Thursday, May 28, 2009

A Message from MennoNeighbors

Dear ones, I posted the following to MennoNeighbors:

One of the issues raised at our Harrisonburg MennoNeighbors gathering was that of people who might experience difficulty for having signed the Open Letter. I pointed out that support for good people like that is a main feature of the MennoNeighbors mission.

I can think of two consequences where we might be of assistance. One is the cancellation of speaking engagements (Jep Hostetler can tell us something about that from his experience with the Welcome Letter almost a decade ago!), and the other is the withdrawal of funding.

If the former has happened to any current signers, I have yet to hear about it, but I do know of a couple of cases where pressure was applied (as a suggestion, at least) to discourage people from signing, prior to publication. I'm looking into those cases and working on an appropriate response, and if anyone hears of others, let me know privately -- email to feedback@mennoneighbors.org will get to me.

In the second case, I would reinforce Joyce Hostetler's suggestion re the Peace and Justice Support Network. PJSN receives no funding from the denomination, which only serves as a conduit for private contributions. They've always needed money, but now I think a flood of contributions in thanks for their recent support of the Open Letter is called for! I'll be posting this also to the Open Letter and the Pink Menno sites, and here (thanks to Joyce) are the details:

*Donate online now* by going to:
https://giving.mennoniteusa.org/project/detail/2601/

or you may write a check to Peace and Justice Contributions and send to:

Peace and Justice Support Network
Financial Services
Mennonite Mission Network
Box 370
Elkhart, IN, 46515-0370*

Blessings,
Lin Garber