Canadian Mennonite
Volume 9, No. 15
August 1, 2005
‘Can’t keep quiet’ about Canadian decisions
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Delegates formed a Faith and Life Committee and focused on what the purpose and structure of the national church should be at MC Canada’s 2005 annual delegate assembly. Slightly more than 700 Canadians (234 of them delegates) were registered at adult and youth assemblies held from July 4 to 9 in Charlotte, N.C. For the first time since the formation of Mennonite Church Canada, the two assemblies met jointly with Mennonite Church USA’s delegate and youth assemblies.
Canadian and American youths gathered together for worship and service programs for their entire assembly. Adult worship sessions were bi-national, but delegates from the two countries met mostly separately as meeting agendas for the two churches were quite different. One combined session—out of the eight Canadian delegate sessions—was held to discuss the relationship between the two churches. (See Aug. 22 Canadian Mennonite for a report on this combined session.)
Delegate discussion was in round-table format, as it was at the 2004 Mennonite Church Canada Assembly in Winkler, Man., with a designated table spokesperson reporting for each table.
By the numbers: Canadian figures |
| Total adults registered: 293 Total delegates: 234 27 delegates from five area churches (quorum is 27) 207 congregational delegates (quorum is 200) |
Important background information for the assembly was its low attendance: Quorum was just barely met. This is the lowest delegate attendance at an MC Canada assembly or at a Conference of Mennonites in Canada assembly (MC Canada’s predecessor organization) in the last 34 years.
Faith and Life Committee gets nod from delegates
Delegates unanimously approved the formation of a Faith and Life Committee, a new five-person group to address questions of theology, ethics, polity and practice in the church.
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At the Winkler assembly last year, delegates expressed a specific desire for the national church to take a greater role in this area, and this committee is the response. A similar body existed in the old General Conference Church and is ending its work this year in Mennonite Church Eastern Canada.
The mandate of the group is to “attend to the interface” between the Confession of Faith and church identity, “give leadership to Mennonite Church Canada in discerning God’s will on issues of theology, ethics, polity and practice,” and work with Mennonite schools and others to develop resources for study and guidance for the church.
Table groups were mostly supportive of the proposal, some strongly so. “It is very important to approve this,” “We felt the committee was very much needed,” and, “This is an incredibly important committee,” were some comments in table reports.
Within the sense that the group was needed were also some concerns over its level of authority to carry out its work.
“Our major concern is if we see the mandate of this committee as putting out theological fires and making theological pronouncements,” said delegate Barb Draper. “We assume the goal would be to lead us in discernment.”
“Will it be perceived as prescriptive or dialogical?” asked delegate Peter Epp.
“We generally affirm the resolution,” said MC B.C. moderator Doug Epp. “The direction it is taking has encouraged us. We probably need a provincial version of this…. How proactive can this committee be?”
There were suggestions to change the wording of the motion. In the end, the Resolutions Committee stated that the mandate of the group to “give leadership” expressed the right range of activities it would take, and that language was approved by the delegates.
The committee will be made up of two pastors (male and female), one theologian, one Mennonite Church Canada staff member and one additional MC Canada General Board appointee. The group will also meet annually with a reference council composed of area and national church leaders and representatives from each of the four Canadian Mennonite post-secondary schools.
The first three positions listed are elected by the delegate body. The initial three elected were: Rudy Baergen, pastor at Bethel Mennonite Church in Winnipeg; Doreen Neufeld, pastor at Holyrood Mennonite Church in Edmonton; and Karl Koop, associate professor of history and theology at Canadian Mennonite University.
Identity and Purpose Statement established
Delegates also provided guidance on how the national church should structure its overall mission and ministries by establishing a new Statement of Identity and Purpose.
Delegates affirmed that the 13-line statement was biblical, but expressed a desire for the statement to be more distinctively Mennonite, and suggested that some language used was too mild for its intended purpose.
“It says nothing about the transforming nature of our experience with God,” said Ray Friesen, co-pastor of Zion Mennonite Church in Swift Current and Emmaus Mennonite Church in Wymark, Sask. “The fact that we ‘commit resources and efforts’ seems too bland. We commit more than surface things.”
The Resolutions Committee also added the word “reconciling” to the statement, to strengthen its Anabaptist distinctiveness.
As a result of this feedback, the statement was slightly changed to emphasize the commitment of our entire selves to its stated goal of “calling, equipping, and sending the church to engage the world with the reconciling Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
In revised form, the statement was nearly unanimously adopted.
“It’s not replacing the [Vision: Healing and Hope] statement,” said Jeremy Bergen on behalf of the Resolutions Committee. “It’s the next step in our understanding of what we do together as a national church.”
Church membership compared to marriage or family
Delegates wrestled with what expectations of MC Canada church membership should be. A small number of churches—located in B.C., Alberta and Manitoba—have asked for the option to be members of their area conference only, but not of the national church body. Current national church bylaws make church membership in MC Canada automatic when a local church joins its area conference.
In addition to churches wanting some distance from MC Canada, a membership option like this might be attractive to churches beginning to connect with the conference, said general secretary Dan Nighswander. This arrangement would be open to congregations in all area conferences, but with a time limit for review. “We should encourage area conferences to work with MC Canada to define membership categories that will embrace the fullest possible number and range of member congregations, in the hope and expectation that we will all grow toward full fellowship and belonging together under Christ our head,” he said.
The table groups that reported were generally supportive of more flexible models of membership.
“Within a family, we have different levels of participation,” said delegate David Martin. “We sometimes distance ourselves periodically, but we still are part of the family.”
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“The covenant is like a marriage,” said delegate Lynne Williams. “You don’t have everything worked out, but you make a commitment to the relationship…. We believe there can be a variety of statuses with area conferences, and that people can have a variety of statuses if they have good reasons.”
There were no resolutions presented on this issue. The five-year agreement with churches in B.C. that currently allows for area church conference membership only expires in May 2006.
Leadership formation a top priority
Delegates ranked general church priorities and collectively stated that calling and equipping leaders should be the top priority for the national church.
The top priorities identified by delegates were, in order:
• Finding and forming church leaders who can lead “toward what God wants us to become” and who “have a vision to expand our sphere of influence.”
• Working so that “healing and hope in Canada and other countries will increase.”
• Working so “every member and congregation will have a heart that seeks to know and do what God is doing.”
The least important priority for the national church was that “every member will be able to articulate our Confession of Faith and their personal faith.”
This information is general feedback for the MC Canada General Board. There were no statements made on how the prioritization might affect programs in the future.
Concern over 2004 surplus; spending to rise slightly in 2005
“Here is the executive summary: We received more money than we spent by approximately $106,000,” reported Lloyd Plett, interim chief financial officer in his summary of MC Canada financial results for the year ending Jan. 31, 2005.
Both revenue and expenses were down slightly from the previous year. A surplus was achieved by reducing spending more than the reduction in revenue.
“This is not a good thing,” stated Ingrid Peters-Fransen, a member of MC Canada’s Financial Policies and Audit Committee, who presented the rest of the audited financial statement. “What that means is that Financial Policies and Audit Committee has done its job. It has been prudent. We out-counted the bean counters. We spend our lives saying no. We say no to Dan Nighswander, to Jack Suderman, to Dave Bergen, to Pam Peters-Pries. Why do we say no? Because our revenues are down. We look at that, panic, slam on the brakes, and end up with expenses less than revenues. That means the three of us on Financial Policies and Audit Committee get to override the wishes of delegates. That’s scary.
“There are cuts to our programs. They are significant. A positive of $106,000—[but] this is not a for-profit agency. This means there are programs we are not doing,” she said.
Delegates approved a national church budget that holds donation expectations to 2004-2005 levels—as is MC Canada financial policy—and increases spending slightly, including spending for cost-of-living salary increases. The budget anticipates an operating deficit of $75,000. Transfers from reserves will be used to cover this deficit, resulting in a zero balance bottom line for the fiscal year ending January 2006.
Edmonton welcomes delegates in 2006
Delegates voted to continue meeting once per year, based on table group feedback from Winkler, where twice as many comments favoured this arrangement over biannual assemblies. The decision will be reviewed in 2010.
Jim Shantz closed the Friday afternoon delegate session with an invitation to the next assembly: “As conference pastor for Alberta and an MC Alberta delegate, and also an Edmontonian, I invite you to come to Edmonton, Alberta, next summer….
“There are a lot of advantages to meeting in Alberta. We have no provincial sales tax…. Also, the most compelling reason is to come and enjoy what God is doing in Edmonton. We’ll see you in Alberta.”
General secretary reflects on last six years
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The following are excerpts from an address by outgoing MC Canada general secretary Dan Nighswander on the second day of the bi-national assembly in Charlotte, N.C.
On June 18, the Globe and Mail started a series of articles on things Canadians do well. The first skill they discussed was separating conjoined twins. Apparently, Canada is the country of preference for people from around the world for this kind of surgery.
Friends, this is no surprise to us. We at Mennonite Church Canada know a lot about separating conjoined twins. That’s what we’ve been doing for the last six years. And I think we’ve developed considerable skill at it.
Six years ago this month, I was introduced as the person who would succeed Helmut Harder as general secretary of the Canadian Church. This is now the last assembly where I will have the opportunity to address you as general secretary. So today I want to review some of the developments in MC Canada during the last six years. And I want to name some of my hopes and dreams for the future.
Over the years, we have passed resolutions in support of health care agencies and workers, and resolutions in support of agriculture—in fact, we added a day of discussion to the assembly three years ago to talk about issues of food production and land use under the title “Making peace with the land.” We passed a resolution of concern about anti-Semitic acts of violence.
But there have been many issues that we have not even begun to discuss, issues that, because we are the church, we cannot avoid discussing and acting upon. There is a proposal before us this week for the mandating of a committee to lead us in the work that we must do in discerning matters of theology, ethics, polity and practice. I have high hopes and enthusiasm for the possibilities that are inherent in the proposed Faith and Life Committee.
We all know that a set of questions around homosexuality and same-sex marriage have engaged us both as citizens of Canada and as citizens of the Kingdom of God. Some of the issues are pastoral; some are theological; some are prior questions about how we discern God’s voice, the relationship between Scripture and tradition and experience in giving guidance to issues of faith and life.
In almost all the assemblies since 1995 we have talked about the Canadian Mennonite—first, whether to use it as our national church paper; then how to share the costs; then how well it serves us.
In the past six years, Canadian Mennonite University has evolved faster and further than anyone publicly predicted it would. The governance pattern has changed entirely; the program is expanding; and this week we will consider whether to transfer ownership of the property to the university.
In the transformation of MC, GC and CMC into MC Canada and MC USA, perhaps the most contentious issue was defining membership. A great deal of energy was invested in that, and the task is not yet finished. One of the things we will talk about this week is our understanding of membership, and I think we have a chance to make significant progress together on this.
One of my hopes for us is that we will learn to think with our minds and feel with our hearts the precious gift of belonging to each other, not as a matter of control or obligation or suspicion, but as a wonderful privilege. I look forward to the day when we will embrace each other across Canada and leave room in our embrace for others to join us in our communities of grace, joy and peace, and through which God’s healing and hope flow to the world. I look forward to the day when we can express and experience the fullness of the joy of being in communion with each other, of relishing the privilege of belonging to each other under Christ our head.
It has been for me a great disappointment that the Northwest Conference chose not to join MC Canada. One of my hopes and dreams is that one day the NWC would re-join MC Canada. I still believe God might open up a way for that relationship to be healed and full reconciliation to take place.
Back to the conjoined twins, now fully separated: the procedure of the surgery and re-construction is interesting, even fascinating, for some of us. But far more important is the quality of life that the separated twins experience. After six years I can say with confidence that the surgery has been a success. In spite of setbacks, unexpected developments and continuing challenges, the separated twins have not only survived, they are thriving. And what’s far more important, they are growing, as Jesus did, “in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and humanity.”
I look back on the past six years with considerable satisfaction and with surprised gratitude that I was able to be part of all that has taken place. I recognize my mistakes and shortcomings, and I’m grateful for the wise and skilled persons who have compensated for them. I have been blessed with an excellent staff and a wise board. May God continue to bless them all.
The vision and enthusiasm of youth and young adults, the passion of newer ethnic groups who are part of us, the stable and strong faithfulness of mature people are all signs of the possibilities that lie before us.
I have great hopes for MC Canada. I hold those hopes not because of what I think we can do, but because I believe in what God can do. As Michele Hershberger said in the sermon last evening, I too believe God is healing our brokenness and is making us into the church that God wants us to be. I believe that God is working in and through, and also sometimes in spite of, us. God is faithful; God will bring to completion the work that God has begun. God is faithful. God is.
Canadian song leaders, new hymns enliven worship
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Seating was at a premium as 2,500 adults gathered in the ballroom of the Charlotte Convention Center for worship each day. Even those far from the stage could see facial expressions and feel part of the worship experience because the activities on stage were always projected onto two large screens.
A major highlight was the singing, led by Canadian musicians Paul and Linda Dueck, Bryan Moyer Suderman, Andrea and Jamie Weber Steckley, and Carlos and Angelika Guenther Correa. Their joy in worshipping God through music was infectious. Paul Dueck could hardly contain his excitement as he chose songs from the new Hymnal supplement, Sing the Journey.
A daily feature was a video clip providing brief glimpses of what had happened the day before. Snippets from adult and youth worship were interspersed with snapshots of seminars, concerts, service projects and people hanging out in hallways. No one could participate in everything that was offered at the assembly, but the daily videos gave everyone a sense of being part of the whole.
The “Ted and Lee” drama team of Ted Swartz and Lee Eshleman provided interesting new interpretations of the biblical passages. On Tuesday morning Ted and Lee represented the Sanhedrin, dressed as judges in black gowns and long white wigs. The juxtaposition of the ancient story with contemporary comments and witty asides kept the audience laughing while at the same time providing a fresh perspective to the story.
Ken Medema, with his unique gift of instantaneously composing a song that reflects the theme of a worship service, was also widely appreciated. On the final day he sang a song about the Mennonites going home from Charlotte. “They are dangerous people; they could make some changes in history,” he sang.
Although there were many activities to choose from, the attendance at adult worship was always very high. Many people must have agreed with Jeanne Smucker of Pennsylvania, who said, “I love the worship; the speakers are fascinating.”
Michele Hershberger, chair of the Bible department at Hesston College, Kan., reflected on the story of Acts 3:1-10. She suggested we should not think of ourselves as Peter and John, but as the beggar who was healed. “We do not carry the load,” she said.
Barbara Moses, founding principal of Philadelphia Mennonite High School, entitled her talk, “Wimp to witness.” When the request came to start this high school, she didn’t want to do it, but after some dramatic messages from God she finally decided to do so if it was God’s will. The impact of her story was heightened by her amazing success in turning out high school graduates.
Bishop Leslie and Natalie Francisco, pastors of the large Calvary Community Church in Hampton, Va., spoke about the five core values of their church: being Christ-centred, excellence-prepared, seeker-friendly, service-oriented and family-focused.
On the final day, Ray Aldred, a member of the Swan River Cree Nation and director of First Nation Alliance Churches of Alberta, gave a critique of traditional western theology.
“Conservatism and liberalism has never saved anybody,” he said. Traditional western theology, which depends on a scientific worldview, is not big enough to include what is happening among First Nations Christians and among other Christians around the world, he said.
God used aboriginal people to teach Aldred about theology. Western Christians “are arrogant enough to think that we are the first ones who have gotten it right,” he said.
Aldred encouraged Mennonites to sit down and listen as they read the gospel. They should study indigenous theology because “it is the theology of the future.”
Throughout the worship services the “Can’t keep quiet” theme was reinforced and everyone was encouraged to talk about their faith. A willingness to reach out to others was shown in the offerings. The adults collected $17,000 and the youth $30,800 to develop lay leaders in the growing church in China, and the adults collected $11,800 for the Hmong Mennonite Church project in Hickory, NC.
Peace without the Peacemaker is futile
At Tuesday morning’s adult worship session, Nelson Kraybill called on Mennonites not only to make peace but also to name the Peacemaker.
The president of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., used the image of the “piano man,” a mysterious person who recently appeared in Britain with a marvellous ability to play the piano but who can’t or won’t speak. Kraybill challenged the Mennonite Church not to be like the piano man, but to talk openly about Jesus.
He encouraged the church to imitate the growing Spanish-speaking Mennonite churches that witness through their daily relationships. “God, let us be virtuoso piano players and give us words to say who we are,” said Kraybill.
According to Kraybill, “The central issue facing Mennonites in North America will centre around Christology.” A clear Christology will bring us to worship, which will be the power of our mission, he said. We can learn from the wider evangelical community about Christ-centred worship.
North Americans often stop talking about Jesus because of sensitivity to other religions. There is also pressure to choose a civil religion that talks about Jesus but takes part in society’s consumerism and militarism.
A Dutch pastor visited the seminary in the past year and told Kraybill that in a generation the Mennonite Church in the Netherlands had gone from 50,000 members to only 9,000. Asked why, a Dutch woman said, “We kept the deeds but lost the words.” Now there is a renewal in the Netherlands, and some churches are growing.
Evangelism is more than placing tracts in public places, Kraybill suggested. He told about Bernard, an agnostic he knew in England who was attracted to Mennonites because of their peace stance. After more than 20 years, he decided to be baptized as a believer.
Evangelism is a matter of putting words, deeds and community before people, but knowing that “God is already drawing them,” Kraybill concluded.
Colombian Christians knows ‘kingdom conflict’ first-hand
Ravaged by a 60-year-old civil war, the pain, suffering and horror is great in Colombia.
Peter Stucky, a pastor and president of the Colombian Mennonite Church, said during Wednesday morning’s adult worship that living, working and being faithful in the midst of this has meant that the “gates of hell” are often very close by as the “kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness oppose each other.”
“The kingdom of the world tries to defeat the kingdom of light, sometimes by force, but often by seduction,” Stucky said.
He told stories of church members facing kidnapping, torture, execution, death threats from illegal and legal groups in Colombia, and the reality of being refugees. “But they carry on with the power of Jesus,” Stucky said.
In the last three years, 70 Protestant church pastors and leaders have been martyred. “We are a wounded country and people; we can’t heal ourselves,” Stucky said. “The gates of hell are not a distant symbol for us. They are a daily reality.”
The reality of life in Colombia keeps the issues of the dual kingdoms, faith in God, loving enemies, forgiveness and pacifism at the forefront of the Mennonite Church there. “Jesus has given us authority over our enemies. You have authority and power you don’t know about and can’t imagine,” Stucky said. “Jesus is asking you to put it into practice and heal individuals and whole nations. This is true in your [North American] society, as well as in ours.”
The Colombian Mennonite Church has made choices to locate its ministries where the poor and marginalized are, and to work with displaced people, refugees, children and the ill. “We do it all in the name of Jesus,” Stucky said. “Like Peter and John, these are ordinary people in Colombia who are filled with extraordinary grace and power from Jesus to change the world.”
Mennonite Canada general secretary Dan Nighswander and Jim Schrag, executive director of MC USA, offered blessings to the Colombian Mennonite Church, which were then returned by Stucky. Because of North American wealth, power, success and security, Stucky said, “It is very hard to remain faithful in a society like this, maybe harder than it is for us in Colombia.”
New realities for funding ministries and missions
How should decisions be made to spend money on ministry projects that are beyond Mennonite Church Canada’s budget? Should the national church focus on short- or long-term ministry, local or international missions? These were the questions delegates wrestled with at discernment sessions in Charlotte.
Responses contrasted an earlier financial report when finance committee representative Ingrid Peters-Fransen noted the committee is in the unfortunate position of saying “no” to requests for ministry projects because of limited resources. Instead, delegates were challenged to say “yes”—and then flesh out the implications of such affirmative action.
Delegate responses noted several tensions, although a number of table groups pointed out that the strengths of every level of church must be married for the strongest possible result:
• While local congregations bring passion, they lack the expertise, experience, and discernment of the wider, national church;
• Congregational engagement with non-Anabaptist mission agencies is continually growing;
• Congregations need the national church to select ministries that best represent Anabaptist Christians.
For many church members and local congregations, mission support boils down to personal relationships. Those close to a congregation are often most successful at engaging passions and generating funds.
MC USA is currently building on this relational familiarity through Mission Support Teams (MSTs). MSTs are made up of friends, family and fellow parishioners who support an individual or family with a passion for a particular ministry.
Various funding models have their own strengths and weaknesses. With the input from delegates in Charlotte, MC Canada leaders hope to find a way that builds on the strengths of both unified and relational funding models.
U.S. Customs turns back Cuban paintings
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Three blank spots on a wall honour places where works by Cuban artists would have hung as part of the “In God’s Image” exhibit at the joint MC Canada/MC USA assembly. The pieces were not stolen or lost. Instead, United States Customs officials denied entry of the paintings at the Canadian border because of a longstanding U.S. embargo on Cuban goods.
“[The paintings] are not political in any way,” said Ray Dirks of the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery in Winnipeg. “One of them is a painting of a church…it’s just ridiculous.”
The three paintings—by Cheleni and Adrian Infante—were to be part of an exhibit of around 100 art pieces and daily life photos collected from 17 countries.
Palliser Furniture, a company owned by a Mennonite based in Winnipeg, had agreed to transport the five crates containing the exhibit from Winnipeg to Charlotte as part of a load of furniture on its way to one of the company’s factories in North Carolina. The truck, loaded with more than 300 items, mostly furniture, was turned back at the border after Customs agents refused to allow the three Cuban art pieces to enter the United States. The driver returned to Winnipeg.
Dirks said it was difficult for him to arrange transport of Cuban art across the border five years ago, but congressmen from New York and New Jersey intervened and the pieces were allowed to pass into the United States.
“I knew how regulations were in the past,” Dirks said. After contacting U.S. Customs agents, he was told regulations had changed and the art was not acceptable for transport into the U.S.
Instead of viewing the Cuban paintings, visitors to the exhibit in Charlotte saw a note of explanation in their place.
“I left a hole in the exhibit so people can know what happened,” Dirks said. He hopes this incident will spark discussion, saying, “I think it’s important.”