National Catholic Reporter reviews Mennonite book on antiracist spirituality

Franciscan Fr. Daniel P. Horan — the director of the Center for Spirituality and professor of philosophy, religious studies and theology at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana — has reviewed a recent book by Mennonite authors Regina Shands Stoltfus and Tobin Miller Shearer for National Catholic Reporter. Entitled Been in the Struggle: Pursuing an Antiracist Spirituality, the book was recently published by Herald Press. Horan writes:

In the book’s introduction, Stoltzfus and Shearer recount the challenges they faced and resistances they encountered, including from church leadership, which will resonate with the many observations and experiences of those engaged in the work of racial justice in the Catholic Church.

I believe that Been in the Struggle has a lot to offer Catholics seeking resources to address the “soul-sickness” of racism.

Many of the key themes presented in the book — the dynamics of systemic racism, its presence in popular culture, the meaning of whiteness and a culture of white supremacy — will be familiar to readers who have engaged anti-racism resources in other venues. What is distinctive about Stoltzfus and Shearer’s approach is the attentiveness to the spiritual implications for the work of anti-racism.

To read Fr. Horan’s review, click here.

Bridgefolk participants explain importance of pre-Reformation sources in new Mennonite hymnbook

In a recent post on the Mennonite Church USA website, Bridgefolk participants Sarah Kathleen Johnson and Carl Bear share why the committee that compiled Voices Together, the new Mennonite hymnbook, made sure to include pre-Reformation texts and tunes. Some excerpts:

Singing pre-Reformation songs reminds us that the Anabaptist tradition was deeply influenced by and connected to the previous fifteen centuries of Christian history — both the bad and the good.

Owning this history as part of our history is essential for robust engagement in decolonial work for justice, locally and globally. It prevents us from failing to acknowledge our complicity in the foundations of colonialism established in this era, without which the Christian tradition, including the Anabaptist tradition, would not exist in the manner it does today.

At the same time, singing early Christian and pre-Reformation songs connects Mennonites to the essential and life-giving theological insights and artistic riches of ancient and medieval Christians, across cultures, with whom we join our voices and celebrate the ways in which God has been active in the church of all ages.

“Connecting with the past in worship today is a way to remember God’s faithfulness to all generations. It joins our local communities with a vibrant church that has followed Jesus in many cultures and circumstances. It helps us keep the struggles of the present in perspective. Recognizing God’s faithfulness throughout a history marked by constant change can free us from fearing change and fearing the future.” — “Worship Leader Edition,” 202

To read the entire post, click here.

Education for Peace in a Multi-Religious World: A Christian Perspective

Joint Ecumenical Document

The purpose of this 13-page document is to encourage churches and Christian organizations to reflect on the structural roots of what has led to the disruption of peace in the world, and on their own current practices and priorities in relation to education and peacemaking. At the same time, it is hoped that the document, issued 21 May 2019, may assist a wider conversation on education for peace involving followers of other religions, as well as social and political actors in our multi-religious world, taking into consideration specific historical and cultural contexts.

Download full document: Education for Peace in a Multi-Religious World: A Christian Perspective (pdf)

Pope calls for nonviolence in 2017 World Day of Peace message: U.S. religious leaders respond

Press release
Catholic Nonviolence Initiative
12 December 2016

Today in his message “Nonviolence: A style of politics for peace,” for the 50th World Day of Peace, celebrated each year on 1 January, Pope Francis urges people everywhere to practice active nonviolence and notes that the “decisive and consistent practice of nonviolence has produced impressive results.”

Continue reading “Pope calls for nonviolence in 2017 World Day of Peace message: U.S. religious leaders respond” →

Major new resource documents Mennonite ecumenical dialogue

PICKWICK_Template — Click here to order from publisher.

Ecumenical dialogue is not an end in itself. It serves as an indispensable instrument to overcome the divisive, mutual misinterpretations of the past. Ecumenical encounters pave the way toward healing painful memories and lead to a deeper understanding of the church’s given unity, thus becoming a more credible witness of that truth.

Edited by Fernando Enns and Jonathan Seiling, Mennonites in Dialogue is a collection of all conversation texts involving Mennonites on international and national levels, covering forty years of encounters with Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Reformed, Baptists, and Seventh-Day Adventists, among others. The texts illustrate growth in agreement as well as identify the remaining convictions that still divide. Continue reading “Major new resource documents Mennonite ecumenical dialogue” →

A papal encyclical, a Mennonite resolution, and the relevance of Anablacktivism

LAWRENCE JENNINGS of Infinity Mennonite Church in New York City has been involved in community and economic development for more than three decades. Since 2013, he has been affiliated with GreenFaith, first as a Fellow, and currently as a lead organizer of the new Restoration Nation faith communities/green jobs initiative. A member of the Thomas Berry Forum for Ecological Dialogue at Iona College, he was one of the key organizers of the People’s Climate March faith contingent, and has ongoing involvement with the People’s Climate Movement, the organizing body that took shape after the March. In these involvements, as well as his work with The Groundswell Group and Moral Mondays, he works closely with faith communities and inner city and “frontline” groups that often are overlooked or excluded. He authored the Open Letter from African American clergy on Climate Change as part of the “Our Voices” campaign, and is on the Steering Committee of Interfaith Moral Action on Climate, both of which aim to encourage people of to speak out about the moral and scientific urgency of the environmental crisis. Lawrence was asked by GreenFaith to write a response to the Pope’s newly released environmental teachings from the Anabaptist/Mennonite perspective. His article originally appeared in two parts on the Mennonite Church USA website (here and here). Continue reading “A papal encyclical, a Mennonite resolution, and the relevance of Anablacktivism” →

Liturgical Press and Augsburg Fortress co-publish extraordinary new resource to celebrate Christian unity

MINNEAPOLIS AND COLLEGEVILLE, MINNESOTA (January 2015)—Liturgical Press, the Roman Catholic publishing house of Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, and Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, the publishing ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), are pleased to announce the co-publication of One Hope: Re-Membering the Body of Christ, a resource to help Catholic and Lutheran communities walk together, recognizing and nourishing unity at a grassroots level.

In August 2014, six gifted pastoral leaders and scholars—three Lutheran and three Catholic—gathered for six days at a retreat center in the central Minnesota farmlands. Through intense prayer, discussion, debate, laughter, and work, they created a resource to help Catholics, Lutherans, and all Christians prepare for and mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. The result is One Hope: Re-Membering the Body of Christ.

The essays in One Hope explore experiences and activities that Catholics and Lutherans share and that connect to the living of their faith in embodied ways: breathing, eating, singing, forgiving, serving, and dying. One Hope will serve as a welcome resource for adult faith formation and parish discussion groups made up of Catholics, Lutherans, or members of other denominations.

Continue reading “Liturgical Press and Augsburg Fortress co-publish extraordinary new resource to celebrate Christian unity” →

The Ecumenical Review marks 50th anniversary of Second Vatican Council

22 January 2015 – World Council of Churches Press Centre

The current issue of The Ecumenical Review, a quarterly journal of the World Council of Churches (WCC), takes as its theme “Vatican II in Retrospect.” Celebrating a half-century of dialogue emanating from the Second Vatican Council’s decree on ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, central topics and operating methods of the council’s sessions are recalled by Martin E. Marty of the University of Chicago, John Gibaut of the WCC commission on Faith and Order, and Oxford-based researcher Donald W. Norwood.

Additional features in The Ecumenical Review suggest further steps toward unity. In an appeal for continued inter-confessional commitment, Ernst M. Conradie advances an overture toward development of a truly ecumenical theology of creation. Member associations of the German East Asia Mission offer an open letter to Christians in Japan and South Korea, “Together on the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace,” arising from the Just Peace in East Asia conference at Wittenberg, Germany in the autumn of 2014.

The “ecumenical chronicle” section of the journal reproduces a study document on inter-religious dialogue and cooperation that was accepted by the WCC central committee in July 2014: “Who Do We Say That We Are? Christian Identity in a Multi-religious World.” Following a series of consultations exploring Christian self-identity in relation to interactions with a series of other world religions, this major text “seeks to draw together the reflections and work of the last decade.”

For additional resources, visit the World Council of Churches.

New book recounts historic 1964 peacemaking retreat at Gethsemani Abbey

A new book by Gordon Oyer recounts the history of a little known yet foundational event in the development of Mennonite-Catholic collaboration in peacemaking and ecumenical dialogue. The book is Pursuing the Spiritual Roots of Protest: Merton, Berrigan, Yoder, and Muste at the Gethsemani Abbey Peacemakers Retreat. Here is the publisher’s summary of the event and the book:

In the fall of 1964, Trappist monk Thomas Merton prepared to host an unprecedented gathering of peace activists. “About all we have is a great need for roots,” he observed, “but to know this is already something.” His remark anticipated their agenda—a search for spiritual roots to nurture sound motives for “protest.”

This event’s originality lay in the varied religious commitments present. Convened in an era of well-kept faith boundaries, members of Catholic (lay and clergy), mainline Protestant, historic peace church, and Unitarian traditions participated. Continue reading “New book recounts historic 1964 peacemaking retreat at Gethsemani Abbey” →