Health, service agencies form alliance

Network of institutions will be accountable to Mennonite Church USA.

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An association of some 70 health-care and human-service organizations formally joined together to become MHS Alliance on March 25. Their combined budgets total $892,651,000 with more than 1,500 employees serving 75,526 clients, many of whom are members of Anabaptist congregations in the United States.

Most of the MHS Alliance member organizations already relate—at least indirectly—to one of three U.S. denominations: Brethren in Christ, Mennonite Brethren and Mennonite Church USA. New bylaws adopted by representatives from those organizations will make MHS Alliance formally accountable to all three denominations after each denomination approves the bylaws, as expected, by July 1.

“[The bylaws] provide a degree of accountability and subordination to the relating denominations,” says Rick Stiffney, CEO and president of Mennonite Health Services. “While we have three denominations that we relate to, Mennonite Church USA is the big one.”

The new relationship to denominational structures is an about-face from the direction established for many of these same Mennonite institutions in the 1980s. At that time Mennonite health-care and human-service organizations—most of which began as ministries of the church—were rebuffed when they asked for a formal accountability to denominational structures (see "Additional Notes" below).

“I remember Mennonite Church saying to us in 1985, ‘You institutions are too complex for us,’ ” says Duane Oswald, Fresno, Calif. At the time, Oswald worked with Mennonite Mental Health Services; currently he owns a consulting business and is moderator of Mennonite Church USA.

The board structure, established by MHS Alliance provides six seats to be filled by the “relating denominations,” six seats to be filled by member organizations and two at-large seats to be filled by the board itself. Of the six seats set aside for the three denominations, four will be for Mennonite Church USA. The Brethren in Christ and Mennonite Brethren denominations will each have one seat.

MHS Alliance members elected their six board members at the March 25-28 convention in San Francisco: Nancy Hopkins-Garriss, Broadway, Va.; John L. Martin, Maumee, Ohio; Wendell Rempel, Reedley, Calif.; F. Jay Shetler, Glendale, Ariz.; LaVern Yutzy, Mt. Gretna, Pa.; and Margaret Zook, Souderton, Pa.

In the “alliance” structure all organizations participate as equal members. In addition, 18 organizations are sponsored by MHS Alliance. That means they will be reviewed annually against a set of Alliance values and have acceded to MHS Alliance certain reserve powers, such as approval of their bylaws, appointment of some board members and Alliance participation in the hiring of a chief executive officer.

Stiffney said that the process of moving from Mennonite Health Services to MHS Alliance resulted in the organization growing: Only one former member dropped out while as many as nine new organizations are joining.—Everett J. Thomas

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Additional Notes

Welcome back

“Once again health-care services are a major denominational ministry,” said Mennonite Church USA Moderator Duane Oswald during Mennonite Health Assembly (see article this page).

It’s a story come full circle for Oswald, who served in 1987 on a task force formed in response to Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)’s decision to withdraw oversight of the mental-health facilities it helped establish following World War II.

“MCC felt we were ready to go out on our own,” said Oswald. “But we wanted accountability. When we turned to the Mennonite Church, they said our ministries were too specialized and sophisticated. We were encouraged to find our church connection with one another.”

It was a similar story with the Mennonite-related nursing homes, retirement communities, acute-care hospitals and agencies serving children, youth and those with developmental disabilities. Many had been developed through [former Mennonite Church] Mennonite Board of Missions (MBM), but in the 1980s potential liability became a concern.

“The Pacific coast Methodist churches were sued for millions of dollars because of an incident at a health-care institution,” explained Gene Yoder, CEO of Greencroft, a continuing-care retirement community in Goshen, Ind. “Many denominations were scared, and that played a role in the Mennonite Church deciding to get out of the health-care business.”

Yoder said a letter from MBM directing Greencroft to find sponsorship elsewhere felt like a “bombshell.” His board of directors wanted to maintain the accountability provided by their relationship to the denomination.

Consequently, in 1988 Mennonite Health Services began serving providers formerly under MBM’s umbrella. Mennonite Health Services now will become MHS Alliance, with accountability to three U.S. denominations.—Leslie Homer-Cattell for Mennonite Health Services News Service