Following its first meeting on June 12, the search committee for the next Mennonite Church USA Executive Director is down a member.

Clyde Kratz, executive conference minister for Virginia Mennonite Conference, submitted his resignation to Joy Sutter, the search committee chair, after concerns circulated online regarding his appointment.

In a June 26 phone call, Kratz said, “The executive director is an important role, and I didn’t want to hinder that process. If people saw my being on the committee as an obstacle to its integrity, I felt I should step aside.”

In a June 13 post on the Into Account website, Stephanie Krehbiel and Jennifer Yoder published a call to the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board, urging them to remove Kratz from the committee due to Kratz’s role in response to reports of abuse in Virginia Mennonite Conference. The post urged individuals to contact Patricia Shelly, MC USA moderator, with their concerns and to encourage the EB to appoint a member of the Mennonite Church USA Panel on Sexual Abuse Prevention to the search committee.

“We call on the Executive Board to imagine what positive change could happen in their denomination if the next Executive Director of MC USA were an individual with a history of integrity and transparency in relation to sexualized violence and abuse,” Krehbiel and Yoder wrote.

In a June 26 email, Krehbiel added, “I encourage the search committee to view sexualized violence not as one of many ‘issues’ they need to consider but as an existential threat to the church whose next leader they are choosing.”

As of June 26, the post had been read over 1,550 times. In an email to The Mennonite, Sutter said the search committee did not discuss Into Account’s post or concerns raised by MC USA constituents prior to Kratz’s resignation.

In a June 26 press release, Sutter said, “I deeply respect Clyde’s love for the church and his desire to in no way distract from the holy work of calling a new Mennonite Church USA executive director.” The search committee will continue its work with seven members: Richard Thomas, Samuel Voth Schrag, Zenobia Sowell-Bianchi, Sandra Martinez, Phil Rich, Joyce Kusuma and Sutter. Their next meeting will be held during the MC USA convention in Orlando, July 3-8.