(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Meeting in Kansas City May 27-30, delegates repealed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.”
