Reflections on Phoenix Resolutions

Every two years, Mennonite Church USA gets together for a convention, an opportunity to worship, meet people, play games, and talk about the church. Another task is to make resolutions guiding the executive structure of the church.

As part of preparation for the PhoenixMennonite Convention this summer, our congregation took time to read and reflect on the three resolutions before the Delegate Body of Mennonite Church USA at the Phoenix Mennonite convention over the 4^th of July.

I wanted to share my notes from the conversation here, so if you have other thoughts our ideas, you can add them to our gathered discernment.

Before I begin, I want to acknowledge my dual hats. As a member of the Executive Board of Mennonite ChurchUSA, I have voted to send all of these resolutions to the delegate floor for discussion. I think this means we as an Executive Board think they are worthy of discussion and decision by the denomination. We decided that we weren't going to try and micro-manage or edit these documents very much as a board, but rather leave them pretty much as presented after processing from the Resolutions Committee and the Constituency Leaders Council. Since I have this dual hat, and already had plenty of opportunity to reflect on these texts, I write now as a scribe or minutes taker, as a facilitator not a participant.

So, with no further ado,

lets go through the three resolutions that Mennonite Church USA is considering.

The first resolution is on CreationCare

"Be it resolved that members of Mennonite Church USA commit to growing in their

dedication to care for God’s creation as an essential part of the good news of Jesus Christ.

We resolve to explore the theological concepts and biblical resources that inform our 

commitment to creation care. We resolve to discern together how the Bible, our theological 

understandings, and the realities of the 21st century continue to shape and guide our relationship 

with creation. 

We, as individuals and communally, are resolved to study and discern responses to the following 

questions during the next two years as part of our goal to be more faithful in caring for the gift of 

creation that God has entrusted to us."

Our Sunday School class was all agreed that climate change and global warming are significant moral issues of our time, and protecting creation is one of the most important tasks of the church today, so we too are resolved to grow in our dedication to care for God's creation as an essential part of the good news of Jesus Christ. Indeed, God calls Christians everywhere in the Western world to reconsider our wasteful and carbon intensive lifestyles.

In our discussion, we wanted to go even further! 

We wanted the resolution to talk about global warming and anthropogenic  climate change, instead of hinting around the edges of the problem with modern industrial and agricultural practice. To talk about caring for creation without talking explicitly about the changing global climate and it's impacts seems to miss the elephant in the room.

There is something to be said for using our own language- “creation care” most obviously, but the document also speaks of “Environmental Crisis” and “dramatic shift in global weather patterns”

which seem to hint at the situation we face, but we would rather be explicit about the current challenge.

Second, we would be happy with even more action steps-the resolution invites important education and dialogue, but what about a commitment or call to divest from oil, gas, or coal companies, or local or national church sustainability steps like efficient heating or electric generation, or even to challenge us to consider creative ways to avoid flying thousands of Mennonites around the country (Air travel is a big deal ) let alone a call for political action, which most scientists believe is essential for managing the climate change from carbon emissions.It would be great to be even more prophetic on this issue.

The second resolution reflects on child abuse prevention,

calling the church to raise awareness of this issue, take steps to reduce risk, and to raise our children in safe environments. to quote: 

We, therefore, resolve that the Mennonite Church USA will work proactively with its member congregations, conferences and affiliated organizations to promote the protection of children and youth from all forms of abuse and neglect and to advocate for their safety.

Specific steps toward this end may include, but are not limited to, the following suggested actions: 

We strongly supported working proactively to promote the protection of children and youth! We spent our time brainstorming how this resolution might be more than just awareness raising (though that is a noble goal, which we are excited about)-

Could we (Mennonite Church USA) put together a list of each Mennonite Congregation with a “Safe Sanctuary Policy” that could be publicized on our website? Could we evaluate the response teams of each conference? How do we monitor whether we live out our values? We hope that we all continue to take seriously the challenge to protect our children.

Last but not least, we talked about the 2003 Immigration resolution, which the Executive Board is hoping to have reaffirmed.  This statement was clear:

We reject our country’s mistreatment of immigrants, repent of our silence, and commit ourselves to act with and on behalf of our immigrant brothers and sisters, regardless of their legal status.

thanks MWR!

The statement includes possible actions, as well as a list of affirmations around the work that is already being done to welcome immigrants. 

We supported this resolution, and reaffirm the need to welcome the stranger in our country. We wondered about affirming “Immigration Reform” more directly, though the bill wandering through congress right now seems to be a mixed bag of a long and difficult path to citizenship and wasted expenditures on border security.

So, I guess if I wanted to sum up our conversations-we support these resolutions, and hope that we continue to take the next steps, particularly on behalf of the critical and time sensitive work of combating climate change. 

If you are a member of SLMF who wants to know more, or has questions, let me know, and we can continue the conversation until convention starts on the 1st of July!