Taken from the online edition of The Mennonite
Lancaster Congregation to Ordain a Woman on June 24
LANCASTER, Pa.–More than 60 people from nine congregations gathered at the James Street Mennonite Church on May 16 to discuss how they might respond to a recent decision by Lancaster Mennonite Conference to not allow ordination for women (see Recommendation to Ordain Women Fails on page 19.)
“Very low on the list of options was to leave LMC,” said Linford King, overseer-bishop for the Lancaster City District, “and join another conference or start a new conference. There was a strong move to stay connected to LMC and go ahead with ordinations. The Lancaster district of LMC has formed its own ‘credentialing committee’ to interview candidates. The major impetus to move in this direction is the 1995 Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective, our full participation as members with Mennonite Church USA, and the recent Executive Board Affirmation for the Gifts of Women. The group did not engage in the ‘administrative arrangement’ with another conference. There was also some talk of ‘taking a leave of absence’ from LMC and entering a ‘safe house’ free of conference policies and participation.”
James Street Mennonite church is planning for a service of ordination on June 24 for Elizabeth Nissley.–Posted at 10:30 a.m. on May 22 by Anna Groff
Check out http://www.mennoweekly.org/MAY/05-28-07/LANCASTER05-28.html for another interesting article on this.
Update:
Here’s an article from The Mennonite about the ordination service at James Street Mennonite Church announced above:
BREAKING NEWS: Lancaster church ordains Elizabeth Nissley despite conference polity
Tight rope walking quote of the day:
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I put up a response to the James Street ordination and the conference reaction. It was a bit extreme. I was mad about the response in Lancaster. I spoke a bit irresponsibly, and I think Brian Hamilton effectively responded with a word of peace on the issue, though he did misunderstand some of my points.
As such, I took my response down, and the comments (sorry Brian). This is probably bad etiquette but I don’t want to misrepresent myself on the blog. I think maybe I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I’m just making it known that I took the post down.