Columbus 2009 Mennonite Convention
by Tim Rice
a
The bi-annual Mennonite Convention is always a time for much learning, worship, fellowship, and catching up with friends one hasn’t seen in a while. My wife and I went as delegates out to Columbus 2009 on a charter bus with the youth from our church and two other churches. We were privileged to be able to participate in all these activities and hope to share a bit of our experience below. We would also encourage all of you to consider going to a Mennonite Convention in the future. It is a valuable growing experience.
The theme for Columbus 2009 was “Breathe and Be Filled” centering on the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of every Christian. Each day there were one or two worship sessions. For Tuesday evening Juana F. Nunez spoke about how the same Spirit that was present in creation and present in Jesus’ life and ministry on earth is also present in us today. Accordingly through the power of the Spirit we are to reach out to those around us to build the
Thursday evening was a joint worship session – youth and adults together. The message for this session was given jointly by a mother and daughter team June Alliman Yoder and Mandy Yoder Schrock. They presented four models of Holy Spirit/people interaction with the favored model being that of a GPS system. They noted that a GPS system does not give up interacting when a person takes a wrong turn but instead keeps recalculating. And similarly the Holy Spirit works with people recalculating when they go wrong.
Friday morning worship consisted of three testimonies reflecting on Ephesians 3:14-19. Marvin Lorenzana noted that dwelling in God’s word empowers the Spirit. John Powell commented that dwelling in the Spirit leads to prayer that leads to transformation into the likeness of Christ. Megan Ramer shared that we need to understand that the center of our being who empowers us is the living Christ Himself not ourselves. Saturday evening Jim Wallis shared Jesus’ Isaiah-based mission statement from Luke 4:18 & 19 - "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." And he challenged us to make Jesus’ mission statement our mission statement.
The music during each adult worship session was led by Tim Shue and his Honeytown band. The worship music was a mix of bluegrass, Gospel, folk, blues, old-timey, and contemporary styles. Interspersed in some of these sessions was singing and piano music by Ken Medema who improvised music on the spot based on some of the themes of the Convention or stories told by people there. For example after Jim Schrag spoke on Wednesday morning he sang of people waiting outside of an empty house with kites waiting for the wind of God to blow. When the wind of God came, it blew out the windows and blew down the walls. And some of the people were blown throughout the land. Earlier in the song, he had looked through windows of houses with people who would not invite him in. In the same worship session there was also a dramatized reading from a passage in Ezekiel in which the Spirit of God breathed in the breath of life to dry bones. Also, throughout the week in various settings a variety of musical groups and individuals performed including such as Yemaya, Joshua Bartholomew, Bellacord, Blue Road Traveler, Tony Brown, Heroic Skies, and Jeremy Kempf.
As delegates we met two times a day to conduct church business. We sat around tables in groups of eight or nine people from various walks of life and places. During each delegate session after Bible studies, reports and/or presentations of resolutions, we had small group discussions usually followed by an open-mike time before the whole delegate body. At various times there were also Readers’ Theatres performances pertaining the subject matter at hand. One that stands out compared similarities between Caucasian Americans having taken land from Native Americans to the current Israeli conflict with the Palestinians over land. It showed how even we Mennonites then and now benefitted from this land grab. And it aptly raises the question of what is our responsibility now for this injustice. This was presented during a follow-up session to the San Jose Native American Apology that our delegates adopted in 2007.
Some significant report items during our delegate sessions included a presentation of the priorities of Mennonite Church USA, financial reports from our Mennonite Church USA agencies, reporting on the status of plans for new church-wide office facilities in Elkhart, Indiana, presentation of the Corinthian health care plan for pastors and church workers, an encouragement to work at building our faith identity, and a report on restorative justice in the context of racial healing. The emphases of
During the financial reporting it was noted that all Mennonite agencies are working at right-sizing their operations. None are in dire financial straits; but all except Mennonite Men have experienced net losses in assets. Regarding the new church-wide office facilities being planned, $8.4 million has been raised and another $2.3 million is needed by the end of the year to begin construction in the spring. The building is planned to house offices for Mennonite Mission Network, Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership, and Mennonite Education Agency.
The Corinthian health care plan is intended to be a church-wide mutual aid ministry providing health insurance to all our pastors and church workers even if they can’t afford it. Delegates were urged to be advocates in their home churches to adopt this plan so that no church worker might be in need. For some churches this plan will be significantly more expensive than what they spend now; but they are encouraged to view this as part of the mission outreach of their church.
Two years ago, the San Jose Convention had passed a resolution to work at building our faith identity. As a continuation of this project delegates were asked to discuss what stories shaped their faith identity and how we might help build the next generation’s faith. We were encouraged to become a generation of storytellers as God works in our lives.
As we looked at restorative justice and racial healing, the theme was that restorative justice is about healing the whole community – both the victim(s) and the offender(s). It was noted that many times offenders will say they intended nothing by their action – that they just didn’t think about it. But that’s exactly the point; we need to learn to be intentional about how we relate to others whether it’s racism, sexism, or any other prejudice. We need to learn accountability and allow people to walk at their own pace in the process of forgiveness.
Near the end of the Convention, the delegates passed three resolutions – a statement against human trafficking (modern day slavery), a resolution on healthcare access, and a resolution on human sexuality, dialogue, and conflict. The statement against human trafficking encourages us to become informed about what is happening world-wide and in our communities. Human trafficking today consists of basically two forms – sexual slavery and involuntary labor. Twelve to thirty million people are victims world-wide; twelve to eighteen thousand of those in the
The resolution on healthcare access builds on statements approved by delegates in 2005 and 2007. It urges members and congregations to contact their congressional representatives to support legislation that extends healthcare to all Americans especially the poor and disadvantaged. It encourages us to also be engaged in local healthcare needs and to pray for healthcare access for citizens across our land.
The resolution on human sexuality, dialogue, and conflict acknowledges the previous statements adopted by
Another important aspect of Convention were the seminars. There were many more seminars than one can attend. Among those I attended were A Dialogue on our Tools – Facebook, YouTube and text messaging, Conversations with our Aging Parents, What Happens When Lutherans Apologize to Mennonites?, and Colombia: Faith and Hope Amidst Conflict. From the Dialogue on our Tools seminar what stuck out to me was the statement that people had the same fears about the telephone and radio when they first came out as people do today about Facebook, YouTube, and text messaging. And the primary fear then and now was the breakdown of community. Yet then and now people find that new tools have potential to both strengthen and weaken community. It’s dependent upon our choices.
The Conversations with our Aging Parents seminar encouraged children and parents to begin this dialogue when the parents are still in their fifties and sixties before the issues are pressing and before a parent may be incapable of communicating well. The ideal is for parents to initiate this discussion; but if that isn’t happening the children should take that responsibility. The seminar presented a handout with a checklist of things that parents and children should discuss about parent care and end of life issues. It was also noted that if it is too late for the children to begin an ongoing discussion with their parents that it is often helpful to have an in-law talk to the parent or if the parent is living in a retirement home often their staff will be available to ask the needed questions.
In the What Happens When Lutherans Apologize to Mennonites seminar, it was noted that it was the Lutherans who took the initiative to begin dialoguing with the Mennonites and to seek forgiveness for past acts by Lutherans against Mennonites. During the process some of the questions asked included what is the role of memory (even forgotten memory) in transgenerational conflicts and after a historical trespass how do we ask for pardon and reconciliation. And specifically for us Mennonites the question is asked are we willing to do dialogue that may shake our sense of self and our use of Martyrs’ stories. It was noted that lack of unity among Christians is a fallen state which calls for us both Mennonites and Lutherans to live as one in Christ.
In the
