We Are Each Other’s Bread and Wine
This collection grows out of the mutual exchange of gifts among Catholics and Mennonites in the Bridgefolk movement since 2002, and ongoing conversations regarding spirituality and peacemaking. At the Mennonite-Catholic Theological Conference held at Notre Dame July 30-31, 2007, Elizabeth Groppe (Xavier University) noted in her presentation that “Catholics have a strong Eucharistic theology and a weak peacemaking practice whereas Mennonites have a weak Eucharistic theology and a strong peacemaking practice.” Many other conference participants echoed her observation that “This ought not to be so.”
In response, the Bridgefolk board has invited Marlene Kropf, retired Associate Professor of Spiritual Formation and Worship, and William Skudlarek O.S.B. of Saint John’s Abbey, a teacher of homiletics, to compile and edit a collection of sermons, homilies, poetry and art that will encourage a more visible and fruitful connection between the Lord’s Supper and the church’s practice of peacemaking.
The intended audience for this collection is preachers, worship planners, church leaders, teachers of preaching, students, people engaged in peacemaking ministries, and those participating in interchurch conversations.
And we accept bread at his table,
broken and shared, a living sign.
Here in this world, dying and living,
we are each other’s bread and wine.
This is the place where we can receive
what we need to increase:
God’s justice and God’s peace.
Hymn, “What is this place?” (Hymnal: A Worship Book, #1)