First time in North Carolina

Meeting in North Carolina for their biennial national convention July 28–30 was “historic” for U.S. Mennonite Brethren, said that district’s moderator, Terry Hunt.

The larger U.S. MB family had never gathered in the North Carolina district, its only district east of the Mississippi River. It consists of a cluster of six small, predominantly African–American congregations with more than 100 years history in North Carolina, and a newer Slavic congregation.

Terry Hunt

The mountaintop setting in the Blue Ridge Mountains provided a beautiful backdrop for the convention of 278 registrants from all five U.S. conference districts, lively gospel-style music, and “passion” as the convention’s unofficial theme.

But the gathering’s location was also important for the North Carolina churches and relationships within the larger conference, said Hunt. It gave NC church members the opportunity to interact with the larger MB family and get a sense of the conference’s “big picture.”

That new sense of partnership was made formal in a brief but significant celebration Friday evening. Delegates erupted in a spontaneous standing ovation as U.S. Conference executive director Chuck Buller presented Hunt with a plaque commemorating transfer of title for six NC properties to the district, a move that several leaders say was long overdue. It symbolically moved the district from a sense of being a “stepchild” to full ownership and the legal right to make decisions about its own future.

In his message that evening, Hunt said, “We need some excitement in what we do for the Lord.” He referred to the early history of the North Carolina churches, a time when racially and culturally diverse people worked together – to educate African–American orphans in a time of racial segregation, for example – and challenged those in attendance to allow passionate unity to guide their service for God.

Details, not philosophy

Most of the discussion in business sessions centred on the new U.S. conference bylaws. Like the Canadian MB conference, the U.S. conference has moved to a governance structure with a single leadership board. In 2004, the new structure was provisionally approved and the board charged with developing bylaws.

The questions raised were ones of detail rather than philosophy. Delegates asked for more information about a national Board of Faith and Life, which was re-introduced in the new bylaws after being consolidated in the work of the leadership board two years ago. It had become apparent, said conference chair Steve Prieb, that a single governing board could not give adequate attention to theological matters.

Delegates also discussed new wording in the bylaws that mandates equal representation on the leadership board from east and west of the Rocky Mountains rather than according to districts as in the past. Executive director Chuck Buller explained that this better reflects church populations and allows flexibility to include board members from groups not adequately represented under district language.

—from reports by Myra Holmes, Christian Leader