After more than two years of preparation, La Posada Immigrant Aid, a new faith-based immigrant legal aid center located in Sunnyside Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Indiana, is open for business, largely due to the support and collaboration of several Mennonite Church USA affiliated churches, conferences, schools, organizations and individuals. Read the story here: mennoniteusa.org/news/county-immigrant-aid

The third Global Mennonite Peacebuilding Conference and Festival will bring together Mennonite practitioners, artists and theologians from around the world to learn, share and discuss their work for peace. Join this international gathering June 15-18 at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia on the theme “Coming Together: The Journey of Faith and Peace.” Learn more and register here: mennoniteusa.org/emu-peacebuilding-conference

#MennoCon23
Mennonite Church USA is hosting a collaborative Youth & Young Adult Climate Summit, July 7, 2023, at the Kansas City (Missouri) Convention Center. The event will bring together experts in climate change, spiritual activism and social justice to explore the ways that young people ages 14 to 25 can put their faith to work to address the spiritual and human crisis caused by climate change. Register here: mennoniteusa.org/news/climate-summit

Menno Snapshots
Linda Gehman Peachey, a member of Mennonite Church USA’s Women in Leadership steering committee, is haunted by a question asked in Chanequa Walker-Barnes’ book, “I Bring the Voices of My People.” She asks: “What does it mean to know that a system is evil and to participate in it anyway?” Read her Menno Snapshots blog here: mennoniteusa.org/haunted-question

After attending Mennonite Church USA’s Hope for the Future Conference as a representative for Bethel College, in North Newton, Kansas, Josué Coy Dick had an enriching experience. He observed that the conference gave him an optimistic energy about the future of the Mennonite church. Read more about his time here: mennoniteusa.org/we-are-the-church

Super SOOPers spend their retirement sharing their gifts

NEWS /

Larry and Maxine Miller sit together atop the Nanih Waiya Mound in Mississippi. Photo provided.

By Zachary Headings

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

To celebrate World Senior Citizens Day, August 21, we honor two incredible SOOP participants: Larry and Maxine Miller, who have spent their retirement years serving others in many capacities. Even though we honor these SOOP participants on this day, we emphasize that SOOP is for people of all ages!

Since retiring in 2007, Larry and Maxine Miller have been caretakers at a guest house. They have also served with Mennonite Mission Network’s Service Opportunities with Our Partners (SOOP) multiple times. SOOP is a program designed to offer flexible service terms for individuals and families of all ages. Whether you want to serve for two weeks or four months — or even longer — SOOP has diverse and rewarding opportunities.

The Millers started the Mashulaville Dormitory, a hospitality house in their hometown, Macon, Mississippi. “SOOP kind of came to us,” Larry Miller said. SOOP offered placements at Mashulaville, which led the Millers to interact with Arloa Bontrager, the director of SOOP, on a regular basis.

Larry and Maxine Miller’s first SOOP assignment was 14 years ago, at the International Guest House in Washington, D.C. Since then, they’ve served with numerous other Mission Network partners, including their current placement at Menno-Hof in Shipshewana, Indiana.

Menno-Hof is an information center “that teaches visitors about the faith and life of Amish and Mennonites.” The Millers begin their days by unlocking the doors, turning on displays and preparing the place for visitors. When the public arrives, the Millers act as tour guides and help visitors learn more about Amish and Mennonite heritage.

The Millers are retired elementary school teachers, but they would claim that they still teach. Once a teacher, always a teacher, is the Miller’s philosophy.

One of the best parts of their service assignment is the opportunity to meet people, the Millers said. Whether it’s meeting Menno-Hof visitors or having dinner with Amish “cousins,” as the Millers call them, the Millers relish the opportunity to connect with more of the family of God.

When they are not serving with SOOP, the Millers spend their time in Mississippi, where they have lived for half a century. They describe their life there as a road of adventure, decisions and disappointments. During those 50 years, the Millers have seen the incremental development of civil rights in Mississippi — with so little progress and many backslides. Since the pandemic began, they’ve seen the quality of education plummet. “It’s better than it was 50 years ago, but it’s not anywhere near where it should be,” Larry Miller said.

Seeing these trends in their home state is part of their inspiration to serve — to give back and share what they’ve learned.

 “SOOP has been really good [for us],” Maxine Miller said. “… it’s an opportunity to come away. We really enjoy it.” She went on to say that, for them, even teaching is a way of service.

 One of the most meaningful experiences they’ve had at Menno-Hof was with a couple from the Niagara Falls area. They were exploring their newly found Anabaptist faith, having recently come out of the Wesleyan tradition. The Millers became surrogate parents for them, visiting them at their campsite, having conversations and answering questions. The couple returned home with greater empowerment in their faith and are now attending a Mennonite church. “Sometimes you really hit the jackpot,” Larry Miller said.

“SOOP allows us to gear down and still be productive,” Larry Miller said. “We’re carrying our load, but we’re not in the fast lane anymore. We’re not coasting.”

Our April Dialogue will take place on Thursday, May 25 at 7-8:30pm ET (4-5:30pm PT) on Facebook Live. 

This Racism is Real dialogue will be led by ROJ Trainer Thulani Conrad Moore with panelists Bethany Stewart, Dr. Calenthia Dowdy, and Dr. Nathan Pederson.

This event is open to all. Register and even if you can’t make it you’ll receive a link to the recording when its ready. 

WDC-STORIES

Being the Church Together

Posted on May 2, 2023

Two recent experiences have prompted my reflection on what it means to be the church.

On Easter Sunday I attended the closing worship service of Trinity Mennonite Church (HIllsboro, KS).  After considerable discernment, the congregation had agreed that the life of their congregation was coming to an end. Rather than hanging on to mere survival, they made intentional plans for individuals in the congregation to seek new places to worship, and for the church building to be transferred to a community child-care center. The worship service on Easter was an opportunity to share memories from the 57 years of the church’s life, express both grief and gratitude in this transition, and proclaim hope in the Easter promise that “we can live without fear, but we need to trust Jesus to lead us into the future.” (Trinity worship bulletin, April 9, 2023). That morning the sanctuary was filled with extended families and friends, local neighbors, and sisters and brothers in Christ from the wider church community whose lives had been touched in some way by Trinity.  It was a powerful testimony to the legacy and witness of this congregation, the seeds that it has sown, and God’s faithfulness throughout its lifetime.

Two weeks later I attended the church planting summit in Dallas, TX, sponsored by WDC’s Church Planting Commission on the theme Being Church: Meeting Our Neighbors Where They Are (pictured above).  It was an inspiring gathering of experienced church planters, persons interested in starting new faith communities, and leaders seeking to revitalize established congregations – all learning together.  We discussed what “church” means in a changing world, and partnerships that nurture vitality. In one session, we envisioned the church as a tree, affirming the importance of both roots and branches. I imagine roots to be what provides foundations, nourishment and resilience for the church: Jesus’ life, teachings, death and resurrection; Anabaptist core convictions such as discipleship, community and peacemaking; practices such as baptism and communion; traditions and history that give meaning and identity.  Branches represent openness to the living Word of God and the wind of the Holy Spirit; outreach, growth and change; the need for pruning, and the potential to bear fruit and seeds that bring life beauty to the world. Roots and branches need each other – without either one, the tree (and the church) cannot thrive. 

In both these experiences – the church closing service and the church planting summit – I see the importance of collaborating between different parts of the church and across seasons of congregational life. Both beginnings and endings require us to discern what it means to be the church and to listen for the Holy Spirit’s leading and timing. Individual congregations benefit from relationships with other congregations (even as scientific study is showing that trees are interconnected by underground fungal networks which carry nutrients, water and chemical signals between trees).  New congregations benefit from the resources of established congregations and wisdom of experienced leaders, while established congregations benefit from new ideas prompted by church planting and reaching out to discover Christ’s presence in our local community.

Together we are a learning community, asking:  What does it mean to “be the church?”  What roots and branches give vitality to our congregations?   How do our congregations meet our neighbors where they are? What endings and new beginnings is God calling our congregations to consider?  WDC offers relationships and connections that can help us explore these questions together as we connect to God’s mission in the world.

-Heidi Regier Kreider, WDC Conference Minister

Documentary featuring African American stories of Elkhart’s Benham West
neighborhood to premiere May 19
By Annette Brill Bergstresser
ELKHART, Indiana (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) — A new documentary that features stories of life in Elkhart’s predominantly African American Benham West neighborhood — known as “the village” — will premiere on Friday, May 19, at the Crystal Ballroom at the Lerner Theatre at 410 South Main Street, Elkhart,Indiana.
Titled What Happened at Benham West: African American Stories of Community, Displacement and Hope, the film also includes elders’ experiences of segregation in Elkhart, documents the process of the city’s eventual clearing of the Benham West neighborhood, and names the elders’ hopes for their city.
Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) is hosting the launch event to celebrate the release of the 80-minute documentary. The event will begin at 6 p.m. with a reception with light refreshments, and the
documentary presentation will begin at 7 p.m. There is no charge to attend, but space is limited to 300
participants, and registration at benhamwestproject.com by May 12 is recommended.
“I never realized the project would get this large, but I’m impressed,” reflected Rev. Willie Jean Mayes of
Elkhart, who served on the advisory committee for the history project and was interviewed for it. “I’m
impressed by the work that has been done, by what has been accomplished, and that it has been moving
forward. The passion has impressed me — that someone wants to save the history. That’s what touches my heart.”
“Stories are disappearing”
AMBS has sponsored the Benham West project through the collaborative work of two faculty members:
Nekeisha Alayna Alexis, MA, Intercultural Competence and Undoing Racism coordinator; and Jamie Pitts, PhD, Associate Professor of Anabaptist Studies and Director of the Institute of Mennonite Studies.
The idea for the project was sparked during AMBS’s Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day program in January 2020 on “Repairing the Harm: A Community Conversation on the Systemic Exclusion of African Americans in Elkhart.” At the event, local African American leaders Rev. Mayes and Rev. Dr. Plez Lovelady participated in a panel discussion on the topic. Alexis recalled that Rev. Mayes said, “These stories are disappearing of the Benham West neighborhood — not just the clearing of it, but all the things that came before the clearing. There’s no documentation about the South Side School or about the life that was there, and once these elders pass away, it’s going to be gone.” Rev. Mayes’ words echoed throughout the MLK Day event, and other participants also emphasized the need to name and address both current and past harms in the community. In response, and with the encouragement of elders and allies both within and beyond Elkhart, Alexis and Pitts were given AMBS’s blessing to coordinate a team to produce both a documentary and a book on the topic. Former AMBS student Patrick Obonde (MA 2020)served as project assistant, and Oliver Pettis of Black Lion Cinematography in Elkhart was hired to be the
filmmaker. The book, which has the same title as the film, will be published later this year by Wolfson Press of Indiana University South Bend.
Benham West’s history
Pitts described how the Benham West community first began in the 1920s when African Americans moved from the south to Elkhart to work for the railroad. The neighborhood was located west of Benham Avenue and south of the railroad tracks. “Between the 1920s and 1970s, it was really the only neighborhood where African Americans were allowed to live in Elkhart,” he said. Benham West residents started businesses to serve their neighbors, and “the village” became “a place of care, a
place of community, a place of thriving,” Pitts said. But in the 1960s, after the government had started funding urban renewal projects following World War II, the city built the Rosedale Tower and Washington Gardens in the area.
“The entire neighborhood was cleared with a promise that it would be renewed. Residents were asked to come up with a plan, and they did, but some of the people who worked for the city rejected the plan, and no plan was ever put in place,” he said.
Rev. Dr. Lovelady of Elkhart, who also was interviewed for the project and served on the advisory committee, reflected on the importance of understanding a place’s history: “Once you take the eraser of time and rub that across the pages of humanity, those following don’t know what was there. History — growing up in Benham West — that’s all we knew, and it was a wonderful time because we had family and we had community — something that we really don’t have anymore.”
Rev. Mayes added, “There’s a lot of people in Elkhart who don’t know what happened. People who grew up elsewhere are going to be surprised to learn how things were. There is so much that has changed, and so much that has regressed. My heart gets sad when I see that.”
“The elders still have hope”
Alexis noted that the project is rooted in the call, the involvement and the stories of the elders.
“The interviewees have been so grateful that somebody is telling this story with this much care and interest — in a time when so much is being done to erase the facts of people’s experiences — and I don’t take that lightly at all,” said Alexis. “I feel a lot of gratitude that people are entrusting us to do this project.” She hopes that the project, which has taken three years of careful listening to complete, can spark concrete change. “We don’t know what it will look like, but the elders still have hope,” she said. “People are still living with the repercussions of what happened. How can this project be part of remediating a situation that needs to be repaired?” Rev. Mayes hopes the documentary can help influence how the city invests its money. She said, “If part of a city is sick, then the whole city is sick. You have to be able to build around the history and what is unique.” Rev. Dr. Lovelady hopes the film will offer “closure and a progressive move for things in our city — not hanging onto yesterday, but moving into a brighter arena that will benefit not only people now but also people in the
future.” Participants and supporting organizations The Elkhart Black History Project Advisory Committee oversaw the project; members include Rev. Jon Brown, Daniella Panetta and Jason Shenk, in addition to Rev. Mayes and Rev. Dr. Lovelady. Other elders who are featured in the documentary and book include Bonnie Clark, Phyllis Davis, Christine Edgerton, Arthur Fisher, Travis Jackson, Nadine Johnson, Glenda Love, Steven Millsaps, Sondra Mose-Ursery, James Otterbridge, Esther Pettis, Elkhart Mayor Rod Roberson, Jean Robinson, Leroy Robinson, Jr., and Charles Walker. A grant from the Community Foundation of Elkhart County provided funding for the history project, and a grant from Indiana Humanities in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities provided funding for the launch event. At the May 19 event, a videographer will be available to record any participants who would
like to share their stories as part of the project.
Learn more: benhamwestproject.com
Located in Elkhart, Indiana, on ancestral land of the Potawatomi and Miami peoples, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary is a learning community with an Anabaptist vision, offering theological education for learners both on campus and at a distance as well as a wide array of lifelong learning programs — all with the goal of educating followers of Jesus Christ to be leaders for God’s reconciling mission in the world. ambs.edu

Book Sale – The Western District Conference Resource Library in North Newton, KS will be hosting a Book Sale on Saturday, May 6 from 8:30am -12:30pm outside in front of the WDC building. There will be a large variety of donated books and books & DVDs removed from circulation. Donations will be accepted for your selections. Hope to see you there!

#MennoCon23
Online registration is open for MennoCon23, Mennonite Church USA’s leading faith formation event, in Kansas City (Missouri) Convention Center, July 3-6, 2023. Registration is also open for the Youth & Young Adult Climate Summit, July 7, and the Delegate Assembly, July 7-8. Early bird pricing ends on May 14. Register here: convention.mennoniteusa.org/registration

• Download a Power Point slide here: mennoniteusa.org/mennocon23-powerpoint
• Download a printer-friendly flyer here: mennoniteusa.org/mennocon23-flyer-print

On May 1, 2023, Mennonite Church USA will be changing its email address for email marketing communications to EBComm@Communications.MennoniteUSA.org. Read why this is important and get instructions on how to add the new address to your address book here: mennoniteusa.org/notice-new-email

The Mennonite Church USA Executive Board met in Los Angeles on April 13-14, 2023, and voted to forward three proposed organizational resolutions to the Delegate Assembly, including one that recommends shifting the Delegate Assembly to a three-year, or triennial, cycle. Read more here: mennoniteusa.org/executive-board-april-meeting. The Constituency Leaders Council provided feedback on the three proposed organizational resolutions at its meeting in San Antonio, Texas, in March. Read more here: mennoniteusa.org/news/clc-looks

As we are all aware, there has been increasing tension within our conference with respect to our relationship with MC USA. The Network Leadership Team (NLT) has spent considerable time listening to the concerns, suggestions and recommendations from a broad swath of our conference members. Most recently, everyone was encouraged to attend and participate in Regional Discernment Meetings that were held in four locations throughout the conference in January. As a result of this listening and discernment process it is likely that a resolution to withdraw from MC USA and seek a new affiliation for all of our churches will be proposed at our Summer Assembly in July. 

The purpose of this notice is to alert you to that probability and to solicit feedback on the wording of the proposed resolution. A preliminary version is copied below for your review. We encourage pastors to review it with your congregational leaders and provide feedback through your RMC by the end of April, 2023. If your church does not have an RMC, you can reply to this email or feel free to call me, Phil Rosenberger, at 505-236-9219. The final version will be presented near the end of May.

A few things to be aware of as you consider this preliminary resolution:

1. Withdrawing from MC USA will not prevent a church from participating in MCC, MMN, MDS, Everence, etc… All of these agencies welcome the participation of non MC USA churches.
2. We can still be “Mennonite.” There are numerous other Anabaptist/Mennonite Denominations/Networks/Organization that we could potentially join. Some work has already gone into conversations with some of those groups. If you would like a summary of the information we have gathered, let me know and I can send it to you.
3. SCMC Leadership will make a concerted effort to facilitate the transition to a new affiliation by providing information, hosting meetings, arranging consultations, etc.
4. Each church will need to decide for themselves which new group to join. We hope and pray that all of our churches make the same decision and we can remain together in that way. But even if some choose a different group to affiliate with, we can still continue to relate to and encourage one another within the context of our association as a conference. 
5. The proposed resolution would require 2/3’s approval at the summer assembly to be effective.

Below is the Proposed Resolution. 

NOTE: 

This version is Preliminary and changes may be made before the final version is presented.

Proposed RESOLUTION 

Regarding the Affiliation of SCMC with MC USA

to be considered at our 2023 Summer Assembly,

July 21-23 at Pleasant Valley Mennonite Church in Harper, KS.

After focused listening to the constituency of South Central Mennonite Conference (SCMC) it seems clear that the majority of SCMC congregations no longer find affiliation with Mennonite Church USA (MC USA) to be helpful, desired, or consistent with our core beliefs and practices.

Therefore, the Network Leadership Team (NLT) recommends the following:

Resolved that:

1. SCMC withdraw from MC USA. 

1. SCMC will find and opt into another Anabaptist / Mennonite conference, network or organization. SCMC leadership will facilitate this transition by providing resources and assistance beginning immediately and will complete that process by October of 2024.