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Letters to the editor
Mennonite Brethren Herald welcomes your letters on issues relevant to the Mennonite Brethren Church, especially in response to material published in the Herald. Please keep your letters courteous, brief and about one subject only. We will edit letters for length and clarity. We will not publish letters sent anonymously, although we may withhold names from publication at the request of the letter writer and at our discretion. Publication is also subject to space limitations. Because the Letters column is a free forum for discussion, it should be understood that letters represent the position of the letter writer, not necessarily the position of the Herald or the Mennonite Brethren Church. Send letters to:
Letters, MB Herald
3-169 Riverton Ave.
Winnipeg, Man. R2L 2E5
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or by e-mail to mbherald@mbconf.ca. (Please ensure that your postal address is included in your e-mail correspondence.) |
Herald valuable
In response to letters concerning the Herald. I feel it is a magazine that must be read. It is so informative as to Conference matters, personnel and missions. Thus, it is possible to pray about current events and for our missionaries. The articles have been life-building and strengthening to my faith. I thank the Lord for our MB Herald.
Betty Willems,
Winnipeg, Man.
Cow stands on four feet
It is alarming to read the rash of rash letters in which correspondents express the desire to be rid of the MB Herald. To me, the Herald is no sacred cow. It stands on its own four feet in our home as a very worthwhile read and a much welcome diversion from the spewings of the commercial media and our CBC TV!
I know we Canadians are by and large sick of being preached at and sick of having our consciences pricked but must all the churches and periodicals in this country become French Fry spiritual food? Must our worship services consist solely of singing and our lives of sinning? Will we fool God this way? Has it become distasteful to even discuss moral issues?
The MB Herald is doing a job which desperately needs to be done, and if some don’t like what it is saying or how it is being said, I suspect the problem may be with themselves. I suspect Menno Simons would concur with this sentiment wholeheartedly. The MB Herald is somethin’ good! Give it a chance!
Doug Martens,
Teslin, Yukon
Willing to fight for the Herald
My ethnic background is Mennonite Brethren. My husband has joined the church by choice. If it weren’t for our pacifist beliefs, my husband and I would probably fight for the Herald to see who gets to read it first – fresh from the mailbox! We may start in different sections, but before we’re done, we’ve pretty well read it from cover to cover. We sometimes read a section out loud to each other so that we can discuss it. I especially like to read the “Deaths” as they show how others have fought the good fight, often in spite of difficult situations and have kept the faith. I can often connect the person to someone I know, and it’s even more meaningful. The Herald is valuable for strengthening our faith, connecting to other congregations, and keeping up on issues regarding the church today. For each negative comment you receive, be assured that there are dozens of positive comments out here!
Ruth Penninga,
Kelowna, B.C.
Topic needs discussion
A resounding Amen to “An open letter to MB Conference leaders” (May 25). Also a large thank you to the Herald for printing that. As a young female I found it to be very encouraging. I have wanted to be a pastor since I was 14. I am now 17 and I am still holding my breath about the whole issue. When will it ever be discussed fully? I would love to one day stand before a congregation and be known as the pastor. However, as of yet that idea seems far-fetched. I wait with many others for this topic to be discussed in our seminary, our universities and our churches.
Tatiana Warkentin,
Winnipeg, Man.
Equality, not superiority
I appreciate Donald Peters’ courage in re-opening the discussion on women as senior pastors (Open letter, May 25, 2001).
As I remember the 1993 discussion, the speeches focused on a perception of the senior pastorate as a position of authority. There seemed to be a tremendous fear of women in a position of power, of “authority over men”. This was incomprehensible to me, a Mennonite by conviction, because the Roman Catholic Church invests priests with authority, but Anabaptist polity recognizes primarily the authority of Scripture and the authority of the congregation. A Mennonite pastor exercises authority only as the congregation delegates it. This would be true whether the pastor were male or female. Furthermore, I understood (and still do) the pastor as a person who serves, not one who exercises authority over anyone on a regular basis. The pastor serves not from any position of superiority, but from a position of equality – one of the many ministers in the congregation.
Gordon Stewart, Pastor Emeritus,
Killarney Park MB Church, Vancouver, B.C.
Reread the book
Many thanks to Don Peters for expressing so completely and articulately what recently has been on my own mind to write. Our church is in a pastoral leadership transition and so the prohibition against a woman as “lead” pastor is again an issue that will come up for discussion. I ask the Conference leadership to reread Our Daughters Shall Prophesy, written by our own theologians, in which the vast majority of writers conclude that our daughters should be free to prophesy, in every dimension.
Sara Jane Schmidt,
Winnipeg, Man.
Issue back on table
Donald Peters’ letter (May 25) struck a powerful response in us. We recall the moratorium placed on discussing this “hot topic” (the question of women in senior pastor positions) by the editor. We also wondered why Conference members have been so silent since 1993. Is it that members have simply left the denomination or become backbenchers? We have seen both within our own small church circle. We have also observed a general malaise in the attitudes of fellow congregants on this issue – it is simply too tough a deliberation for the average member to attempt an informed response. As Peters states, “the two conflicting views on this issue both claim biblical support”.
It is important, when discussing contentious issues, that we not use the Bible as a cudgel, robbing the gospel of its life-giving intent. A senior pastor, when he arrived on the B.C. scene during the heated discussions regarding this topic, observed, “This debate is not a theological one. It is a power issue – strong men wishing to retain the status quo, not giving in to powerful women.”
At a recent Hispanic leadership conference on domestic abuse held in Akron, Pa., Iris de Leon-Hartshorn, director of MCC US Peace and Justice Ministries, affirmed, “Within the Hispanic churches, men have held the leadership and decision-making positions. Unless we get them to support this issue, we can train all the women we want without making much difference.” Might this parallel our MB Conference women’s dilemma – why train in our seminaries when top positions such as senior pastor, Conference moderator and Conference minister cannot be realized, even as their giftedness at those learning institutions has been affirmed? Is it possible that in naming our conference Mennonite Brothers (Brethren), we hamper a climate that allows us to see men and women as equal before our loving Creator?
Let us put this issue back on the table.
Edith Neumann, Hal Toews,
Abbotsford, B.C.
Time again to talk
Thank you for Donald Peters’ thoughtful letter (May 25). It must have been difficult for him to acknowledge that tradition was more influential than Scripture in the 1993 vote on women as senior pastors. There has been a predictable ripple effect from that vote. There is now at least one congregation where a minister has refused to have women exercise their gifts even on the church board.
I look forward to the re-opened dialogue, but I hope that it will be more respectfully conducted than the 1993 one. I still grieve at the memory of capable women pastors fleeing to the sanctuary of the washrooms while male colleagues did “high-fives” over their “victory”.
D.J. Stewart,
North Vancouver, B.C.
Gracious servants
Thanks for publishing my article on Rwanda (May 25). I did not give enough acknowledgement to the leadership given by Justyn Rees of Upstream. His team planned, organized and birthed that ministry trip. It was remiss of me not to say more of him and the work of his wife Joy. Particular appreciation needs also to be given to Russ Rosen and his wife Sandy, who headed up the music and made many of the travel arrangements. They are gracious servants of the Lord and His church.
Michael Brown,
Langley, B.C.
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© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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