Conference family
January 18, 2012
I’m writing from Harrisonburg, Virginia, at the three day School for Leadership Training at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. Walter Brueggemann is speaking on the theme of “God and Mammon.” More on that this Sunday…
Last Saturday, Jane Patty, Jill Jantzen, and I drove up to Grace Mennonite Church in Pandora, near Bluffton, to attend our Central District Conference regional gathering. These gatherings happen once a year and provide an additional opportunity outside of the summer annual gathering for people to connect, worship together, and keep in touch with the life of the conference. There were 40+ people there with the largest representation from Grace Mennonite and First Mennonite, Bluffton. We tied with Shalom Mennonite of Ann Arbor, Michigan for the longest drive. Here are some highlights from the day:
+ We listened to a historical vignette about the life of Anne Neufeld Rupp, the first female ordained in Central District Conference. In talking with her parents about the gathering, Jill realized that Anne had been the pastor of the congregation her father attended as a boy and that he greatly appreciated Anne’s ministry and perspective on the life of faith.
+ CDC offers Reign of God grants as a way of encouraging cooperative mission projects between congregations. We heard from a grant recipient who is helping to plan a gathering of Mennonite acoustic music performers in Bluffton this summer, called Menno Folk. They noted that they wouldn’t mind having a representative from Cincinnati – the arts congregation! - in their planning group.
+ We heard a brief financial report that CDC is on track with its spending plan. Congregational giving alone does not fulfill all of CDC’s needs, so they also rely on and invite individual donations.
+We sang together in Grace’s newly remodeled sanctuary. The song order was arranged such that the words (we sang only first verses) told the entire salvation story of the Bible, starting with creation and ending with the final consummation of Revelation. I wondered if this might be a good way to structure a Sunday morning worship service hymn sing.
+ After lunch we clustered in congregational groups and were asked to choose a Bible story that represents something about the current life of the congregation, and then act out the story in mime. We wanted to have something that represented Mennonite Arts Weekend and the best we could come up with was the later chapters of Exodus when the many artisans and craftspersons were invited to share their skills in the construction of the tabernacle.
+ The final hour included a guided conversation about homosexuality. We were first asked to write down one hope and one fear about entering such a conversation. After those were shared at tables, we were asked to share how our personal experiences have shaped our thoughts on this matter. We were then asked to name a passage from Scripture that has shaped our attitudes. Our table conversation was rich and meaningful and a highlight of the day.
