The Mennonite Church USA Executive Board strengthened key relationships and discussed creative strategies for convention and revitalization at the first Executive Board meeting of the biennium Oct. 18-20, 2023, in Cleveland, Ohio. ... read more →
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If you are not happy with the results below please do another searchMennonite Church USA is helping to fuel growth and diversity with its 2023 Thrive Church Planting Grants. This year’s repeat award recipients, Brooklyn (New York) Peace Church and Community of Hope Mennonite Church, Bellingham, Washington, are building circles of community in creative, Jesus-centered ways. “It’s wonderful to witness how church planters and those in these worshipping communities are reimagining what it means to be a missional peace church,” said Rachel Ringenberg Miller, MC USA’s denominational minister for Ministerial Leadership. Brooklyn Peace Church “It feels like a house... read more →
Blog Post
Talitha Amadea Aho, keynote speaker for the Youth & Young Adult Climate Summit, held after MennoCon23, writes a letter to thank the climate summit attendees and follow up on a question about participating in climate justice while honoring one's own introversion. Talitha Amadea Aho is the author of “In Deep Waters: Spiritual Care for Young People in a Climate Crisis.” She was the keynote speaker for the Youth & Young Adult Climate Summit. Amadea Aho has worked with children and youth for many years as a Presbyterian minister in Oakland, California, and is a chaplain at a children’s hospital in... read more →
Blog Post
This blog is being shared with the permission of Mosaic Mennonite Conference, who first posted it here. Doh Nay Kaw attended Mennonite Church USA's convention, MennoCon23, in early July with her youth group of Whitehall (Pennsylvania) Mennonite Church. She wrote this poem as an expression of her experience of self-searching at MennoCon. Doh Nay Kaw is 15 years old. Her name means, “I have a country.” She comes from Thailand and has a Karen ethnic background. She attends Whitehall (Pennsylvania) Mennonite Church almost every Sunday. She loves being outside, experiencing new things, listening to music, and building herself up and... read more →
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Iglesia Menonita de EE. UU.) — El director ejecutivo de la Iglesia Menonita de EE. UU. (MC USA por sus siglas en inglés), Glen Guyton, usó una sorprendente referencia a la cultura popular para presentar su informe sobre el estado de la denominación a los delegados en la asamblea de delegados de MC USA, celebrada en Kansas City, Missouri, del 7 al 8 de julio de 2023. “Creo que Buck Rogers, un astronauta del siglo 20 empujado hacia lo desconocido del siglo 25 sirve como una metáfora del viaje transformador que estamos experimentando como miembros de la... read more →
The Mennonite Church USA Delegate Assembly installed Jon Carlson as the moderator for the new biennium and provided strong affirmation for a slate of new Executive Board members and other nominees, including incoming Moderator-elect Marty Lehman. Carlson, who completed his term as MC USA’s moderator-elect for the 2021-2023 biennium, is lead pastor of Forest Hills Mennonite Church, Leola, Pa., in MC USA’s Atlantic... 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 →
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 →
Mennonite Church USA Executive Director Glen Guyton used a surprising pop culture reference to launch his state of the denomination report to delegates at the MC USA Delegate Assembly, held in Kansas City, Missouri, on July 7-8, 2023. “I believe that Buck Rogers, a 20th Century astronaut, thrust into the unknown of the 25th Century, serves as a metaphor for the transformative voyage that we are on as members of Mennonite Church USA,” said Guyton. He explained that the... read more →
A panel of BIPOC young adults shared their experiences attending Christian/Mennonite schools in a seminar on July 6, 2023, at MennoCon23, Mennonite Church USA’s nationwide convention in Kansas City, Missouri. Sue Park-Hur, Mennonite Church USA’s director of racial/ethnic engagement, moderated the panel. Panelists Abby Endashaw, Mennonite Central Committee Summer Service National Coordinator; Faith Manickam, University of Kansas School of Medicine student, and Bongiwe Ncube, Goshen (Indiana) College student shared positive and painful moments and offered tips to students and administrators for building a healthy intercultural campus culture. As... read more →
Trauma in the church can manifest both visibly and invisibly, but many times, trauma remains unseen. On July 6, 2023, during the denomination’s national convention, MennoCon23, Leah R. Thomas, PhD, assistant professor of Pastoral Care; director of Contextual Education for Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), presented a seminar titled, “Attending to the Presence of Trauma in Churches.” The seminar was focused on the presence of trauma in churches and how church leaders can become equipped to provide trauma-informed care to their communities. Jewel Gingerich Longenecker, dean of Lifelong Learning and co-director of... read more →
More than 100 people jammed into room 2211 at the Kansas City Convention Center on July 5, 2023, to hear the preliminary results of a denomination-wide research study about the experiences of women in ministry in MC USA. Amy Zimbelman, conference minister for Mountain States Mennonite Conference, and Elizabeth Johnson, PhD candidate at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, presented the results of the study during a seminar titled “Gathering Stories, Envisioning Equity: Toward a Church in Which Women in Ministry Thrive” at Mennonite Church USA’s MennoCon23 convention. “I've taken the role of... read more →
What do you do about a co-worker who brings smelly fish for lunch every day, or is so into cats that they invite you to their cat’s birthday party, or the colleague who talks about “hollering” at their clients despite having the highest sales record? These are just some of the humorous but oh-so-real scenarios that Can’t Tell Us Nothing, a comedy improv group out of Houston, enacted during Glen Guyton’s MennoCon23 seminar, “IMPROVe Your Cultural Competency.” “Sometimes, when we're interacting with people different... read more →
Attendees at MennoCon23 have the opportunity to bid on a one-of-a-kind t-shirt quilt by Marie Harnish of Indianapolis, Indiana, in a special silent auction to benefit Mennonite Church USA’s Justice Fund. An accomplished quilter with a bachelor’s degree in art education from Goshen (Indiana) College, Harnish donated the quilt as a fundraiser for MC USA. She designed the quilt using “Love is a Verb” t-shirts from MennoCon19. “I really liked the image and words on these shirts and collected as many as I could at that convention,” Harnish wrote in her letter to MC USA Executive Director Glen Guyton in... read more →
On July 4, 2023 during the Mennonite Church USA denominational convention, MennoCon23, Jeanne Davies, executive director of Anabaptist Disabilities Network (ADN) presented an accessibility seminar titled, “Believing and Belonging”. The seminar focused on ADN’s new membership curriculum, “Believing and Belonging.” The content of the new curriculum is written for youth and adults but is meant to be accessible to all, including people with intellectual disabilities. It includes illustrations and follows a “Read, Pray, Do” format. The curriculum is available for purchase online at Brethren Press and also at the ADN... read more →