(Not Mennonite Brethren, but it's helpful to know what's happening in other Mennonite groups on this topic.)
Delegates to a special Mennonite Church USA assembly in late May voted to make their denomination more affirming and welcoming for LGBTQ+ people.
Meeting in Kansas City May 27-30, delegates repealed MC USA’s Membership Guidelines—a 20-year-old document that prohibits pastors from officiating same-sex marriages—and narrowly approved a wide-ranging statement affirming LGBTQ inclusion and confessing that exclusion has caused harm.
The vote to repeal the Guidelines was 404-84, or 82.8% in favor. The vote to repent of the harm caused by the denomination to LGBTQ+ people was 267-212, or 57.7%.
Delegates represented 43% of MC USA congregations.
According to a report in Anabaptist World, the repeal actually aligns policy and practice since the majority of MC USA’s area conferences do not enforce the ban on pastors officiating same-sex marriages.
The call to Repentance and Transformation” resolution, which was written by the Inclusive Mennonite Pastors group, calls on the denomination to repent for excluding LGBTQ+ people from fully sanctioned participation in the denomination and causing “great harm” to them and their families; for failing to “offer the Good News of God’s ‘grace, joy and peace’ to LGBTQ+ Mennonites and their families; and for the loss of those who left the denomination because of “exclusionary practices and policies.”
The resolution also calls on MC USA to provide “support and resources for LGBTQ+ leaders” and “embody a theology that honors LGBTQ+ people and relationships with all future MC USA theological statements” such as revisions of the Confession of Faith.
Read the full story in Anabaptist World.
In Canada, Mennonite Church Canada concluded nine years of study before voting in 2016 to let individual congregations decide for themselves if they wanted to be welcoming and inclusive of LGBTQ+ people.
In 2107, leaders in that denomination apologized to LGBTQ+ members for the decades of exclusion and for how some were not permitted or asked to discontinue being in positions of leadership.
It also apologized for how they were not fully invited to participate in discussions leading to a more open policy towards welcome and inclusion by congregations.
Despite best intentions, “LGBTQ+ individuals bear testimony to being ignored, verbally abused, and silenced at times during the process,” the denomination stated. “We sincerely regret and apologize for the actions and decisions within our Body that caused such testimony to emerge. We confess that at times the Body of Christ did not act like his Body.”
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