Membership Guidelines in place for 20 years that prohibited Mennonite Church USA pastors from officiating same-sex marriages have been repealed.
The May 29 move by the historically anabaptist denomination’s Delegate Assembly meeting in Kansas City, Missouri followed an earlier unanimous vote by the 10-member Executive Board on April 16 to send a proposed resolution to “retire” the guidelines. Anabaptist World has coverage of the assembly here.
“Pastors holding credentials in a conference of Mennonite Church USA may not perform a same-sex covenant ceremony. Such action would be grounds for review of their credentials by their area conference’s ministerial credentialing body,” the now-retired Membership Guidelines read.
Delegates voted 404-84, or 82.8 percent in favor, to retire the Membership Guidelines, according to Anabaptist World. A subsequent vote of 267-212, or 55.7 percent in favor, approved a “Repentance and Transformation” resolution, written by the Inclusive Mennonite Pastors group. That resolution confessed harm to and affirmed the spiritual gifts of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) people and commits to inclusive actions to “embody a theology that honors LGBTQIA people and relationships with all future MC USA theological statements”.
The Mennonite Church USA is significantly smaller than mainline Protestant churches, but remains the largest Mennonite denomination in the United States and claims approximately 530 congregations. The denomination was formed in 2002 by a merger of the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church.
Affiliated with the liberal and declining National Council of Churches and the Mennonite Central Committee (which joins it with 15 fellow Anabaptist, Mennonite and Quaker groups), the Mennonite Church USA has become politicized. In 2021 the denomination launched “Defund the Police? An Abolition Curriculum” as part of a study course for congregations. The Mennonite Central Committee is described as having “an anti-Israel agenda” by NGO Monitor.
As has been the case with mainline Protestant divisions, Mennonite traditionalists have also departed their liberalizing denomination in recent years, decreasing membership from approximately 133,000 in 1998 to 78,000 in 2016 to 62,000 today.
The Lancaster Mennonite Conference, at the time the largest in the denomination, in 2018 withdrew from the Mennonite Church USA citing divisions on same sex marriage, church polity and governance.
The change follows developments in other Mennonite institutions that have liberalized on human sexuality in recent years.
Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) and Goshen College, two longtime members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, voluntarily withdrew from the organization after the institutions changed their hiring guidelines to accept faculty who do not hold to the traditional Christian doctrine of marriage. Goshen and EMU (as well as its seminary) are affiliated with the Mennonite Education Agency of the Mennonite Church USA.
The Mennonite Church USA counts itself among the historic peace churches, alongside Friends (Quaker), Church of the Brethren and other Anabaptist movements. The Church of Brethren has faced similar divisions around human sexuality.
Both Brethren and Mennonite Church USA groups share many of the demographic problems faced by mainline Protestants: overwhelmingly white congregations, declining birth rates (corresponding to lower baptismal numbers), and an exodus of members that adhere to theologically orthodox teaching.
Unlike the Mennonite Church USA, the Church of the Brethren’s official position that “covenantal relationships between homosexual persons” are not acceptable remains unchanged. However, theological traditionalists within the denomination have pointed out that congregations embracing LGBT practices (including the ordination of persons in same-sex marriages) have not come under discipline, a scenario that traditionalist United Methodists will find familiar.
Some congregations departed the Church of the Brethren to establish the Covenant Brethren Church (CBC), which was officially formed in the autumn of 2020. The CBC affirms within its statement of faith biblical authority, the sanctity of human life and the place of sexual intimacy within the context of marriage between a man and a woman.
Church of the Brethren officials have decried the offshoot as “proselytizing” and have sought to prevent anyone involved with the CBC from remaining an officeholder in the Church of the Brethren.
Comment by Steve on June 3, 2022 at 8:32 am
More denominational disappointment. Always assumed Mennonites would be traditional, but looking at their webpage, they’re the opposite, checking all the woke boxes. To get there they had to start down the woke road a good while ago. The stats in the article start at 1998, coincidentally some of the last good days for the Episcopal Church also. I grew up thinking God was supposed to outrank the government and culture, so church was a bulwark against them, but reality seems to be, churches either run to the front of the parade and pretend to lead it or get dragged behind and pretend it was their idea.
Comment by Jeffrey Walton on June 3, 2022 at 2:59 pm
Steve, there are traditionalist Mennonites — it’s just that many of them have departed the Mennonite Church USA.
Comment by David S. on June 3, 2022 at 10:03 am
In my days of having dalliances in trying to establish common ground with these folks and view them as fellow Christians, but just having misplaced views, there was a former Mennonite in the group. At that time, there were rumblings of change within the Mennonite Church, which he was all for, as evidenced by his very antagonistic posture towards anyone who held to a view that even had a whiff of traditional, orthodox teachings. Yes, just an anecdote, but frankly not surprised that it has happened.
Comment by Tom on June 3, 2022 at 5:42 pm
Menno Simons is turning over in his grave.
Comment by Wayne on June 4, 2022 at 12:46 am
I grew up in a MCUSA church and have seen much change through the past several decades. Apostasy slowly crept in as it has done within the mainline churches. My college now has a labyrinth and contemplative prayer. Currently the hymnbooks have inclusive language, pastors preach short messages about peace and justice topics, and little talk concerning spiritual warfare, hell, or being a victorious Christian. It’s all so stale and sanitized. Little wonder that some of my former college classmates no longer attend church, or are now Buddhists, Unitarians, etc. The church lost its distinctive relevance along the way. Divorces now mirror the mainline brethren statistics, services are bland and all that’s left is the community feel that has made Mennonites distinct. Again this is MCUSA only. Recently, I watched some Youtube services of one church and fast forwarded through much of it because it bored me. I can only imagine how others would feel who might visit. I left for a more evangelical pathway over 30 years ago and have not returned, except for special occasions. The overwhelming majority of my family and relatives belong to other denominations or are evangelical.
Comment by David Gingrich on June 4, 2022 at 7:31 am
Sadly, another once-great Christian church sliding toward Gomorrah.
Comment by David on June 6, 2022 at 8:48 pm
Seven decades ago Richard Niebuhr famously included anabaptists in his “Christ Against Culture” category. Now their heirs have embraced the seemingly opposite “Christ Of Culture” position, perhaps illustrating the porous nature of Niebuhr’s classifications as well as the difficulty of engaging the larger culture while retaining the integrity of one’s witness to the gospel.
Comment by Linda R on June 7, 2022 at 12:36 pm
As a former MCUSA member, I can assure you that many of the local conferences and congregations have left MCUSA as the liberal faction overtook the leadership. My congregation left MCUSA nearly ten years ago when this controversy really began to come to the forefront. The conservative conferences of Mennonites have not in any way followed MCUSA’s fall into apostacy and false teachings. The current MCUSA bears no resemblance at all to 500 years of Anabaptist teachings or Biblical interpretation.
Comment by Linda R on June 7, 2022 at 12:38 pm
I suspect that the formal repeal of the Membership Guidance will see more congregations and local/regional conferences abandon MCUSA.
Comment by Rev. Dr. Lee D Cary (ret. UM clergy) on June 10, 2022 at 9:10 pm
A question for our Mennonite Church USA brothers and sisters (as well as Methodists):
If two persons of the same sex (if that identification can be determined and affirmed) are free to marry in the Mennonite Church, how about three persons, either of the same or difference genders. Are they welcome to join together in a tri-union covenant of marriage?
I not, why not?
Sooner or later, the need to address that equation will need to be faced, and the question answered.
Comment by Jeff on June 13, 2022 at 11:10 pm
Rev. Dr. Cary,
>> A question for our Mennonite Church USA brothers and sisters (as well as Methodists): If two persons of the same sex… are free to marry in the Mennonite Church, how about three persons… in a tri-union covenant of marriage?
Of course! (By the way, I predict that the UMC will beat the MCUSA to this demonic “milestone”.)
Beyond that, these tri-, quad-, quint-“covenant” “marriages will be able occur at any age. Should a toddler or three be fortunate enough to survive the gauntlet of eighth or ninth trimester abortion on demand, they’ll be able to be “wed” to (say) that thirty year old shemale from “Drag Queen Story Hour”… as long as their progressive parents (or their kindergarten teachers) sign off on it.
Merciful GOD, may the societal horror I just described be sarcasm and not prophecy! However history has clearly shown that satan’s appetite for evil has no bounds.
Iniquity’s slippery slope is not just a cliche.