The new Bridgefolk website is now up and running! You can visit the site at http://www.bridgefolk.net/. We plan to add a few elements in the coming months, but this is essentially the finished product. Thank you to Gabe Schlabach for his commitment to this project, and to all of you for your verbal and financial support. This is the first step in an effort to improve the Bridgefolk communications program. Keep watch for more to come.
Author: admin
Benedictine monk of Saint John's Abbey, Minnesota, since 1969.
Saints and Heroes in the Faith Sustain, Don’t Divide
News release on 2008 Bridgefolk conference
by Kent Yoder
Collegeville, Minnesota (Bridgefolk) — On July 24-27, forty-five Mennonites and Catholics gathered at Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota for the seventh annual Bridgefolk conference. Under the theme “Holiness the Road: Saints and the Spirituality that Sustains,” participants explored common and divergent threads between Catholic and Mennonite traditions regarding the role of saints and heroes of the faith. Despite recognizable differences between the two traditions on this topic, the group agreed that this is not a unity breaking issue. Opening presentations by Gerald Schlabach, Marlene Kropf and Ivan Kauffman, several of Bridgefolk’s founding members, introduced listeners to Mennonite and Catholic perceptions of the saints and holiness in the other’s tradition. Schlabach contributed a role-play dialogue between “Ana B” (Anabaptist) and “Cathy” (Catholic), in which the conversation characterized perspectives of each tradition. Kropf then offered a personal reflection on the witness of Saint Francis and Saint Claire of Assisi from a Mennonite perspective in which she expressed her gratitude for their stories. Continue reading “Saints and Heroes in the Faith Sustain, Don’t Divide”
Bridgefolk appoints new director, Kent Yoder
The Bridgefolk Board is pleased to announce the appointment of a new executive director, Kent Yoder of Goshen, Indiana.
Kent is a student at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Indiana, where he is currently pursuing a degree in the Master of Divinity program. He is a member of Assembly Mennonite Church and is actively involved in congregational life.
Kent has recently worked in the Geneva Office of the World Council of Churches, and this involvement has led to his pursuit of a M.A. thesis on the subject of international ecumenical peace dialogue. In the summer of 2007, Kent helped coordinate the Bridgefolk Conference held at AMBS.
Two major new articles by Bridgefolk board members
Two major new articles by Bridgefolk Board members are now available in the “Theological Resources” section of the Bridgefolk website,
http://www.bridgefolk.net/theology/resources Continue reading “Two major new articles by Bridgefolk board members”
Colombian Mennonites and Catholics Invite Dialogue
NEWS RELEASE
Mennonite World Conference
For Immediate Release
August 30, 2005
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA – “Called Together to be Peacemakers,” a document issued after five years of dialogue between the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity of the Catholic Church and representatives of Mennonite World Conference, was the topic of an ecumenical dialogue at the Colombian Catholic Bishops Conference here on May 20, 2005. Continue reading “Colombian Mennonites and Catholics Invite Dialogue”
Mennonites and Catholics Share Friendship Through ‘Bridgefolk’
By Chris Edwards
HARRISONBURG, Va. – Andrea Bartoli, U.S. leader of the Catholic Santa Egidio lay fellowship, shared the story of Dirk Willems, the Dutch Mennonite known for saving a drowning pursuer who then killed him. Through his compassionate act, Bartoli said, that martyr gave “a gift of the Spirit that I can experience 500 years later.”
Glen Miller, in turn, shared warm memories of a friend from his years directing the Mennonite Central Committee in India – Mother Teresa. In lovingly serving people of all world faiths, Miller said, “She was a holy person.”
These testimonials were part of the 2005 Bridgefolk Conference, an annual dialogue between Mennonites and Catholics held this year for the first time at Eastern Mennonite University. Bridgefolk began in 1999 at Laurelville Mennonite Church Center in Mt. Pleasant, Pa. and continued at Saint John’s Benedictine Abbey in Collegeville, Minn., in 2002-2004. About 65 people from both traditions, the majority lay members, attended this year’s events on the Harrisonburg, Va., campus. With their children, they worshiped at local Catholic and Mennonite churches together. Continue reading “Mennonites and Catholics Share Friendship Through ‘Bridgefolk’”
Mennonite-Catholic International Dialogue Report Going to Churches
NEWS RELEASE
Mennonite World Conference
For Immediate Release
April 7, 2004
At first thought, a small group of Mennonites and a Vatican delegation seem to be unlikely conversation partners. But maybe not. Five-plus years after they first met for a formal Dialogue, seven representatives from Mennonite World Conference (MWC) and seven from the Catholic Church’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity have issued a Report of their conversations. Its title hints at the intention of the meetings, as well as their tone–“Called Together to Be Peacemakers.”
But the conversations and the Report are only one part of the process for MWC. Another part is just beginning. Mennonite World Conference is forwarding copies of the Report to all of its member churches for their “study and reaction.” The English document has been translated into French; a Spanish translation is underway.
“On the MWC side, we are now entering a broadening stage in the process,” explained MWC Executive Secretary Larry Miller, who was one of the participants in the conversations. “This Report is not a kind of Encyclical handed down from the MWC office. Instead, it is intended to be reviewed and explored by Mennonites and Brethren in Christ around the world–from the point of view of their own contexts and convictions.” Continue reading “Mennonite-Catholic International Dialogue Report Going to Churches”
Mennonites and Catholics Gather at Bridgefolk Conference to Discern Spiritual Practices for Violent Times
by Melanie Zuercher
Collegeville, Minn.(BRIDGEFOLK)-History may show that Mennonites and Catholics have had little to say to each other for the past 500 years. But not all members of these two groups see it that way today.
When Mennonites and Catholics sit down together, the Catholics bring a long and rich tradition of liturgy and strong institutions. Mennonites bring a distinctive practice of four-part a capella singing and a historic peace witness.
Bridgefolk, a grassroots group of Catholics and Mennonites, convened July 17-20 at St. John’s Abbey (Benedictine) to examine these and other “Spiritual Practices for Violent Times.” It was the second “Catholic-Mennonite peace dialogue” at St. John’s in two years, and the group expects to meet there annually through at least 2006. Continue reading “Mennonites and Catholics Gather at Bridgefolk Conference to Discern Spiritual Practices for Violent Times”
Anabaptist Martyrs Studied at Joint Mennonite-Catholic Conference
by Marilyn Stahl
Collegeville, Minn.- Mennonite and Catholic scholars gathered to begin a joint historical study of the sixteenth-century Anabaptist martyrs in mid-July at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn. Many of the martyrs were condemned to death by Catholic civil and church authorities.
Abbot John Klassen of St. John’s began his welcoming remarks by citing the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu in describing the work of South Africa’s Commission for Truth and Reconciliation: “For forgiveness to occur, the past must be reconstructed and acknowledged.” To achieve a real accommodation between Mennonites and Catholics, said the Abbott, “an analogous process is utterly essential.”
The conference was the first time that Catholics have publicly confronted these historical incidents, and the first time that Mennonites have reexamined this aspect of their foundational history in an ecumenical setting. Continue reading “Anabaptist Martyrs Studied at Joint Mennonite-Catholic Conference”