“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11
What was the best Christmas present you ever received?
“Oh wow!” I cried, when I saw the foot long tractor trailer toy truck, complete with realistic turning radius. It had a red cab and green trailer with doors that opened and a little ramp for cattle to climb up on.
I was at my cousins’ house in New Holland, Pa. They had just arrived from Puerto Rico almost a year earlier – all nine of them – and had lived in the attic of our house for three months before finding their own home. I was nine years old and loved playing with my cousin Jose.
I was not expecting to get a gift for Christmas this year because my family wanted to give my cousins the experience of Christmas, complete with the meal, the gifts and the singing. So imagine my surprise when as the names on the gifts where being read and given to each person, that my name was called out.
“Is this right?” I thought. But sure enough there was a long rectangular box, wrapped in beautiful Christmas paper with a bow on top and my name on it. What an unexpected surprise!
I wonder if this might have been something like what those shepherds in the fields might have felt (in addition to overwhelming fear). It was an ordinary night–watching sheep, talking around a campfire and trying to keep warm in the cool night. Suddenly, a voice calls out–and it’s addressing them. What a surprise! Unexpected! Is this real?
The news comes to them that a gift has been given – a savior in the form of a baby; in a manger, wrapped, not with beautiful, ornate Christmas paper, but lowly, humble, swaddling clothes. It’s hardly what they would have expected. Yet as if to confirm that they were not dreaming a multitude of angels appeared, all bearing a word of great joy, the tidings of this grand, good news! Unbelievable!
What about you today? How have you been unexpectedly surprised by a gift given? A gift not earned; not worked for by you; not expected. Just given.
There’s a second part to this wonderful gift given to humanity – and that is the need to receive that gift. Many of us have received the gift of Christ given long ago and continue to do so everyday. Yet, many people haven’t yet received this wonderful, glorious gift. Who around us this year needs a gift? What gift does the One given want to give? How can you and I be the messengers of this wonderful gift of good news for all people?
I’m grateful to my Mennonite/Anabaptist sisters and brothers. I received a gift long ago, unexpectedly, because of these sisters and brothers in the faith. They pulled together a collection of gifts to ensure that everyone in the house that day could hold wide their hands and receive a gift.
May all of us in this Christmas season hold wide the hands of our hearts in receiving, first the gift of the life of God’s son and to be a messenger of the good news that “Unto you a gift is given.”
There is only one Mennonite church here in the United Kingdom, which I have yet to attend. Not surprisingly, then, I’ve recently been trying to explain my Mennonite faith identity to some very curious and sometimes very confused Brits. Somewhere near the beginning of those conversations, I often mention the strong emphasis that Mennonites place on community. It’s this sense of community that I miss here in London. I miss gathered congregations singing deeply rooted convictions of discipleship and peacemaking in effortless four-part harmony, familiar pie and bread recipes handed from one generational table to the next, rich farmland evoking memories of a strong agrarian history, and long lines of families and neighbors who quietly seek to serve God and one another. I do try to offer the general disclaimer that Mennonite communities are rapidly changing and diversifying, and that these rather cliche descriptions would fail to describe many contemporary Mennonite churches. But as a young Mennonite woman growing up in southeastern Pennsylvania, they are traditions and associations that are undeniably embedded in my experience of Mennonite community.
Community is a word that is also frequently used in the neighborhood where I’m now living in East London, but it takes a much different shape than I’m accustomed to experience. I’m currently part of a tiny church called E1 Community Church, a church that was planted here 10 years ago by a group of people who had the neighborhood community at the heart of their mission. Knowing that this area tends to be comparatively poor, under-churched, diverse and transient, they slowly sought to find ways of forming a church community that would be relevant and would meet the needs of this context. Several people in the church also take part in a local group called the Geoff Ashcroft Community, where I’ve been spending a few days a week. True to its name, this group is also centered around community, seeking to provide a sense of community and support for those in the area who are isolated and who struggle with mental health issues.
Given this common emphasis on community, then, it seems almost ironic that many of the people I now interact with on a daily basis have no way of comprehending the form of community that I grew up with and often take for granted. Although I perhaps would not have always said this, I am realizing that much of my sense of community is linked with sharing things in common with a tightly knit group of people: a shared history, shared traditions, shared political views, shared core values, a shared understanding of faith and belief in God. Yes, Mennonites of course struggle with disagreements and divisions over theological and political differences, but it seems that there are many places of commonality and shared faith at our core.
There is something beautiful about our strong communal identities, and I think it is one of the gifts that Mennonites can bring to a far too individualized and fragmented world. But it does beg the question of how and whether we can create communities without the presence of shared worldviews and core values. At E1 Community Church and at the Geoff Ashcroft Community, small groups of people come together from radically different worldviews and backgrounds. There is a man who spent most of his adult life in the military, and whose identity is still largely defined by those military experiences; a man who spent 17 years in prison and who is estranged from his family; a woman who has such intense social anxiety that she only ventures outside her home for a few hours each week; another woman who struggles with drug and alcohol addiction while trying raise three kids and to get herself a decent education. Relationships are downright tough in this context, not only because I am interacting with people who have quite traumatic pasts, but also because our lives have simply been so different. I cannot assume anything, let alone assume that people will share my pacifist stance or the approach I take to studying scripture.
There are, however, also incredible blessings that come from this struggle to form community in the midst of diversity. A few days ago, a group of us gathered at Geoff Ashcroft for a Christmas celebration lunch. As we sat together, laughing and sharing food and genuinely enjoying each others’ company, I was moved by what felt like a true sense of gathered community; by what I imagined as being a bit like the meals that Jesus shared throughout his ministry. In such moments, I am consistently amazed by how vulnerable people are with one another, and with the honest transparency with which they enter those spaces. Out of that transparency and vulnerability comes the opportunity to serve and support one another, and to become stronger as a community of faith.
There are blessings in both the shared community and the more radically diverse community, just as there are ways that both need to be challenged. I am just beginning to realize the extent of the difficulties that face the church community here in London, in its quest to form an authentic, common Christian identity while still embracing those with such varied personal identities and experiences. And back home in Pennsylvania, I have a feeling that many churches are struggling to reach beyond narrowly defined identities, to find ways of sharing the blessings of their communities with wider circles of people. I keep wondering how we might find ways to learn from one another. And how we might discover ways to authentically express our Christ-centered, communal identities, while remaining ever attuned to how the Spirit might be stirring new paths in our midst.
Krista Ehst is spending several months learning, serving and visiting among communities connected with the Anabaptist Network in the United Kingdom. She’s a recent graduate of Goshen College and a 2004 graduate of Christopher Dock Mennonite High School. She’s supported by a network of Franconia Conference congregations and individuals while on site across the pond.
Finland Mennonite Church is hosting the Skyline Boys from Virginia for a Southern Gospel Concert on Saturday, January 3 at 7 p.m. No charge for admission. A free-will offering will be received. Like Those Who Dream, James Longacre’s 200-page book of 30 sermons preached at Salford Mennonite Church from 1992 - 2006, is available in time for holiday gifts. The book may be purchased at Salford Mennonite Church for $18.95. Call the church office at 215-256-0778 or stop by Monday through Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
Eastern Mennonite Seminary of Southeastern PA is offering the following Spring Courses:Women and Men in the Bible and Church with Mark and Kathy Wenger; Systematic Theology 1 with Brinton Rutherford; The Good News, Culture and Anabaptism with Steve Kriss; Church Planting: Laying Foundations with Stuart Murray; and the following Gateway Course: Bible Survey & Anabaptist Hermeneutics with Marion Bontrager and Mark Wenger. For additional information and registration visit www.emu.edu/lancaster/seminary , call (717) 397-5190 or email lancaster@emu.edu
All are welcome toEvening Song and Prayer in the Taizé tradition at Perkasie Mennonite Church, January 11, 7 - 8 pm. 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.
You are invited to join in the public witness: “Heeding God’s Call – A Faith-based Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence” for a day of worship, education and action, Saturday, January 17th. This is the culminating event of the Jan 13-17 Peace Gathering held in Philadelphia sponsored by the Church of the Brethren, Mennonite Church USA and the Society of Friends (Quakers). During the Saturday event, participants will: Gather in nine different houses of worship around Philadelphia to pray and learn together; come together for joint worship and a sermon by Dr. Vincent Harding; and march to a notorious Philadelphia gun store to press for an end to the flow of illegal handguns. This is a wonderful opportunity to join with faith communities to take direct ACTION to reduce suffering and death in the Delaware Valley communities! For more information contact Fred Kauffman at jfk@mcc.org or 215 316-8419.
The Mennonite Conference Center will be closed for Christmas from noon on Wednesday, December 24 through Friday, January 2. The office will reopen on Monday, January 5.
Job Openings Care & Share Shoppes is now accepting applications for the following part-time positions: Variety Workroom Associate and Furniture Associate. For a complete job description and a job application visit their offices in the Clothing Shoppe or contact: Sarah Bergin, Executive Director, at sbergin@careandshareshoppes.org
Doylestown Mennonite Church seeks an energetic and friendly Administrative Assistant to support its various ministries. Individual should possess good computer skills, be well organized, and able to work independently. We are looking for 16-20 hours per week with some flexibility. We offer competitive pay. Please call the church office at 215-345-6377 or e-mail resume to randy.heacock@doylestownmc.org.
Understanding the Middle East
Eastern Mennonite University in Lancaster will be offering a field trip to Washington, D.C. entitled Understanding the Middle East on Saturday, February 21. The trip includes a visit to the US Holocaust Museum, a conversation on the Middle East at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, and observation of late afternoon prayers at the Islamic Center. The bus leaves the Lancaster area at 7 a.m. and will return by 10 p.m. A packed lunch and Lebanese family style dinner will also be provided. The cost is $120 per person; $200 per two family members. To join the trip, contact Gloria Kniss at gloria.kniss@emu.edu or call 717-397-5190. For more information contact David Miron at mirond@verizon.net or call 717-569-1305.
Gateway Course offered in Spring 2009 Bible Survey and Anabaptist Hermeneutics is the next Gateway course being offered by Eastern Mennonite University in collaboration with Mennonite Conferences in southeastern Pennsylvania. Marion Bontrager, instructor of Bible and theology at Hesston College, will lead the course, bringing the scriptures to life by teaching the Bible as one big story of God’s salvation. Dates for the course are March 13 - 14, May 15 - 16, and June 12 - 13 at Frazer Mennonite Church in Frazer, PA. For more information and registration, visit www.emu.edu/lancaster/seminary/gateway.
Finland Mennonite Church is hosting the Skyline Boys from Virginia for a Southern Gospel Concert on Saturday, January 3 at 7 p.m. No charge for admission. A free-will offering will be received.
Like Those Who Dream, James Longacre’s 200-page book of thirty sermons preached at Salford Mennonite Church from 1992-2006, is available in time for holiday gifts. The book may be purchased at Salford Mennonite Church for $18.95. Call the church office at 215-256-0778 or stop by week days between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
The Mennonite Conference Center will be closed for Christmas from noon on Wednesday, December 24 through Friday, January 2. The office will reopen on Monday, January 5.
About a decade ago, the scales of Anabaptism tipped to what we’ve taken to calling the Global South. This means that there are more Mennonites outside of Canada, Europe and the United States than within the boundaries of European tradition. While we’ve noted this as the relative success of 20th century missionary efforts, we’ve not anticipated a secondary outcome in the midst of global migration—the rapid reshaping of Anabaptism in the European, US and Canadian contexts by persons from the Global South.
Across the Mennonite Church USA, conferences are feeling the pull of this change as migration brings Christians from different cultural backgrounds into our formerly Eurocentric context. In California, what it means to be Mennonite is defined by Indonesian, Latino and African voices more often than EuroAmerican tradition. In Florida, the balance wavers between Florida’s Southwest Gulf Coast (Sarasota) which is predominantly EuroAmerican and Flordia’s Southeast Atlantic Coast (Miami) which is mostly Haitian and Latino. The balance in Mennonite Church USA’s midsection (Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas) continues to shift from the Russian and German immigrant communities of Kansas to rapidly growing Mexican American communities in Texas. Fuller Seminary professor and Mennonite leader Juan Martinez suggests that this pattern might be part of God’s intention to invigorate communities through a renewed encounter with the Good News.
For Franconia Conference, our 300 year history has deep roots in Euro-instigated tradition. It’s only been in the last 100 hears of our history that we’ve moved toward figuring a way toward multi-ethnicity. However, within the last generation that reality has accelerated. At times for those of us from EuroAmerican tradition, this change is disorienting, inviting us to move into unfamiliar spaces of having to explain our position as one among an array of expression.
The challenge in the midst of this shift–which includes Spanish-speakers at Franconia congregation, a significant population of persons from South Asia at Plains, growth in urban congregations like Norristown and a growing network of communities rooted in the recent immigrant experience–is that the shift in the global Christian community is increasingly in our conference meetings, in our Sunday morning worship. While it may be invigorating in theory–in practice it requires a change of mind and heart. The stranger no longer is only someone to be encountered far away but the stranger (those with different surnames, different food preferences, different ways of experiencing God and encounhtering the world) is increasingly a part of us.
This requires much from the EuroAmerican community—a willingness to listen, to learn, to embrace, to empower, to share and to reimagine ourselves as not only part of a globally diverse family, but part of a locally incarnated family of faith with differing traditions and ethnicities that honor God and the Anabaptist/Mennonite tradition. It requires all of us to reimagine our ways of leading and being to be one way of doing things—not the only way. This emerging reality invites us to admit that Christ alone is the Way—and that we’ve been called together to represent the possibilities of inbreaking Shalom in which God’s love is made real in the world, through flesh and blood, in the midst of hope and fear.
“Would you mind straightening your grandmother’s painting before you sit down?” my grandfather asked. “Not at all,” I replied, “so long as you give me a guided tour.” Every morning my grandfather begins his day by staring at my grandmother’s painting of her childhood home in Perkasie, vividly remembering stories, furniture and food that was part of the “Yoder House.”
After he had finished describing what he remembered about my grandmother’s home, I asked if we could “walk” through my grandparents’ former residence in Allentown.
I often think of this house in Allentown—grilling with my grandfather in the backyard, eating Christmas and Easter dinners around the picnic table in the basement, and walking to J. Birney Crum Stadium to watch high school football games. Many of my favorite childhood memories took place in and around that house.
As my grandfather and I “walked” through the living room, the kitchen, the bedrooms, his office, and the basement, I became aware, not only of special memories that were made in those rooms, but of how that house was significant to my spiritual formation.
My grandparents moved to Allentown in 1946 to help with the Allentown Mission, and although Souderton and Allentown were not separated far by geography, Allentown was a world away from where they were raised. By choosing to live in a community where neighbors didn’t speak Pennsylvania Dutch or understand the significance of head coverings, my grandparents were forced to become self-reflective. “What does it mean to maintain a Mennonite identity in a neighborhood that doesn’t have other Mennonites?” and “How do we effectively communicate who we are?” were questions that challenged their spiritual formation in ways they did not experience in Souderton. Life in the city ensured the continual presence of these questions in their lives, and the ways they attempted to answer these questions made spiritual formation a dynamic, on-going process for their children and grandchildren.
One place I observed my grandparents communicate their faith was on their front porch. Many summer evenings my parents, along with my grandparents, aunts and uncles would sit and talk on the porch while my cousins and I would play “run-down” in the front yard. When folks from the neighborhood would pass by on walks with their dogs or families, one thing was certain: they didn’t pass by without receiving a greeting from my grandfather. Sometimes conversations took place at a distance with simple greetings and pleasantries exchanged, while other times neighbors joined us on the porch for conversation and Diet Coke or iced tea.
The front porch was used as safe place for my grandparents and their neighbors to exchange snapshots of their lives. But more than a place to practice cordiality, the front porch was a place to practice the spiritual discipline of hospitality. Neighbors knew they was always a seat for them on the porch—it was a place where they would feel welcome, and a place where they could be heard. In the same way that my grandparents’ intentional choice to live in Allentown provided important questions that impacted my spiritual formation, their demonstration of hospitality on the front porch was also significant to my faith development. It was here where I witnessed clear examples of how to practice hospitality and how to do outreach.
When the weather changed and the porch furniture was brought in for the season, spiritual formation took place inside. Many winter evenings my siblings and I were picked up at school by my grandparents and spent a few hours doing our homework at their home while my parents were at work.
Homework always seemed easier, or at least more fun, at my grandparents’ house. My brother usually worked from a small table in the kitchen, while my sister and I studied from the dining room table where many helpful resources were at our disposal. For example, my grandmother allowed us to use her prized electronic spell-checker that she used to write her weekly newspaper column. Whenever we came across an unfamiliar country in Social Studies homework, or an unusual organ in Biology homework, we followed the example of my grandmother and researched it extensively in the Encyclopedia Britanica. And finally, if my grandfather was home during our homework sessions, he would play the role of archivist, and search in his office through magazines, books, or personal records that might help with our line of inquiry.
The way my grandparents valued questions I posed in their house was spiritually formational. The way in which they helped me search for fifth grade homework questions displayed a quiet confidence that big questions should be raised. As I grew older and my big questions were not easily found in encyclopedias, I never doubted the inherent value in raising big questions. My grandparents taught me that raising big questions doesn’t lead us away from faith, but draws us closer to God’s reality.
I doubt my grandparents are aware of how their Allentown home shaped me, and I’ve never heard either of them use the term “spiritual formation.” Although they moved away from Allentown almost five years ago, I’m grateful for times like last Saturday, when we get to “walk” through their home again. Their house in Allentown will forever be part of my spirituality. Because of its location, the front porch, and evenings spent doing homework, I will always be challenged to ask how I am making use of my current living space for the spiritual formation of my family and community.
For more than 50 years, the churches of Franconia Mennonite Conference have sent missionaries and money to Mexico to plant new churches. This year, Mexico sent missionaries back.
Husband and wife Linker Sanchez and Luz Maria Vargas, of the Tierra Prometida congregation, were commissioned at this year’s conference assembly to work with the Spanish-speaking community in Gaithersburg, Md.
“The United States has sent missionaries for many years all over the world,” Sanchez told those gathered. “But as you know, God is now sending all the nations of the world to the United States—and we have come here to reach our countrymen in their language and culture.”
“We are from many different nations but we are all children of the same God,” said Vargas.
More than 200 people, including 130 delegates from conference congregations and related-ministries gathered around tables at Penn View Christian School cafeteria in Souderton, Pa., to worship together, discuss a variety of issues in the conference and celebrate newly credentialed leaders. The theme for the assembly was “Come to the Table: Embrace God in Us.”
Blaine Detwiler, conference moderator and pastor of Lakeview Mennonite Church, wrapped himself in a quilt to welcome participants on Friday night. Detwiler told of the quilt he and his wife had received as a wedding present, and how it had been used over the years.
“The beauty of a quilt is in its use,” he said, and suggested that this is also true of Christians.
Unlike previous years, there was not a sermon on Friday evening. Instead, Detwiler invited all to sit at tables and “see and hear the movement of Jesus in the faces around us.”
“There is no sermon, not in the traditional sense, because the sermon is going to be in the Anabaptist sense of community—how we are together with each other,” said Noel Santiago, executive conference minister. “And doing that in front of a watching world is how the Anabaptists understood the message. In a way, the message is us…It comes out of all of us, together.”
While those gathered did less business than in the past and spent more time learning from each other, some things did remain the same: several rooms were designated as prayer space, and “prayer ushers” were available to pray at any time during the assembly. Ongoing worship was held in the teacher’s lounge, and an indoor prayer labyrinth with a guided liturgy was set up for anyone wanting to meditate. Worship during the sessions was led by a band of young adult musicians from a variety of congregations.
Later Friday evening, as they sat around their tables, participants were invited to tell stories of how they had seen God acting and how they were embracing the mission in their churches.
A number of congregations have connections to Mexican churches and regularly send financial and physical support as well as visit each other.
Urban Byler, of Whitehall (Pa) Mennonite Church, noted that his congregation is sponsors a Karen Burmese refugee family. It has also supported Ripple, a gathering led by Tom and Carolyn Albright for those who don’t have and often don’t want to be involved in a traditional church.
Churches have been learning that to go out into the neighborhood and make disciples—and that crossing of language barriers, cultural assumptions and socioeconomic lines—can sometimes be uncomfortable or require flexibility.
John Ehst, pastor of Franconia Mennonite Church in Telford, Pa., shared that some of the recent converts in their Spanish-speaking gathering wanted a baptism by immersion, so the church held the service in the afternoon at a neighboring Grace Brethren church.
Several pastors said that while they often preach about following Jesus, sharing that love and joining the work of the Holy Spirit, it can be difficult to be missional and reach out as a congregation—especially for “cradle” or “legacy” Mennonites.
“The challenge we face is just talking about our faith,” said one pastor. “We’re good at doing things but not as much at verbalizing our faith.”
“One of the biggest challenges is that in this community,” said another pastor, “Mennonites hang out with Mennonites. They work for Mennonite businesses and go to Mennonite schools…it’s hard to get outside of that.”
In keeping with the theme of mission, part of Saturday was spent talking about an important inward focus of churches: the faith formation of children.
Mary Benner, pastor of youth and children at Souderton (Pa) Mennonite Church, said the goal is to help churches and church schools think about “how we help children and youth become radical followers of Jesus Christ—the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount, the Jesus of perfect love.”
Benner, along with Marlene Frankenfield, conference youth minister, and Sharon Fransen, shared a framework for how families, churches and schools can work together to pass along the faith. The framework was developed in conjunction with regional Mennonite schools, but is intended to help any child whether or not he or she attends a Mennonite school.
“Passing on the faith to the next generation is one of the most important roles of the entire body of Christ,” said Benner. “We want [our children] to develop a costly compassion, and have empathy for a hurting world…We want them to know Jesus so they will keep their hearts soft.”
The Saturday morning session covered approval of the 2007 assembly minutes, an update on the Vision and Financial Plan and nominations for the gifts discernment process. Delegates voted unanimously to approve Randy Heacock, pastor of Doylestown (Pa) Mennonite Church, as assistant conference moderator and conference board vice chair.
It also included time to welcome newly credentialed leaders in Franconia Conference in the past year. Those licensed for ministry included Arnold Derstine, of the Franconia congregation; Eva Kratz, for prison ministry; Gay Brunt Miller, conference director of collaborative ministries; Jenifer Ericksen Morales, conference minister of transitional ministries; Timothy Moyer, Vincent Mennonite Church; Yunus Perkasa, Nations Worship Center; and Aldo Siahaan, Philadelphia Praise Center. The newly ordained John Brodnicki of Mennonite Bible Fellowship was recognized along with transfers of credentials for Dennis Edwards, Peace Fellowship (Washington, D.C.); Chris Nickels, Spring Mount; Mary Nitzsche, Blooming Glen; Wayne Nitzsche, Perkasie; Jim Ostlund, Blooming Glen; and Wayne Speigle, Bally Mennonite Church.
Throughout the gathering, there was a recognition that churches are working to minister in shifting contexts, and that the conference itself is becoming more diverse each year. Among conference churches, services are held not only in Spanish and Vietnamese, but also in Bahasa Indonesia. And while Mennonite conferences have historically been organized by geography, the web of relationships is taking the conference outside of those boundaries and conference staff are working with churches in Delaware, New Jersey, Arkansas, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.
Amidst shifts and changes in the church, said Noel Santiago, “We want to be proactive, not reactive.”
At the end of the final delegate session, participants who had come from all over the world paused to partake in the re-membering of the body of Christ, and shared communion.
At this year’s Conference Assembly delegate responses to the Vision and Financial Plan update got the wheels in my head turning. I heard affirmations and frustrations, encouragements to continue the good work and challenges to do better in several areas. One of my co-workers heard a delegate exclaim, after attending the weekend assembly and interacting and conducting business with fellow conference members and staff, “Oh, so this is what conference is!”
I heard this as an encouragement—as part of the planning team for Conference Assembly it tells me I did my job well. But in my work as editor of Intersections—it’s a challenge, suggesting that I need to work harder at building the connections within this publication. So I’d like to share with you why Franconia Conference produces the publication that you are reading.
Intersections is tasked in reminding us all, as part of Franconia Conference, about who we are and how we are participating in and extending the Good News. In each issue there are articles with a re-occurring theme, like the “Call & Response” stories that invite newly credentialed leaders to share how God has led them to their current positions. Conference Related Ministries contribute reflections on the good work they are doing in and for our congregations and communities. You will also find articles of response and learning from events and interactions, like Pastor Charles Ness’ reflection on a recent gathering of Swiss and US Anabaptist leaders and the opening article on Conference Assembly.
Intersections is also meant to inspire and challenge. The masthead of Intersections states that this newsletter holds “stories of invitation to walk in the path of Jesus.” Richard Moyer’s article invites us to think critically about what Christians believe in times of war. Blaine Detwiler’s final contribution to the series on “The Seven Core Convictions that Global Mennonites Share” takes us to the unfamiliar Christmas traditions of an orthodox church and asks: What keeps us, as people, apart from each other?
Finally, Intersections is meant to encourage us to engage each other. Every article, as long as it is available, includes it’s author’s congregation and email address. We include these pieces of information to provoke an ongoing conversation that each article begins. Next time an article inspires or challenges you, why not email the author and tell them what you liked or invite the author to meet for coffee and further conversation? Intersections also includes contact information for our Conference Related Ministries. This is not only a great way to get in touch with these ministries and learn about what they do but its also an opportunity to find ways, like volunteering, that you can be a part of the work they do for us all. Intersections also often includes information on ways to connect and contribute to the work of fellow conference members. For example, the March 2008 issue included an article about the Missions Operational Grants available to congregations who want to try new initiatives to find new and creative ways to engage others, seeking ways to reach out to their communities or to people around the globe. Each recipient of these grants will be asked to submit a reflection on these initiatives in future issues.
It is my hope that every time you read an issue of Intersections you are not only reminded that this is who and what the conference is, this is who and what you are a part of, but that you are also inspired enough and challenged to engage each other and the opportunities available “to walk in the path of Jesus.”
What was the best Christmas present you ever received?
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There is only one Mennonite church here in the United Kingdom, which I have yet to attend. Not surprisingly, then, I’ve recently been trying to explain my Mennonite faith identity to some very curious and sometimes very confused Brits. Somewhere near the beginning of those conversations, I often mention the strong emphasis that Mennonites place on community. It’s this sense of community that I miss here in London. I miss gathered congregations singing deeply rooted convictions of discipleship and peacemaking in effortless four-part harmony, familiar pie and bread recipes handed from one generational table to the next, rich farmland evoking memories of a strong agrarian history, and long lines of families and neighbors who quietly seek to serve God and one another. I do try to offer the general disclaimer that Mennonite communities are rapidly changing and diversifying, and that these rather cliche descriptions would fail to describe many contemporary Mennonite churches. But as a young Mennonite woman growing up in southeastern Pennsylvania, they are traditions and associations that are undeniably embedded in my experience of Mennonite community.
There is something beautiful about our strong communal identities, and I think it is one of the gifts that Mennonites can bring to a far too individualized and fragmented world. But it does beg the question of how and whether we can create communities without the presence of shared worldviews and core values. At E1 Community Church and at the Geoff Ashcroft Community, small groups of people come together from radically different worldviews and backgrounds. There is a man who spent most of his adult life in the military, and whose identity is still largely defined by those military experiences; a man who spent 17 years in prison and who is estranged from his family; a woman who has such intense social anxiety that she only ventures outside her home for a few hours each week; another woman who struggles with drug and alcohol addiction while trying raise three kids and to get herself a decent education. Relationships are downright tough in this context, not only because I am interacting with people who have quite traumatic pasts, but also because our lives have simply been so different. I cannot assume anything, let alone assume that people will share my pacifist stance or the approach I take to studying scripture.
I often think of this house in Allentown—grilling with my grandfather in the backyard, eating Christmas and Easter dinners around the picnic table in the basement, and walking to J. Birney Crum Stadium to watch high school football games. Many of my favorite childhood memories took place in and around that house.
One place I observed my grandparents communicate their faith was on their front porch. Many summer evenings my parents, along with my grandparents, aunts and uncles would sit and talk on the porch while my cousins and I would play “run-down” in the front yard. When folks from the neighborhood would pass by on walks with their dogs or families, one thing was certain: they didn’t pass by without receiving a greeting from my grandfather. Sometimes conversations took place at a distance with simple greetings and pleasantries exchanged, while other times neighbors joined us on the porch for conversation and Diet Coke or iced tea.
The way my grandparents valued questions I posed in their house was spiritually formational. The way in which they helped me search for fifth grade homework questions displayed a quiet confidence that big questions should be raised. As I grew older and my big questions were not easily found in encyclopedias, I never doubted the inherent value in raising big questions. My grandparents taught me that raising big questions doesn’t lead us away from faith, but draws us closer to God’s reality.
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For more than 50 years, the churches of Franconia Mennonite Conference have sent missionaries and money to Mexico to plant new churches. This year, Mexico sent missionaries back.
While those gathered did less business than in the past and spent more time learning from each other, some things did remain the same: several rooms were designated as prayer space, and “prayer ushers” were available to pray at any time during the assembly. Ongoing worship was held in the teacher’s lounge, and an indoor prayer labyrinth with a guided liturgy was set up for anyone wanting to meditate. Worship during the sessions was led by a band of young adult musicians from a variety of congregations.
“One of the biggest challenges is that in this community,” said another pastor, “Mennonites hang out with Mennonites. They work for Mennonite businesses and go to Mennonite schools…it’s hard to get outside of that.”
At this year’s Conference Assembly delegate responses to the Vision and Financial Plan update got the wheels in my head turning. I heard affirmations and frustrations, encouragements to continue the good work and challenges to do better in several areas. One of my co-workers heard a delegate exclaim, after attending the weekend assembly and interacting and conducting business with fellow conference members and staff, “Oh, so this is what conference is!” 
Finally, Intersections is meant to encourage us to engage each other. Every article, as long as it is available, includes it’s author’s congregation and email address. We include these pieces of information to provoke an ongoing conversation that each article begins. Next time an article inspires or challenges you, why not email the author and tell them what you liked or invite the author to meet for coffee and further conversation? Intersections also includes contact information for our Conference Related Ministries. This is not only a great way to get in touch with these ministries and learn about what they do but its also an opportunity to find ways, like volunteering, that you can be a part of the work they do for us all. Intersections also often includes information on ways to connect and contribute to the work of fellow conference members. For example, the March 2008 issue included an article about the Missions Operational Grants available to congregations who want to try new initiatives to find new and creative ways to engage others, seeking ways to reach out to their communities or to people around the globe. Each recipient of these grants will be asked to submit a reflection on these initiatives in future issues.
