Mennonite Healthcare Fellowship

Mennonite Healthcare Fellowship (MHF) was formed in June 2011 when Mennonite Medical Association (MMA) and Mennonite Nurses Association (MNA) joined to form a new organization open to all Anabaptist healthcare professionals. The mission of Mennonite Healthcare Fellowship (MHF) was stated to be an interdisciplinary community of Anabaptist health professionals which seeks to nurture the integration of faith and practice, to provide opportunities for dialogue on health-related issues, and to address specific needs through education, advocacy, and service.

MNA and MMA were both formed in the 1940’s as organizations for Mennonite nurses and Mennonite physicians respectively. The two organizations had a rich history of service, mission, and support for the Anabaptist nurses and doctors and their families. They collaborated in numerous ways including a joint Mennonite Health Journal and a joint yearly convention.

In the last quarter of the 20th century, the healthcare field in North America grew more complex and diversified. As more Mennonites entered into healthcare professions, the spiritual and ethical issues changed. At the same time, the Internet changed the way that younger generations built networks of support. In the early years of the new century, visionaries within the leadership of MNA and MMA started exploring how to remain relevant as faith-based healthcare organizations in the 21st century.

In 2007, MMA expanded their membership criteria to include other professional health care disciplines than just physicians and dentists. MNA was also discussing how to expand their presence. The leaders soon recognized the need for an entirely new organization, one with a multidisciplinary approach more in alignment with the current health delivery team approach. Beginning in 2008, a process was developed to explore this possibility. In June 2009, a formal proposal was presented to dissolve both MNA and MMA and create a new multidisciplinary organization for health care professionals within the Anabaptist community. From late 2009 until mid-2011, an Implementation Team guided the process and Mennonite Healthcare Fellowship (MHF) was launched in June 2011 at the final joint Convention of MNA and MMA.

Although the early membership of MHF was primarily doctors and nurses, gradually more persons from other healthcare professions joined, including dentists, nutritionists, nurse practitioners, occupational therapists, pharmacists, physical therapists, physician assistants, psychologists, public health workers, social workers, speech pathologists, as well as others with health and wellness-related background and credentials.

Early members also included chaplains, many of whom participated more fully in Mennonite Chaplains Association (MCA) which began in the early 1960s. Starting in 2013, MCA and MHF had a board member in common. MCA held their annual convention in 2017 along with the MHF Annual Gathering. At that meeting, MCA voted to disband and encourage chaplains to join MHF. In 2020 MCA was formally recognized as one of the predecessor organizations of MHF along with MMA and MNA.

On September 1, 2011, Paul D. Leichty (1952-) of Goshen, Indiana, began as the first Executive Director of Mennonite Healthcare Fellowship on a half-time basis. He established an office on the campus of Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana.

Early programing

Early programming included the following:

1. Communication. MHF inherited a quarterly print publication of MMA, MNA, and the Canadian Mennonite Health Association. Mennonite Health Journal (MHJ) was a 1998 successor to a 1949 publication of MMA and MNA entitled Mennonite Medical Messenger. In 2012, MHF moved MHJ from a quarterly print edition to a quarterly online journal on the MHF website. Over the next several years, MHJ was transformed further into a set of periodic blog postings. Other communications from the MHF Office to its membership came about through monthly updates sent via email lists and posted online.
2. Mission and Outreach. Both MNA and MMA had a history of providing programs which encouraged students and young professionals to explore service in domestic and international mission settings. From the outset, MHF established a “Community and Global Services Special Interest Group” (later simply “Global Services Group”) which assisted the MHF Board in expanding a legacy MMA program called “Student Elective Term” (SET) to assist any masters or doctoral level student to experience an internship in an international setting. Additional programs were carried out using separately created funds from MMA known collectively as the Mobilization for Mission Fund (MFM).
3. Annual Gathering. Early MHF members who had experienced the joint MNA-MMA Conventions were eager to maintain that tradition of meeting yearly in person for fellowship, continuing education, worship, and inspiration. This yearly event was eventually named the “Annual Gathering” to be a hybrid between a professional convention and a family-oriented spiritual retreat. Laurelville Mennonite Church Center in southwest Pennsylvania continued to be the setting for many of these Annual Gatherings with every other year gatherings in other locations such as Indiana, Ohio, and Colorado. The Annual Gathering was generally a Friday evening to Sunday noon event with an emphasis on integration of spirituality and professional life, attention to family life, and featuring a variety of presenters from various disciplines. An attempt was made to promote international participation beyond North America culminating with a special Annual Gathering in 2015 immediately prior to Mennonite World Conference Assembly in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
4. Regional Meetings. MHF attempted to also carry on a tradition from its predecessors for Regional Meetings. These were generally evening events featuring a presenter with an appeal across the various healthcare disciplines. Regional Meetings were held in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, and Iowa between 2012 and 2014. In addition, the MHF Board sponsored more informal meetings when it met in different areas of the country. Occasional Regional Meetings have been held since 2014.
5. Finances. From the outset of MHF’s existence, a voluntary dues model was instituted that was similar to that of MNA and MMA. The hope was to finance an office with a half-time Executive Director and a half-time Administrative Assistant similar to MMA’s model. In the early years, fundraising campaigns were initiated, and the excitement of a new organization spurred giving. However, the recruitment of new members from other healthcare disciplines did not increase as rapidly as expected. At the same time, members from the legacy organizations moved into retirement and died. Those that remained continued to give to previously established Mobilization for Mission (MFM) funds, while participation in the SET and other international programs that used those funds waned. Eventually, MFM funds were consolidated with general MHF fundraising to finance an overall missional strategy for MHF which emphasized the recruitment of students to MHF by providing opportunities to study and serve in short-term settings overseas.

Networking

Partnerships with other organizations with overlapping interests were central to MHF’s networking mission. These partnerships included the following:

1. Mennonite Health Services (MHS). During the formation and early years of MHF, MHS was the networking and resourcing agency for Anabaptist healthcare-related organizations. As such, MHS assisted in the creation of MHF. MHF leaders thought of MHF as the networking organization for individual Mennonite healthcare practitioners analogous to MHS as the networking agency for service provider organizations. MHF assumed the seats of MNA and MMA on the MHS-led planning committee for Mennonite Health Assembly (MHA), a long-time annual conference which focused on leadership and administrative issues for Mennonite organizations. Staff from MHF regularly attended MHA. Over the next several years, MHS more clearly defined a Consulting division distinct from membership in MHS Alliance. This Consulting division provided periodic consultation to MHF on several occasions as well as administrative support services from 2015-18. MHF joined MHF Alliance as a member organization in late 2018.
2. International Mennonite Health Association (IMHA). This group got its early energy when the Mennonite Brethren Mission Board and other mission agencies scaled back their operations to focus only on evangelism and church planting. This left some of the traditional medical missions without North American financial support, but also coincided with a movement to encourage local control under a community development model. North American physicians and others set about to create partnerships between North Americans and emerging medical ministries in the developing world. MHF encouraged IMHA's mission by featuring some IMHA projects at MHF Annual Gatherings, especially from 2013 to 2015. As of 2024, IMHA had ceased operations and supported GAHN (see below).
3. Christian Connections for International Health (CCIH). CCIH is an international organization which builds networks for both Christian organizations and individuals involved in healthcare. Early in MHF’s history, MHF personnel met Ray Martin (1940-), who came from Mennonite background and had recently retired from decades of international public health work with USAID and the World Bank. In his retirement, Ray led in significant growth of CCIH which already included MCC and EMU in its membership. MHF joined CCIH as a member organization.
4. Center for Sustainable Climate Solutions (CSCS). Ray Martin was also instrumental in establishing CSCS in 2016 as a consortium of Mennonite organizations interested in addressing climate issues. Initially based on the Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) campus, the consortium included EMU, Goshen College, and MCC. There was a significant interest among Mennonite healthcare professionals on the impact of climate change, and some overlap in board personnel. CSCS regularly provided presenters on climate-related topics for MHF Annual Gatherings. CSCS changed its organizational structure and its name to Anabaptist Climate Collaborative in 2022.
5. Global Anabaptist Health Network. (GAHN). GAHN started out of an initiative with Mennonite World Conference (MWC). Relationships between MHF and GAHN included MHF conversations with GAHN founders around the occasion of MWC’s Harrisburg Assembly in 2015 as well as GAHN’s presence at the MHF Annual Gathering 2018 in Bluffton, Ohio. During the COVID-19 pandemic, MHF and GAHN sponsored several online events supported by each other. In 2023, MHF and GAHN co-sponsored a Guatemala learning tour especially for healthcare workers.
6. Nazareth Project. Through significant contacts with U.S. Mennonite healthcare workers who had earlier served at Nazareth Hospital, MHF helped facilitate a 2015 U.S. tour by current Nazareth Hospital personnel in various Mennonite communities. MHF also assisted in publicizing Nazareth Project tours for North Americans to Israel and Palestine. In 2021, MHF began participating in a partnership with Nazareth Project to recruit short-term chaplains for a new chaplaincy initiative at Nazareth Hospital.

Transitions

As funding slowed in the mid 2010’s, MHF administration cut back from a half-time Administrative Assistant to contracted work with Mennonite Health Services (MHS) from 2015 to 2018. In 2018, the Administrative Assistant position was restored on a part-time basis and became a volunteer role in late 2019.

A major transition for MHF began in late 2016 when Executive Director Paul Leichty moved his personal residence from Goshen, Indiana to Williamsport, Pennsylvania with a plan to work remotely from his new home. A major disruption in that plan occurred in December 2016 when Leichty had to step back for health reasons. Volunteers from the Board and from Leichty’s other employer, Mennonite.net, stepped up to fill the gap until Timothy Johnson of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was hired as Interim Executive Director from March through August 2017. Under the guidance of Johnson and the Board, the Annual Gathering was held as usual in June 2017. Paul Leichty returned to the half-time Executive Director position in September 2017 and directed the organization in a deliberate transition process leading to his retirement in June 2020.

Cate Michelle Desjardins of Cincinnati, Ohio was hired as the new Executive Director in the late spring of 2020. Andrew Metzler continued in a volunteer role begun in late 2019 year as Administrative Assistant. By then, it became apparent that the COVID-19 Pandemic would affect MHF’s programming in a major way. No in-person Annual Gatherings or Regional Meetings were held that year. Instead, virtual gatherings were held to attempt to support healthcare professionals seeking to respond safely, faithfully, and compassionately in the new reality of a global pandemic. Personal changes led to Cate Michelle Beaulieu-Desjardins moving to Philadelphia in 2021, continuing to serve as Executive Director until the present with Andrew Metzler serving as Administrative Assistant from his home in Birmingham, Alabama. Smaller and shorter in-person Annual Gatherings were held in October 2022 in Akron, Pennsylvania and October 2023, in Milford, Indiana.

Other highlights of MHF post-pandemic programming

1. Five Life Standards Project

A program promoting Five Life Standards for Healthcare Providers began in late 2021. Inspired by the work of Doris Janzen Longacre (1940-1979) in the More with Less Cookbooks and funded by a grant from the Schowalter Foundation, this initiative has generated “Community Conversations” via the Internet along with presentations at Annual Gatherings.

1. MennoHealth Cast

A podcast series was initiated in early 2019 and was most active during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020-21. MennoHealth Cast featured interviews with a variety of healthcare professionals sharing their unique stories of faith and professional life.

Bibliography

Author(s)	Paul D Leichty
Date Published	28 Sep 2024

Cite This Article

MLA style

Leichty, Paul D. "Mennonite Healthcare Fellowship." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 28 Sep 2024. Web. 23 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Mennonite_Healthcare_Fellowship&oldid=179751.

APA style

Leichty, Paul D. (28 Sep 2024). Mennonite Healthcare Fellowship. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 23 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Mennonite_Healthcare_Fellowship&oldid=179751.

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