Members and congregations of Mennonite Church Canada may be on the verge of getting more deliberate about respecting each other when they disagree. The denomination’s Being a Faithful Church task force has processed seven years of questions and responses into a set of four recommendations for the MC Canada Assembly July 6-10 in Saskatoon, Sask.
Both U.S. Mennonite Brethren institutions of higher learning are among about three dozen colleges and universities that have been granted waivers exempting them from some federal antidiscrimination laws. President Jules Glanzer of Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kan., sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education requesting a Title IX exemption Dec. 3, 2014. Fresno (Calif.) Pacific University President Richard Kriegbaum sent a similar letter June 2, 2015.
Bluffton (Ohio) University has become the third Mennonite college this year to leave the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities after expanding its nondiscrimination hiring policy. The Bluffton board of trustees voted unanimously Oct. 10 to include sexual orientation and gender identity in its employment policy.
Franconia Mennonite Conference addressed fractious times within Mennonite Church USA by focusing its annual assembly on being the church together. In a series of statements submitted by congregations, refined by a committee and passed by delegates Nov. 13-14 at Penn View Christian School in Souderton, Pa., FMC acknowledged differences but affirmed staying together as a conference and with MC USA.