{"id":25595,"date":"2025-07-08T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/?p=25595"},"modified":"2025-07-17T19:45:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T19:45:22","slug":"bmc-annual-worship-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2025\/bmc-annual-worship-service\/","title":{"rendered":"BMC annual worship service anticipates the organization\u2019s 50 anniversary celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>By Anna Lisa Gross<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You may have thought you walked into a youth and young adult gathering with a lot of adult chaperones. Or you may have thought you were in a community center classroom. Why were a roomful of younger-leaning people sitting in swivel chairs bolted to desks watching a flickering projector beam litanies and hymn lyrics on the screen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was actually the annual Brethren Mennonite Council for LGBTQ+ Interests (BMC) worship service. We sang, prayed, and listened for the Spirit together. Many Brethren look forward to this worship service all year. It&#8217;s the highlight of Annual Conference for many people, and came on a day of unexpected pain and need for God&#8217;s abundant grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We would have preferred a more comfortable room with cozier seating. We really would have preferred that the projector wasn&#8217;t risking provoking seizures among the worshiping body. But we have been practicing patience for decades. We know how to be resourceful when circumstances aren&#8217;t suitable or sufficient. We used to have this worship service every year at a welcoming church near the Annual Conference site, until we were allowed to use the official facilities for this event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Resilience is not something we cultivate by choice. Resilience is God&#8217;s Spirit moving within us to recreate and renew us in challenge, pain, and struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A panel of Dakoda Kraenbring, Everett Fisher, and Liz Ullery-Swenson responded to BMC director Annabeth Roeschley&#8217;s invitations to reflect on these questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What is the 10-word version of your story as an out gay\/queer\/trans person of faith?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What do we grieve and what do we celebrate as lgbtqia+ Anabaptists?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Who or what webs of resiliency nourish you&#8211;in the Church of the Brethren, BMC, and beyond?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Washington (D.C.) City Church of the Brethren was honored as the newest member of the Supportive Communities Network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The event eagerly anticipated the 50th anniversary of BMC, which will be celebrated in Minneapolis, Minn., in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&#8212; Anna Lisa Gross is a pastor at Beacon Heights Church of the Brethren in Fort Wayne, Ind.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Find more Church of the Brethren news:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__list wp-block-latest-posts\"><li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/young-adult-conference-2026\/\">Young Adult Conference 2026: Identity in community<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/cmmb-joins-brethren-service-center\/\">CMMB joins Brethren Service Center as new partner renting warehouse space<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/annual-conference-worship-livestreamed\/\">Annual Conference worship services will be livestreamed<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/committee-to-ask-questions-of-delegates\/\">Review and Evaluation Committee to ask questions of delegates<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/shine-everywhere-reaches-midpoint\/\">Shine Everywhere reaches midpoint, strengthening faith formation at home and church\u202f<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may have thought you walked into a youth and young adult gathering with a lot of adult chaperones. Or you may have thought you were in a community center classroom. Why were a roomful of younger-leaning people sitting in swivel chairs bolted to desks watching a flickering projector beam litanies and hymn lyrics on the screen?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1703],"tags":[3369,1258,3102,3368,1066,3367],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-25595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-of-the-brethren-newsline","tag-50th-anniversary","tag-annual-conference","tag-annual-conference-2025","tag-annual-worship-service","tag-bmc","tag-brethren-mennonite-council-for-lgbtq-interests"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25595"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25640,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25595\/revisions\/25640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25595"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=25595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}