EPHRATA, Pa. — Sixteen participants in Mennonite Central Committee’s Pipeline to Prison learning tour journeyed through Pennsylvania’s criminal justice system, learning about law enforcement, sentencing, incarceration and re-entry.
EPHRATA, Pa. — Sixteen participants in Mennonite Central Committee’s Pipeline to Prison learning tour journeyed through Pennsylvania’s criminal justice system, learning about law enforcement, sentencing, incarceration and re-entry.
Franklin Mennonite Conference is taking steps to leave Mennonite Church USA, citing concerns over other MC USA conferences’ allowance of same-sex relationships. A proposal to be discussed Nov. 12 during Franklin’s delegate assembly calls for the conference to withdraw from MC USA and remain without affiliation for one year to “seek new vision for FMC and where the most appropriate affiliation would be for the conference.”
HILLSBORO, Kan. — Ryne Preheim wanted to be a Mennonite Brethren pastor. He enrolled at Tabor College in the fall of 2014 to pursue that goal and see if he could reconcile his Christianity with being gay. A year later, Preheim is preparing to transfer after struggling with being an openly gay student at a college that upholds a traditional view of homosexuality. But Tabor is also experiencing dissent, including from alumni who believe it should be more welcoming of LGBT students.
ARCHBOLD, Ohio — Representatives of three Mennonite Church USA area conferences — Lancaster, Franklin and North Central — reported on their processes of deciding whether to leave the denomination Oct. 19-21 at the semiannual meeting of the Constituency Leaders Council.
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.
