The Listening Committee report for our summer conference is now available online. Many thanks to Listening Committee members Brenda Bellamy, Ed Kauffman and Corinne Kehrberg!
Here are a few excerpts:
“Mennonite –Catholic relationships can be conversation stoppers, or starters.”
“We felt a more laid-back spirit at this gathering, without some of the anguish of previous times. There seemed to be much more of an emphasis on the ‘we’ rather than ‘this vs. that’. There was more a sense of the starting place being our commonality, rather than our differences.”
“Both groups have, in their histories, times when they were the minority and felt the weight of that.
Both groups also struggle with issues of power and authority, who has it, and what do we do with it when we have it.”
“As Bridgefolk continues from year to year, how do we include newcomers among us? Where do they learn the stories? How do they become part of the shared history? What are the assumptions made that either include or don’t include them? Who do we expect to come to Bridgefolk gatherings?”
“We learned again that God moves in mysterious ways, and Bridgefolk is just one of those ways. Bridgefolk cannot change the whole church, but it is a small step in God’s movement toward the unity of all things, which we can celebrate together.”
To read the complete report, visit
http://www.bridgefolk.net/conferences/past/2007bridgefolk/listening/