I encourage the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board (EB) to invite a new member to the Constituency Leaders Council (CLC): Brethren Mennonite Council for LGBTQ Concerns.

BMC, an organization working for an inclusive church since 1976, had exhibit space at Kansas City 2015.

This suggestion comes out of a petition circulating at KC2015 with 345 signatures, 140 of them delegates.

Here’s some background: CLC is comprised of leaders from area conferences, agencies and constituency groups.

The EB has the authority to determine new constituency groups for CLC from time to time. Furthermore, CLC serves as a place for those leaders to talk together and as a “voice for agenda from the grassroots to surface with the EB,” according to mennoniteusa.org.

At KC2015, the delegate assembly passed both the forbearance resolution and the Membership Guidelines resolution.

The forbearance resolution (passed by 71 percent) calls us to “offer grace, love and forbearance toward [those] who, in different ways, seek to be faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ on matters related to same-sex covenanted unions.”

On the other hand, the membership resolution (passed by 60 percent) upholds the guidelines regarding church membership and same-sex marriages as well as the Confession of Faith Article 19 on marriage.

Now that the convention is over, I hear people asking, Don’t these two resolutions cancel each other out? Aren’t we back to where we started?

Does this mean the conversation is stalled for four years?

No, the opposite is possible.

When the delegate assembly voted for the membership resolution, they voted not to entertain changes to the Membership Guidelines for four years.

But the membership resolution also says: “We urge engagement in honest, transparent conversation about human sexuality, focusing on ways to live faithfully as disciples of Jesus Christ.”

CLC offers a prime place for this kind of conversation as we prepare for Orlando 2017 and Kansas City 2019.

A representative from BMC should be at the table.

As Elizabeth Miller, a delegate from Goshen, Ind., said last month, “At this point, the church as a whole is not able to affirm same-sex sexuality, but that does not preclude truly listening, which is not some amorphous, unrealizable goal. Rather, it is made possible by structural changes, like having a BMC representative at CLC.”

Although this is not a new request, here are three reasons why now is an opportune time:

1. Now is the time to exercise incertitude, as Dale Schrag mentioned during a KC2015 worship.

“We are not God,” he said. “There’s always a possibility that we might be wrong.” We can exercise incertitude by trusting God and inviting all groups committed to being Mennonite Church USA together to discern these questions related to sexuality at CLC.

2. Over half the delegates stood when asked to if they had relatives or acquaintances who were LGBTQ and felt pain at KC2015.

The delegate survey also found that 66 percent of delegates who responded support church membership for LGBTQ individuals. LGBTQ individuals and advocates are already engaged with the EB.

3. Finally, the petition states that the EB’s power to decide who they are accountable to results in the appearance of a conflict of interest.

As the petition states, not including a BMC representative leaves out the “siblings in Christ who are most directly affected by the Membership Guidelines resolution.”

Forbearance and membership guidelines both passed. Now is the time for conversation.

Anna Groff is executive director of The Mennonite, Inc.