At Variance letter template
We suggest using these letters only as a starting point. Please take some time to articulate the specific concerns, perspectives, and hopes of your congregation. Understanding that congregations across Mennonite Church Canada find themselves in different theological places, three versions have been included, and you’re invited to consider which letter, if any, best suits your congregation.
We invite you to:
- choose the template that best suits your congregation
- adapt or reword your letter according to your discernment, and
- send it to the Executive Minister and the Moderator of your Regional Church, with a copy to the Executive Minister and Moderator of MC Canada. We ask that you do this as soon as possible, to meet with the deadlines for raising issues at the Gathering in July.
Background
We hope the letters will encourage the Regional Churches and MC Canada to begin an important process: reviewing and revising the now-30-year-old Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective. That Confession, and in particular Article 19 on “Family, Singleness, and Marriage” has generated much discussion over recent years, especially following MC Canada’s Gathering in 2016. Interpretations and applications of Article 19 have been associated with a distinct bias against LGBTQ+ people and same-sex relationships.
At the 2016 gathering, a resolution was adopted that made space for individual congregations to discern for themselves whether the Spirit was nudging them in a direction of increased participation and encouragement of LGBTQ+ people, and also called for ongoing discernment and monitoring on how that was working itself out at the congregational level. We suggest that this organized effort to call out a need for shared statements of faith is in keeping with that commitment to ongoing shared discernment and discussion.
Over the last decade, a growing number of churches across MC Canada have become publicly affirming and inclusive of LGBTQ+ members, including married same-sex couples. As more congregations are becoming more inclusive, more churches have found the current version of Article 19 is a stumbling block - it’s awkward to have an article in our shared Confession that doesn’t match our own beliefs.
Instead of fostering unity and a shared call to faith, Article 19 has become a point of division in a way that its original editors did not intend. Multiple churches within MC Canada have published their own statements of being “at variance” with the Confession, which suggests it is no longer fulfilling a key role as a document describing our shared faith.
Although some feel that the entire Confession needs to be reviewed and rewritten, the immediate focus is on Article 19. These letters don’t suggest a particular process or outcome. There are multiple ways of revising the Article. Some have suggested rewriting the whole article, while others have suggested that the first paragraph, intended to be used as a summary of the overall article, would be more widely accepted:
We have an important window of opportunity this year to address this matter. MC Canada is hosting a Gathering in Kitchener/Waterloo in July, inviting members of congregations across Canada to participate in worship and discernment. If sufficient interest from congregations is shown, we hope that a commitment to a revision or alternate version of Article 19 could take place at the Gathering. Even if no revision can happen within the gathering itself, the urgency of a review cannot fail to inspire the Area and National Churches to engage in that review sooner rather than later.
Through a set of three webinars over the past few months as In This Together, we’ve explored the history of confessing our shared beliefs, the history of harms to LGBTQ+ people, and gathered together to talk about how to revise the Confession. Recordings of those webinars are available at our website, and if someone has forwarded this on to you, we encourage you to sign up for our email list. We look forward to connecting with many of you in KW this summer!
Webinar links
Templates: (email inthistogethernetwork @ gmail.com for an editable copy)
Template 1: Publicly Affirming and Inclusive
[From:]
[Date:]
To [Name of Regional Church Executive Minister]
And To [Name of Regional Church Moderator]
[Address:]
Dear Siblings in Christ,
We write with concern about the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective, and in particular about Article 19 (on “Family, Singleness, and Marriage”) in that Confession. We believe that the weight of this matter merits the consideration and attention of our Regional and National Churches.
Our congregation has been led by the Spirit to embrace everyone, regardless of sexual identity and orientation. We offer full membership to LGBTQ+ people, as worthy of God’s unqualified love. We know that we are not alone. Prompted by the Spirit, our congregations’ stance is at variance with Article 19 as it is currently written. In a spirit of reconciliation, we want to reach out to both our LGBTQ+ siblings and our fellow congregations to heal wounds that divide and exclude. As one of your member congregations, we turn to you to request the following actions:
We ask that you urge MC Canada and the other Area Churches to begin a process to develop an alternative to Article 19 of the Confession as soon as possible. We believe there’s a need in the church to establish a common statement of faith on family and relationships that can be shared with confidence by congregations that have discerned and affirmed the place of LGBTQ+ people within the body of Christ.
Second, we strongly suggest that MC Canada and all its Area Churches make visible and explicit on their websites and public communications that MC Canada and each Area Church includes LGBTQ+ affirming congregations, and that the presence of such congregations is in accordance with the polity of our denomination.
We submit this request in the spirit of our congregationally-based polity, trusting in the guidance of God’s Spirit and in hope that, despite theological differences across congregations, we can publicly embrace and create respectful space for 2SLGBTQ+ affirming perspectives. We are copying MC Canada with this letter so they are aware of our concerns. May God bless us all in our discernment.
With great respect and in loving dialogue,
[Signatures of the pastors and congregational chair]
Template 2: Welcoming but without an official congregational stance
[From:]
[Date:]
To [Name of Regional Church Executive Minister]
And To [Name of Regional Church Moderator]
[Address:]
Dear Siblings in Christ,
We write with concern about the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective, and in particular about Article 19 (on “Family, Singleness, and Marriage”) in that Confession. We believe that the weight of this matter merits the consideration and attention of our Regional and National Churches.
Members of our congregation hold a range of views and we would like to participate in a process that explores how to articulate welcome and affirmation for queer people. We are aware of several welcoming congregations in our Area Church who have sensed a direction at variance with Article 19 and made public their inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons. As more congregations are becoming more affirming and inclusive, we know that Article 19 has become a point of division. In a spirit of reconciliation, we want to reach out to our fellow congregations to heal wounds that divide and exclude. As one of your member congregations, we turn to you to request the following action:
We ask that you urge MC Canada and the other Area Churches to begin a process to develop an alternative to Article 19 of the Confession as soon as possible. We believe there’s a need in the church to establish a common statement of faith on family and relationships that can be shared with confidence by congregations that have discerned and affirmed the place of LGBTQ+ people within the body of Christ.
We submit this request in the spirit of our congregationally-based polity, trusting in the guidance of God’s Spirit and in hope that, despite theological differences across congregations, we can publicly embrace and create respectful space for LGBTQ+ affirming perspectives. We are copying MC Canada with this letter so they are aware of our concerns. May God bless us all in our discernment.
With great respect and in loving dialogue,
[Signatures of the pastors and congregational chair]
Template 3: Churches Still Beginning Conversations
[From:]
[Date:]
To [Name of Regional Church Executive Minister]
And To [Name of Regional Church Moderator]
[Address:]
Dear Siblings in Christ,
We write with concern about the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective, and in particular about Article 19 (on “Family, Singleness, and Marriage”) in that Confession. Our congregation has not yet started a conversation about LGBTQ+ inclusion, but we are interested in seeing where this goes – we support a process of developing an alternative to Article 19, whether it turns out to be for us or not.
While our own process to explore how to articulate welcome and affirmation for queer people is still to come, we are aware of several welcoming congregations in our Regional Church who have sensed a direction at variance with Article 19 and made public their inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons. Although we cannot affirm that direction for our congregation at this time, we believe that the weight of this matter merits the consideration and attention of our Regional and National Churches.
As more congregations are becoming more affirming and inclusive, we sense that Article 19 has become a point of division. When we do enter into our own conversation, we would like to know what a shared alternative statement might look like. We would like to hear from other churches about their experiences and where they continue to find common ground.
In the interest of unity in our diverse theological views, it is time for more action at the Regional Church level. As one of your member congregations, we request the following action:
We ask that you urge MC Canada and the other Area Churches to begin a process to develop an alternative to Article 19 of the Confession as soon as possible. We believe there’s a need in the church to establish a common statement of faith on family and relationships that can be shared with confidence by congregations that have discerned and affirmed the place of LGBTQ+ people within the body of Christ.
We submit this request in the spirit of our congregationally-based polity, trusting in the guidance of God’s Spirit and in hope that, despite theological differences across congregations, we can publicly embrace and create respectful space for 2SLGBTQ+ affirming perspectives. We are copying MC Canada with this letter so they are aware of our concerns. May God bless us all in our discernment.
With great respect and in loving dialogue,
[Signatures of the pastors and congregational chair]