Letter

Responding to July/August 2025 issue

Morgan Fehr’s article “Ancient, continuous, and meangingful” describes a faith experience formed by wrestling the angel, as in Genesis 32. We benefit from thoughtful, focused clarity in exploring the complex ways the church draws us in and pushes us away, sometimes at the same time, and this is really wonderful writing.

In a related but separate way—with due respect to Emery Plett and the work done by the Board of Missions—the article “What does it mean to be aligned?” spins in unfortunate circles. If “the key operational philosophy of the BoM is church planting” then neither the EFC nor MCC make the grade, as both coordinate the response of existing congregations rather than plant new ones. Part of the EFC’s stated mission is to advocate on behalf of the concerns of evangelical churches, although MCC has been criticized for exploring advocacy roles. It seems that the concerns with MCC being “liberal” are code for an unstated issue, since the MCC constituency includes congregations and conferences that are both more liberal and more conservative than the EMC. Would it be fair to say that MCC is currently unpopular in evangelical circles and it’s a bit of convenient virtue signalling on the part of the EMC to distance itself from MCC at this time as a way of moving away from Anabaptism and toward a more evangelical public image?

The article references Layton Friesen’s recent writing on the creative tension involved with holding to both evangelical and Anabaptist ideals. That tension can be creative but it’s also possible for it to become a distraction from doing the difficult work of either Anabaptist or evangelical faith in practice. As a denomination we should hold on to both organizations and do the practical difficult wrestling with them that Morgan Fehr models in her writing about her own experience.

– Jeff Thiessen
Austin, Man.