Photo: This display was used during a June 28, 2015 worship service at Shalom Mennonite Church in Newton, Kansas. Shalom recently completed a year-long process of discernment by joining the Supportive Communities Network. (Photo by Fabiola Flores)

The Supportive Communities Network (SCN), a group of communities supported by Brethren Mennonite Council for LGBT Interests (BMC), has grown to include 100 Mennonite and Church of the Brethren Communities.

In order to hold the SCN designation, a congregation must undertake a deliberate process of education and discernment, develop a welcoming statement that includes sexual orientation and gender identity, and be public about its affirmation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer church members.

“The thing that’s really important to remember is that the decision to join SCN is the result usually of several years of discernment and work,” says Carol Wise, BMC executive director and coordinator of SCN.  “We insist on some process of discernment that leads to the development of a welcoming statement that includes sexual orientation and gender identity and is voted upon by the congregation. We have found that if you can’t say it publicly, then you really can’t do it fully. There is a whole intentional process that is often overlooked and underappreciated.”

Since the July Mennonite Church USA convention in Kansas City, Mo., SCN has added several Mennonite congregations to its ranks. In Kansas City, delegates passed a resolution reaffirming Mennonite Church USA’s current Membership Guidelines for four years. The Membership Guidelines include a statement prohibiting pastors from performing same-sex marriage ceremonies.

“Oftentimes what happens after events like KC is that a congregation who had been plodding along with the process is pushed. They either decide to make a decision now or to begin a more intentional conversation,” said Wise.

Shalom Mennonite Church in Newton, Kan., made the decision to join SCN in August after a year-long process of congregational discernment.

“For me, joining SCN gave clarity,” says Jason Miller, a Shalom attendee who helped initiate the conversation about joining SCN. “It solidified what had been a sort of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy. I wanted to be able to say definitively to LGBTQ people when they asked, Yes, you will be welcome at Shalom.”

In August 2014, a small group Miller was a part of sent a letter to the entire congregation, asking for three things: that the congregation draft a welcoming statement, that they demonstrate a full commitment to inclusion for LGBTQ individuals and that they identify as an inclusive congregation before calling a new pastor (the letter was sent during a pastoral transition).

This letter set in motion a year of discernment that included committee work, congregational meetings and listening sessions, worship services and Scripture study. Wise also came to speak to the congregation during a weekend in March that Miller described as an important event for broadening people’s understanding and moving the conversation forward. The convention in Kansas City came near the end of their discernment process.

“Kansas City was an eye-opener for our congregation,” says Tom Szambecki, a congregational delegate for Shalom. “We had 16 youth in the delegate hall for the forbearance [resolution] vote and participation in Pink Menno hymn sings also made a big impact on them.”

In August, the congregation affirmed the proposal to join SCN by 85 percent.

“When you recognize that you’re on one side and Jesus is on the other, then you have to move,” says Laurie Hesed, who helped lead the process of drafting Shalom’s welcoming statement. “We wanted to be in league with the Samaritan, not the priest or the Levite, and this was one way of moving toward that.”