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2007-12-18 issue:

Top 10 news stories during 2007 for Mennonite Church USA

Bluffon University's baseball team's bus accident in Atlanta leads the list.

by Anna Groff

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1. Bluffton University mourns seven deaths

A charter bus carrying Bluffton (Ohio) University’s baseball team crashed at an Interstate 75 exit in Atlanta on March 2. The deceased include Bluffton students Zachary Arend (Oakwood, Ohio); Tyler Williams (Lima, Ohio); David Betts (Bryan, Ohio); Scott Harmon (Lima, Ohio) and Cody Holp (Arcanum, Ohio); the bus driver, Jerome Niemeyer, and his wife, Jean Niemeyer, both of Columbus Grove, Ohio. (See March 20.)

2. Untimely passings of MC USA leaders

Lee Eshleman, 43, lost a long struggle with depression and died by suicide at his Harrisonburg, Va., home on May 17. Eshleman was a part of the dramatic duo Ted & Lee. Ted & Lee performances at the Mennonite Church USA convention in San José, Calif., were canceled. (See June 5.)

Anne Stuckey, associate pastor at Zion Mennonite Church in Archbold, Ohio, and a columnist for The Mennonite, died May 31 in an automobile accident near Peru, Ill. Stuckey, 54, of Somerset, Mich.,  apparently lost control of her vehicle on a rain-slicked Interstate 80. (See June 19.)

Miriam Martin, conference minister and administrator of Mennonite Church USA’s Atlantic Coast Conference and vice chair for The Mennonite’s board of directors, died July 3 after a brief illness. She was 64. Martin had worked in conference ministries for 16 years. In 2003, she became conference minister and in 2005 was named Atlantic Coast’s missional church development coordinator. (See Aug. 7.)



Mennonite Church USA executive director Jim Schrag (right) offers a prayer of confession for sins against Native Americans. Steve Cheramie Risingsun is at left. Photo by Lowell Brown.

3. Mennonite Church USA meets at San José

Nearly 6,300 people participated in Mennonite Church USA’s biennial convention in 2007, held July 2-6 in San José, Calif. This was the first Mennonite Church USA convention to be held on the West Coast. Prior to this convention, the last one on the West Coast was the (former) Mennonite Church’s Oregon ’91 convention in Eugene.

Delegates at San José 2007 passed a resolution for Mennonite Church USA to support a bill before the U.S. Congress apologizing to Native Americans for their treatment throughout U.S. history and a resolution to continue working at a plan that could provide health insurance for all pastors and church workers in Mennonite Church USA congregations. (See July 24.)

4. Lancaster Conference vote on ordination

Lancaster (Pa.) Mennonite Conference ministers did not sufficiently affirm a recommendation from the LMC Board of Bishops that would have allowed for the ordination of women. The decision emerged from a ballot count on Jan. 19; all active ordained and licensed ministerial leaders in the conference were eligible to vote. There were 455 active credentialed leaders in LMC. Of the 359 credentialed leaders who voted, 65.74 percent affirmed the recommendation and 34.26 percent did not affirm the recommendation. LMC’s constitution requires 66.67 percent for approval. (See Feb 6.)

5. Growing ecumenical relations (theme)

Mennonite Church USA accepted an apology from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In late April, on behalf of the Executive Board of Mennonite Church USA, executive director Jim Schrag sent a letter to Mark S. Hanson, ELCA’s presiding bishop, thanking the ELCA for adopting a declaration expressing regret for persecution of Anabaptists. (See July 3). Delegates at San José 2007 supported a proposal to join Christian Churches Together, a fellowship of Christian churches in the United States. (See July 24).

German Catholics and Mennonites assembled in Hamburg, Germany, Sept. 21-22 for a conference on “Healing of Memories,” a joint response of the Association of Mennonite Congregations in Germany and the Roman Catholic German Bishops Conference to the official report “Called Together to Be Peacemakers.” (See Nov. 6.)

Mennonite World Conference sent a delegation of 10 people to meet with Catholic church leaders, including Pope Benedict XVI, in Vatican City, Oct. 18-23. (See Nov. 20.)

6. MCC sets meeting with Ahmadinejad

Amid tensions between Iran and the United States, Mennonite Central Committee coordinated a Sept. 26 meeting between Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and more than 100 religious leaders from the United States and Canada. The meeting, held in New York City, was the third such dialogue MCC helped organize between the Iranian president and U.S. religious leaders. (See Oct 16.)

7. Mennonite Church USA delegation to Congo

To explore church-to-church relationships between two Mennonite conferences in Congo and Mennonite Church USA, a delegation of 13 people traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Central Africa, for two weeks in February. The conversation between Mennonite Church USA and leaders of the Congolese churches began at the Mennonite World Conference Assembly in Zimbabwe in 2003. Jim Schrag, executive director of Mennonite Church USA, says a church-to-church relationship works to meet one of the denomination’s goals of nurturing global relationships. (See March 20.)

8. Church Member Profile 2006 released

Conrad L. Kanagy, associate professor of sociology at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College, released data about Mennonite Church USA members that was part of the 2006 Church Member Profile. The survey found that the average age of Mennonites rose from 49 in 1989 to 54, that racial/ethnic congregations are growing, and the percent of “noncradle” Mennonites—neither parent being Mennonite—has risen since 1972 from 17 percent to 26 percent. Mennonite Church USA also had 16 percent fewer U.S. members than did its predecessor denominations in 1989. (See Feb. 6.)

9. Health insurance plan for pastors

Delegates to San José 2007 voted to continue working at a plan that could provide health insurance for all pastors and church workers in Mennonite Church USA congregations. Mennonite Church USA delegates began working on health-care access at Atlanta 2003 by authorizing the Healthcare Access Initiative. Next steps for the plan: working with denominational agencies and schools to enlist their participation; working with area conferences; and finally inviting congregations to participate. (See July 24.)

10. Täuferjahr opens in Switzerland

A March 24 service at the Protestant church in Langnau, Switzerland, marked the beginning of the “Anabaptist commemorative year” in this canton’s rural Emmental region. More than 200 events recalled the persecution of Anabaptists that began during the Reformation and did not end until the early 19th century. (See May 1.)

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