Delegation of 21 goes to Arizona to 'listen'

Focus shifts from new Arizona law to solidarity and unity within MC USA.

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Twenty-one members of a Mennonite Church USA delegation met with municipal leaders and church members in Phoenix, Ariz., Aug. 12-13 as well as with BorderLinks, an organization that brings people together to build bridges of solidarity across North and Latin American borders and to promote intercultural understanding and respect.

The purpose of the delegation's visit was not to make a decision about the 2013 convention but to listen.

The 21 members of the delegation to Phoenix, Aug. 12-13. Photo provided.

While the delegation initially planned to focus on the new Arizona law (SB1070)  and its effects, members found the focus shifting to the larger issue of being one church and to the question, "How do we as one church walk together in solidarity and unity?"

At the upcoming Sept 23-24 Leaders Forum in Pittsburgh, participants will have the opportunity to assist in the discernment process regarding the 2013 convention location. The final decision will be made by the Executive Board of Mennonite Church USA.

This Leaders Forum will include the Constituency Leaders Council—of which Iglesia Menonita Hispana is a part—as well as boards of churchwide agencies and constituency groups, and college presidents.

For delegation members, it was an opportunity to meet face-to-face with each other and to listen to people in Arizona, who have widely disparate views about how to deal with issues regarding immigration.

For Glen Guyton, associate executive director of constituent resources for Mennonite Church USA, "Such face-to-face communication is transforming. There are just some things you cannot do via e-mail and telephone."

While the issue that brought the delegation members to Phoenix was how to respond to SB1070 that some believe will lead to racial profiling, it became clear to Ed Diller, moderator of Mennonite Church USA, that "the deepest longing of the delegation members was to make sure our beloved church fully incorporates all its members."

Yvonne Diaz, executive director of Iglesia Menonita Hispana, said the important question is, "Will we be able to show each other as brothers and sisters that we are all the church, that every person is important to the body of Christ?"

Saulo Padilla, director of the Immigration Education Office at Mennonite Central Committee U.S., said the delegation came to realize that "issues of injustice, such as immigration or the Arizona SB1070 law, are not isolated Hispanic or ethnic issues but issues that affect the body of Christ as a whole."

Phoenix city government leaders, who have expressed their opposition to the new legislation, extended the invitation to the delegation to come, and the Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau covered expenses for the trip. Phoenix leaders made their case for Mennonite Church USA to keep to its earlier decision to hold its 2013 convention in Phoenix.

In a meeting on Aug. 12, Vice Mayor Michael Nowakowski pointed out to the delegation that 25 percent of businesses in the convention center are Hispanic and are suffering from boycotts of events there due to the new law; that Hispanics make up 40 percent of Phoenix's population; and that 337,000 Hispanics are eligible to vote but don't due to fear.

On Aug. 13, the delegation met for several hours with police chief Jack Harris, assistant chief Jim Piña, Mayor Phil Gordon and assistant city Manager Ed Zuercher, who is a member of Trinity Mennonite Church in Phoenix.

Gordon talked about the growth of Phoenix—now the fifth largest city in the United States—and how the political climate has changed. Harris and Piña assured the delegation that they believe the city is safe for convention-goers.

Zuercher, in an Aug. 16 phone conversation, said the conversation with the delegation was "healthy and productive" and answered questions that many are asking about Phoenix. "We need the help of churches like Mennonite Church USA to come here and witness to justice, to learn about what's happening here," he said.

Later on Aug. 13, the delegation met at Trinity Mennonite Church with Margi Ault-Duell of BorderLinks. She spoke to the group about "messages" that people may believe about immigrants, contrasted with the values of a faith tradition that involve welcoming and caring for the stranger.

About 100 people gathered there from local Mennonite churches and a non-Mennonite Hispanic church that meets on Trinity's campus. The entire group met around tables in a two-hour discernment time, discussing these questions regarding immigration and the convention decision: What are the issues? What are the guiding principles? What are the options?

For Diller, "the main issue is whether we are a church that argues over points of view or a church that attempts to discern together the leading of the Holy Spirit."

Kuaying Teng, minister of Asian Ministries for Mennonite Mission Network, agreed that we are to be "inclusive of all people involved in the process as a church."

For Diaz, the fact that such a diverse group could share honestly, openly and respectfully was important. "If we were able to talk to each other about difficult issues we face as a church as we did on this delegation ... we would be so much closer to what and how God intended us to be," she said.

Padilla said, "During casual conversations, some Hispanic leaders who have been part of Mennonite Church USA for the last few decades commented that five decades ago, this kind of conversation would not have been possible, nor the kind of representation of [Racial/Ethnic people] in such a meeting."

The fact that the delegation was a diverse group was also important to Guyton. "This was not an Anglo-led process or a Hispanic-led process but a Mennonite Church USA process in which many voices were genuinely heard," he said.

The delegation was a necessary step, says Guyton, in terms of Mennonite Church USA's goal of being an antiracist church. "We need more times for multiracial/cultural teams to come together on tough issues," he said. "It could be a model for how the church discerns things in the future."

Guyton pointed out that the issue is more than just the location of a convention but how the church relates to undocumented immigrants and works toward just and humane immigration reform.

In 2003, Mennonite Church USA delegates passed an immigration statement that says, "We reject our country's mistreatment of immigrants, repent of our silence and commit ourselves to act with and on behalf of our immigrant brothers and sisters, regardless of their legal status."

Delegation members included the following:
Executive Board members: 
Elizabeth Soto Albrecht, Lancaster, Pa.; Tina Begay, Bloomfield, N.M.; Ed Diller, moderator, Cincinnati, Ohio; Charlotte Hardt, Spokane, Wash.; Juanita Nuñez, Ocoee, Fla.; Dick Thomas, moderator-elect, Ronks, Pa.

Iglesia Menonita Hispana representatives: 
Nicolas Angustia, Brooklyn, N.Y.; David Araujo, Valparaiso, Ind.; Yvonne Diaz, Ligonier, Ind.; Madeline Maldonado, Lehigh Acres, Fla.; Juan Montes, Reedley, Calif. 

Intercultural Relations Reference Committee members:
 Leslie Francisco III, Hampton, Va.; Kuaying Teng, St. Catharine's, Ont.

Mennonite Church USA staff: 
Glen Guyton, San Antonio, Texas; Susan Mark Landis, Orrville, Ohio; Marty Lehman, Goshen, Ind.; Rachel Swartzendruber Miller, Phoenix, Ariz.; Ervin Stutzman, Harrisonburg, Va. 

Racial Healing Task Group representative:
 Lloyd Miller, Goshen, Ind.

Other representatives:
 Gilberto Flores, Dallas, Texas; Saulo Padilla, Goshen, Ind.

A written statement from the delegation to the church can be found online here.

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