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2007-06-19 issue:

Children neglected in San José issue

by Carol Grieser, children’s coordinator, with support from Susan Graber, preschool coordinator, and Judy Friesen, infant and toddler coordinator

Print Article

I was looking forward to reading the May 15 issue about San José 2007. I saw a wonderful article about the youth convention, and the “Get Ready for San José” article mentioned youth and young adults, and I looked for something about the children. I finally found it—one whole sentence: “Conventions will also be held for junior high and children.” Again, children were relegated to an afterthought.



We have worked hard to help Mennonite Church USA leaders realize that children are important and are not an afterthought. At Charlotte, children were shown respect and value in reporting during and after the convention, but were afterthoughts in preconvention reporting. It seems the Mennonite media again needs to be reminded that in San José, children are also having a convention (not babysitting) with a curriculum, worship, workshops and service project. The children, along with their parents, should see the church periodicals report on their conventions as well as the other conventions.



The theme for San José is “Live the Call,” and for the junior high youth and children we hope you will see this in part as a call to action for your periodical to “live the call” for children. They are not only the future church but the church of today and need to be seen as vital and important to the growth and health of Mennonite Church USA.

Associated Article: Get ready for San José