Love
We believe that God is love. And that love is revealed through the person of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. We seek to embody a radical love toward God, toward others, and toward ourselves. We’re after the kind of love that teaches us to embrace our differences and build strong community together, the kind of love that Jesus preaches when he teaches to love even our enemies, the kind of love that transforms us and our world.
We celebrate this love through worship of God who reveals the Godself in three persons: as the parent-creator who breathed all creation into being; as Holy Spirit who gives life and emboldens and guides the faithful; and in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus
We follow the way of Jesus, whose example inspires us to move toward a more just, peaceful, and merciful embodiment of love in this world. Through Jesus’ life and teachings, which resisted oppression, we are drawn into the fold of God’s love and rebirth. We acknowledge the scandal of Jesus’ birth and we grieve that Jesus suffered a state-sanctioned execution.
We celebrate that death and violence do not have the last word. We celebrate the promise that Jesus’ resurrection offers. And we seek to live lives of resurrection and newness, centered in God’s love.
The Bible
We are drawn to stories of Jesus reaching out to those who have been marginalized, listening and healing as he moves among them. We recognize that the Bible is an inspired document written over many centuries, by many people, across various cultures, and that this collection of sacred scriptures includes many literary genres, ranging from poetry and short stories, to historical narratives and letters written between communities, as well as prophetic and apocalyptic texts.
We seek the Holy Spirit to grant us understanding and revelation through the sacred scriptures of the Bible. And we seek to understand together what the Bible means for our lives in this time and place.
Peace, Justice & Reconciliation
We follow Jesus’ example of peace, nonviolence, forgiveness, and reconciliation. We seek to actively engage in peacemaking in all areas of life: loving our enemies and refusing to use violence, working for alternatives to violence on personal and structural levels, recognizing and responding to social violence such as racism and exclusion, centering the needs of the poor and most vulnerable, and practicing justice and mercy.
We follow Jesus’ work and teaching to preach good news to the poor, set the captives free, and liberate the oppressed. (Luke 4:18)
Beloved community
We affirm all people as created in the image of God. We wish for our congregation to be a community where people can ask questions, offer creativity, and extend compassion and forgiveness to each other as we journey together. We are enriched by diversity in race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, physical and mental health, education, economic standing, and relationship status. We seek to create a place together where we each can feel safe enough to be authentic and share our gifts. Services are open to all who are curious and desiring to participate in the life of the church.
A person will be accepted as a member through a personal choice to be involved and to contribute to the work of Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship. Baptism is a requisite for membership. Baptism is for those who confess and turn from their sins, accept Jesus Christ as savior, and commit themselves to follow Jesus in obedience as members of Christ’s body. Baptism is for those who are of the age of accountability and who freely request baptism on the basis of their response to Jesus Christ in faith. A person is presented for membership based on a personal statement of faith in Christ, willingness to give and receive counsel, and commitment to the mission of the church: Seeking the peace of the city!
Pentecost 2022
About
Our congregation is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, which is part of Mennonite Church USA. The Mennonite/Anabaptist tradition within Christianity has always seen peace as central to the good news that Jesus lived and proclaimed.
This Christian tradition finds its roots in the 16th century movement called the Radical Reformation, also called Anabaptism.
This history plays out in our contemporary lives in various ways, including the following commitments: simple living and worship, communal embodiment of the gospel, noncoercive faith and nonviolent resistance of evil, and a concern for God’s merciful justice for all people. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we follow in the way of Jesus, who gives us the grace to love one another as God loves the world.
Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship 