After reading the latest issue of AW, I am once again grateful for the voices that are active today in Mennonite Church USA and beyond. After spending a good part of my life seeking to lead and hold together the former Mennonite Church, it is refreshing to hear from a new generation of leaders from diverse backgrounds now writing and reporting on a wide variety of ministries in our church and world.
I have come to believe our unity is not grounded in thinking alike but in the Spirit’s movement among us. In the 20th century we invested much time and effort to clarify and strengthen our theological beliefs. While this was important work, it has not proved to be effective in holding the church in unity. The deeper unity is a gift of the Spirit of God, which I believe we see and hear in the many voices of both ongoing and newer leaders living out the Spirit of Jesus and Anabaptist faith in tangible ways. I am grateful to God and for these people. In this I find hope.
James M. Lapp, Lititz, Pa.
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