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Delegates repeal Membership Guidelines, pass LGBTQ-affirming resolution
‘Repentance and Transformation’ passes with 55.7% support

This is unsurprising and terribly sad for me.

The MCUSA website says,

Mennonite Church USA is an Anabaptist, Christian denomination with roots in the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe. It is the largest Mennonite denomination in the United States with 16 conferences, approximately 530 congregations and 62,000 members.

Although 62,000 is about half the size of its membership in 2001, they still apparently are the largest Mennonite denomination in the US. Whether that remains the case depends on the rate of its continued decline.

Total membership in Mennonite Church USA denominations decreased from about 133,000, before the merger in 1998, to a total membership of 120,381 in the Mennonite Church USA in 2001[3] and 78,892 members in 2016.[4] In May 2021 the main page of their website stated a membership of about 62,000.[5]

With the loss of Lancaster Conference and many conservative churches, I am not surprised. I am surprised it took this long. This is the proper process. The delegate body needed to decide this. What is left, anyway. My biggest struggle is the churches that ignored the guidelines. It showed great disrespect for the others and the process needed to enact change.

I am no longer in MCUSA, so I watch from afar. They chased me out.

I have ambivalent feelings about this resolution that I’m not prepared to talk about here.

I do find the “Farewell, MCUSA” of this thread to be a bit disingenuous because many on this forum have never been a part of MCUSA, have never seen it as legitimate and are highly critical of it. You can’t say “farewell” to something you never said “hello” to.

I have my own disillusionment with MCUSA that I’m not going to talk about here, but it was home for a long time.

Szdfan wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 10:18 am
I have my own disillusionment with MCUSA that I’m not going to talk about here, but it was home for a long time.

It is what brought me to Anabaptist faith and it is what has pushed me away from it. I have many fond memories of it, but I also carry a lot of pain from it.

Robert wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 10:22 am

Szdfan wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 10:18 am
I have my own disillusionment with MCUSA that I’m not going to talk about here, but it was home for a long time.

It is what brought me to Anabaptist faith and it is what has pushed me away from it. I have many fond memories of it, but I also carry a lot of pain from it.

Your “Farewell, MCUSA” is legitimate. There’s a lot of pain on all sides of this.

HK, i read your subject line as personal, and painful, nothing wrong with it.
Various members here have had to adjust to their churches leaving them behind. It’s painful. Not readily resolved.
It’s like a death in the family.

i empathize with the many sincere members who must adjust. including those present on this forum.

From the article, it seems the central focus is on political activism, organization, they are not alone on this path.
For many, whether they agree with the politics involved or not, political activism is not an adequate replacement for worship of God,
submission to God. Submission and humility are hated. (Pride month indicates how far away the culture is.)

Not a new conflict.
Decades ago, folks near me questioned the Methodist church, and definitely Universalists, for politics.

mike wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 10:00 am Although 62,000 is about half the size of its membership in 2001, they still apparently are the largest Mennonite denomination in the US. Whether that remains the case depends on the rate of its continued decline.

The history of Mennonites is division, not unification. You can’t resolution your way into keeping people together that don’t want to be together.

HondurasKeiser wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 9:33 am Delegates repeal Membership Guidelines, pass LGBTQ-affirming resolution
‘Repentance and Transformation’ passes with 55.7% support

What do you think the 44.3% will do?

Ernie wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 10:57 am

HondurasKeiser wrote: ↑Mon May 30, 2022 9:33 am Delegates repeal Membership Guidelines, pass LGBTQ-affirming resolution
‘Repentance and Transformation’ passes with 55.7% support

What do you think the 44.3% will do?

I’m going to point out that the percentages are from the delegate vote, not the church as a whole. There are congregations like the one that I pastored which where divided on the issue.