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Presented to leadership: Pentecost Sunday, May 19, 2024

Dear Leadership of Mosaic Mennonite Conference and Mennonite Church USA,

I send you greetings of grace and peace in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ from the hills of Vermont where I serve as the Pastor of Taftsville Chapel Mennonite Fellowship.

I have been fortunate to come to know several of you in recent years and hope for continued friendship in the years ahead and to meet those I’m yet to cross paths with in the near future, if not in eternity.

It has come to my attention and to the awareness of my congregation that a great moral crisis faces the Body of Christ across the earth today. This includes, but is certainly not limited to, churches counted among the membership of Mennonite Church USA and Mosaic Mennonite Conference. This has led to increasing divisions among our members, congregations, conferences, communions, and denominations; presenting perceived irreconcilable differences that lead to amputations in the Body of Christ: severing relations with one another–often painfully–in church splits, schisms, and factions–broken fellowships in ever-increasing fragments.

To my mind, the present crisis in the Body of Christ is about bodies. How do we, as committed followers of Jesus Christ, understand the moral obligations of human bodies in relation to one another? How do we make sense of and respond to the various attractions and desires of our bodies towards other bodies and the role of gender in how we treat our own bodies and the bodies of others? How do we overcome the historic and horrific conflicts surrounding races and ethnicities of human bodies that have been used as markers of division and tools of oppression rather than differences created by God to celebrate? How do we preserve, honor, and cherish the dignity of human bodies–in various shapes and sizes– from the moment they begin to the final moments before natural expiration as “fearfully and wonderfully made” in the “image and likeness of God”? How do we make not only our churches, but the places and spaces we live our lives, more accommodating to the wide range of differences among bodies in terms of abilities, needs, disabilities, diseases, and developmental circumstances? How do we honor the bodies of older generations while creating a more hospitable place for generations yet to be born?

I believe one of the great tasks of the Church in my generation, and perhaps generations ahead, is to embody responses to these questions. Not merely to theoretically discuss, but to extend tangible action that moves our bodies in practical ways to care for other bodies. I do not write this letter presuming to answer all of the questions I raise above, but to make a proposal as a step towards healing pre-existing wounds in the Body of Christ and prevent further self-inflicted harm in the Church by offering a simple solution that could alleviate several points of unnecessary conflict.

Questions related to gender, sexuality, and the body are not the only questions impacting the Church, but they are particularly sensitive right now. I propose that the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective (1995) be amended to incorporate an official acknowledgement that “In Christ there is no longer male and female”. This statement is derived from scripture (the Epistle to the Galatians 3:28), and therefore, is consistent with the current Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective by way of Article 4: Scripture (i.e. “We believe that all Scripture is inspired by God through the Holy Spirit for instruction in salvation and training in righteousness”).

Official acknowledgement of this statement in the main text of an Article within the Confession could encourage conferences, congregations, and individuals to discern the relevance (or irrelevance) of gender as it applies to:

• Whether or not certain individuals are required to wear (or not wear) head-coverings in specific contexts or grow hair of a certain length on the basis of gender (1 Corinthians 11:4-16, Numbers 6:5)
• Whether or not certain individuals are required to refrain from speaking or teaching when another gender is present (1 Corinthians 14:33-35, 1 Timothy 2:11-12, Luke 24:10-11, Acts 2:16-21)
• Whether or not certain gender expectations are required for and within marriage (Genesis 2:18-25, Mark 10:2-12, Ephesians 5:21-33, 1 Corinthians 7:1-17, Song of Solomon 6:2-3)
• The extent to which any particular expectation or role can be assigned to any body on the basis of gender ( Genesis 1:26-27, Matthew 19:12, Deuteronomy 23:1, Genesis 29:17, Genesis 25:25-28, Song of Solomon 8:8, John 11:35, 1 Timothy 2:8-10, Romans 1:26-27, 2 Samuel 1:26, Genesis 3:16-19, Genesis 17:12-14, Deuteronomy 22:5, Exodus 21:7-11, Leviticus 20:13, Galatians 3:10-13, Galatians 5:1-3, Mark 3:35)

Matters of gender and the body have personal implications that impact individuals, married couples, and families; acknowledgement that “In Christ there is no longer male and female” could be incorporated into Article 19: Family, Singleness, and Marriage. While some congregations, conferences, and families may hold different convictions on these matters, the recognition that “In Christ there is no longer male and female” allows discretion about the relevance of gender as applied to bodies within the greater Body of Christ, so as to not generate and perpetuate unnecessary division.

I hope you will give serious and prayerful consideration to this proposal, and that its adoption is helpful in maintaining integrity and unity within the Body of Christ and among the leaders and members within.

In accordance with the words of Ephesians 4:3-6,

“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

Respectfully,

Steve McCloskey

Pastor, Taftsville Chapel Mennonite Fellowship

Taftsville, Vermont

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Dear friends who care about our fellow humans and the future of the Church,

The above letter is written to the leadership of my denomination, making a small proposal to reform our current Confession of Faith in the hopes of pursuing unity and integrity within the larger church; what the New Testament calls the “Body of Christ”. This comes from the perspective of one pastor with a small congregation in Vermont, hoping to serve as an agent of reconciliation and healing.

The Christian church, in various forms, has been grappling over questions related to gender, sexuality, and marriage and how to relate one another with different convictions on these matters.

Whether or not you are a Mennonite, and regardless of your religious background, I invite you to consider the implications of this proposal. (If you would like to read the current Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective, you can access it here). Further, I invite you to sign the petition below as an expression of support for what this letter proposes.

Thank you,

Steve