Letter from Mennonite Brethren Church of Manitoba regarding the suspension of Jubilee Mennonite Church

 

 

In a letter to Manitoba Mennonite Brethren Churches, the Board of Mennonite Brethren Church Manitoba (MBCM) shared about its decision to suspend Jubilee Mennonite Church from membership for its decision to welcome, affirm and be willing to marry same-sex people. 

“With a humble and careful posture, the MBCM board moved Jubilee Mennonite Church’s membership in MBCM to a status of suspended, as of October 3, 2022,” the letter from Moderator Dave Ens said. 

“As per the process outlined in MBCM’s constitution, the MBCM Provincial Faith and Life Team will conduct a review of the circumstances that have led to this suspension. They will report their findings back to the MBCM board. The board will then either resolve to reinstate Jubilee Mennonite Church upon the board’s satisfaction that the concerns have been adequately rectified or provide recommendation to the Assembly of MBCM churches in March 2023 for removal of membership.” 

Enns went on to say the MBCM board has offered to meet with Jubilee’s leadership for further dialogue and to resolve the “concerns” related to the church’s decision. 

A major concern, as outlined in a previous letter to Jubilee, is how the church’s statement of inclusion “fails to adhere to CCMBC confession of faith” which states that “Marriage is a covenant relationship intended to unite a man and a woman for life. Jubilee’s statement avoids our confessional definition of marriage as exclusive to a man and woman for life.” 

To date, Jubilee has not indicated it is willing to change its statement.

Jubilee is also a member of Mennonite Church Manitoba, which welcomed its decision. 

The full letter from the Conference is below. 

October 21, 2022 

To the Manitoba MB Family of Churches. 

Grace & peace to you. 

This letter is a follow-up to the September 9, 2022 communication you received from us regarding Jubilee Mennonite Church. 

The MBCM Board recognizes that LGBTQ+ persons, along with their friends and families, have experienced exclusion and rejection in churches. While this is not everyone’s story, we understand that it is the story of many. We are committed to a future where better stories are experienced. Each MBCM church is invited to join in this journey, where LGBTQ+ persons and their families experience inclusion and care. 

As well, we recognize that some of the implications of working to include and care for LGBTQ+ persons can bump up against our shared confession. The MBCM board continues to affirm our shared confession, in all of its aspects. 

On August 5, 2022, you received a communication informing you that Jubilee Mennonite Church had published a statement of inclusion related to LGBTQ+ people. While there are many aspects of the statement with which we agree, the statement disagrees with our confession of faith on the matter of marriage. At that time, we proposed a town hall meeting on September 14 to provide more information and give space for questions. 

On September 9, a second communication was issued that cancelled the Sept 14 town hall, indicating that this will be part of the agenda at the Council of Representatives (CR) on November 19. The board felt it prudent to cancel Sept 14 given that we had entered into the constitutionally outlined process in regards to reviewing a church’s membership in MBCM. The process creates space for us to ensure that both the church and the MBCM board have clarity on the issue. We recognize that we are working through this as brothers & sisters and want to do so with humility and integrity. 

As is outlined in the process, there has been on-going communication with Jubilee. While these conversations have been good in many ways, we find that Jubilee continues to hold to their statement that disagrees with our shared confession. 

With a humble and careful posture, the MBCM board moved Jubilee Mennonite Church’s membership in MBCM to a status of suspended, as of October 3, 2022. As per the process outlined in MBCM’s constitution, the MBCM Provincial Faith and Life Team will conduct a review of the circumstances that have led to this suspension. They will report their findings back to the MBCM board. The board will then either resolve to reinstate Jubilee Mennonite Church upon the board’s satisfaction that the concerns have been adequately rectified or provide recommendation to the Assembly of MBCM churches in March 2023 for removal of membership. 

As we continue in this process, the board has offered an invitation to meet with Jubilee’s leadership for further dialogue. As mentioned, there will be time for discussion on this matter at the CR on November 19, 2022. We invite you to be in prayer for all involved as we journey through this process. May God work in and through us as we seek to be faithful in following him. 

On behalf of the MBCM board 

Dave Ens, MBCM Board Moderator, Mennonite Brethren Church of Manitoba

Jubilee Mennonite Church membership suspended by Mennonite Brethren Church of Manitoba over LGBTQ+

Earlier, I wrote about the decision by Jubilee Mennonite Church in Winnipeg to become welcoming and affirming of LGBTQ+ people. 

Jubilee is a dual-conference church, belonging to both Mennonite Church Manitoba and the Mennonite Brethren Church of Manitoba.

I also wrote about the initial response of MBCM to Jubilee's decision.

In September MBCM suspended Jubilee's membership. Read about it in Anabaptist World.

Opinion: Of the German language and welcoming LGBTQ+ people

“How dare you tell us what language we can speak!” 

That’s what a dear old saint said to me, her wrinkled finger waving menacingly in front of my face. 

It was the late 1970s. I was a relatively new member of the Mennonite Brethren conference, one of a few who came to the denomination from outside of traditional family ties—one of the “English.” 

A student at Mennonite Brethren Bible College, I was invited to go to the national conference assembly in Three Hills, Alberta to both observe and participate. 

The first evening of the gathering, people who spoke from the podium, and went to the floor mics, sometimes spoke German. 

That’s when I, in my early 20s, went to a mic full of trepidation and asked if people would kindly refrain from speaking German since some of us didn’t understand it—or to translate, if they did. 

Which prompted the reaction after the evening session, the tiny woman seeking me out and letting me know, in no uncertain terms, how unwelcome my comments had been for her. 

I can still picture the incident in my mind, 45 or so years ago. 

Today it is rare to hear German spoken in an MB church, and many people with “non-Mennonite” names have called the denomination their home. 

But back then, people like me—“Mennonites by choice,” as we were called—could struggle at times to feel welcome and fit in. 

For starters, it felt like everyone in the church was related. Then there was the insider knowledge about how things worked. 

And the music! Sure, four-part harmony sounded beautiful, but  if you couldn't sing you were immediately an outsider. The first time I stood up to sing in my new MB church I heard all these parts I didn't recognize around me and I stopped. I didn't try singing for months. 

(Churches that prize four-part singing have no idea how quickly it excludes many who grew up outside of those churches, and don't know how to sing. Those notes are a foreign language that only the insiders can read. Today, in most MB churches, anyway, it would be just as rare to hear four-part harmony as German. For them, both languages are now relics of the past.)

To be clear, nobody consciously tried to make me feel unwelcome. (Except that dear old saint.) They were glad I was there. I was glad to be there.

But newcomers like me could still sometimes feel like we weren't really part of the family, unless we made all the effort to fit in.

I mention this because the same may be true today for churches that decide to become welcoming and affirming of LGBTQ+ people. 

As I wrote in the Winnipeg Free Press on Oct. 21, the decision to welcome LGBTQ+ today, like the decision to welcome non-traditional Mennonites back then, is just the first step.

As David Driedger, lead minister of First Mennonite Church in Winnipeg put it when that church decided in 2017 to be welcoming and affirming: "There was a temptation to think we’d arrived” and no more needed to be done. 

But that was just the start of the conversation, he went on to say.

“If you think of a church like a house, and you invite people into your house, the next question is to reassess the house rules and accessibility,” he said. “What are the implicit and explicit things that make people truly feel welcome or not?”

That’s a good question. Answers include taking a close look at the language used in services, how the Bible is read and interpreted, and what hymns and songs are sung—among other things.

People interested in that topic can find out more at “Queer Theology and the Church: After the Affirmation,” a series of four Sunday evening in-person and livestreamed conversations sponsored by First Mennonite about ways churches can make sure LGBTQ+ people feel fully included.

The free series, which starts October 23 at 7 p.m., will cover topics such as “Queer theology and inclusion;” “A trauma-informed and justice-making approach to Christian theology;” “Worshipping the (W)holy other: queer theology in our hymns and confessions;” and “Undressed and undone: how sex and holiness change everything.”

As someone who sometimes struggled to feel welcome in the MB denomination years ago, I get it. Now it is being repeated as some churches seek to welcome a new kind of newcomer: LGBTQ+ people.

 

More information can be found at https://firstmennonitechurch.ca/special-events/