More than 7,500 people participated in the June 30-July 5 gathering for Mennonite Church USA members in Columbus, Ohio (see below). The event, dubbed Convention 2009 by Executive Leadership, was designed as multiple conventions happening conjointly with one joint worship service on July 2.

These disparate venues provided distinctly different experiences for each group. Furthermore, participants in any one of the venues would have had different experiences from others in the same venue. So it is not possible to publish a convention issue that is representative of any one person’s experiences. Instead, this issue of The Mennonite is intended for the 90 percent of our readers not at Convention 2009. It is our attempt to capture the activities, emotions and achievements of the week.

The largest contingent at Convention 2009 were the 4,200 youth and sponsors who participated in the youth convention. In many ways, it is this critical mass of participants that determines the kind of facilities needed for Mennonite Church USA’s biennial gathering. As usual, the youth worship services were filled with high-octane energy, powerful preaching and inspired singing.

The business of the denomination happened at Delegate Assembly. New to this year’s assembly was a Dwelling in the Word discipline each morning that culminated in some unprecedented communal hermeneutics around the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus in Luke 19.

During the delegate sessions, several speakers noted that it has been 10 years since Mennonite Church and General Conference Mennonite Church delegates voted to create Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada. As executive director Jim Schrag said in his July 1 sermon at the adult worship service, it is now time for Mennonite Church USA to unfurl its sails and let God’s Spirit fill them.

The church’s responses to leaders and congregations not in compliance with our teachings on human sexuality generated two sidebar actions during the week. Three pastors who helped draft an “Open Letter” met with the Executive Board on June 30 and asked for a change in denominational polity. The most visible—and provocative—action, however, came from a group of activists whose “pink Menno campaign” drew reporters from Fox News and Associated Press.

In these pages we have attempted to provide a sketch of the gathering, primarily for those who did not attend. By the time you read this issue, your congregation may have already received reports from the youth, adults and children from your congregation who participated. We hope the overview we provide here can serve as a context for their experiences.

We also hope this issue will spark interest in the next biennial convention. It will be held July 4-9, 2011, in Pittsburgh. It may tell us whether our sails have been filled.