Remembering Ivan J. Kauffman, Bridgefolk co-founder

Bridgefolk co-founder Ivan J. Kauffman died on July 15 in Philadelphia, surrounded by family, after suffering a massive stroke 11 days earlier. A funeral mass for Ivan was held on Monday morning, July 27 at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, Philadelphia, PA. A memorial service was also held in Goshen, Indiana, on Sunday, August 2, at College Mennonite Church. The family requested that memorial donations be made to Catholic Relief Services (crs.org) or Mennonite Central Committee (mcc.org).

Two other Bridgefolk co-founders shared their tributes to Ivan at the recent Bridgefolk conference:

The pope’s arrival and the only Mennonite in the room

Sep 28, 2015 by Sheldon Good, For Mennonite World Review

WASHINGTON — I’m sure I was the only Mennonite there.

It was a cool, clear morning, with stars visible even through the urban twilight, as I cruised the six-mile bicycle ride from northeast Washington to downtown at 5 a.m. Sept. 23. I had been to 17th and Pennsylvania Avenue dozens of times before, but this time felt different. My adrenaline was pumping. The combination of streetlights and flashlights created a mixture of illumination and shadow. Cutting through the darkness, bodies were moving, directions were being given, expectations were high.

When I covered President Obama as a senior at Goshen (Ind.) College during his visit in 2009 to Elkhart County, his first speech outside of Washington as president, I learned how political reporting can be memorable, and an honor, yet not especially dignifying. I was reminded of this recently while at the White House.

I.D., please, the Secret Service officer said. I showed it to him. He motioned for me to pass. It was really happening.

Continue reading “The pope’s arrival and the only Mennonite in the room” →

I Will Make with Them a Covenant of Peace

We are Each Other’s Bread and Wine
no. 11

by Jane Roeschley
Associate Pastor of Worship and Lay Ministries
Mennonite Church of Normal, Normal, Illinois
World Communion Sunday, 2008

Genesis 12:1-2, 3b; Ezekiel 37:26-27; 2 Corinthians 3:4-6, 10-11

Hatred Converted by Love

When the drama, The Women of Lockerbie, was performed in Bloomington/Normal, I went to see it. It was shortly after the Virginia Tech shootings, so that event was especially on my mind, not to mention the Nickel Mine tragedy and the ongoing losses of the Iraq war – all situations of immense hurt, and examples of the way our world is full of violence that begets more violence.

Based on true events, The Women of Lockerbie tells the story of women in the village of Lockerbie, Scotland, the place where the US Pan Am 103 jet was shot down in 1988, in retaliation for US military confrontations with Libya. All 259 persons aboard the plane, as well as 11 persons in the village, were killed.

The play is set at a point about seven years after the plane went down. As one can imagine, characters in the play, the loved ones of various victims, voice their hate for those responsible for this tragedy – for both the violent perpetrators as well as those less obviously at fault. Continue reading “I Will Make with Them a Covenant of Peace” →

Bridgefolk 2015 explores miracle of ecumenical healing

Collegeville, MN (BRIDGEFOLK) — Meeting at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, IN, the 14^th annual Bridgefolk conference was held August 20-23 under the theme, “Ecumenical Healing and the Mystery of the Communion of Saints.”

Bridgefolk is a movement of sacramentally-minded Mennonites and peace-minded Roman Catholics who come together to celebrate each other’s traditions, explore each other’s practices, and honor each other’s contribution to the mission of Christ’s Church.

Previous conferences have alternated between Catholic and Mennonite locations in the United States and Canada. Of the ninety participants gathered for this year’s conference, about sixty were Mennonite and thirty Catholic.

This year’s conference featured an array of guests and speakers from Japan, including members of the Mennonite communities in Japan and of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) in Japan. The keynote speakers were Prof. Nozomu Yamada and Fr. Alfonso Fausone SVD, both of Nanazan (Catholic) University in Nagoya, Japan. Continue reading “Bridgefolk 2015 explores miracle of ecumenical healing” →

“Who Are You Having Supper With?”

We are Each Other’s Bread and Wine
no. 10

by Doug Wiebe
L’Arche Community, Lethbridge, Alberta
sermon to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Lethbridge (abridged)

Luke 24:13-35

Two depressed men walked along the road to Emmaus on the first Easter Sunday. They were not members of Jesus’ 12 disciples, but part of the larger group of men and women who believed Jesus was the long-awaited and hoped for Messiah. But their hopes and dreams had died with Jesus’ crucifixion two days earlier. They were suffering from a crisis of meaning in their lives, and the vibrant, life-changing community they belonged to had evaporated overnight.

Their depression was so deep they did not even recognize Jesus when he began walking with them. Neither did they recognize his voice when he began to teach them. Something in their hearts was stirred as they listened, but the words they were hearing did not reconnect them to the joy, the meaning, or the community that had filled their lives just a few days earlier. Continue reading ““Who Are You Having Supper With?”” →

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” →

Take No Bread for the Journey

We are Each Other’s Bread and Wine
no. 9

by Bradley Roth
Warden Mennonite Church (Warden, Washington)
February 15, 2009

Mark 6:7-13

In Mark 6, Jesus gathers the Twelve together and instructs them in their mission. They’re to go out in pairs, staying wherever they receive a welcome. He gives them authority over unclean spirits, and we find them proclaiming repentance, casting out evil spirits, and anointing the sick for healing (vv. 12-13). In all of this, the disciples are to travel lightly—extremely lightly. Jesus tells them to take nothing except a staff—“no bread, no bag, no money in their belts” (v.8). They can wear sandals, but they’re not to take an extra tunic—that is, no change of clothes.

To travel light is to be nimble, free to go where you need to at a moment’s notice—like fitting everything into a carry-on bag. But it’s also a recipe for an incredible sort of vulnerability. Jesus desired to remind the disciples of their dependence on God.

Something like this happens at the Lord’s Table. Continue reading “Take No Bread for the Journey” →

Ecumenical relations mark MWC meetings

Miller Elizabeth slide

7.24. 2015 Written By: Gordon Houser, editor of The Mennonite, for Meetinghouse

Photo: Elizabeth Miller of the Moravian Church brings greetings. Photo by Dale Gehman.

During both morning and evening worship sessions on July 22 and 23 at the MWC Assembly in Harrisburg, Pa., representatives from various Christian communions brought greetings to MWC participants. Nearly all praised Mennonites for their long-standing peace witness.

In the morning worship on July 22, Gretchen Castle of the Friends World Committee for Consultation brought greetings. That evening, Larry Miller, former MWC General Secretary, brought greetings from the Global Christian Forum, followed by Monsignor Gregory Fairbanks of the Roman Catholic Church.

On July 23, greetings came from Elizabeth Miller of the Moravian Church and William Wilson of the Pentecostal World Fellowship in the morning, followed by Isabel Phiri of the World Council of Churches, Martin Junge of the Lutheran World Federation and Diop Ganoune of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in the evening. Junge received sustained applause as he expressed gratitude for MWC extending forgiveness to Lutherans in 2010 for their treatment of Anabaptists in the past.

Several workshops also addressed ecumenical concerns. Jonathan Seiling and Fernando Enns led a July 22 workshop, “Introduction to Mennonites and Ecumenism,” which introduced the reasons and contexts in which Mennonites have entered into official dialogue with other Christian denominations.

That same day, Valerie Rempel led the workshop “The MWC-Seventh-day Adventist Dialogue,” which highlighted the outcomes of a dialogue that happened in 2011-12.

On July 23, Alfred Neufeld, John Rempel and Seiling led the workshop “Trilateral Dialogue: Catholics, Lutherans and Mennonite Conversations on Baptism,” which reported on dialogues between MWC and the Lutheran and Catholic churches, a five-year process that has dealt with the healing of memories, theologies and practices that separate us, the meaning and function of a sacrament and the problem of Christian initiation.

Continue reading “Ecumenical relations mark MWC meetings” →

Worship’s Feast

We are Each Other’s Bread and Wine
no. 8

by Rachel Epp Miller
San Antonio Mennonite Church (Texas)
November 16, 2008

Isaiah 25:6-10; Psalm 34:1-10

When I think of feasts, many stories and images come to mind. I think of family gatherings where hearty conversation goes in more directions than the people present. I think of my experience of feasting with new friends in a small village in Kenya where their generosity was displayed with everything they had. I think of our annual Thanksgiving worship service where we eat together and share about God’s presence in our lives, or the Love Feast on Maundy Thursday when we together remember and reenact Jesus’ last supper with his disciples. I think of the daily routine of my friend Rosemary who had Alzheimer’s disease who would always say to me, her caregiver, after supper, “My sufficiency has been sufonsified”. I think of camping with nieces and nephews, roasting sticky marshmallows over the fire and stuffing them with Caramilk bars. But I also think of the daily reality of food—eating lunch at church while chatting with Jake or Hugo or reading the Mennonite Weekly Review, enjoying a late supper with Wendell while catching up on each other’s day, or laughing together through last night’s John Stewart episode. Continue reading “Worship’s Feast” →

by Jane Roeschley Associate Pastor of Worship and Lay Ministries Mennonite Church of Normal, Normal, Illinois World Communion Sunday, 2008