(Left to right) Luke Gascho, Goshen, Ind.; Jennifer Schrock, leader/staff, Goshen, Ind.; Joanne Moyer, Edmonton, Alberta; Dave Hockman-Wert, Corvallis, Ore.; Lillie Koerner Eisenbeis, Freeman, South Dakota; Lawrence Jennings, New York City, N.Y.; Marlisa Yoder-Bontrager, Lancaster, Pa.; Haraldo Nunes, Salem, Ohio; Jim Smith, Goshen, Ind. Not pictured: Mike Currie, Abbotsford, B.C.
Mennonite Creation Care Network held its annual face-to-face council meeting in Goshen, Ind., April 20 to 21, 2018. This year ranked first in the council’s history for new blood. The veteran members welcomed three new first time attenders and also entertained four guests. Lillie Koerner Eisenbeis, Lawrence Jennings and Haraldo Nunes all joined the council within the past year. The council said goodbye to Marlisa Yoder Bontrager and Greg Bowman (not pictured) who concluded their terms.
MCCN’s Partnership with CSCS
MCCN’s growing partnership with the Center for Sustainable Climate Solutions (CSCS) was a primary agenda item. The meetings included electronic sessions with Doug Graber Neufeld, director of the CSCS, and Scott Barge, an institutional researcher at Eastern Mennonite University who worked with the climate change survey that CSCS took in 2016-17. Doug Kaufman, Goshen, Ind., also joined the meeting briefly to report on his work preparing retreats for pastors. Doug has a joint appointment working with both organizations as director of pastoral ecology.
The council also met with David Leaman-Miller, a representative from the Sustainability Alumni Network (SAN), to seek ways the two networks can collaborate and enrich each other. SAN members are graduates of Mennonite colleges who want to support environmental and sustainability activities at their former campuses and connect young adults with these interests.
Finding a Place in Canada
Joanne Moyer, a longtime council member from Edmonton, Alberta, led the group in a discussion of MCCN’s future in Canada. At this point, MCCN has no staffing in Canada and no way for Canadians to make tax-exempt donations to MCCN. The council discussed what they might propose to Mennonite Church Canada leadership at this time when the denomination is undergoing reorganization.
Developing Quarterly Foci
Developing a rotation of shared focal points for congregations is a new direction for MCCN. The summer of 2018, the organization is calling congregations to do something to help their local rivers. Autumn will center around energy. From 2019 on, MCCN will follow a land-water-air rotation.
See the 2018-04-20-Creation Care Council Agenda.
Contact mccn@goshen.edu if you have questions or suggestions for future agenda items.