Category: Features

Larry Miller reflects on 22 years at the helm of Mennonite World Conference

Mennonite World Conference
news release

by Phyllis Pellman Good

“As long as the wind is in its sails. . .”

Larry Miller remembers one moment clearly when, as a 38-year-old, he was weighing whether or not to accept the nomination to lead Mennonite World Conference. The year was 1988, 23 years ago, and he was sitting in a university library in Strasbourg, France, where he lived.

“I was working on my dissertation, and I looked up and noticed a book by one of my professors on a shelf. I pulled it down. It was dusty, and no one had ever checked it out. I suddenly realized that I was poised to write those kinds of books!”

Miller speaks at the 2009 Executive Committee meetings in Paraguay. To his left are Danisa Ndlovu, incoming MWC president that year, and Nancy Heisey, who was completing her term as president. Photo: Merle Good

Miller was finishing his doctorate in New Testament and was under consideration for a graduate-level teaching position in that field in the Protestant faculty at the University of Strasbourg. But something unexpected had come his way. The European Mennonite churches had together nominated him to be Executive Secretary of Mennonite World Conference. Continue reading “Larry Miller reflects on 22 years at the helm of Mennonite World Conference” →

Advent issue of The Mennonite features cover story on Mary

For Advent this year, the cover story for the December issue of The Mennonite asks how Mennonites should think of Mary as “model and mother.”  A related article reflects on Mary’s Magnificat, and two poems portray the role of Joseph and Elizabeth in the drama of Jesus’ birth.  Another article, by Bridgefolk board member Darrin Snyder Belousek, recounts his story of returning to faith through friendship with Roman Catholics.   The Mennonite is the official denominational magazine of Mennonite Church USA.

Click here to access the December issue of The Mennonite.

Surprised by joy: a personal story of Advent

by Darrin W. Snyder Belousek
The Mennonite, December 2011

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior… For the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.—Luke 1:46-49

This is Mary’s great song of praise to God. Mary sings with joy because she has been surprised by God—“he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” Mary has been favored by God’s grace in a personal, intimate way—she is blessed with a child, God’s own Son—and she sings with joy in thanksgiving for this wonderful thing God is doing.

Like Mary, I love to sing—and to sing with joy. (Though I doubt I will ever be called “blessed” on account of my singing.) And I sing with joy because I, too, have known the surprising grace of God in a personal, intimate way.

Although I have loved to sing since childhood, I have not always sung with joy. For several years during my 20s there was no joy. I was one of those who “sit in darkness” beneath the shadow of fear, waiting for the Lord, watching for “the dawn from on high to break” (Psalm 130:5-6; Luke 1:78-79). Having wandered from the church, I was walking the shadowy vale alone. Continue reading “Surprised by joy: a personal story of Advent” →

Mennonite nuns?

This might be old news for a few Mennonites involved in Bridgefolk, but since they’ve never spoken up, it will be new news to others:

Anabaptist and Mennonite churches have long had deaconesses.  But only a few years ago, well into the 20th century, the practice took a form that looks very much like a Catholic religious order, according to the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online:

By the 1950s 62 sisters had become members of the Bethel Deaconess sisterhood, 26 of whom were associated with the sisterhood in 1955. The deaconesses of this institution wore a special garb and were ordained by the church. Each sister had her place in the mother house, received full maintenance, a monthly allowance, an annual vacation, and a vacation allowance. She was expected to remain loyal and faithful to her calling but did not take an oath of celibacy. Should a deaconess change her mind, believing it to be God’s will that she serve in some other sphere apart from the sisterhood, she presented her resignation and received an honorable discharge.

We thought you’d want to know!

For source and additional information see:

Neff, Christian and Lena Mae Smith. “Deaconess.” Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web.  http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/deaconess.

Introducing César García, in-coming MWC General Secretary

Mennonite World Conference 
news release

By Kathy Heinrichs Wiest

As one amateur Mennonite historian likes to point out, the only real Mennonite name is Menno Simons. From there on down through history, the rest of the family names are just “add-ons.” After a series of Mennonite World Conference (MWC) secretaries named Dyck (1961-73), Kraybill (1973-90) and Miller (1990-2011) the name of García stands out as an historically recent addition to the Anabaptist family.

César García’s personal story with the Mennonite family began in Bogotá, Colombia, when his mother took him and his sister to several churches in search of a new church home. Eleven-year-old César chose the Iglesia Hermanos Menonitas Dios es Amor (God is Love Mennonite Brethren Church) as the place they would settle.

That choice was the first step on a continuing journey for García, who has come to treasure Anabaptist theology and history and has given his life to scholarship, to mission and to shaping the church from an Anabaptist perspective. Continue reading “Introducing César García, in-coming MWC General Secretary” →

Woman’s journey from Mennonite to Catholic is a two-way street

Bridgefolk brings 2 churches together for dialog, worship

Dorothy Harnish

Dorothy Harnish is one of the local organizers for this year’s Bridgefolk conference in Akron, Pennsylvania.  A local paper in Lancaster did the following feature story on her:

By JOAN KERN
Correspondent
Lancaster Intelligencer-Journal / New Era

Dorothy Harnish was a cradle Mennonite. And a teen Mennonite and a young adult Mennonite and a middle-aged Mennonite.

But now she’s a senior citizen Catholic, a member of Lancaster’s St. Leo the Great Catholic Church.

Harnish, 69, of Landisville, will gather with about 75 other Catholics and Mennonites at the 11th annual Bridgefolk Conference, Thursday through Sunday, Aug. 7. Continue reading “Woman’s journey from Mennonite to Catholic is a two-way street” →