For The Record

Submit birth, marriage and obituary records online.

Personal Ads

Meet new friends today!

Advertising

Put your message in front of 19,000 readers.

PDF documents on this site require the free Adobe Reader:

Get Adobe Reader

2010-10-01 issue:

New generation of planners feels freedom

by Laurie Oswald Robinson

Print Article

When the former General Conference (GC) Menno­nite Church and the former Mennonite Church (MC) held their premerger, joint convention at Wichita (Kan.) ’95, Rachel Swartzendruber Miller was a teenager.

Today, she is director of convention planning for Menno­nite Church USA, which was formed when those churches merged in 2002. During planning for the past several conventions, including Pittsburgh 2011­­––Mennonite Church USA biennial convention––she has seen how time can blur old distinctions, while not entirely erasing them.

Youth worship planning committee members display the Pittsburgh 2011 convention poster. Front, from left: Marisa Alemán-Cantú, Glen Guyton. Back, from left: Andrew Gordon, Shelly Miller, Grace Pam, M. Jeremy Ours and Shé Hall. Photo By Laurie Oswald Robinson.

She and other Mennonite Church USA leaders who grew up in the 1990s feel freer to shape conventions around the future of the merged church, even as they are reminded of the MC-GC histories and tensions that fired the forging of transformation.

"According to the Mennonite Church USA bylaws, we are directed to choose convention worship planning committees based on certain ratios," Miller says. Those ratios include 50/50 women to men, 20/80 racial/ethnic people to Anglo/European and 40/60 former GC to MC backgrounds.

"But it's getting harder and harder when selecting planning committees to even tell who was GC and who was MC," she says. Given the natural evolution of the merger, Miller is glad the 40/60 GC to MC mandate for convention planning appointees ends in 2011.

"We want to choose people for the gifts they bring to the table, rather than using premerger paradigms that divide us," she says. "In doing that sensitively, I believe God's Spirit would have us trust that at the end of the day, the two traditions will be equally represented."

Glen Guyton, associate executive director for constituent resources for Mennonite Church USA, also feels that former GC-MC distinctions are fading. And they have never held as much value among racial/ethnic groups and congregations, who often have been occupied with other priorities.

"The racial/ethnic groups have tended to be more regional, even binational, in focus," Guyton says. "For example, the many Asian groups include members from Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada. Often, the MC-GC divisions don’t apply. If you are an Asian immigrant who comes to America but still feels ties to your native land, the geographical borders—let alone the former denominational boundaries—won't mean as much to you."

Ervin Stutzman, executive director for Mennonite Church USA, agrees that this new season calls for new trust and openness. Yet the church should not expect itself to erase those distinctions entirely, he says. "These distinctions keep us aware of the social—and organizational—realities that have shaped us to be who we are," he says. "For example, GCs as a general rule had more relational connections to Canadian Mennonites, and that is a rich legacy."

Stutzman, who served as moderator of the emerging Mennonite Church USA from 2001 to 2003, is now at the helm of the merged church.

"It's certainly true that MC-GC distinctions aren’t important among our youth, who were not involved in matters pertinent to area conferences in the former churches," he says. "The younger a person is, the more likely it is that he or she will not be concerned with these issues.

"But it's equally true that some constituents will think about these things for years to come, and that doesn't have to be a bad thing. These distinctions will always matter on some level, because they keep us mindful of the positive formation of history," he says.

Reader Comments

Add Comments
  • Posted by Russ Eanes at Friday, October 08, 2010 at 09:38 AM

    This is encouraging. As someone who is not an ethnic Mennonite, I have to admit that I have always found the GC/MC thing somewhat tiresome, at best. I've been waiting for the day when we could finally be a "post-merger" church and it appears that we seem to be arriving.

  • Posted by joseph.penner at Thursday, November 04, 2010 at 02:19 PM

    I suspect that GC/MC differences are still present with youth and young people and that the dynamics will live for another generation. Though most youth don't even know about "GC/MC," it is often because they are fully ensconced in a world of one or the other, and ignorance can be as brutal and divisive as animosity. Inspite of attempts to eradicate the memory of "old distinctions," when these "ensconced" MCs and GCs finally travel beyond their borders or encounter Mennonites from another tradition, the language of "GC/MC" is helpful for understanding the differences. The hope for a future of unity rests in the emergence and nurturing of non-traditional Mennonite leaders who have discovered and are inspired by the Anabaptist roots, which means not the MCs or GCs give in to each other but that both make way for new voices.

Current Stories

Articles

News stories, digests and Meno Acontecer

Columns

Readers Say

Additional Notes

Brides to the Cross
Pittsburgh 2011 will be held July 4-9, 2011, in downtown Pittsburgh. The theme, "Bridges to (the) Cross," is inspired by 2 Corinthians 5:16-20 and by the many bridges that span the City of Three Rivers. The theme is twofold: first, as instruments of Christ's reconciliation, we have many "bridges to cross." Second, God calls us to be ambassadors for Christ and to serve as "bridges to the cross."

Subscribe