Pathways
Meet Richard Early, new VMC Moderator
My journey My journey began on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1953. I was born in Lancashire, England, at Burtonwood Air Force Base, where my father was stationed during the Korean War. In 1955, we moved back to my dad’s grandparents’ house in Pleasant Valley, Virginia. Abe and Cora Early were members of Pleasant Run Church…
Read MoreLiving as Those Made Alive in Christ
Mennonite Central Committee was featured at the 2020 Virginia Mennonite Conference Assembly as Executive Director Ron Byler gave two presentations on MCC’s work, past and present, to VMC delegates. MCC is celebrating its centennial year in 2020. The following article is based on his presentations. Watch the videos from Assembly. All photos captured from video…
Read MoreRacial justice and equality
The Conference Council of Virginia Mennonite Conference is forging ahead with a leadership initiative on racial justice and equality. This leadership initiative emerged following the death of George Floyd and the subsequent and ongoing cultural awakening to the realities of systemic racism in American society and the church. Alicia Manning, a member of C3 (formerly…
Read MoreA modest proposal for refugee relief
We know that refugees are people who are fleeing for safety, especially to a different country, but we may not know that more people than ever before have been displaced because of war or conflict, hatred, prejudice, greed, poverty, or natural disasters, to name a few reasons. The UN Refugee Agency, estimates that 25.9 million people…
Read MoreFour responses to the SOS “Hundreds for Hundreds” campaign
In celebration of Mennonite Central Committee’s 100th anniversary, the Virginia Relief Sale’s SOS Committee (Sharing Our Surplus) is launching a “Hundreds for Hundreds” campaign to raise much needed donations for MCC worldwide refugee relief. Most of our efforts this year will be focused on promoting generous online giving. We are also planning a two-mile “Hundreds…
Read MoreVirginia Relief Sale: How will it happen this year?
The global pandemic has dealt nearly everyone the ole one-two punch in our corporate (masked) faces. We may feel at times like we’re down for the count, but not out. This feeling extends to long-scheduled public events that have needed to be canceled, postponed, or re-invented in different shapes or forms. The annual Virginia Mennonite…
Read MoreGemeinschaft Home celebrates 35 years, launches campaign
Gemeinschaft Home is a community non-profit offering therapeutic services to nonviolent offenders who have been released or diverted from incarceration in support of a transition to healthy community living. This year we our celebrating our 35th anniversary providing residential and non-residential programming for men and women in the local area and throughout Virginia. Recent calls…
Read MoreFirst Mennonite Church responds to the protests
Since our congregation is located in the capital of the Confederacy, and large protests for police reform and eliminating racism are a daily occurrence here, the leadership of First Mennonite Church posted the following statement on our website and Facebook page, and sent it to the congregation: “This is an historic moment for Richmond, and…
Read MoreLife in exile at Lindale Mennonite Church
There is a commercial for a life insurance company that begins by showing some idyllic scene where everything is going well; and then something surprising and unexpected changes the whole scenario. Their tagline is “Life comes at you fast.” Indeed, we could use that tagline for 2020! Church leadership and the congregation were preparing…
Read MoreThe same unity of purpose at Stephens City
Stephens City Mennonite Church is one among many small, aging, congregations in Northern District. Our members are geographically scattered, but share a unity of purpose in loving our neighbors, seeking to assist those in need, and a love of music. During the pandemic, many of those dynamics have shifted. Using Zoom has enabled several…
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