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2008-01-22 issue:

Janet Breneman ordained in Lancaster

by Anna Groff

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PITTSBURGH—Janet Breneman, pastor of Laurel Street Mennonite Church—a Lancaster (Pa.) Mennonite Conference congregation—was ordained Jan. 20, although LMC does not permit the ordination of women for ministry.

Linford King, bishop-overseer for Lancaster City District, ordained Breneman. The district’s credentialing committee will hold her credentials.

Isaias Flores, former president of the Honduras Mennonite Church, was the first to credential Breneman, in 1988, during her service in Honduras. Eastern Mennonite Missions had asked Breneman’s district of LMC to license her, but they declined. According to Breneman, Flores told her, “That’s not a problem for us. We’ll license you.”

Flores, with his wife and sister, attended the ordination service in Lancaster.

“I felt enveloped by everyone’s presence,” Breneman says. She says she was also surprised by a video clip and recordings of affirmations from attendees of the Central American Anabaptist Women Theologians in Guatemala last November. Breneman says hearing these messages “broadens the dimensions of the ordination,” as it has implications for women around the world.

King says the service and reception had an “international, multiethnic flavor,” with songs and preaching in Spanish, and Latin food served at the reception.

LMC ministers rejected a resolution to ordain women in a January 2007 vote. Joanne Dietzel, LMC coordinator, said last month: “While LMC is supportive of the congregation’s recognition and call of Janet’s gifts, the current credentialing policy does not recognize the ordination.”

On Jan. 18, King received a letter from the executive committee of the Lancaster Conference bishop board warning of further action if he ordains Breneman, but he said on Jan. 22 that he has heard nothing since.—Anna Groff