Allegheny Miscellany
By: David Mishler, Conference Minister
Volume 28 - June 2020
#1 – Annual Celebration of Congregations and Conference - VIRTUALLY Because the Leadership Council Executive Committee, with input from our pastors, has decided that meeting in-person at Laurelville Mennonite Church Center best wait until 2021, the Celebration planning committee is working on a revised schedule to accommodate an abbreviated delegate meeting and a conference-wide worship experience. Our pastors/credentialied leaders will be meeting via Zoom for the originally-scheduled Healthy Boundaries training on Friday, July 31. Delegates will be invited into a Zoom meeting on Saturday morning, August 1. And there will be a celebrative online worship experience at 10:30 AM on Sunday, August 2, for all congregations who want to participate. Your congregation will be asked to contribute something via a pre-recorded short video that everyone can view during the hour-long virtual worship. Stay tuned for more details and how your congregation can be involved! #3 – Conference Minister to undergo hip replacement surgery David Mishler will receive a new hip on June 25. Please contact the conference office for any assistance needed during recovery time, which is expected to be about one week before resuming activities from home. #2 – The closing of an era – International Guest House to close its ministry After a heartfelt discernment process, the Board of the International Guest House in Washington DC reached consensus on April 30, 2020 to begin closure of the hospitality ministry and transition towards selling the house in due course. Declining revenue from guest bookings and longer-term forecasted trends, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, played into the decision that the ministry of hospitality in shared spaces of close proximity will no longer be sustainable. |
The International Guest House (IGH) began offering hospitality in the model of international hostels in early 1967, borne from a vision of Kamlaker Dandeker, its first director, and Kenneth Good, pastor of Hyattsville Mennonite Church. For more than 50 years, serving over 55,000 guests, this ministry of “a home away from home” was offered with mostly volunteer staff and hosts to nationals and internationals who were visiting the nation’s capital. Each day began with breakfast around the table which sometimes brought together rivals. Listening to one another in this safe place saw amazing connections, which we can only imagine how the Spirit of Christ used to forward the kingdom of peace. Because IGH operated under the auspices of Allegheny Mennonite Conference, a Transition Team has been formed with three representatives each from the IGH Board (Lawrence Ressler, Su Flickinger, Tim Wiens) and the Allegheny Leadership Council (Lester Lind, Karin Miller, David Mishler). While the board will be directly involved with the details of closing the business license and offering the property for sale, Allegheny Mennonite Conference delegates are charged with designing a process for the use of funds from the proceeds of the sale. The Transition Team will be providing proposals for these processes to the IGH Board and to the Allegheny Leadership Council over the next several months with the hope of finding new ways to offer welcome to the stranger, developing new and ongoing ministries of hospitality to further the peaceable kingdom of Christ. The International Guest House was able to live a long beautiful life due to the hundreds of volunteers who served in its mission of hospitality. The board wishes to express immense gratefulness to everyone who has helped make the International Guest House a special place of love and acceptance where the spirit of Christ was at work. |
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Who is Allegheny Mennonite Conference?
We are a group of 14 congregations from PA, WV, MD, VA and DE who are raising two significant priorities: to be a conference whose highest priority is to walk in the way of Jesus, the center of our faith, and to be so committed to place-based ministry, ministry in our local neighborhoods, that everything we do flows out of this commitment to offer Jesus’ reconciliation in our home towns. We value relationships. We commit our delegates to be present at three gatherings each year to share what God is doing in our various places, so that we can celebrate and counsel with one another. Our pastors commit to be engaged regularly in pastor peer gatherings for sharing, education and counsel. We value diversity. We believe diversity of thought and practice will sharpen one another in extending the reign of God in our neighborhoods. We value staying at the table. Not imposing our agenda on one another, yet discerning together how God is speaking into the life of our conference and the lives of our congregations, we aspire as adult siblings to honor one another with ongoing conversation, seeking our future together. Allegheny Mennonite Conference. Jesus centered. Collaborative. Committed to place-based ministry. |
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