A congregation of Mennonite Church usa 57 Maple Linden Lane

June 11, 2013

Dear Atlantic Coast Conference delegates, Executive Committee and congregations:

Our Frazer Mennonite congregation is grateful for the action taken by delegates on April 20, 2013 to invite our congregation into fellowship with the Atlantic Coast Conference. While we had hoped for full membership, we recognize that the very diversity that attracted us to affiliate with ACC also makes it difficult to extend full membership to Frazer without additional time for conversation and discernment among ACC’s diverse congregations. We appreciate the invitation for Frazer’s already credentialed church leaders (Brenda Martin Hurst and Ray Hurst) to transfer their credentials to ACC.

Our congregation has given thoughtful and prayerful consideration to your invitation to associate membership and took action this past Sunday to unanimously accept your invitation. A diversity of emotions has been experienced within our congregation in response to the offer of associate membership: gratitude, disappointment, hope, apprehension, thanksgiving and reluctance. We have decided to accept your invitation with the hope that we can move into full membership in ACC after a period of respectful dialogue and further discernment together with you. We hope this can happen sooner rather than later, so that our status as full members of an MC USA conference will not remain uncertain for too long.

We are eager and ready to actively engage in the life of the ACC, giving ourselves fully to this conference relationship. Our congregation is committed to pray for ACC and to provide financial support for the conference. We are open and willing to serve on ACC committees, as seems appropriate.

As we enter this affiliation with ACC, the Frazer congregation desires to build mutual trust and understanding with all of the congregations in ACC. We are keenly aware that our transparent request for membership in ACC has unintentionally brought into sharper focus the wide diversity that already exists among congregations within ACC. It is our sincere prayer that the ACC action to invite Frazer will not be taken as an opportunity for further separation of ACC congregations, but as an opportunity to build a more intentional, well-grounded and well-tended unity. We are committed to working with all of you to create that kind of unity amidst our real diversity.

We welcome ACC delegates and members to join the Frazer congregation for worship as one way of getting to know our congregation. Our Sunday worship begins at 9:30 a.m. followed by coffee and fellowship at 10:30. The Sunday School hour starts at 11:00 a.m.

Frazer Mennonite Church now joins ACC, choosing to continue to trust the Spirit’s leading in our congregation, in the Atlantic Coast Conference and in Mennonite Church USA.

Yours in Christ,