Welcome to weNote, a monthly collection of announcements and information we want to share with you and invite you to share within your congregation.
Advent at Home
The 2023 Advent at Home worship guide is now available from Mennonite Education Agency (MEA). Taken from Leader magazine’s theme, “How will we know?” the worship guide accompanies individuals and families through the days and weeks of Advent through Epiphany with scriptures, prayers, worship rituals, suggested activities, and contextual information. It is intended for all ages and life stages to deepen the experience of the season.
The guide is available for free download in English and Spanish for all congregations, individuals, and families of Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada from the MEA website: https://www.mennoniteeducation.org/resources/advent-at-home/.
Save the Date for Giving Tuesday
IMMC relies on the generosity of congregations and individuals to help fulfill our mission and calling. Joining our Missional Seeds Club is a way for individuals to partner with IMMC in sustaining us as a community of congregations, engaging the world God loves. Stay tuned for more information for how you, too, can be part of the Missional Seeds Club on Giving Tuesday!
MennoPIN Gaza Update
On Saturday, November 11 at 10:00-11:00 a.m. EST, Mennonite Palestine Israel Network (MennoPIN) will host a Zoom conversation with Tareq Abuhalima of Gaza City and current graduate assistant at Bluffton University’s The Lion and Lamb Peace Arts Center. Before beginning his graduate education at Bluffton University in January 2023, Tareq previously worked at Youth Vision Society in Gaza City as a project manager and served as MennoPIN’s “Twinning with Gaza” Initiative Coordinator. He recently presented a seminar at the Mennonite Church USA Convention in Kansas City and will share about his experience of growing up in Gaza and give an update on the disastrous human toll of the current war.
If you would like to join, please contact the IMMC Office.
“Whose Bodies? What Technologies? Cocreating Access as Christian Worship”
The COVID-19 pandemic gave urgency to the use of technologies in worship and transformed practices of worship in some Christian communities, providing access for many and creating barriers to access for others. How can Christian communities navigate these technological possibilities faithfully? This lecture makes the case that an answer must begin, not end, with access. This requires articulating both a theology of access and a theology of worship that centers access as vital for worshipping communities who take seriously God’s desire for Christians to worship God together. With this foundation, it becomes possible to investigate how technology in worship facilitates understanding and attending to human bodies and communities. But it also asks us to think expansively about what constitutes technologies of access and what conditions make worshipping together possible.
Believing and Belonging, Part 2
Join ADN field associates Bonnie Miller and Denise Reesor, and executive director Jeanne Davies for a panel discussion on exploring membership with people who have intellectual disabilities. They’ll discuss inclusive classrooms or personal study with a pastor, mentor, or parent; strategies for engaging and learning; and how to use ADN’s new curriculum Believing and Belonging: An Accessible Anabaptist Membership Curriculum. Bring your experience and questions for this practical conversation.