Sunday Mornings Summer Schedule
Worship   10:00 AM

Worship July 5, 2009

Speaker:	John Linscheid
Worship Leader:	Grace Lynch
Song Leader:	Dan Thut

Pink Menno is a grassroots group of Mennonites who are committed to making the Mennonite Church a more open and inclusive community for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer (LGBTQ) people, based on Christ's radical message of love and welcome.
-- from Pink Menno Campaign brochure

The words in the logo are "One hope, One church, One spirit

On Sunday, June 21 the Vision Team planned for the congregation to wear pink and to take photographs in support of the Pink Menno movement and its witness of creating a HUGE pink presence at MC USA convention to help reopen dialogue about ensuring the church is an inclusive and welcoming body.  The conference is being held June 30 through July 5 in Columbus, Ohio.  GMC member, Galen Horst-Martz, and his children will be attending the conference.
GMC is an inclusive and welcoming Mennonite church. 
To view a full screen version of the picture, just click on the picture.  More pictures...

Think pink!  A movement for inclusive people to wear pink at the national Mennonite convention in Columbus, Ohio, this summer, topped discussion at the MennoNeighbors (MN) gathering in Harrisonburg, Virginia, May 8-10.  I represented Germantown Mennonite at MN for the weekend, along with Lois Ann and Ken Handrich on Friday.  Luke Yoder one of the organizers of the Pink Menno movement (tall guy in the pink shirt) http://pinkmennocapmpaign.ning.com/ explained their plan to persuade as many people who wish the Mennonite Church USA to fully include LGBTQ people to wear pink at the convention. 


The Pink Menno Campaign was a response to the Open Letter to the MC USA http://www.openlettertomcusa.org/ encouraging a visible sign of support for inclusion in the denomination.  Cindy Lapp of Hyattesville Mennonite Church, one of the organizers of the Open Letter project, reported that efforts are underway to gather representatives of progressive and open Mennonite groups prior to the Columbus convention to strategize for action beyond Columbus and into the future.

On Saturday afternoon, David Brubaker, of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University spoke to the group about organizational change.  He suggested that organizations change when their leaders change.  He indicated that studies show that personal relationships with people in power are crucial to effecting change.  And he also postulated that people are more effective at changing institutions that they love.

MennoNeighbors is a moderately progressive coalition of Mennonites to which GMC contributes annually through its budget.  The group will have a booth at the Columbus convention showing pictures of peace and justice activities of churches.  I have collected a picture of our banner over Washington Lane, of our participation in the interfaith peace march and GMC members marching in Washington, DC to contribute to the booth as well as some information about IHN and the postcards we sent to encourage city officials not to cut the budget items that support people who are homeless. I would welcome other photos or stories to contribute to the booth.

John Linscheid

Germantown Mennonite Church 
   21 West Washington Lane,
   Philadelphia, PA 19144-2601 
   (215) 843-5599
    Email GMC Office at
               office@germantownmennonite.org
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