As thousands of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent face deportation from the Dominican Republic, Mennonite Central Committee is offering humanitarian aid and calling on people to pray and advocate on the behalf of those affected.
As thousands of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent face deportation from the Dominican Republic, Mennonite Central Committee is offering humanitarian aid and calling on people to pray and advocate on the behalf of those affected.
NORTH NEWTON, Kan. — Western District Conference delegates on Oct. 31 gave pastors the freedom to perform same-sex marriages if their congregations approve. The unprecedented action conflicts with Mennonite Church USA’s Membership Guidelines, which forbid pastors to officiate same-sex marriages, and Confession of Faith, which affirms traditional marriage only.
NORTH NEWTON, Kan. — Qadrey Tolliver, 18, a first-year Bethel College student from Kempner, Texas, died in an automobile accident Oct. 20 in Texas. Tolliver was a member of the women’s basketball team. Bethel students learned of her death as they returned from fall break.
The Lancaster Mennonite Conference Board of Bishops has affirmed a resolution recommending the conference withdraw from Mennonite Church USA. The proposal now goes to credentialed leaders for a vote.
BLUFFTON, Ohio — Representatives from across the spectrum of Mennonite education gathered at Bluffton University Oct. 16-18 for a conference on the network’s past, present and future. The event attracted 120 attendees, from elementary schools to colleges and including presidents, scholars, teachers and graduates.
ELKHART, Ind. — Gilberto Pérez Jr. didn’t like seeing a routine litany of run-ins between law enforcement officers and his Latino community in northern Indiana, so he did something about it. Speaking at a Sept. 17 Learning to Undo Racism event for staff of the Mennonite Church USA Elkhart office, he said intentional communication and interaction between the groups has made an improvement.
Rachel Stella of Tiskilwa, Ill., is Mennonite World Review’s new assistant editor and Web editor. She comes to MWR from the NewsTribune in La Salle, Ill., where she was media editor. She managed the newspaper’s website as well as a quarterly women’s magazine and wrote opinion pieces and feature stories. As a reporter and copy editor, she brings community news experience.
Hal Shrader, the lead pastor of Trinity Mennonite Church in Glendale, Ariz., who spoke at a Mennonite Church USA convention worship service this summer, died Oct. 19 in a motorcycle accident outside of Blanding, Utah.
GOSHEN, Ind. — Five months after the birth of Evana Network was announced, the newest movement to link Anabaptism and evangelicalism held its coming-out party Oct. 16-17, emphasizing relationships with God, among its members and with those they want to serve.
When a small Canadian Mennonite conference began going through boxes of old documents a couple of months ago, it found an artifact of significance to Mennonites across the country.
The Christian Mennonite Conference, which changed its name from Chortitzer Mennonite Conference in April, had been sitting literally on top of the Canadian government’s original 19th-century invitation to Mennonites in Ukraine and Russia.
ELKHART, Ind. — The Discernment Group on sexual abuse, a committee formed by Mennonite Church USA in 2013 to address the painful and complex legacy of sexual abuse by renowned theologian and professor John Howard Yoder and the church’s inadequate responses to it, met for the last time on Oct. 5.
WINNIPEG, Man. — When Brian Darweesh and Reem Younes got married, they were living as refugees in Lebanon. They left their homes in Syria fleeing violence and a threat on Darweesh’s life.
Their wedding had no white dress and no party — just a civil ceremony in a foreign country.
But a little more than a year later, the couple had another wedding ceremony, this time in Winnipeg.
