Mennonite Action National Training

Have you tuned your ears to hear?!

Did you witness those heavenly harmonies in the Capitol rotunda? Could you sense the vibrations shaking the very foundations of Upper Senate Park during the interfaith rally? Were you one of scores singing all the way to K Street on police buses?

And how many more of us have stood up to injustices in Gaza and here at home this past month, proclaiming that God’s love knows no borders? How many more voices must cry out and be silenced before justice prevails?

Mennonites will not be silent. We must keep making these joyful noises and cracking the walls of Jericho with each of our actions. Every time we show up, we change the course of history in some small, significant way. Since the fall of 2023, Mennonite Action has been building a heavenly choir of witnesses and workers who cannot keep from singing.

We know our work must continue. And we need your voice and vision!

This July 6-7 in Raleigh, North Carolina, Mennonite Action and allies are hosting a training to prepare communities and leaders for how to better organize within and beyond our movement. Through workshops, demonstrations, and relationship building we will strengthen our solidarity and skills.

These spirit-led actions, rallies, vigils, and civil disobediences can only happen because we come together with greater purpose. Alone, we may be meek and weak. Together, we are mighty and wondrous! Neither Rome nor the Kingdom of Heaven were built in a day. It will take inspired energy and effort from each of us to become the hands and feet this world needs.

Last July, when we gathered early on a Saturday morning to plan the final day’s march into DC, I felt an instant kinship with these hardscrabble freedom hikers from Harrisonburg. Though I’m not a cradle Mennonite — or someone who even knew what that meant a few years ago — they welcomed me in as one of the flock. Drawing the circle wider, I was trained to be a movement and safety marshal for the final leg of the journey to the White House. In one day, I was shown for the first time what a true community of care actually looks and feels like. And as we marched, sang, and planned our next sacred actions, I knew I had found a welcoming place to bring my full self into this movement.

Now we must rise together again, and equip ourselves with tools and techniques to help our communities through this ongoing chaos and uncertainty. We are living in a time of great peril and purpose, and our own characters will be forged by the fire we walk through. Jesus promises we will not be burned by the fire and reminds us that even though there are wars and rumors of wars, be not afraid.

Will you sing a new world into being? Join us in Raleigh this July!

With joy and peace,

And (she/they)

Raleigh Mennonite Church