1990 Article

From 1927 to 1967 Mennonite churches in the Southeastern United States belonged to the Indiana-Michigan, Ohio, Lancaster, Virginia, or Conservative Mennonite conferences (Mennonite Church) and had few ties to one another.

The Southeast Mennonite Convention was born on 9-10 August 1967 when a group of 13 ministers and a few lay people representing Mennonite churches in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina met in Tampa, Florida, to discuss mission strategy for Mennonites in the Southeast. For six years the convention was an informal fellowship for Mennonite churches in the Southeast.

In 1973 the convention affirmed a plan to become a regional conference affiliated with the Mennonite Church (MC) General Assembly. Except for those affiliated with the Conservative Mennonite Conference, the congregations eventually chose to discontinue formal ties to the parent conferences.

In 1987 the convention changed its name to Southeast Mennonite Conference. It had 23 congregations totaling approximately 2,000 members. Major conference components were the Board of Congregational Outreach, Board of Congregational Life, Southeast Mennonite Mutual Aid Board, Women's Mission and Service Commission, Congregational Leadership Committee, and Peace and Social Concerns Committee. An executive committee oversees the conference's work. The conference office is in Sarasota, Florida. The official publication was Proclamation, published 10 times each year.

The Sarasota Christian School, Sunnyside Properties and Nursing Home, World's Attic (Ten Thousand Villages), and the Southern Mennonite Camp Association were affiliated institutions which reported to the conference.

2010 Update

In 2010 the following 31 congregations were members of the Southeast Mennonite Conference:

Bibliography

Additional Information

Address: 35 S Beneva Road Ste A, Sarasota FL 34232-1452

Telephone: 941-373-9459

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, p. 847. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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