News
Pastoral care with Duo, a meaningful connection
In this issue of Pathways, we are to share “stories of coping, thriving, innovation, danger, struggle, hardship, new ways of working, new focuses….” Yes—to all of the above. It’s amazing how the same experience—and experiment—can contain all of those components at the same time. Like every other congregation, we at Weavers Mennonite Church are also…
Springdale congregation adapts WARM program
The apostle Paul comments in II Corinthians 12:10 that “When I am weak, then I am strong.” God’s strength often seems most apparent when we ourselves are weak. Each year, usually in mid-March, Springdale Mennonite Church, located on the outskirts of Waynesboro, Va., hosts the local overnight homeless shelter WARM (Waynesboro Area Refuge Ministry) for…
We are still a community
Park View Mennonite Church grapples with losses but finds undiminished connections We have made a significant discovery at Park View Mennonite Church. Even though we cannot gather physically in the space where we love to worship, pray, and sing together, our sense of community has not diminished. On March 13, we made the difficult…
More than a Sunday morning gathering
Early Church has never been defined primarily by our Sunday morning gathering. We have been known for the high value we have placed on being a glimmer of God’s presence when we worship and relate at Our Community Place (OCP), and for lots of non-Sunday face-to-face interactions. Before the coronavirus hit, we had already begun…
Big Spring: still the arms and hands of Jesus
Big Spring Mennonite Church is alive and together, even if we have to be together by Zoom. We have said we are so grateful for Zoom and we are so tired of Zoom. But the Holy Spirit has been with us through all of our virtual gatherings and it has been good. By being a…
The church ‘did not close’
Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home; …and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. – John 16:32 It all started with an elbow bump— not my type of hugging and a difficult thing for our older Waynesboro Mennonite…
The exchange in the time of COVID-19
In this time of church doors being closed, we have the opportunity to live into our professed Anabaptist theology that the church was never about the building. We are the church. Like the old song, “I am the church. You are the church. We are the church together.” At our church, the exchange, in…
An important and timely Assembly theme in these uncertain days
Our summer Conference Assembly was held on July 18, 2020, with a focus theme of “Living As Those Made Alive In Christ.” Our theme was of utmost importance in the time we are living. Over the last number of months, we have lived into the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. This medical crisis places us…
Three Simultaneous Crises in Our Local and Global Communities
Greetings to pastors and leaders of Virginia Mennonite Conference. As a community, we are navigating a pandemic which began as a medical crisis, which then impacted our local and global economic realities, and which has moved into a moral crisis. Any one of these crises creates a significant leadership challenge, but we are navigating these…
VMC and VMMissions Announce Phase 2 Reopening Adjustments
To Visitors of Virginia Mennonite Conference and VMMissions Offices: We hope you and your families are well and that you are experiencing the peace of Christ in these tumultuous days. Thank you for your understanding in the closing of our offices due to COVID-19 these past several weeks. In view of the Governor’s recently announced…
Raising Our Voices Against Racism in the Culture and in the Church
The tragic death of George Floyd and the subsequent events over the last week have caused me to engage in my own soul-searching about racism. I grieve the way it has not only permeated our history, our culture, and our faith community, but the way it has also been ignored, justified, or whitewashed, leaving people…
The Importance of Our Collective Well-Being
Pastors and Leaders Update Philippians 2:1-13 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition…