Category: Commentary

Sermon for Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

A friend of Bridgefolk recommends a sermon preached at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on January 18 on the occasion of Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  Click here to read.

Excerpt:

The insight of our ecumenical pioneers in Edinburgh Missionary Conference in 1910 is that witness to the things of Christ’s resurrection will only be effective if Christians are united with one another, be it the churches Acting Together in Haiti this week and in the coming years, the churches responding to human division and unjust structures, the churches responding to the environmental crises, the churches responding to war and violence, the churches responding to cynicism and despair with the good news of the Gospel. In all these things, we bear witness to the Risen Christ, together.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity coincides with response to Haiti

“This week we join Christians of all denominations and traditions in celebrating the Week of Christian Unity,” wrote Joetta Schlabach, Bridgefolk participant and pastor of Faith Mennonite Church in Minneapolis, to her congregation this week. “Certainly the tragedy in Haiti is drawing people of all faiths—and many who do not profess faith—to join in a unified response of compassion and aid. Let us pray that some of the hostilities and misunderstandings between faith communities will diminish as people join hands in service.”

For more on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2010, including links to a joint statement by World Council of Churches and Vatican bodies reflecting on the occasion, visit http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3193.

Meanwhile, as many people wonder how to respond to the tragedy of earthquake-ravaged Haiti, and how to insure that aid reaches Haitians through reliable channels, Mennonites and Catholics can turn to their churches’ well-respected relief and development agencies. Here are links to the most prominent examples:

Mennonite Central Committee: http://mcc.org

Catholic Relief Services: http://crs.org

“Let go of marytr complex,” urges Bridgefolk participant

Bridgefolk participant Julia Smucker recently published a letter to the editor in The Mennonite (Oct. 6 issue, p. 4).  Since her letter needed to be shortened, she asked to share the original letter here: Continue reading ““Let go of marytr complex,” urges Bridgefolk participant” →

An Anabaptist liturgy of hours

book review by Doris Murphy

St. Bridget’s Parish, River Falls, Wisconsin

 

Boers, Arthur Paul, Barb Nelson Gingerich, Eleanor Kreider, and Mary H. Schertz, eds. Take Our Moments and Our Days: An Anabaptist Prayer Book. Co-published with the Institute of Mennonite Studies. Scottdale, Pa.; Waterloo, Ont.: Herald Press, 2005. 226 pp. ISBN: 0-8361-9334-2. Price: $10.00; in Canada $12.00.

for more information and to order go to
http://www.ambs.edu/prayerbook or
http://www.mph.org/hp/books/takeourmoments.htm

 

Lionel Blue wrote: “To know another religion you have to experience it, taste it, join in its prayers.”  Take Our Moments and Our Days: An Anabaptist Prayer Book gave me an opportunity during Lent to experience, taste, and join in the prayer of the Anabaptist communities. This prayer book is guided by the peace, goodness, truth, and beauty reflected by that community and by the Spirit that is God. No matter one’s denominational affiliation, it is a call to prayer that can truly make anyone feel at home. Continue reading “An Anabaptist liturgy of hours” →

WCC panel on the challenges of dialogue

The following article provides a helpful survey of approaches and issues in interreligious or interfaith dialogue.  While the issues involved in ecumenical dialogue among Christians may be somewhat different, there are many parallels.

Gerald Schlabach
Bridgefolk Executive Director
info@bridgefolk.net
www.bridgefolk.net Continue reading “WCC panel on the challenges of dialogue” →

Reflection by Jim Loney, missing CPT member in Iraq

In defence of the Sacred Heart
by Jim Loney
Catholic New Times,  Sept 26, 2004

(Jim Loney is one of the four Christian Peacemaker Team members missing in Iraq.  Thanks to Tom Finger, Mennonite theologian and Bridgefolk participant, for drawing this reflection to our attention.)

I was never a big fan of the Sacred Heart. In fact, the Sacred Heart used to make me see red: white-bread, saccharine-soaked images of Jesus staring into the blue with puppy-dog eyes; robes and hair flowing in pious cascades; stow-book religious “camp” for the spiritually infantilized.

But, on a high summer Sunday morning in ordinary time, in a little country church located on the banks of the Saugeen River (back in the days of our failed attempt to begin a rural Catholic Worker community, but that’s a whole other story), it happened. The Sacred Heart changed my heart….

To continue, go to
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MKY/is_14_28/ai_n6245080

Cardinal Ottaviani and why the labels don’t work

Here is a news story that is 6 years old, reporting on events 55 years old.  So why share it now?

During one of the discussion periods at our Bridgefolk conference in July, there was a question about the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and a comment about “liberals” and “conservatives.”  I offered a further comment reminding the group that those standard labels can be surprisingly unreliable.  To illustrate I mentioned the example of an influential cardinal and Vatican official who has a reputation as an ultraconservative. After all, he led a group of bishops at the Second Vatican Council that tried hardest to put a brake on the reforms we associate with the council.  I could not remember his name, but I recalled that his support for the section of the Pastoral Constitution (Gaudium et spes) concerning war played a key role in garnering support for the council’s harsh judgment on modern war and groundbreaking support for pacifism as a legitimate option for Catholics.

The cardinal was Alfredo Ottaviani, and an account of his role and his reasons appeared in the magazine Salt of the Earth, published by the Claretians, who also publish U.S. Catholic.  The article, by Tom Cornell, is entitled “How Catholics Began to Speak Their Peace.”  It is available online at http://salt.claretianpubs.org/issues/chistory/peace.html.  Opening paragraphs appear below.

Continue reading “Cardinal Ottaviani and why the labels don’t work” →