Leaders within Illinois Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Church USA released a statement encouraging forbearance concerning ministerial credentialing at the conference’s March 6 annual assembly, a year after the conference passed a resolution committing to a year of study while neither removing nor conferring credentials to pastors in same-sex marriages.
For years, Mennonite Church USA convention planners have wanted to offer an online option. The pandemic is pushing the convention across the virtual frontier, with in-person attendance expected to fall far below previous years for the July 6-10 event in Cincinnati.
Akron Mennonite Church hopes to break ground on a four-acre Akron Memory Garden and Nature Preserve, which will incorporate the existing burial ground and repurpose a large lawn to include a nature preserve and education area, walking paths and columbarium.
It was standard practice a century ago in Minneapolis to forbid people of color from living in desirable neighborhoods. Racially exclusive covenants still exist, buried in legalese and decades of history. In recent months, property owners have teamed up with city officials to eliminate the problematic wording.
