his days on Zoom, as a robotics engineer, developing software for autonomous semi-trucks, and will talk for hours about robots, if you let him. He enjoys playing guitar, throwing frisbee and building Legos with his kids. ______________________________________________ I didn’t grow up Mennonite, or even Christian for that matter. My introduction to the Mennonites came from meeting a woman named Rachel while in campus ministry at Penn State in... read more →
Mennonite Church USA (MC USA) is hosting a collaborative Youth & Young Adult Climate Summit, July 7, 2023, at the Kansas City (Missouri) Convention Center. The event will bring together experts in climate change, spiritual activism and social justice to explore the ways that young people ages 14 to 25 can put their faith to work to address the spiritual and human crisis caused by climate change. Registration opens on March 1 here. The cost is $49 per person and includes lunch. MC USA is collaborating with partner organizations, Mennonite Creation Care Network and Anabaptist Climate Collaborative, to provide attendees... read more →
The following news release was provided by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, USA. The portions in italics were added by Mennonite Church USA staff. 1000 faith leaders call for a Christmas truce in Ukraine Inspired by the miraculous Christmas truce of 1914, leaders petition the Biden administration to push for negotiations A diverse and quickly growing coalition of nearly 1000 faith leaders in the United States – representing a massive number of believers from every major tradition, including Mennonite Church USA – have signed onto a Christmas Truce statement demanding a temporary ceasefire in the War in Ukraine. Click here to... read more →
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This post is part of our Learn, Pray, Join: Mass Incarceration series. John McCabe-Juhnke is Professor Emeritus of communication arts at Bethel College, where he taught speech and theater for 34 years. He holds a Master of Arts in speech communication from the University of Illinois and a Doctorate in performance studies from Louisiana State University. His work as a prison theater practitioner, educator and scholar reflects the coalescence of his interests in dramatic performance and social justice. He is a member of Shalom Mennonite Church in Newton, Kansas. _________________________________ I first set foot inside a prison to develop a... read more →
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By Steve Aust, member of Cincinnati (Ohio) Mennonite Fellowship. Reprinted with permission from Soapbox Cincinnati. The decline in church attendance and the influence of religion on American culture has been well documented. A Pew Research Centers study offered the latest salvo about the decline of the Church in the U.S. It stated that, as of 2020, approximately 64% of Americans identify as Christian (the number was 90% in 1970), and according to Pew Senior Researcher Stephanie Kramer as quoted in an NPR report,... read more →
Mennonite Church USA (MC USA) has launched ”Learn, Pray, Join: Mass Incarceration," an initiative to raise awareness about the injustices in our criminal legal system that cause pain and suffering, especially for poor people and people of color. This initiative is in response to a recently adopted MC USA study resolution titled, “For Justice in the U.S. Criminal Legal System," written by Zachariah Begly and Eli Reimer. During September and October, MC USA will seek to engage people in the initiative by offering resources, prayers and ways to care for those harmed by our criminal legal system and to... read more →