Musing on CPMC Annual Meeting

Not too long ago the Central Plains Mennonite Conference (CPMC)—which my church is a member congregation of—held its Annual Meeting. This was actually my fourth time in attendance to the delegate sessions, although this was my first time not actually being a delegate but simply a guest.

Attending Annual Meeting is always one of the most enjoyable parts of my summer. I like it because I always seem to leave feeling like I am a part of something bigger. This year, in particular, saw the end to a long and painful saga as St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship finally withdrew their membership from CPMC and instead joined the Central District Conference (CDC) of MennoniteChurch USA.

St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship has been under probationary status (basically, they believe something that the Conference deems to be contradictory to the 1995 Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective, or as we prefer to call it: being “at variance”) for over a decade, and conversations with them to resolve the differences had gone nowhere. Ever since I attended my first delegate session at Annual Meeting as a Youth Delegate for my church six years ago, I have first-hand seen them plead to be reinstated to full membership status to no avail.

Now, I do not know the whole story; it all started well before my time. From what I have come to understand, St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship has—amongst other things—allowed openly gay members into leadership positions in their church without the guidance or consent of the conference ministers (…if you are not Mennonite, just think of them as bishops….) or the conference at-large.

[*If I am mistaken and you happen to know the full story yourself, please comment or send me a message!*]

As strange as it may sound for a Mennonite congregation to be required to obtain approval from someone “higher up” before appointing someone to a leadership position in that congregation (i.e. the system that the church worked with in the 16^th century which the original Anabaptists in Zurich rebelled from) that is exactly what happened.

But this is somewhat understandable—for at least the neutral anyways—because the Conference has remained fairly non-inclusive to LGBT people, making appointments of gays or lesbians into church leadership (especially when they are in committed relationships) a “no-no.” Invariably, every time that St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship would request to be reinstated to full-membership the delegate session would turn this into a massive, unproductive debate about homosexuality.

Needless to say, CPMC (much like the rest of MC USA) is split along this issue—although to what percentages I do not actually know. The conference has, however, taken steps during the recent years to try and discern this issue.

Ultimately for St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship, those steps were a bit too-little, too-late. Over the last twelve(-ish) years, many people have been hurt on both sides by what has been said. I understand that many at St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship particularly have felt this—which is why I am both happy and sad to finally see them leave. Happy, because they now will be part of a conference that will fully accept them for who they are; but sad, because I do not want to see them go.

St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship, for me, has always been a part of this [CPMC] family; it does not seem right for me to see them leave us to join another conference.

Therefore, I am also greatly disappointed in CPMC for not being willing to reconcile its differences with St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship. I have to say that for a faith tradition that has for a long time prided itself on its ability to offer reconciliation and healing and love to those who need it, CPMC kind of “blew it” with this one.

Fortunately, we have an opportunity to redeem ourselves!

During the same Annual Meeting that we as a delegate body said goodbye to St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship, another congregation voiced their concerns with the way CPMC treats LGBT people.

Faith Mennonite Church in Minneapolis, MN has reiterated their calling to be welcoming of same-gender oriented couples. They also made a statement that if any same-gender couples request marriage, Faith Mennonite would bless their request and conduct the marriage ceremony. Needless to say, these statements contradict the way that CPMC has preferred to interpret the1995 Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective. 

Regardless, I think the conference has responded admirably.

Over the course of this fall, CPMC will hold four circle-process discussion groups in different regions of the conference to discern how to respond to Faith Mennonite’s announcement, and each congregation is invited to send 3 representatives to attend. Unfortunately, I will be gone at seminary by that point, so I cannot represent my church—which I would REALLY like to do.

I do not want to see Faith Mennonite Church leave CPMC. The simple fact is that I need allies around me, because I cannot change popular opinion all on my own. Therefore, having congregations like St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship and Faith Mennonite Church in my conference is essential.

I just hope that Central Plains Mennonite Conferences learns from its failure with St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship and remains committed to Faith Mennonite Church. My aspirations to join the ministry as a gay man while being a member of this conference solely depends on it.