Executive Board meets with Open Letter leaders

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The Mennonite Church USA Executive Board on Tuesday afternoon greeted new members, said goodbye to outgoing members and met with three organizers of the “Open Letter to Mennonite Church USA” regarding “radical hospitality,” or welcoming LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) members.

The Executive Board (EB) invited organizers of an open letter sent to Mennonite Church USA members this spring to Tuesday’s meeting, its final one of this biennium. Weldon Nisly, pastor of Seattle Mennonite Church; Cindy Lapp, pastor of Hyattsville (Md.) Mennonite Church, and Karl Shelly, pastor of Assembly Mennonite Church, Goshen, Ind., explained the process of developing the letter, which Lapp said was signed by about 1,400 people, including 125 calling themselves pastors.

Mennonite Church USA moderator Sharon Waltner said, “It’s crucial that we have conversation about our passions and concerns.” She asked the three about their hopes for the letter.

Lapp noted that people are afraid. “I hope we can live out of love rather than fear.”

Nisly said he hoped to encourage a new kind of conversation, using the denomination’s statement on agreeing and disagreeing in love as a guideline. He said he hoped for a moratorium on the disciplining of congregations and for a trust of pastors.

“As long as discipline is the main way of responding to this concern, we will always have conflict,” he said.

Shelly noted that “this is the only issue on which congregations have been disciplined” and asked, “Can we create a safer place to discern together?”

EB member Terry Shue asked if there had been conversation with conference leaders. Each responded that they had communicated with leaders in their respective conferences. Otherwise, the letter went to the entire denomination.

Janeen Bertsche Johnson, another EB member, said she was on the group in 2000 that helped create membership guidelines for the developing Mennonite Church USA. At that time, she said, there was a backlash to another welcoming letter, and the guidelines became harsher than she would have wished.

EB member Charlotte Hardt agreed with an observation of Shelly’s that some leaders did not sign the letter out of fear of reprisal.

Samuel Lopez, one of four outgoing EB members, said later that the open letter is “a sensitive issue for the Hispanic Mennonite church” and that he hoped the Executive Board would take all MC USA members into account.

Besides Lopez, Edie Landis, Sue Miller and Olivet McGhee are leaving EB, having completed their terms. Waltner is also leaving as moderator but will continue to meet with the board for two years as ex-moderator.

New EB members include Tina Begay, Farmington, N.M.; Juanita Nuñez, Ocoee, Fla.; Elizabeth Soto, Lancaster, Pa., and Dick Thomas, Ronks, Pa., nominated for moderator-elect. These four require the affirmation of delegates later this week.

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