An Open Letter to Mennonite Church USA
Passion Sunday 2009
We are writing as pastors and people who have ministered in the Mennonite Church. We are distressed by our Church’s exclusion of sisters and brothers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT). Our hope for a Church guided by the radical hospitality of Jesus compels us to invite us all to confession and healing.
Our vocation as ministers is to proclaim and embody the Good News of Jesus Christ, which is the Gospel of radical hospitality and extravagant love (Luke 15, John 4). We are all sinners in need of God’s grace. We believe that we can not deny that grace to anyone seeking to be part of the Body of Christ. We are each called to faithfulness to Christ, accountability in the Church, and integrity in human relationships. We believe that all people are invited to faithful fellowship in this Body, blessing for our deepest relationships of love and care, a spiritual home for ourselves and our children, and the opportunity to fully express the gifts for ministry that God has given us.
Through our unwillingness to extend full hospitality to LGBT people, we believe the Church has lost sight of this Gospel vision and, in so doing, has seriously compromised its witness. Jesus often confronted religious people with their spiritual blindness and offered healing so that they could see not only with their eyes but with their hearts (Matthew 23, John 9). Jesus offers the same challenge and healing to us today.
We believe that now is the time for us to confess and be healed of this spiritual
blindness. Some of us, out of love for the Church, have remained silent for the sake of unity. However, we must acknowledge that the Church is already divided. We have been willing to sacrifice our LGBT brothers and sisters, their families and friends to preserve a presumed unity. While some of us may caution to “go slow,” we are reminded by prophets such as Martin Luther King, Jr. that going slow only perpetuates the injustice. We are also reminded by Jesus and our Anabaptist forebears that the faithful path is not easy or without pain.
As ministers in Mennonite Church USA, we invite all members of Christ’s body in MC USA to join us in this call to confession and healing. If you desire a Church that offers Christ’s radical hospitality and extravagant love to everyone, please sign on to this letter by going to the web site, http://www.openlettertomcusa.org/.
Let us seek a new unity where all are welcome and all are called to an abiding “faith, hope and love…and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
For the healing of Christ’s Body and the sake of the Church,
Passion Sunday 2009
We are writing as pastors and people who have ministered in the Mennonite Church. We are distressed by our Church’s exclusion of sisters and brothers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT). Our hope for a Church guided by the radical hospitality of Jesus compels us to invite us all to confession and healing.
Our vocation as ministers is to proclaim and embody the Good News of Jesus Christ, which is the Gospel of radical hospitality and extravagant love (Luke 15, John 4). We are all sinners in need of God’s grace. We believe that we can not deny that grace to anyone seeking to be part of the Body of Christ. We are each called to faithfulness to Christ, accountability in the Church, and integrity in human relationships. We believe that all people are invited to faithful fellowship in this Body, blessing for our deepest relationships of love and care, a spiritual home for ourselves and our children, and the opportunity to fully express the gifts for ministry that God has given us.
Through our unwillingness to extend full hospitality to LGBT people, we believe the Church has lost sight of this Gospel vision and, in so doing, has seriously compromised its witness. Jesus often confronted religious people with their spiritual blindness and offered healing so that they could see not only with their eyes but with their hearts (Matthew 23, John 9). Jesus offers the same challenge and healing to us today.
We believe that now is the time for us to confess and be healed of this spiritual
blindness. Some of us, out of love for the Church, have remained silent for the sake of unity. However, we must acknowledge that the Church is already divided. We have been willing to sacrifice our LGBT brothers and sisters, their families and friends to preserve a presumed unity. While some of us may caution to “go slow,” we are reminded by prophets such as Martin Luther King, Jr. that going slow only perpetuates the injustice. We are also reminded by Jesus and our Anabaptist forebears that the faithful path is not easy or without pain.
As ministers in Mennonite Church USA, we invite all members of Christ’s body in MC USA to join us in this call to confession and healing. If you desire a Church that offers Christ’s radical hospitality and extravagant love to everyone, please sign on to this letter by going to the web site, http://www.openlettertomcusa.org/.
Let us seek a new unity where all are welcome and all are called to an abiding “faith, hope and love…and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
For the healing of Christ’s Body and the sake of the Church,
Sheri Hostetler, Cynthia Lapp and Weldon Nisly
Posts
Thank you to all of the original signers of the Open Letter. It is so important that we open our churches to finally everyone in our communities. Thank you for taking this public stand.
ReplyDeleteDarin Prey-Harbaugh
West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship
Philadelphia PA