“Open and Affirming” Link Removed by MMN/Chicago MVS Labels Themselves a "Safe Space"

 For the second time in the last year, Mennonite Missions Network (MMN) has deleted parts of a welcoming statement from a unit's description. Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS) is a program of MMN. The first edit to a unit’s page was to the Fresno unit. In that case, the volunteers living in the MVS Fresno unit updated their webpage to have a welcoming statement that would include the lgbtq community. MMN deleted the welcoming statement, and made a policy that MVS units could not designate themselves as lgbtq supportive. The statement was deleted off the Fresno MVS page without notifying the Fresno unit’s volunteers, local program coordinator, or supportive congregation.

While volunteers couldn’t designate their unit as lgbtq welcoming, the supportive congregation(s) of the MVS units had more flexibility. Tonia Martin, the MVS director at the time, told me over a conference call that the supportive congregations could designate themselves as affirming of the lgbtq community. CCMC followed MMN’s guidelines and edited their congregation’s description to include the phrase “open and affirming.” For those unfamiliar with this phrase, it can be confusing. To reduce the ambiguity, CCMC had MVS link “open and affirming” to Brethren Mennonite Council’s Supportive Communities Network (SCN) page to show it meant to be publicly supportive of lgbt people.  Less than a month ago I reported thisexciting news.

Late last week, I learned that the link to SCN was removed. The reason MMN gave for the removal of the link was that MMN policy only allows “partnering congregations and agencies” to be linked from a MVS unit page. As with the changes done to Fresno’s unit page, the Chicago MVS unit and CCMC did not find out there was an issue with the link to SCN until after the link had been removed.

MMN continues to find ways to try to silence lgbtq people and their allies. The statement that Brethren Mennonite Council (BMC) is not a "partnering agency" is particularly frustrating. BMC is actively partnering with current MVSers, MVS alums, and the congregations that support the MVS units. Once again, the work BMC is doing to nurture an environment of welcome and embrace of lgbtq people has been disregarded. This is work that MMN and Mennonite Church USA should also be doing. While they remain silent, lgbtq people and their allies raise their voices.

While CCMC’s voice was edited on their MVS unit’s MMN webpage, their lgbtq inclusion task force for the MVS unit was already working on putting up a revised description of the unit on CCMC’s website. On the page, they have designated their unit as a “Safe Space” for lgbtq. Below is their “Safe Space” statement.

Safe Space

The Chicago MVS Unit strives to be a Safe Space that welcomes and celebrates people of any sexual orientation or gender expression. To that end, we seek to create a community that:

• fosters respectful conversations;
• cultivates relationships, understandings and practices that enable its members to be allies for and accountable to each other;
• allows for all persons to explore, live into and live out of the fullness of their identities without needing to defend or edit who they are;
• does not tolerate the marginalization of its LGBTQ* members; and
• receives ongoing support and accountability from Chicago Community Mennonite Church, as an outgrowth of the congregation’s public affirmation and welcome of LGBTQ persons.

*lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning or queer (including intersex, Two-Spirit, asexual, allied)

Let me know what is going on in your MVS unit! I’d love to report how you are creating a welcoming and embracing place for lgbtq people!