Collegeville, MN (Bridgefolk) – For the ninth consecutive year a voluntary group of North American Mennonites and Catholics will meet for three days this summer for conversations about the faith which unites them—and the issues which divide them. The Benedictine community at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville MN will host the gathering, as it has six previous conferences.
Called the Bridgefolk conferences, these annual gatherings seek to build bridges between these two long-estranged Christian communities. This summer’s conference will be held on July 22-25. It is open to the public.
This year’s topic is the practice of footwashing, which has emerged in previous conferences as a common practice which both groups have traditionally shared, and which participants in the Bridgefolk movement have found they can share despite the divisions which still exist between their two communities.
This summer’s conference will be the first in a series focusing on the common spiritual practices which sustain both Catholic and Mennonite life.
The 2010 Bridgefolk Conference is subtitled “Practices for our Life Together in Christ.” It will explore issues such as service, hospitality and non-violence. Speakers will include scholars, pastors and laypersons from both Mennonite and Catholic traditions offering theological, academic and personal reflections on the practice of footwashing and its role in discipleship and Christian formation.
Session topics include Biblical teachings and liturgical practices of footwashing, as well as individual sessions exploring footwashing as prayer, simplicity and non-violence.
Sr. S. Kate Howard, OSB will also lead the group in a seminar on centering prayer. The conference schedule, as always, is built around a framework of prayer and worship. In addition to conference worship services, many Bridgefolk participants join the monastic community for morning and evening prayers.
In past years the practice of footwashing has been a central part of the worshipping life in Bridgefolk conferences. Mennonites and Catholics have traditionally been prohibited from joining each other at the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper, but Bridgefolk participants have found they can gather around basins to wash one another’s feet. This simple worship experience has become a significant symbol of Christian unity for the Bridgefolk participants, and this summer’s conference offers the opportunity to explore ways in which this liturgical event forms Christian identity.
Bridgefolk meetings began as a small gathering at a Mennonite retreat center in 1999, drawing together church leaders, pastors and laypersons to pray and worship together. Since that initial meeting, Bridgefolk beginning in 2002 has convened annual gatherings of Mennonites and Catholics across North America and beyond. Conferences have centered on topics such as peacemaking, baptism and Eucharist, with a strong focus on joint worship and developing friendships.
When the Bridgefolk movement celebrated the tenth anniversary of that first gathering last year, participants reflected on their shared history together and began to plan for the future. In the shared worship and discussion of Bridgefolk sessions, a number of key practices began to emerge. These are central practices of the Christian life which find new meaning in the shared experience of Catholics and Mennonites. Nine key practices have been identified, and will shape the Bridgefolk annual conferences over the next three years.
Bridgefolk describes itself as “a movement of sacramentally-minded Mennonites and peace-minded Roman Catholics who come together to celebrate each other’s traditions, explore each other’s practices, and honor each other’s contribution to the mission of Christ’s Church. Together they seek better ways to embody a commitment to both traditions. They seek to make Anabaptist-Mennonite practices of discipleship, peaceableness, and lay participation more accessible to Roman Catholics, and to bring the spiritual, liturgical, and sacramental practices of the Catholic tradition to Anabaptists.”
Full program details, registration information and a print-ready brochure are available at www.bridgefolk.net. Contact info@bridgefolk.net for more information.