DESCRIPTION OF CONGREGATION

LOVE. We think deeply about our faith, but are concerned that we do the truth as well as know it. We try to relate to each other and the world in the same loving, forgiving way that Jesus practiced.

We find that interacting with Jesus (he touches us through the Bible, through his people, through his Spirit within us) moves us toward emotional wholeness and maturity from which we are able to reach out to others. Our determination to help one another is not some innate "goodness" but the love and mercy we receive from God spilling over into love and service to his creation.

PEOPLE. We're a group from all socio-economic strata and of diverse educational backgrounds. Few of the adult regular attenders were raised in a Mennonite church. Dress is varied and informal. All are welcome.

Sunday morning attendance averages 60-70 persons.

TYPICAL SUNDAY SERVICE (10:45am-12:05pm).
singing (hymns or worship choruses, acappela or with guitar, piano)
church life (announcements, sharing joys/needs, prayer, offering)
singing
sermon
response (words of personal application or confirmation, open altar, singing)

GROUPS. We emphasize relationships, drawing strength from each other and from God as we love family and neighbors. Several groups of adults meet during each week. Group life flows in three directions: inward as members encourage one another, upward in encounters with Christ, outward as members reach out to serve others.

Over the summer every other Wednesday we join in an evening of fellowship--a picnic, a work project, an evening of inter-generational games.

We have active senior high and middle school youth groups. Sunday School classes (9:30-10:30am) are offered for all ages.

JOY. We find much joy in our God and in each other. An unchurched couple who attended our annual Sweetheart Banquet many years ago marveled that a group could have so much fun without alcohol. (They later became members!) Hearty laugher often emanates from the adult Sunday School class. Even congregational business meetings are punctuated by good-natured laughter.

MEMBERSHIP COVENANT

"We recognize Community Mennonite Fellowship as the part of Christ's body, the Church, to which God has joined us.

"As members of this Fellowship, we confess that:

- Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior; we affirm this trust in Christ by submitting to baptism (Romans 10:9,10; Acts 2:38; 1 Peter 3:21)
- the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God and authoritative guide for our lives (2 Timothy 3:15-17; 2 Peter 1:20,21)
- all who belong to Christ belong to each other and need each other. (Romans 12:4,5; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Ephesians 4:15,16)

"Now we are joining in a covenant of commitment. As God gives grace and opportunity, we will strive to:

- meet with each other on a regular basis, and encourage one another (Acts 2:42,46,47; Hebrews 10:24,25)
- share our resources with each other (Acts 2:44,45; Galatians 6:10; 1 John 3:16,17)
- give and receive counsel, and pray for each other (Galatians 6:1,2; Matthew 18:15-20; Hebrews 3:12,13; Ephesians 6:18,19)
- testify to the Good News of what God has done in Christ, and cultivate a lifestyle based on love." (Romans 10:14; 1 Thessalonians 1:8-10; Romans 13:8)

EVANGELICAL. Mennonites join evangelical Christians everywhere in saying that the Bible is inspired by God and authoritative and that salvation is only through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

But there are some of Christ's commands and some aspects of church life which the Mennonite Church has tended to emphasize more than other churches.

SERVICE. Jesus was one who served others, who went about doing good (Mark 10:42-45; Acts 10:38). And he commanded his followers to help others in times of need (Luke 10:25-37; Matthew 25:31-46).

Though all churches serve others, the Mennonite Church has been especially marked by service.

PEACE. Jesus calls his followers to love all people (even enemies) rather than hate (Matthew 5:43-45; Luke 6:27-36). When someone attacks us, we are to still love them and to respond with the firm gentleness of a potential healer, not the rigid fear of a potential victim. He calls us to peace...even though when we love our enemies they may turn on us.

Common sense says there are times we should try to destroy evil-doers. But Jesus asks us to do good to them. So do Paul and Peter (Romans 12:19-21; 1 Peter 2:20a- 23; 3:8,9).

Therefore the Mennonite Church has been known as a "peace church" and members have been conscientious objectors to war--unable to see how shooting someone is doing good to them.

We acknowledge that the issue is not simple: police action is in the service of God (Romans 13:4). But we ourselves choose to be marked by the teaching and spirit of Jesus.

SERVANT LEADERSHIP. Jesus told his disciples that the leaders among them must lead as servants, not as lords (Matthew 20:25-27; 1 Peter 5:2- 3). Therefore Mennonites have typically avoided church hierarchy. Mennonite church leaders try not to force their convictions on the others but to lead by consensus.

A cluster of 3-6 churches will have an "overseer". The overseer is seen not as an authority figure but as a resource person to work with congregational leaders or to help them when they need to call a pastor. The clusters of churches in a geographical area gather together as a "conference". (The churches in upstate New York form New York Mennonite Conference.) As a conference they work at common missions and help each other face common problems. The churches value each other's counsel so much that only the conference leaders are given authority to grant credentials to a pastor.

OUR NAME. Like Lutherans who were named after Martin Luther, Mennonites were nicknamed after an early Dutch leader, Menno Simons. But just as Menno Simons was a follower of Christ, so Mennonites today are followers of Christ, not Menno.

ORIGIN. This movement began in the 16th century within the Protestant Reformation in Europe. A small group of earnest young believers said that the Protestant reformers had not gone far enough. The group attempted to recover New Testament Christianity when they baptized one another and verbalized their faith in Jesus Christ at Zurich, Switzerland, in January 1525.

PERSECUTION, MARTYRDOM. Fired by their new faith, the believers began to evangelize. The movement rapidly spread to South Germany and the Netherlands. (By the end of 1525 there were 35 missioners actively baptizing new disciples and commissioning new missioners. By 1529, about 257 such missioners had appeared, with probably another 250 working out of public view. By that same year government officials discovered 3,616 Anabaptists in 509 cities and towns. No one knows how many went undiscovered.)

The official churches immediately opposed the movement and scoffed at them as "Anabaptizers," which literally means re-baptizers. As the first Protestant church to be a free church (not government-run), the group was not tolerated, either by the state or other churches. In a short time many Anabaptist leaders were martyred. Thousands more died gruesome deaths at the hands of their persecutors over the next two generations.

Persecution rapidly spread the Anabaptist movement. It scattered believers, and everywhere they went, they told others their faith. It advertised their faith--"what faith would make a person willing to die for it?" But it also took a terrible toll. The small groups lived without the right to own property or to meet publicly for worship. Anabaptists became "quiet in the land" and moved to many places, including Russia and North America, seeking freedom to live their faith according to their consciences. From 1575 to 1850 the movement grew mainly by winning its own children to faith.

AMISH. Some groups within the Mennonite family, most notably the Amish, have chosen to continue separated from society. They avoid owning automobiles, radios, etc. because such things open a wide door to society's influences.

REACHING OUT. North American Mennonites began organizing home and foreign missions in the late 1800s. They sent a first wave of missionaries abroad during the years 1899-1915, and another round of mission expansion followed World War II.

Especially since the 1940s Mennonites have developed a substantial ministry of emergency relief and development services which stand alongside church extension.

The Anabaptist-Mennonite family now numbers 1,200,000 baptized members in 60 countries. The most rapid growth is occurring in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, which are home to 700,000 members. The number of members in North America and Europe is 500,000.

BRIEF HISTORY IN CORNING

AGNES FLOOD. On June 23, 1972 Hurricane Agnes poured out her fury over the hills of northern Pennsylvania and southern New York. The Chemung River overflowed, causing the loss of 23 lives in Corning and millions of dollars worth of property damage in Corning and neighboring Elmira.

A few days later the first of hundreds of Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers from Canada and many states of the U.S. began to appear. By December, MDS workers had put in 9,600 volunteer hours in cleanup and repair in the Corning-Painted Post area. MDS continued working in Corning through 1974.

CHURCH EMERGES. The volunteer work led to interviews and publicity items in the local news media and to conversations with persons in the community. MDS workers and an increasing number from the community began meeting in the community room of the Erwin Bank.

In 1974 the emerging church chose their first pastor and held their first baptism.

In January 1978 the fellowship, which was meeting mid-way between Corning and Elmira, "multiplied" and formed two congregations--one of which was Community Mennonite Fellowship - Corning.

VOLUNTARY SERVICE. In 1974 a Voluntary Service unit began at 269 West Pulteney Street, a building that had housed MDS workers. Over the next two decades, until June 1994, more than a hundred volunteers resided there for one or two years, sharing talents and energy with people in need in the Corning community.

They served as childcare workers at the Stewart Park Community Center, as aides at Pathways and the Corning Hospital and Founders Pavilion. They did mini-home repair and cleaning for elderly and others on fixed income; they were visiting friends to shut-ins and the elderly. The last years many worked at HelpLine and the Institute for Human Services and at the Corning Youth Center.

FACILITY BUILT. In 1981 local businessman John Eberenz donated property on Park Avenue to the fellowship. Clayton Tuttle, church trustee who approached Eberenz, quoted him as saying, "After the flood every Mennonite this side of the Mississippi was here to help us out. You people should have a place to work from so you can do more now." In November 1986 Community Mennonite Fellowship had a service of celebration and thanks to God for their new building at 290 Park Avenue.