Official Delegate Communication

A Message from Our Moderators 

May 13, 2025

To our Mosaic Mennonite Conference delegates,

In this Easter season, we are grateful for the ways that God brings life amid difficulty and uncertainty. We trust God’s leading, especially when the future seems unknown.

Early this year, Mosaic Conference proposed to Mennonite Church USA’s (MC USA) executive board that we work toward a ministry partnership relationship with MC USA by becoming a Program Entity—a designation already existing in MC USA’s bylaws. This request was made in response to a Mosaic delegate action last November that called on Mosaic’s board to redefine our relationship with MC USA as a healthy ministry partnership.

In March, MC USA’s board replied to our proposal by asking us to respond to four questions in writing. In early April, Mosaic’s executive board submitted our responses. We have included a link to MC USA’s questions and our answers here.

After Mosaic Conference’s Spring Assembly gatherings and Easter, Mosaic’s executive team met on April 30 to process what we had been hearing and learning. The following week, we met with the MC USA board’s executive team to discuss updates and plan for this past week’s Constituency Leaders’ Council (CLC) meetings with MC USA’s executive board in Wichita, Kansas.

On Thursday, May 8, prior to the start of the CLC, MC USA’s executive board unanimously voted to deny Mosaic’s proposal to become a Program Entity of MC USA. Their motion stated:

The Executive Board values our relationship with Mosaic as an area conference of MC USA. Mosaic’s proposal to become a program entity is not viable within our structure. We desire reconciliation for broken relationships. To that end, we propose a mediated conversation between the full Executive Board and Mosaic Board. 

This information is still very new, and we are processing its implications. We have indicated openness to mediated conversation in the past and remain open to a process that could lead to mutual transformation, including both healed relationships and organizational change.

We invite your prayers as Mosaic Conference's Board meets at Homestead (FL) Mennonite this weekend (May 16-18); we will take part of our time together to discuss this decision from MC USA and discern our next steps.

During our CLC worship on Saturday, we reflected on Ephesians 4: “You are one body and one spirit, just as God also called you in one hope.” We reflected on how unity is not shaped through uniformity, but through curiosity, creativity, and joy.

We are grateful for the ways that we experienced curiosity and joy as we sensed God’s presence and activity over the weekend, even in our disappointment and sadness at this outcome. Throughout the weekend, we had encouraging conversations with executive ministers and moderators of other MC USA conferences, and we are grateful for the supportive relationships we continue to have with our siblings in MC USA.

MC USA’s board decision doesn’t change our vision to find creative ways to live together that are worthy of the call that we received from God (Ephesians 4:1): to embody the reconciling love of Jesus in our broken and beautiful world.

We are grateful that we are on this journey together. May the Spirit continue to guide us.

Angela Moyer Walter & Roy Williams

Mosaic Conference Moderators