Thank you for your prayer support of Mennonite education. The Mennonite Education Agency has posted new Prayers for Faith and Learning for the month of February. Visit the website at www.MennoniteEducation.org/PRAYERS.
Penn View Christian School is hosting an All-School Visitation for prospective families on Friday, February 8 at 9 a.m. Enjoy a light breakfast, learn more about our program, and tour our facility. For more information call Sandra Harrell at 215-723-1196 or visit our website www.pennview.org
All are invited to the Lenten House of Prayer at Souderton Mennonite Church. Come use the many prayer stations for familiar and new ways to encounter God. The Lenten House of Prayer will be open Friday, February 1 through Tuesday, February 12 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. For directions or more information, visit www.soudertonmennonite.org or call 215-723-3088.
All are welcome to Evening Song and Prayer in the Taizé tradition at Perkasie Mennonite Church on Sunday evening, February 10, from 7 – 8 p.m. Using music from the Taizé community in France, as well as hymns of the church, we gather in a candlelit atmosphere for scripture, song, silence, and prayers for our world, communities and loved ones. For directions, visit www.perkmenno.org or call
215-257-3117.
Cultivate Connecting Communities: A Learning Community: As communities in Jesus Christ, Franconia Mennonite Conference and Eastern District Conference are sponsoring this eight session learning community designed to help congregations strengthen their identity, grow in awareness of their congregational culture, improve effectiveness, find joy in their work, and find ways to grow inwardly and outwardly. These sessions will take place on Monday evenings from February 11 – April 14 at Plains Mennonite Church. For details and registration information, visit the following link: http://www.franconiaconference.org/index.php?P=165. Please register by February 5 at jwalter@franconiaconference.org or 215-723-5513.
The Franconia-Lancaster Choral Singers present a Hymn Sing (with a lot of congregational singing) on Saturday, February 16, 7:30 p.m., at Souderton Mennonite Church. Ralph Alderfer, conductor; Marian Archibald, organist; and Cheryl Eshleman, pianist. A free-will offering will be taken.
On February 16, Mountain Heritage featuring Bruce Rupert will perform traditional and contemporary bluegrass at the Perkasie Patchwork Coffeehouse in the Perkasie Mennonite Church hall. The opening act will be 3 Skuzins (and a Funkle), a musical quartet comprised of 3 teenage cousins and an uncle who sing Bluegrass gospel tunes and venerable hymns. They will be donating their proceeds to a Summer Bible School program in Mexico City. Doors open at 7 p.m. with performances at 7:30 p.m. Adults $9, Adults over 65 $7, Students 13 and up $4, 12 & under free. For more information, visit the website at www.perkmenno.org or call 215-723-2010.
Attention Young Adults ages 18 – 29: OIL (One in the Lord) ministries, a local young adult ministry, will be holding a winter retreat near Hamburg, PA from March 7 – 9, with guest speaker Basil Marin from Harrisonburg, VA. The cost is $50. For more details, contact Jessica Leatherman at jessjl@hotmail.com or call 215-872-4281. Visit the website at www.oilministries.com.
Mark your calendars! Franconia and Eastern District Conferences are hosting a Jr. High Lock-In, March 14 – 15 beginning at 9 PM at Christopher Dock High School. The cost is $15/person. Registration packets will be sent to Jr. High Sponsors and Youth Ministers in mid-February. For more information, contact Marlene Frankenfield at mfrankenfield@franconiaconference.org.
Mennonite Church USA’s office of peace advocacy invites you to join with the Anabaptist Peace Center—Washington, D.C. and the Church of the Brethren Witness/Washington Office sponsors its first conference: Bridging Divides: Uniting the Church for Peacemaking, April 11 – 12, at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church, Washington, D.C. This conference for pastors, theologians, service workers, academics and laypersons will explore how the church can unite for mission despite political divides and also work to heal divisions in our communities. Speakers include Myron Augsburger, keynote and plenary sessions with Michelle Armster, MCC US; Chris Bowman, pastor of Oakton Church of the Brethren; Steve Brown, of Calvary Community and Phil Jones, director of the Church of the Brethren Witness/Washington Office. Adam Tice, Hyattsville Mennonite Church, is worship leader. “How we talk when we disagree” is the pre-conference seminar led by Grant Rissler. Participants will join the annual Hymn Sing for Peace is 5:00 pm on April 12. To register and for more information, see www.apcwdc.mennonite.net or contact Keith Swartzendruber at 202-548-0010 or keith@apcwdc.mennonite.net .
Penn View Christian School is offering Community Computer Classes in March and April. Courses on digital photography, Power Point 2003, spreadsheets, word processing, Windows Movie Maker, and basic web design will be offered as well as a demonstration of the new Windows Vista operating system. If you would like more information, please visit www.pennview.org or contact the school office at
215-723-1196 for a brochure.
Job Opportunities
Plains Mennonite Church is seeking a Church Administrator to fulfill the duties of maintaining the church and park calendars, preparing the weekly bulletin, and addressing other organizational and facility-use details. Interested persons should call the church at 215-362-7640 or email the church office at plainsmc@verizon.net for more information.
Quakertown Christian School is looking for qualified school bus drivers to drive for field trips and afternoon/evening athletic events. Drivers will be compensated. For more information, please call the school at 215-536-6970.
Penn Foundation is seeking to hire a full-time Executive Assistant. This is an excellent opportunity to provide confidential administrative support services to the President/CEO including assisting with preparation of board meeting activities and taking minutes for management level meetings. For more information, contact Michelle Lerch at 215-257-6551 or email humanresources@pennfoundation.org.
2008 Church Education Sunday resources
This Sunday, February 3, is set aside as Church Education Sunday. This year’s theme is “We are witnesses.” Following is a link to the Mennonite Education Association (MEA) website with more information and also a bulletin insert and additional worship resources. The resources focus on lectionary texts, speak of MEA and congregational members as witnesses to the power of Mennonite education in helping shape the church, and invite all to participate in Mennonite education. More information can be found at this site:
http://www.mennoniteeducation.org/MEAPortal/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=178
Third Thursday Pastors’ Breakfast
The February breakfast will be held on Thursday, February 21 from 8 – 10 a.m. at the Mennonite Conference Center. This breakfast will be hosted by the Faith and Life Advisory Council. The subject will be “Leadership and Authority: How do we claim it?” Come for a conversation on claiming and exercising authority as pastors and leaders in our congregations. In preparation for the event please read the following article from the most recent edition of Growing Leaders, “A Nervous Embrace…Cultivating Leadership and Authority.” This article can be found on the franconiaconference.org website under the “Publications” tab. Please register for this event by Wednesday, February 16, by contacting Jessica Walter, jwalter@franconiaconference.org.
Pastors’ Family Retreat
This weekend is geared for spending quality time with your family, and for receiving spiritual nurture. Spruce Lake Retreat hosts Pastors’ Family Retreat, April 11 – 13. Take a break for playing and praying together. You’ll be led by speaker Duane Beck and worship leader Mark Beazley. For more information and reservations, visit www.sprucelake.org or call
800-822-7505.
For many of us, the word fasting conjures up images of going without food, depriving ourselves of needed nourishment so that we can spend more time in prayer. It is not always a positive image, the idea of giving up something that is so important to life and we wonder what difference it makes when we pray? Jesus assumed his disciples would fast. In Matthew 6:16-18, he uses the word, “when”, before he gives his followers instructions about fasting.
I propose that our experience with fasting could become much more positive if we begin to view it in a different light. Jesus actually taught his disciples to anticipate it with joy by washing their faces and putting oil on their heads, an act reserved for joyous occasions. Is it possible that fasting is a way of entering into God’s presence unlike any other? Does giving to God the time and attention that we usually reserve for food or another activity change us in such a way that we can “hear” God better?
Fasting is usually associated with giving up of food, but there may be other fasts that are helpful as well. When Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days, he went away by himself, thereby eliminating distractions of the world in which he lived. I wonder if fasting from some of the many activities in our world today, namely the media, might be a valuable fast for us living in 2008.
Rather than seeing fasting just as a denial of ones physical needs, we might begin to see it as an opportunity to enter into a closer relationship with God, an invitation to experience the graciousness of our God. Joel 2:12 helps us to see fasting in the light of our relationship with God,
“Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”
Franconia Mennonite Conference is inviting all churches to join with the regional southeastern PA church in 40 Days of prayer and fasting during Lent, February 6 – March 21, 2008.
The purpose of this fast is threefold:
Deepen our love for God
Deepen our love for our neighbors
Seek reform in the Church and revival in our communities
For more information about the 40 Days of prayer and fasting, contact Sandy Landes, Prayer Ministry Coordinator, slandes@franconiaconference.org or 215-723-5513, ext. 121.
God is always inviting us, the church, the bride of Christ, into a closer relationship. Fasting is one of the ways we can eliminate the distractions that keep us from being close to God. You are invited to come close!
My first Sunday in Indonesia, we attended Jakarta Praise Community Church. It’s a community of about 5,000 worshippers who gather on Sundays in a large auditorium in Jakarta’s Central Business District. It’s a JKI (Jemaat Kristen Indonesia) congregation, part of the global Mennonite family through Mennonite World Conference. We arrived late and had to line up at the door, ended up sitting with around 200 or so others in a foyer and watched the service through the open door and by closed circuit TV. It was really unlike any Mennonite congregation I’d ever attended before, both in size and techno-savvy.
I traveled to Indonesia before Christmas to attend a Conference on the Peace Church in the Asian Context and to connect with partner congregations in Indonesia. I visited with Troy Landis from Franconia congregation and Andre who attended Philadelphia Praise Center. I met with Dan and Jeanne Yantzi who are members of West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship and talked with former Mennonite Central Committee interns Nofika and Henny. It was a real privilege and gift to see the vibrancy of Franconia Conference connections literally on the other side of the world.
Before my trip, I stopped at the Mennonite Heritage Center in Harleysville (Pa) to purchase some gifts of hospitality. I took small fraktur prints by Roma Ruth, redware pottery and quilted potholders, symbols of Pennsylvania Dutch Mennonite life. I carried them carefully to Indonesia, exchanging them for intricate batik cloth and bright Balinese prints. I returned knowing a few more words in Indonesian and with a deeper understanding of the complexities that our Indonesian brothers and sisters face as they worship and work both in Indonesia and abroad.
Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country and the fourth most populous nation in the world, after the United States. It’s scattered across hundreds of islands and bears the scars and the fruit of years of interaction with other cultures, from Indian to Arabic, to Dutch, Japanese and US American. It’s an amalgamated nation in many ways, constructed from a plurality of island cultures and tribes. I was overwhelmed by islander hospitality frequently.
The Mennonite Church is present in various incarnations in Indonesia. Our relationships in Franconia Conference with the emerging Indonesian Anabaptist community on the East Coast have been primarily forged through ties with GKMI (Gereja Kristen Muria Indonesia), an Indonesian-originated Mennonite movement that connected with the Dutch. However, we continue to build new relationships, discovering the resonance of Anabaptist perspective with a people who have faced persecution, are committed to justice and peacemaking and searching for God in the midst of migrations.
Dutch Mennonites wondered whether those of us who would become the originating community of Mennonites in eastern Pennsylvania really needed to be migrating from their European homeland. They questioned the need, but continued to support their brothers and sisters as they streamed out of the continental interior to find places of freedom in William Penn’s colony. Indonesian Christians face much the same situation as those colonial migrating Swiss-Germans, a generalized anxiety from past persecution and occasional hostilities that remain. They sought a freedom from that persecution and anxiety in the same way, seeking passage to Philadelphia.
There is a deep resonance with our history and a deep hope for our future as we work together. Though the situations are not the same, the contemporary situation for Indonesians in the United States echoes Mennonite history. When I told the story of Indonesian Christians to the sons and daughters of Russian Mennonite émigrés in Canada, they immediately asked how it would be possible to help, insisting that its our responsibility to help persons facing persecution or the possibility of persecution to escape before it’s too late.
This Christmas Eve in Indonesia, the current president invited Christians to the government palace for dinner as an act of reconciliation and recognition. In Washington D.C., the Franconia Conference connected emerging Indonesian congregation was invited to gather at the Indonesian embassy. There is indeed a move intended as a reminder in Indonesia that the nation is open to its religious minorities, both Hindus and Christians. However, the current political climate is deeply affected by interpretations of both secularization and fundamentalism, much like the United States. It’s hard to predict future outcomes.
As Sunday evening worship began at a small Mennonite congregation in suburban Jakarta, the adhan (Muslim call to prayer) bellowed from a speaker on a nearby mosque. It was loud and overwhelmed the small space. It was the first time that I have ever been preparing for Mennonite worship as the call to prayer also beckoned. The gathered congregation didn’t notice it really and continued to move toward Christian worship. I was the only one distracted by the newness of the situation.
There are many things that I bring back from my encounters with our Indonesian brothers and sisters, but what stands out most is the vibrancy of faith and witness in the midst of religious otherness. The message of the Good News remains in the midst of fear and uneasiness. The message of the Good News continues to call to us . . .even in the midst of the adhan.
Eastern Mennonite Seminary class set to begin January 29 Conversations in Contemporary Anabaptist Theology and Ethics, 3 credits
(can be used as a Gateway course)
This course will be held at Dock Woods Community in Lansdale, PA on Tuesdays,
6:30-9:30 p.m., January 29 through May 6, taught by Steve Kriss.
Focus on the tensions and possibilities for Anabaptist theology in the 20th and 21st Century.
Join with other emerging and experienced leaders to discuss and consider how we encounter God and how we act in the watching world.
Reading includes J. Denny Weaver, John Howard Yoder, H.S. Bender, Greg Boyd. Registration limited to 15. Can be audited as well and is eligible for scholarship from the Area Conference Leadership Fund. For more information, visit www.emu.edu/lancaster/seminary
Cultivate Connecting Communities: A Learning Community
As communities in Jesus Christ, Franconia Mennonite Conference and Eastern District Conference are sponsoring this eight session learning community designed to help congregations strengthen their identity, grow in awareness of their congregational culture, improve effectiveness, find joy in their work, and find ways to grow inwardly and outwardly.
These sessions will take place on Monday evenings from February 11 – April 14 at Plains Mennonite Church. For details and registration information, visit the following link: http://www.franconiaconference.org/index.php?P=165. Please register by February 5
at jwalter@franconiaconference.org or 215-723-5513.
Third Thursday Pastors’ Breakfast
The February breakfast will be held on Thursday, February 21 from 8 – 10 a.m. at the Mennonite Conference Center. This breakfast will be hosted by the Faith and Life Advisory Council. The subject will be “Leadership and Authority: How do we claim it?” Come for a conversation on claiming and exercising authority as pastors and leaders in our congregations. Please register for this event by Wednesday, February 16, by contacting Jessica Walter, jwalter@franconiaconference.org.
Pastors’ Day at Christopher Dock
Christopher Dock Mennonite High School invites all pastors and youth pastors to attend Pastors’ Day on Wednesday, March 5. Senior high youth leaders have appreciated attending as they are able; pastors may pass on this invitation to sponsors at their prerogative. More information will be forthcoming, but now is the time to add this opportunity to your schedule. Hunter Hess, pastor at Zion Mennonite Church, will be the Spiritual Life Emphasis speaker during that week at Dock.
Pastors’ Family Retreat
This weekend is geared for spending quality time with your family, and for receiving spiritual nurture. Spruce Lake Retreat hosts Pastors’ Family Retreat, April 11 – 13. Take a break for playing and praying together. You’ll be led by speaker Duane Beck and worship leader Mark Beazley. For more information and reservations, visit www.sprucelake.org or call
800-822-7505.
Sign up to receive What’s New, the weekly e-mail newsletter of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). What’s New contains news digests from throughout the MCC system, ways to get involved with MCC’s work, advertisements for positions with MCC, links to new informational resources available from MCC and stories from MCC workers and partners around the world. To subscribe, go to www.mcc.org and type in your e-mail address under “What’s new e-mail newsletter.”
Karen’s Place, the coffee shop ministry of Doylestown Mennonite Church, will be open on Saturday, February 2, featuring the singer songwriter Jeremy Simon. There is no admission charge. For more information, call the church office at 215-345-6377 or visit the web site at www.karensplace.org.
New Eden Fellowship is holding a Silent Auction and Dinner to raise money for the treatment of a Liberty Ministries program participant who is dealing with cancer. The Dinner will be held at Franconia Mennonite Church on Saturday, February 9 at 5:30 p.m. The ticket cost is $25, made payable to New Eden Fellowship, designating “LaMonte Jackson” on the memo line. For tickets, call Deb at Liberty Ministries at 610-287-5481 or call the church directly at 610-287-7281 by Tuesday, February 5.
Job Opportunity
There is a housekeeping position open immediately at Spruce Lake Retreat. This person must be a self-starter with excellent working habits. This position may be a part-time or full-time position. Full-time provides competitive wages and liberal benefits commensurate with experience/training. Contact the Executive Director at 800-822-7505 ext. 118, or fax at 570-595-0328.
HARRISONBURG, Va. - An Eastern Mennonite University alumnus who moved from the world of finance to “laying up” spiritual treasures in heaven spent several days at EMU as a visiting pastor and as a resource for Martin Luther King Day observances.
Leonard Dow, a 1987 graduate and former banker in Souderton, Pa., joined the Oxford Circle Mennonite Church in Philadelphia in 1990 and grew into leadership roles there. He was called to pastor the growing, multi-ethnic congregation in 1998. Oxford Circle congregation is a Partner in Mission with Franconia Conference.
Dow spoke several times on campus on the overall theme, “The Dangerous
Calling of the Gospel.” He reflected on the life and legacy of the late civil rights leader in a session Monday, Jan. 21, Martin Luther King Jr. Day - in the Campus Center Greeting Hall.
Speaking on “A Clear and Present Danger,” Dow expressed concern that Martin Luther King Day “is becoming just another sentimental, commercialized event with many people having a day off work.”
But, he said, “it’s the responsibility of places like EMU not only to honor Dr. King,” but even more, “to move beyond the dream to emphasize what he preached, lived and died for - that people be united as one in Christ.”
Holding up a copy of the EMU mission statement - that includes a call to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God - Dow told his audience that “if you apply this fully to your life, you will be ‘a clear and present danger’ in this world. People may hate you because of your faithfulness and obedience.
“Martin Luther King was killed not because of what he said, but because he lived out what he said and believed,” Dow declared.
“We are called as a church to become, as Dr. King said, a beloved community that brings together the marginalized of society, that views diversity as a gift and equality not as sameness but as value.”
AKRON, Pa. — In Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches across the United States, recent immigrants are helping their congregations reach out to other immigrants, according to a listening project conducted by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) U.S.
Through the listening project, MCC staff members facilitated discussions about immigration in more than 30 Anabaptist congregations in 10 states and Washington, D.C. About a third of the congregations were made up primarily of people whose families immigrated within one generation. The listening included a number of Franconia Conference congregations.
A report from the listening project, “What the Church is Saying,” suggests that Anabaptist congregations with many recent immigrants are the most active in befriending immigrants and helping with needs
such as food and housing.
A featured congregation is New Hope Fellowship, a bilingual Franconia Conference partner congregation in Alexandria, Va. About half of the church’s 60-some attendees are Latino, and many are recent immigrants.
New Hope Fellowship builds relationships with recent immigrants in a variety of ways, according to Kirk Hanger, the church’s pastor. Latino members often lead the way in inviting new immigrants to church. As a whole, church members use their community ties and knowledge to help immigrants. That can range from helping connect people with social services to providing occasional assistance for food or rent.
“We know how systems function here, and we can be a bridge for people,” Hanger says.
In one case, Hanger accompanied an immigrant couple to court after they were wrongly accused of shoplifting because they did not understand how to use an automatic checkout machine.
The pastor and couple prayed outside the courtroom, asking God to move in the situation. Then the pastor spoke to the prosecutor about the couple’s misunderstanding, and the prosecutor ultimately agreed to drop the charges.
“I believe God worked and changed his heart,” Hanger says.
According to the listening project report, Anabaptist churches largely oppose unjust treatment of immigrants. However, members of predominantly white congregations without recent immigrants express reluctance about providing support to undocumented immigrants.
Rebeca Jimenez Yoder, the listening project coordinator, says she believes that God calls churches to welcome strangers in their community, including undocumented immigrants.
“We do have undocumented immigrants in our churches,” Yoder says. “They are our brothers and sisters.”
Yoder says that the purpose of the listening project was to encourage conversation about immigration. If the conversation leads to action, there are many ways for churches to support immigrants, from teaching
English to advocating for more humane immigration laws, she says.
The MCC U.S. Listening Project report is available online at mcc.org/us/immigration. The Web site includes a number of other immigration resources for churches, including “Loving Strangers as Ourselves,” a series of Biblical reflections on immigration, and “Welcoming the
Newcomer: Doing Advocacy with Immigrants.”
To hear more of the outcomes and converse with other Franconia Conference leaders about the findings, join an informal dinner catered by Philadelphia Praise Center at the Mennonite Conference Center in Souderton, Pa, on Wednesday, January 23 from 5:30-6:45. RSVP to Jessica Walter, jwalter@franconiaconference.org by Monday, January 21.
Tim Shenk is a writer for Mennonite Central Committee.
The three-credit graduate course, Conversations in Contemporary Anabaptist Theology and Ethics, is designed to engage both experienced and emerging leaders with 20th and 21st Century Anabaptist thought and practice. The course is recommended both for persons who have much experience with Mennonite leadership and persons who are exploring Anabaptist ideals and possibilities. The class can also be audited.
According to instructor, Franconia Conference Director of Communication and Leadership Cultivation Steve Kriss, “I am excited about the opportunity to explore both historic and contemporary perspectives, to examine some of the possibilities and the tensions that exist for us as Anabaptist seeking to live the way of Jesus in an interconnected age.” Eastern Mennonite Seminary has offered numerous classes in the Philadelphia region, but is seeking to establish a more regular presence in the region. According to Mark Wenger, Eastern Mennonite Seminary’s Lancaster Director of Pastoral Studies, a Master of Divinity program that would allow students to complete studies collaboratively with EMS and other seminaries in the region is under development.
Eastern Mennonite Seminary class set to begin January 29 Conversations in Contemporary Anabaptist Theology and Ethics, 3 credits
(can be used as a Gateway course)
This course will be held at Dock Woods Community in Lansdale, PA on Tuesdays,
6:30-9:30 p.m., January 29 through May 6, taught by Steve Kriss.
Focus on the tensions and possibilities for Anabaptist theology in the 20th and 21st Century.
Join with other emerging and experienced leaders to discuss and consider how we encounter God and how we act in the watching world.
Reading includes J. Denny Weaver, John Howard Yoder, H.S. Bender, Greg Boyd. Registration limited to 15. Can be audited as well and is eligible for scholarship from the Area Conference Leadership Fund. For more information, www.emu.edu/lancaster/seminary
Cultivate Connecting Communities: A Learning Community
As communities in Jesus Christ, Franconia Mennonite Conference and Eastern District Conference are sponsoring this eight session learning community designed to help congregations strengthen their identity, grow in awareness of their congregational culture, improve effectiveness, find joy in their work, and find ways to grow inwardly and outwardly.
These sessions will take place on Monday evenings from February 11 – April 14 at Plains Mennonite Church. For details and registration information, visit the following link: http://www.franconiaconference.org/index.php?P=165