Seeking Peace in Israel Palestine

Click Here to read the Seeking Peace in Israel and Palestine Resolution

At the Mennonite Church USA gathering in Orlando (July 2017), delegates overwhelming affirmed a resolution entitled Seeking Peace in Israel and Palestine. Now it is up to individuals, local congregations, and conferences to live into the resolution.

Below is a letter from Danny Aramouni, a pastoral intern at Reba Place Church in Evanston, IL. Danny provides a starting place, as well as helpful information about legislation that is intended to limit peacemaking efforts. This letter was originally sent to Reba Place Church members. IMC is posting it here with Danny’s permission.

Let us know how your church is living into this resolution!

Dear Reba Place Church family,

As you know, our denomination, Mennonite Church USA, recently overwhelmingly passed a resolution in opposition to both anti-Semitism and the oppressive Israeli military occupation of Palestine. One of the points of the resolution is encouraging our denominational agencies to divest from companies that support the occupation. When we discussed this resolution as a congregation, many of you asked how you could personally make your voices heard against military occupation, and I pointed you to the international boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement to put pressure on Israel to recognize the human rights of Palestinians.

Recently, however, a bill has been introduced in the Senate known as the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which would make boycott activity in conjunction with an international governmental organization, such as the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), a criminal offense punishable by up to a $1 million fine and 20 years in prison. This is not only counter to human rights–it is also a blatant and unprecedented violation of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, which includes the right to boycott, as in the early colonial American boycott of British goods and the Montgomery Bus Boycott during the Civil Rights Movement.

I would strongly encourage you to watch the short video (under two minutes) linked below from our Quaker friends at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) regarding this bill, and then, if you feel led, to use the form they provide below the video to quickly and easily contact your senators and representatives, informing them of your opposition to this bill and support for global human rights. I believe that this is the most consistent action we can take as people of God, whose Kingdom transcends all earthly powers.

Watch AFSC’s video and make your voice heard.

If you are interested in more information concerning the bill, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has a helpful FAQ page about it.

Thank you for your time and support.

Grace and peace in Christ,

Danny Aramouni

RPC Pastoral Intern

All Moved Out (what now?)

The IMC office on 214 S. Sampson in Tremont, IL was closed on July 1, 2017. Holly and I are now working out of our home offices in Tremont and Morton respectively. What does this mean for you?

  • Our mail box hasn’t changed. Send all correspondence and contributions to PO Box 3, Tremont, IL 61568
  • To reach Holly Mason, or for all general questions, call (309) 340 – 4503.
  • To reach CEM, Michael Danner, call (309) 992-8000

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you engage the conference moving forward.

  • If Holly or Michael do not answer please leave a clear message. They are attending to other conference related business. They will get back to you as soon as possible.
  • If your call is urgent, please state that in your message! 
  • If the purpose of your call is not urgent or confidential and can be put in an email or text please do so. It is sometimes quicker for them to respond in those formats.
  • Michael and Holly are not in the same physical location. You can’t call one to reach the other.
  • Michael and Holly meet weekly in person and check in daily via #slack, email, and phone. 
  • The IMC office is “open” Mon. – Fri. 10am – 3 pm.
  • If you are calling outside of those hours please call Michael’s number. This is especially true on Friday afternoon through the weekend. 
  • The online IMC directory is the quickest way to find basic contact information for pastors, congregations, IMC leaders, and MC USA related organizations. If you can’t find what you need there, please call, we’re glad to help. 

Following these simple guidelines will help you communicate with the IMC staff most effectively.  It will help us work more efficiently as we respond to a variety of needs – both planned and emerging.

We appreciate your patience as we live into this new work approach.  If you have suggestions for improving communication throughout the conference, please send them to imcinfo@mennonite.net.

2017-2018 Online Directory

Pastors and Leaders,
It is time for the annual update of the IMC Directory and the Ministerial Leadership Database. This not only updates the IMC Directory and
Ministerial Database for U.S. and Canada, but also provides the content for the Mennonite Church USA directory.
If you can send me any updates I will be sure to post the new updates on the Ministerial Leadership Database.
CONGREGATIONS – please be sure to send me your membership totals (congregational members).
PASTORS – please update not only the church section but pastor information as well.
You can access the IMC Directory directly on our website. I try to make changes to that directory frequently the link is:
https://illinoismennonite.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/2017-2018-Directory.pdf
   It may be easier just to copy and paste the information from the directory into an email, make the necessary changes and email them to me.
Please check your information in this directory and let me know if any changes need to be made, or if it is ok the way it is. I look forward to
hearing from you. These changes need to be sent to me by no later than August 3.
If no corrections are needed please just replying saying all information is correct.

Blessings,
Holly Mason, Executive Assistant

hmason@mennonite.net, 309-340-4503

Church Spotlight: Cazenovia Mennonite Church

The following is a snapshot of congregational life at Cazenovia Mennonite Church of Cazenovia, IL  provided by Susie Jauch. If you would like more information on news shared here, please contact the congregation directly. We’re sure they’d love to hear from you.

_______________________________________________________________________

 Cazenovia
Father’s Day, June 18, we worshiped at the Washburn Park. We had a potluck meal followed by a ballgame. It was a very pleasant day and we all enjoyed the fellowship.
Bible School was held the week of June 12-16. The theme this year was “Raindrops to Rainbows” All of the stories were weather related. The attendance was 72 children along with many teachers and helpers. The donation of $600.00 was sent to Kenya for famine relief. Our thanks to all the people who made this program a success.
A total of $3,568.00 was donated to our camp fund. We were able to send ten children to Camp Menno Haven, and we had enough left over to send $800.00 to Arizona to help send Native American children to a similar camp there.
The Mission Talk Force sent the following donations: $1,000.00 to Justin and Codee Delagrange to Ecuador: $1,000.00 to Jon and Lindsay Birkey in Arizona and $750.00 to Tanzania orphanage which Marli Kennell works with in Asia.
Doug Hicks presented the morning message on July 7. His text was Romans 6, focusing on being slaves to God, not sin.

Important Events

Births
Isabel Ann to Derrek and Kelly Kennell on May 24

Anniversaries
Kelly & Derrek Kennell, 10, June 9; Dennis & Nelda Kennell, 35, June 19

 

Sonido de Alabanza

Progreso de hoy: ya vemos la pared del oeste con las formas de las grandes ventanas y la puerta.

Progress Today: we see the west wall with the shapes of the big windows and the door.

Youth worship: God’s limitless love expands the limits of human love 

7.6. 2017  Written By: Erika Byler, for The Mennonite 
Erika Byler is a senior communication major at Bluffton (Ohio) University.

www.themennonite.org <http://www.themennonite.org>

At morning worship, youth were asked to open themselves to God’s limitless love and to allow that love to heal their hearts and expand their own limited human love.

Jon Heinly, youth worship leader, and Andrea Guyton, who works with the convention’s social media, introduced the idea of limitless love by asking the youth to fill out an online survey about what they love. The survey included things like Apple or Android, favorite basketball player, favorite pizza topping and favorite superhero.

Guyton said the word “love” is thrown around so much we forget what the word really means.

Kim Litwiller speaks. Photo by Vada Snider.

Kim Litwiller, pastor at East Peoria Mennonite Church and Illinois Mennonite Conference associate conference minister, asked the youth to consider what love means to them.

“Love means Jesus and security and so much more,” said Litwiller, before reading 1 Corinthians 13.

She said Paul wanted the church to know what love is because the world will know that we are Christians by our love, but that we must be honest about what human love can do.

“If we are to be real as a church, we need to be honest that…human love fails,” said Litwiller. “Our love has strings attached, which causes us to fail to love unconditionally.”

Litwiller described how the limits of human love can cause pain and hurt within us, and that pain causes our own love to be limited as well. She encouraged the youth to let the Holy Spirit open their hearts to the hurts and pains they try to ignore, so that God’s limitless love can heal those hurts.

She shared about her own healing experience 12 years ago at a convention youth


“As I responded to the Lord knocking at the door of my pain, I experienced a healing that words cannot truly explain,” she said.worship session when she was attending as a sponsor.

Litwiller said that throughout the rest of that week, “I began to realize that my ability to love those around me was expanding in amazing ways.”

“[God’s love] not only heals us and heals the pain that is created through the limits of human love, but it expands our ability to love those around us in ways that human words cannot explain.”

The youth were invited to be anointed, as a way of inviting healing for the pain and the hurt that exists within and also as a sign of being empowered to love more fully.

“May the limitless love of God heal each one of us whole,” said Litwiller.

The anointing was a meaningful experience for youth.

“Being one on one with a person is very powerful, and them offering that anointing and healing is very special,” said Thalia Neufeld of Seattle.

“It kind of makes it feel like God is present,” said Jacob Smith Derksen of Seattle.