Jim Lehman, who planted the seeds for Voices for an Open Spirit (VOS) at Annual Conference 10 years ago, invited guests at the group\u2019s yearly banquet to take a look back, but also to look forward.<\/p>\n
What Lehman characterized as a pivotal moment in the Church of the Brethren\u2019s history is also a pivotal moment in the life of VOS as the organization considers folding its tent and shifting its support to the recently formed Open Table Cooperative. The announcement was made by VOS Coordinating Council convener David Witkovsky.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe life that is peculiar to the Church of the Brethren is like a cup,\u201d Lehman said in his opening remarks. \u201cBut that cup is broken and cannot be put together again.\u201d Attendees may logically have concluded that this was a recent analogy, given current tensions in the denomination. Lehman said he lifted the comment from Jesse Zigler, former professor of psychology and Christian education at Bethany Seminary, who made the observation in 1942.<\/p>\n
Zigler, Lehman said, put together a list of reasons for this. \u201cIf I were to show you that list, you\u2019d recognize those factors.\u201d Reasons for discussion of a denominational split come and go, and while on the surface those reasons may appear different over the years, often they are remarkably similar, Lehman said. Lehman, whose love of Brethren history has resulted in numerous books and articles, dug deep into the denomination\u2019s history for examples of this principle.<\/p>\n
In 1717, for example, not even a decade after the denomination\u2019s 1708 birth, tensions arose in Krefeldt, Germany, among members over associations some had with Mennonites. Matters of love and marriage were at the heart of the argument–\u201cSound familiar?\u201d Lehman asked–and the bitter bickering was one reason Peter Becker led some 20 families to America.<\/p>\n
Had that early split among the Brethren not occurred, Lehman remarked, a church in America may never have been planted. \u201cHad they resolved their differences, they may never have come here.\u201d He also noted that the Brethren movement in Europe eventually withered and died.<\/p>\n
Some Brethren today are suggesting that a split in the church is likely over the controversy centered on sexuality. That may not necessarily be a bad thing, Lehman said. Were that to occur, he suggested–citing the Krefeldt example–new life may emerge.<\/p>\n
Is that what he suggests for the church? As if anticipating the question among those seated at the tables, Lehman said, \u201cWhen you\u2019re asked to make a speech like this, you really ought to have something truly profound to say. I wish I did,\u201d he noted wryly. Tossing it back to the crowd, he said, \u201cI don\u2019t know if we should split. Do you?\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the aims of VOS, according to its mission statement, was bridge-building and dialogue with those from opposing camps. \u201cBut we haven\u2019t done so well at that,\u201d Lehman observed. \u201cThere doesn\u2019t seem to be much interest on either side\u201d he said, referring to VOS and to conservative movements. He added, \u201cIf the Brethren cup wasn\u2019t broken when Jesse Zigler made his statement, maybe it\u2019s broken now. Even our fights are no longer Brethren. We\u2019re often opposing each other–liberals and conservatives–in an American way, not a Brethren way.\u201d<\/p>\n
How we treat one another speaks volumes about us as a denomination. While it\u2019s not easy to demonstrate forbearance, some are doing it. Lehman cited his friend Ken Kline Smeltzer, pastor of Burnham Church of the Brethren in the Middle Pennsylvania District, as one example. \u201cNow, Ken is a noted firebrand progressive,\u201d Lehman said. \u201cBut some of you may not know that he\u2019s pastor of a small, conservative congregation in Pennsylvania. I once asked him: \u2018How do you do it?\u2019 He replied, \u2018Well, I don\u2019t give them my whole load.\u2019 But he added that he always just tries to love them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to think that the Brethren are still good people,\u201d Lehman said. \u201cThere are nasty people among us. But if you think of the church you grew up in, or the church you\u2019re part of now, you know there are a lot of good people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lehman concluded, \u201cMaybe our cup isn\u2019t broken. Maybe it\u2019s too full of our own anger and opinions. How do we empty our cup?\u201d<\/p>\n
— Randy Miller is editor of the Church of the Brethren\u2019s \u201cMessenger\u201d magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jim Lehman, who planted the seeds for Voices for an Open Spirit (VOS) at Annual Conference 10 years ago, invited guests at the group\u2019s yearly banquet to take a look back, but also to look forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"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":[1],"tags":[1258,1065],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-5062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-annual-conference","tag-voices-for-an-open-spirit"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5062","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5062"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5064,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5062\/revisions\/5064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5062"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=5062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}