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2009-10-20 issue:

NEWS DIGESTS - Oct. 20

by various authors

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Southeast Conference revokes credentials
GOSHEN, Ind.—The longest-serving pastor in Southeast Mennonite Conference (SMC) has lost his ministerial credentials. On Sept. 15, the conference revoked the credentials for Randy Spaulding, pastor of Covenant Mennonite Fellowship in Sarasota, Fla., in response to his disclosure of his desire to pursue a covenanted same-sex relationship. Spaulding has been a pastor in SMC for 18 years. The Leadership Board cited Spaulding’s decision and “Mennonite Church USA guidelines regarding human sexuality” as the bases for the disciplinary action and asked Spaulding to resign voluntarily. When he refused, the conference withdrew his credentials.

“I am not surprised at these actions taken by the conference,” Spaulding wrote in a Sept. 24 letter to the Leadership Board, conference pastors and congregations. “I recognize and respect the conservative nature of our conference in its theology, membership and its understanding of sexual orientation. ... I am, however, deeply disappointed and saddened in the lack of process and the lack of healthy dialogue that the LB has engaged in with me and my congregation.”

Debra Gingerich, church council chair, sent a letter to SMC on Sept. 22 expressing surprise at the sudden nature of the decision and said, “Our congregation needs time to consider what is God’s will for our church at this time.” Gingerich also promised a formal congregational response to the SMC action by Nov. 30, the date originally set by the Leadership Board for Spaulding to resign.—Everett J. Thomas


Guyton new Intercultural Relations minister
NEWTON, Kan.—Glen Guyton, former director of student ministries for Calvary Community Church in Hampton, Va., is the new denominational minister for Intercultural Relations for Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership. Guyton grew up Presbyterian and is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. His first station of duty was in Hampton, where he began attending Calvary. Guyton’s role is to help the denomination be a more antiracist church. He is a former member of Mennonite Church USA’s Executive Board.—Mennonite Church USA


Mennonite World Conference faces changes
STRASBOURG, France—Mennonite World Conference North American offices are about to change. The call for “reshaping MWC offices and staffing” was one of the goals of the Program Plan 2009-2012 approved by the General Council in Paraguay in July. The office in Kitchener, Ont., will become MWC’s North American headquarters, headed by Albert C. Lobe, MWC North America representative. Ray Brubacher, international coordinator for Assembly 15, who worked from the Kitchener office, will retire at the end of October. Margaret Brubacher, who also worked from the Kitchener office as an administrative assistant in planning and facilitating global assemblies, has completed her work. Additionally, the Fresno, Calif., office will close at the end of 2009. Pakisa Tshimika will complete his role as associate general secretary at that time, moving from a permanent staff role to an occasional assignment as global church advocate. With the closing of the Fresno office, Dennis Becker will complete his work as executive assistant to Tshimika.—MWC


New denominational team commissioned
NEWTON, Kan.—Members of the One Voice team commissioned and anointed denominational ministers during a day of celebration and blessing Sept. 22 in Kansas City, Mo. The gathering was organized as part of the Sept. 24-25 meetings that brought together the boards of Mennonite Church USA agencies. The eight denominational ministers are supported both by Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership and Mennonite Mission Network, representing an intentional recommitment to relationships among denominational agencies.—Mennonite Church USA


Church historian leaves book legacy with EMU
HARRISONBURG, Va.,—Irvin B. Horst, 94, donated or sold 12,000 or more books to Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Va., and contributed in numerous other ways to the school over a 60-year period. Horst, professor emeritus of church history at EMU, devoted much time and energy to acquiring both rare and contemporary books to enrich the collections in the Menno Simons Historical Library in Hartzler Library. Among the most significant acquisitions are two Jan Luiken collections of 100 and 35 items, respectively, including the 1685 illustrated Dutch Martyrs’ Mirror, a Menno Simons collection (66 items) of materials from the 16th to the 20th centuries both by and about Menno Simons and an annuity book collection of 197 items, a “gift” for which Horst receives an annual payment of a percentage of the appraised value.—EMU


Mennonite Publishing Network names editors
WINNIPEG, Man.—Sharon K. Williams begins a new assignment as editor of Adult Bible Study, produced by Mennonite Publishing Network, and Carol Duerksen is the new editor of Purpose magazine. Williams and Duerksen replace the retiring James E. Horsch, who has edited Adult Bible Study and Purpose since 1984. They began their new assignments in early October. Williams, of Norristown, Pa., is the minister of worship at Nueva Vida Norristown New Life Mennonite Church. Duerksen, a member of Tabor Mennonite Church, Newton, Kan., edited With magazine for 18 years and is a writer and editor for Gather ’Round and more.—MPN


CPT members denied entry to Israel
AT-TUWANI, Palestine—On Sept. 25, Israeli authorities at Ben Gurion airport, Tel Aviv, denied entry to Christian Peacemaker Teams member Seán O’Neill. In response to inquiries from O’Neill’s lawyer, the Israeli authorities stated that the ban was due to a court appearance by O’Neill and Joe Wyse (to whom the Israeli authorities denied entry earlier this month) in March, despite the fact that an Israeli judge had ordered them released without charges. On March 8, O’Neill and Wyse videotaped Israeli settlers constructing a road on privately owned Palestinian land near Karmel settlement in the South Hebron Hills but were then detained overnight at a police station in Hebron.—CPT


MCC makes call to prayer, action for Honduras
AKRON, Pa.—Given the political turmoil in Honduras, the Latin America and Caribbean program department of Mennonite Central Committee asks for prayer and for people to call on their own governments to pressure Honduran authorities to act in ways that will bring peace. MCC personnel are concerned about the June 28 military-led coup that deposed President Jose Manuel Zelaya and the subsequent actions of both the de facto government headed by Roberto Micheletti and the ousted president. As the Iglesia Evangélica Menonita Hondureña (Honduran Evangelical Mennonite Church) said in a July 3 public statement, “What remains after the events of Sunday, June 28, is a divided and polarized Honduran society, living in a climate of uncertainty, insecurity and violence.”—MCC


Virginia sale raises slightly less than last year
HARRSIONBURG, Va.—The 43rd annual Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale was held Oct. 2-3 at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds. Preliminary receipts totaled $283,246 for the worldwide relief and service program of Mennonite Central Committee. Last year’s sales total was $307,683. This year’s funds included approximately $21,823 from the “Penny Power” project, in which people collect coins to donate.—Jim Bishop


Gun center closes
Colosimo’s Gun Center, Philadelphia,  closed Sept. 30 under a plea agreement reached in federal court on Sept. 28. A January peace conference that Mennonite Church USA sponsored demonstrated at this gun shop. Owner James Colosimo entered a guilty plea before U.S. district judge Timothy Savage on behalf of Colosimo’s Inc., on charges of making false statements and failing to properly maintain firearms transaction records.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Reed said investigators found that “people working on behalf of Colosimo were selling guns to individuals who certainly should not have received them.”
—Therese Miller


Random violence
Most hate crimes in the United States are committed by youth with no connections to hate groups. One researcher has classified hate-crime perpetrators into three groups: reactionists, who are interested in protecting their resources from intruders; mission offenders, who appeal to a higher authority as they attempt to eradicate what they believe is an inferior group; and thrill seekers (the largest group), who are motivated by boredom, a desire for fun or a desire to feel strong.—The Christian Century


International church theme for winning essays
Tied first-place winners for this year’s John Horsch Mennonite History Essay Contest, sponsored by the Mennonite Church USA Historical Committee, were
“Fragile Bonds and Global Brotherhood: The Ninth Mennonite World Conference in Curitiba, Brazil” by Meredith Lehman of Bethel College, North Newton, Kan., and “Identity in the Midst of Instability: An Analysis of the Oppositional Relationship Between the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Meserete Kristos Church in the 1960s-1980s” by Lydette Assefa of Goshen (Ind.) College.—Mennonite Church USA


SMC names first woman moderator
Dawn Yoder Graber of Sarasota, Fla., became the first woman and the first nonordained moderator of Southeast Mennonite Conference on Oct. 3. Delegates to the conference assembly held at Lakewood Retreat unanimously affirmed Graber to fill the two years remaining in the three-year term of outgoing moderator Marlin Birkey. Graber had been acting moderator since Birkey resigned for health reasons in August. The new moderator teaches Bible at Sarasota Christian School and is a member of Bahia Vista Mennonite Church in Sarasota.—Richard K. MacMaster

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