Category: Features

Mennonite Catholics and Catholic Mennonites, part two: bearing pain for the good of the church

The following interview was first published on the blog of the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, “On Our Minds.” To see the original post go to http://collegevilleinstitute.org/blog/mennonite-catholics-catholic-mennonites-part-two.

By Janel Kragt Bakker, Collegeville Institute

Mennonite Catholics and Catholic Mennonites: Bearing Pain for the Good of the Church

In Part One of our interview with Gerald Schlabach, Ivan Kauffman, and Weldon Nisly, all of whom are leaders in Bridgefolk (the North American Mennonite-Catholic dialogue), we discussed the origins of contemporary Mennonite-Catholic exchange as well as the gifts the two traditions offer to each other. Though sources of attraction between the Catholic and Mennonite traditions vary, Schlabach, Kauffman, and Nisly identified Mennonite strengths in service and lay participation, and Catholic strengths in sacramental life. Participants in Mennonite-Catholic dialogue are often united by their shared commitment to peace and justice as well as their desire to build understanding and a sense of common purpose across the two traditions. In Part Two of the interview, we discuss how those involved in Mennonite-Catholic dialogue navigate painful divisions and cultural trends hostile to community and tradition.

Continue reading “Mennonite Catholics and Catholic Mennonites, part two: bearing pain for the good of the church” →

Mennonite Catholics and Catholic Mennonites: bridging, not splitting, the difference

The following interview was first published on the blog of the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, “On Our Minds.” To see the original post go to http://collegevilleinstitute.org/blog/mennonite-catholics-catholic-mennonites-bridging-splitting-difference.

By Janel Kragt Bakker, Collegeville Institute

Mennonite Catholics and Catholic Mennonites: Bridging, not Splitting, the Difference

In one sense, Stearns County, Minnesota is no hub for Mennonite Christians. Heavily German and Catholic, with a smattering of Lutherans, evangelicals, and Somali Muslims, the county is home to nary a Mennonite congregation or Anabaptist community to speak of. But in another sense, because of what has been happening at the Collegeville Institute and Saint John’s Abbey, Stearns County has become a Mennonite landmark. Bridgefolk, the North American Mennonite-Catholic dialogue, meets regularly at Saint John’s Abbey, and the Collegeville Institute has attracted a number of Mennonite scholars and workshop participants over the years. Terms like “Mennonite Catholic” and “Catholic Mennonite” are commonly spoken on our campuses. In conjunction with a recent Bridgefolk gathering, we prompted a conversation among several leaders of the Mennonite-Catholic dialogue—each of whom has been affiliated with the Collegeville Institute and somehow claims the dual identity of Mennonite and Catholic.

Continue reading “Mennonite Catholics and Catholic Mennonites: bridging, not splitting, the difference” →

Habemus papam Mennonitum

In an article that appears in the March 1, 2014 issue of The Mennonite, Robert Brenneman admits to being “smitten” by Pope Francis.  Despite seeing significant differences between Mennonites and Catholics in the areas of church structure and liturgy, Brenneman observes four areas in which Pope Francis’ message and example find resonance with Anabaptist values.  He writes:

Although it will take time to do so, Pope Francis has pledged to move power outward, giving regional bishops more freedom to name the most appropriate candidates for offices in their own districts. This policy promises to allow them to build local institutions that are more responsive to the local context. Continue reading “Habemus papam Mennonitum” →

Amen to it all: my first Holy Communion and then what happened

by John Kotre

My first Holy Communion was white.  It was back in 1948 and the girls wore little bridal outfits and the boys white shirts and pants.  The priest was vested in white and a white cloth covered the communion rail.  The bread I received was itself white–a thin, almost transparent wafer.  I let it dissolve on my tongue.  “You don’t chew Jesus,” Sister Girard had told us.  It was her way of saying “transubstantiation.”

I didn’t chew Jesus but I don’t remember talking to him either.  My face was buried in my hands, and I was imagining what a softening host looked like in my mouth, far from my teeth.  Sister Girard said that communion poured sanctifying grace into our souls, and for years I pictured that grace as milk.  After each communion I checked my milk-bottle soul and saw that the level of grace had risen.  It must have gone down between communions because I was never able to top off the tank.

In my teens the milk bottle gave way to abstract thinking.  Now I could absorb concepts like transubstantiation, and so I did during six years as a Jesuit seminarian.  Continue reading “Amen to it all: my first Holy Communion and then what happened” →

Abbot John Klassen interviewed on Canadian Catholic TV program

Salt + Light TV, a Canadian Catholic media network, featured Abbot John Klassen OSB in an interview in December.  Abbot John is Bridgefolk co-chair.  (By the way, Bridgefolk participants may recognize Lois Kauffman and Julia Smucker at the liturgy of hours during the sixth minute of the clip.)

http://youtu.be/i9NwAJI8KtE

 

What if it’s too dark to see God?

An reflection on Advent and Sandy Hook
by Abbey Davis Dupuy
22 December 2012

Abbey Davis Dupuy is a Bridgefolk participant who blogs about faith and parenting at Surviving Our Blessings.  

Early evening these days is nearly totally dark at our kitchen table, even with two purple candles and a pink one lit in our Advent wreath. It seems darker than usual this year. The familiar fuzzy comfort of the season is absent…I feel fierce, raw, angry and afraid. I think of my sister, whose pale Alaskan sun sets early in the afternoon this time of year; after a weak attempt at climbing partway up the sky, it gives up and drops quickly back below the horizon again.

I think I know how that sun feels.

We have been working at Advent, at cultivating the calm contemplation that might be slightly out of reach for a family with children as young as ours. Every day, I’ve been listening to my playlist, reading books with my children, baking and crafting and knitting and praying to get ready. Every night, I’ve been faithfully lighting our candles. I’ve been doing a lot of explaining, helping my son to understand what Advent is all about, teaching him songs and prayers and recipes, watching him as he bites his lip in concentration during a reading, as he smiles and signs himself with a cross, as he bounces in his seat and sings, “Gaude!”.

Gaude. Rejoice. It’s what we’re supposed to be about, our task in even these darkest weeks of the year.

Since the shooting at Sandy Hook school last week, Continue reading “What if it’s too dark to see God?” →

Communion of saints: Miraculous healing leads to sainthood, helps Mennonites and Catholics deepen friendship

by Laurie Oswald Robinson

Mennonite World Review

Because a Japanese Mennonite man was healed from leukemia after Mennonites and Catholics prayed, a new round of ecumenical dialogue on prayer is stirring up the faithful.

Jun Yamada presents relics of Joseph Freinademetz to Pope John Paul II in the service of canonization for Freinademetz on Oct. 5, 2003, in Rome. — Photo by Society of the Divine Word

Exactly how God said “yes” to prayers for the healing in 1987 of Jun Yamada, a 24-year-old university student in Japan, will always be shrouded in mystery.

But that isn’t keeping participants in Bridgefolk — a group of Mennonites and Catholics united by their faith in Christ — from more deeply exploring the connection between God’s family on Earth and in heaven.

This past July at the annual Bridgefolk gathering, Alan and Eleanor Kreider — longtime Mennonite teachers on church history, worship and mission — shared the account that Jun Yamada’s brother, Nozomu Yamada, had passed on to them in Tokyo. Continue reading “Communion of saints: Miraculous healing leads to sainthood, helps Mennonites and Catholics deepen friendship” →

Ivan Kauffman in America magazine: “There are three options open to us, not just two—left, right and Catholic”

Ivan Kauffman, Bridgefolk co-founder

After Ideology: What Catholics can contribute to the political debate

by Ivan Kauffman
America, 10 December 2012

Growing up Protestant and Republican in Kansas, I began life as a political conservative. But when I was in college, John F. Kennedy changed that. He and Pope John XXIII opened the door to the Catholic Church for me, and for most of my adult life I considered myself a Catholic political liberal. I am still very much a Catholic, but my political leanings have changed again. I no longer consider myself a liberal—or a conservative.

Click here to read more.