VMC Interim Conference Leadership Team (left to right): June Miller, Caleb Schrock-Hurst, Maren Tyedmers Hange, Craig Maven and Duane Beck. (Missing: Bishop Leslie Francisco, III.) Photo by Rachel Ringenberg Miller.
By June Miller, director, Administration & Communication, for Virginia Mennonite Conference. Reprinted with permission. Originally posted here.
With 75% delegate support, Virginia Mennonite Conference reaffirmed its relationship with Mennonite Church USA.
On Saturday, July 20, 2024, the third and final day for the 2024 Summer Delegate Assembly, delegates cast ballots on five motions brought by the Denomination Affiliation Work Group (DAWG), a task force commissioned by Conference Council and mandated to “examine VMC’s relationship with MC USA in order to map a future relationship that provides delegates with options to consider.”
The mandate to DAWG was affirmed and further refined by delegates at the VMC 2023 Summer Delegate Assembly, with delegates asking the work group to “bring their recommendation of decisive action forward for delegate approval by no later than VMC Summer Assembly 2024.”
Jon Carlson, MC USA moderator, and Rachel Ringenberg Miller, MC USA Denominational Minister, were present for the duration of the assembly. Carlson witnessed the event as “ hard and holy work of lament, discernment, and spiritual formation.” Likewise, Ringenberg Miller articulates it as a “sacred space of worship and discernment.”
Doing due diligence, DAWG engaged with six current and former MC USA conferences that are or have examined their relationship with MC USA to understand their process and to seek recommendations. The number one takeaway was that an up-and-down vote on affiliation was not helpful.
Instead of voting to leave MC USA, the question was inverted to affirm the current relationship. A constitutional change, like leaving the denomination, requires a 75% approval by VMC delegates, while affirming the relationship with MC USA requires a simple majority. Craig Maven, the chair of the work group and a member of the interim Conference Leadership Team, notes that “it is framed as a positive affirmation, maintaining the status quo, in order to avoid the scenario where the majority of delegates express a direction that is thwarted by the minority as this motion does not require a 75% threshold.”
On Saturday, Carlson was invited to join Maven on stage for a question-and-answer time. Carlson referenced the recommendation to avoid decisive up or down votes and asked, “What changed?”
“As we examined other options, everything ended in a vote,” responded Maven. “Framing it in the positive, in the event of a failed vote, allows VMC the time to develop protocols for leaving MC USA, and allows churches that wish to remain part of MC USA to discern their paths collectively or individually.”
All five of the DAWG motions passed, including affirming the 1995 Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective as the teaching position of VMC; extending VMC bylaws suspension, enabling a congregation to disassociate with MC USA and remain in VMC through the end of 2027; and to begin conversation with the MC USA Executive Board to consider MC USA bylaw changes on derived membership. Official results are here.
Ringenberg Miller has frequented VMC assemblies since she began her role with MC USA. “I deeply appreciated the conversations I had with various pastors and the leaders of VMC. I look forward to continuing these conversations as VMC leadership, pastors and congregations navigate next steps following this assembly,” she said.
“As I shared during my Q&A with Craig Maven,” Carlson reiterates, “VMC plays a significant role in the life of Mennonite Church USA. I look forward to building on and deepening that partnership as congregations throughout Mennonite Church USA seek to follow Jesus together.”
VMC is comprised of 49 congregations, representing approximately 4,068 constituents.