Another Mennonite denominational publication is ending. Beacon, the monthly magazine of CMC, is going out of print at the end of the year.
The CMC Publication and Literature Committee made the announcement in Beacon’s November issue.
CMC is the former Conservative Mennonite Conference, a 13,000 member group based in Irwin, Ohio.
Beacon’s December issue will be “the last print edition for now,” the committee announced. It will be replaced by a digital monthly edition with five articles “published primarily by the CMC office staff with some oversight by the Publication and Literature Committee.”
The committee cited “financial struggles” and the retirement of editor Conrad Showalter as reasons for the change.
“If there is enough interest, if it would be found financially viable and an editor would step up, it is possible that the print version could return in some form in the future,” the committee wrote.
A digital asset
The announcement expressed hope that a digital version of the Beacon “will continue to be an asset to CMC and its members churches for many years to come. . . . We believe the switch to digital has potential to increase the readership of the Beacon.”
Digital editions will consist of five articles: one on a theme chosen by the Publication and Literature Committee, one from the CMC mission agency Rosedale International, one from Rosedale Bible College, one from CMC leadership and one from a CMC congregation.
Word of the Beacon’s end came just weeks after the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches announced the winter 2020 issue of its quarterly magazine, MB Herald, will be the last.
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