News
iCLT News – June Miller
from June MillerDirector of Administration and CommunicationsFrom Office Manager and Strategic Marketing to Acting Conference Executive, I am now settling into my role on the iCLT as the Director of Administration and Communications at 0.75 FTE. My responsibilities include: Administration including assembly planning, Credentials Committee, Leadership Enrichment Committee, Congregational Life Committee, fundraising. Finance including AR/AP,…
iCLT News – Duane Beck
from Duane Beck Consultant to Pastors on Leadership and Local Ministry The interim Conference Leadership Team seeks to help congregations, pastors, and leaders thrive. We are in an experimental leadership phase. Your feedback, questions, and suggestions are welcome to help shape our work. I carry the role of Consultant for Pastoral Leadership and Local Congregational Mission….
iCLT News – inaugural issue
from Craig Maven Minister of Administration and Church Relations This is the inaugural entry of what the interim Conference Leadership Team hopes is a twice monthly communication. Our goal is to communicate what the iCLT is discussing, doing, and experiencing. The team members are: Bishop Leslie Francesco, June Miller, Maren Hange, Duane Beck, Caleb Schrock-Hurst,…
VMC Leaders Respond to Call for Guidance
Dear Virginia Mennonite Conference pastors, leaders and delegates, Grace, joy and peace to you this beautiful fall day, from our loving God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the animating, sustaining Holy Spirit. Conference leaders from the Faith & Life Commission (FLC), Conference Council (CC) and the interim Conference Leadership team (iCLT) met together on September…
Transitions and Appreciations
Just like a congregation is not a building but the gathered body within, Virginia Mennonite Conference is a network of people who serve faithfully in so many ways. It is a living organism that changes over time, even as we remain rooted in God’s steadfast love and a common vision for mission. Change can be…
The Holy Spirit Gives Gifts: Trissels Mennonite Church at 200
An address given to Virginia Mennonite Conference, July 15, 2022, under the oaks at Trissels Mennonite Church, using Acts 2:1-4; 14-21; Video of the address. The Holy Spirit empowers congregations for ministry, service, and witness. When the believers at Pentecost received the Spirit, they moved out from their Jerusalem home base. Spirit-empowered mission is my…
Delegates Focus on (RE)PACKING at Summer Delegate Assembly
The past several years have been challenging for Virginia Mennonite Conference. Most obvious have been the extended difficulties of navigating COVID-19, but in the past year, VMC also had a crisis of leadership resulting in investigation and resignation of the Executive Conference Minister. Some congregations have left the Conference. The recent resolutions passed at…
Watch: Members of the Interim Leadership Team Share Their Vision
The four ministerial and two staff members of the Virginia Mennonite Conference interim leadership team shared their vision for the team and VMC during Conference Delegate Assembly, July 16, 2022, at Zion Mennonite Church, Broadway, Va.
Basil Marin, Pastor of New Song Anabaptist Fellowship, Dies at 62
Pastor Anastacio Basil Marin, 62, of Harrisonburg, passed away Sunday, June 26, 2022, at Sentara RMH Medical Center. He was born April 15, 1960, in Dangriga, Belize and was a son of Andrew Marin and Doris Ovado. Basil received his B.A. at Goshen College and his Masters of Divinity at EMU. He was the lead…
Pastoral Sabbatical Brings Out Lynside Congregation’s Ministry Gifts
Back in 1954, a Mennonite church was founded in Lyndhurst, Virginia. Lynside Mennonite Church has grown, struggled, and remained faithful to God ever since its beginning. They have dealt with similar issues as other churches. Some they overcame, some they struggled with, but none of them were enough to close the church. One issue they…
St. Augustine: The Bellies Of The Poor Are Safer Storehouses Than Our Barns
In light of an ever more desperate refugee crisis, what does it mean to love God with everything we have and to love our world neighbors as we love and look after ourselves? Each year multiple donors make cash, check and credit card contributions for refugee relief at the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale‘s “Sharing Our…
A Pastoral Reflection on the MC USA Special Delegate Session
In light of the recent votes at the Special Delegate Session of Mennonite Church USA, I’m writing with a pastoral word as I imagine the strong mix of emotions some of you may have on receiving news about the delegate assembly—the retiring of the membership guidelines, affirmation by a little over half of the delegates…