For much of its history the congregation has been associated with the Eastern
District of the General Conference Mennonite Church (GCMC). In the earliest
years, until a schism in mid-19th century occurred, the congregation was loosely
connected with the Franconia Conference of the (old) Mennonite Church (MC). In
the 1970’s with the renewed vitality and growing membership of the congregation,
our church was reunited with the Franconia Conference.
However, it is fair to say that Germantown's relationship with the larger
Mennonite world, including the present times, has long been tenuous. What
historian John Ruth has written:
"By the 1790’s the once primary Germantown congregation was
increasingly isolated from the larger Mennonite community ..."
has
been all too true for much of our 325 years.
Until recent years, Germantown was a dually-affiliated congregation, being a
member of both the Franconia (MC) and the Eastern (GCMC) district conferences.
In February 2002, these two main bodies (MC and GCMC) in North America merged
as the Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada. This merger was
accomplished in the context of diverse theologies pertaining to scripture and to
the welcoming of gay and lesbian persons into membership.
As a consequence, the relationship with Franconia lasted until October 1997
when Germantown was removed as a conference member, due to our full inclusion of
sexual minorities into membership. For similar reasons, the Eastern District
also removed Germantown as a member congregation in November 2002. Not all of
the district conferences interpret membership guidelines of the new
denomination, Mennonite Church USA, in a comparably strict manner.
Today then, our church still finds itself somewhat "isolated" from the
mainstream of the larger Mennonite community. We continue to experience
spiritual union with the Mennonite Church USA as we embrace core values of
Anabaptism, including:
- discipleship to follow Christ in daily life;
- voluntary believers baptism, for a maturing, adult faith in the
adventure of faith;
- nonresistance to promote peace and just relationships;
- to continuously re-encounter the Bible and its message in
contemporary context; and
- the importance of the gathered community of faith, for discernment of
faith issues, mutual counsel and mutual aid.
It is in one area, that of welcoming sexual minorities and honoring all
monogamous covenants, that we depart from the majority teaching on human
sexuality.