Mosaic Mennonite Conference delegates, meeting Nov. 2 at Souderton Mennonite Church in Pennsylvania, voted 121 to 49, or 71% in favor, to “establish a robust partnership” with Mennonite Church USA.

Since Mosaic already is a member of MC USA, questions yet to be answered include how a partnership would differ from the current relationship and whether to remain within or become separate from the denomination.

Leaders will have a year to work on the details. Delegates directed the conference’s Pathway Steering Team to bring bylaw amendments — which might or might not change Mosaic’s affiliation — to the conference assembly next year.

Delegates affirmed the team’s work and its recommendation, which says: “We believe that partnership, rather than membership, allows our diverse conference to focus on our vision, mission and priorities.”

The decision adds a third year to a two-year process of discernment about affiliation. After the vote, moderator Angela Moyer Walter acknowledged delegates’ range of emotions, including that they might be confused about where things now stand.

With about 7,500 members in 52 congregations, Mosaic is one of MC USA’s largest conferences. It was formed in 2019, uniting Franconia and Eastern District conferences. In recent years it has expanded beyond its roots in eastern Pennsylvania to states as distant as California and Florida. This year it added a congregation that meets in Florida and on Zoom with pastoral leadership in Colombia.

In delegate sessions, Mosaic leaders avoided mentioning the possibility of ending Mosaic’s membership. Delegates were told a yes vote was for “moving toward partnership.”

Delegates had the option to vote green (“I affirm”), yellow (“I affirm with reservation”) or red (“I do not affirm”). Of the 121 yes votes, 69 (40%) were green and 52 (31%) were yellow. There were 34 no votes (20%) and 15 abstentions (8%), which counted as no’s.

Of the 121 yes votes, 69 (40%) were green and 52 (31%) were yellow. There were 34 no votes (20%) and 15 abstentions (8%), which counted as no’s.

In interviews after the vote, MC USA and Mosaic leaders emphasized the hope for a better relationship, in whatever form that might take.

“This was a vote telling our board and staff to work on defining partnership more clearly,” Moyer Walter said.

Stephen Kriss, executive minister, said Mosaic was “looking for a healthier relationship with MC USA,” and Jon Carlson, MC USA moderator, said he shared that desire.

“Part of our work as Anabaptists continues to be reconciliation and mutual transformation,” Carlson said. “MC USA values the relationships that exist in every part of our system, including Mosaic.”

In an interview, Jeff Wright, a leadership minister in Mosaic and pastor of Blooming Glen Mennonite Church in Pennsylvania, said he believes the current relationship is not working.

“I’m a membership agnostic,” he said. “I want to see a robust partnership. If that’s inside, let’s define that; if it’s from outside, let’s define that.”

He said people in Mosaic are wondering, “Does Mennonite Church USA value the different gifts that Mosaic brings?” He thinks MC USA has not done a good job of defining its value to Mosaic.

“Partnership says we will do things together and even inconvenience each other to do these things,” Wright said. He hopes MC USA will show “that level of interest.”

Cherokee Webb, a Pathway Steering Team member from Los Angeles Faith Chapel, said she believes it is possible for MC USA to meet Mosaic’s needs as the conference grows. She sees advantages in a partnership with greater independence.

“A partnership is like a choice to participate in certain parts, to make more of our own choices,” she said in an interview. “We could choose not to be a part of something the members are doing.”

Delegates talked about the issues at tables. There was no plenary discussion.

Carlson and Glen Guyton, MC USA executive director, addressed the delegates before the vote. Carlson said “every part of Mosaic” is welcome within MC USA, while acknowledging challenges.

“Sometimes it feels like to be Mennonite means spending a lot of time explaining ourselves” to people outside the church, he said. “When there’s a need to explain ourselves to others in our church, it’s much easier to just separate and create a new space where we don’t have to explain ourselves anymore.”

He sensed Mosaic was finding it necessary to explain “how you approach multicultural ministry” and “what the growth pains you experienced recently have felt like.”

When MC USA was “mashed together from the various traditions that preceded it,” he said — referring to the 2002 merger of the Mennonite Church and General Conference Mennonite Church — “we didn’t really grapple with how much energy and work and time it would take to continually explain ourselves to each other.”

He said he hoped to “recognize that explaining is holy work . . . instead of separating into spaces where we can stop explaining.”

Carlson expressed willingness to work on “areas of friction and disagreement where our current structures aren’t serving us well, how we can update and modify and make changes. I am open to all of that work. I just ask you to approach it with patience, because it will take time.”

The motion brought to the delegate assembly marked a change of direction. In August, Mosaic leaders recommended ending membership in MC USA and proposed a partnership.

An Oct. 3 announcement cited the need for more time for Mosaic and MC USA staff to decide what a partnership would entail.

During two years of strategic planning, people in Mosaic have cited various reasons for a different kind of relationship. These include theological diversity that manifests in tensions over LGBTQ+ inclusion and, as stated in delegate materials, the belief that “our needs . . . are different from many other conferences.”

Mosaic’s growth “into a global community of local congregations and ministries” creates the need for “freedom to respond to these highly diverse contexts relationally and effectively” in ways that “do not always follow the boundaries of traditional church structures.”

“Including international partners, we are more than 10,000 people, with a lot of that in Mexico,” Kriss told AW in August. “The long-term and emerging partnerships within Mosaic in Latin America have sometimes been a challenge to navigate within the current denominational system.”

Like other conferences, Mosaic has experienced the withdrawal of congregations that want to break away from MC USA.

“I believe in unity,” said Webb, the Pathway Steering Team member. “We are to love each other as Jesus did. Hopefully, we can get through this and still have love and relationships.”

This story was updated Nov. 7 with details of the votes and percentages.