Conference Controversies: As Leaked Media Circulates, Holdeman Leaders put Kibosh on Volleyball
“Good morning, We received info that the youth were invited to ball games each evening after conference. We have been informed that there has been some sharing on the matter and the direction is that the youth should not have ball games in the evening during conference. It seems good that we should support and honor this direction.” -Cloudveil Messenger Group Chat
As Church of God in Christ Mennonite’s general conference progresses, leaked messages and images show mounting controversies involving the roughly 2,500 young people, “youth”, in attendance. A leaked image of a SnapChat story from November 14 shows young people spreading the word on social media that there would be volleyball at the Magnolia Mennonite School near Macon, Mississippi. However, the next day church leaders became concerned as it became obvious that there was to be a volleyball game each evening.
See also: Shunning and Holy Kiss on Conference Agenda in 2022
The reaction to the news that volleyball had been cancelled was mixed, with one person commenting “Do they not realize that the ball games are what keeps the youth from splitting up into smaller unsupervised groups?”
Despite conference organizers calling for there to be no photographs or recordings made of the proceedings, just such materials are circulating via conversations on Whatsapp, Cloudveil Messenger and SnapChat.
In fact, when at one point a live stream of an open, evening lecture event crashed, people speculated that the issue was caused by low internet bandwidth due to the high number of smartphones in the room.
See also: No Recording Event. No Photos. -Holdeman Leaders to Conference-Goers
