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 →
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If you are not happy with the results below please do another search 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 →
The Mennonite Church USA Executive Board thanked outgoing Moderator Linda Dibble and four outgoing Executive Board members for their service at an abbreviated meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, on July 3, 2023. They also prepared for the upcoming Delegate Assembly on July 7-8. Dibble, who served as moderator (2021-2023) and moderator-elect (2019-2021), will continue to serve on the Executive Board as past moderator for another term. Iris de León-Hartshorn presented her... read more →
Blog Post
This post is part of the MennoCon23 #BeTransformed series. MennoCon23 will be held in Kansas City, Missouri, July 3-6, followed by the Youth & Young Adult Climate Summit, July 7. Sarah Naharis a non-violent action trainer and inter-spiritual theologian. She is the former executive director of Community Peacemaker Teams and is currently a doctoral student at Syracuse University and SUNY-ESF in Syracuse, New York, which is traditional Onondaga land. She is studying ecological regeneration and spiritual activism. ______________________________ Jessica Griggs, blog editor for MC USA, talked to Sarah Nahar about the upcoming Youth & Young Adult Climate Summit.... read more →
Blog Post
This post is part of the MennoCon23 #BeTransformed series. MennoCon23 will be held in Kansas City, Missouri, July 3-6. Rylee Weishaupt (she/her) grew up in Goshen, Indiana, where she attended Silverwood Mennonite Church. She graduated from Goshen High School, June 2022, and soon after started Mennonite Mission Network’s program Service Adventure, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has since completed her service term, returned to Goshen and is planning to attend Hesston College in Hesston, Kansas, in the fall. Rylee will be majoring in Bible and ministry. ______________________________ Once every two years,[1] this crazy-cool event called MennoCon happens. From a youth’s... read more →
Blog Post
This post is part of the MennoCon23 #BeTransformed series. MennoCon23 will be held in Kansas City, Missouri, July 3-6. Randy Spaulding is the pastor of Boulder (Colorado) Mennonite Church. He is one of the leaders of Inclusive Mennonite Pastors and a co-writer of the Resolution for Repentance and Transformation. Previously, he was a minister at Bahia Vista Mennonite Church and Covenant Mennonite Fellowship, Sarasota, Florida. He served as the project editor for Sing the Journey and Sing the Story. He is married to his husband, Gary, and they live in Boulder. ______________________________ In March, a group of queer, transgender and... read more →