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.
Father Drew Christiansen SJ died on April 6 at the Jesuit community in Georgetown University. Christiansen was an early participant in Bridgefolk and an enthusiastic supporter of Mennonite-Catholic dialogue at many levels. In a 2003 article entitled “An Exchange of Gifts” that summarized various streams of that dialogue and recounted the influence of Mennonites on his own theological reflection, Christiansen expressed confidence that “Catholics and Mennonites have begun to become sources of renewal for one another” through this unexpected but holy exchange.
Fr. Drew Chrstiansen SJ, 1945-2022
When the first Bridgefolk conference at Saint John’s University in 2002 compared key beliefs and practices of Mennonites and Catholics, Christiansen summarized Catholic social teaching on peace and war. He was also a major panelist at a 2007 conference at the University of Notre Dame assessing the final report the of Mennonite World Conference and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, “Called Together to Be Peacemakers.”
Christiansen had participated in that international dialogue, which took place from 1998 and 2003, and had helped to draft the report. His extensive writing on Catholic social teaching and peacemaking was informed not only by his theological education but by years of work representing both the U.S. bishops’ conference and the Vatican in global peacemaking efforts, especially in the Middle East. At the time of his death he was Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Human Development in Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs.
Read more:
America magazine’s obituary. America is the leading Catholic magazine in the United States, edited by U.S. Jesuits. Christiansen served as its editor-in-chief from 2005-2012.
The Hunger Inside: How the Meal Jesus Gave Transforms Lives by Bradley Roth, Paraclete Press, 2022 (224 pages)
Reviewed by Marlene Kropf
In a welcoming, conversational style, pastor-author Brad Roth offers both a personal story of encounter with the Eucharist, and thoughtful historical and biblical reflections on the role of the Eucharist in the church’s life and witness. His purpose in writing, he says, is to leave a “bread crumb trail” to the Lord’s Table for others to discover the richness of the feast to which all are invited.
Raised in an evangelical Mennonite family and congregation in Illinois, Roth grew up with infrequent exposure to the Lord’s Table. Like many other Protestant churches, his congregation celebrated communion only a few times a year. And when they did obey Jesus’ command to eat and drink at the Lord’s Table, the church taught him that the bread and cup were symbols, nothing more. Yet a hunger persisted within him for something more – for a more vivid experience of the living presence of the Risen Christ. Though he knew Jesus, he had not encountered him.
No one was more surprised than he was, Roth says, by the turn of events which brought him to recognize that more was going on in communion than he could account for with his mind alone. His heart was being stirred and his body enlivened by the palpable presence of Jesus. Hours after the ritual, he could still feel the lingering frisson of joy emanating from the meal.
To understand his own experience more fully and to encourage others to do the same, Roth went “deep and wide” in his search to illumine what God is doing in the communion ritual and what is happening in those who partake of God’s gifts. In one of his strongest chapters, he lays a foundation for the idea of a “sacramental universe” in which God’s presence and activity are known not only through the revelation of scripture but through the molecules and atoms of the material world itself. He draws on a wide array of thinkers and writers as varied as Augustine, Hans De Ries, Immanuel Kant, David Brooks, and Marie Kondo to support his vision of the sacraments as “the way God communicates his grace into human life in real time.”
Having established a sturdy foundation, Roth goes on to examine biblical themes traditionally associated with eucharistic theology: sacrifice, communion, hospitality, thanksgiving, remembrance, real presence, marriage supper, and mission. What stands out in these chapters is their breadth, clarity, and blend of scholarly sophistication with on-the-ground experience and vocabulary. For example, he uses contemporary metaphors to good effect when he speaks of the Lord’s Supper as a “superconductor” of God’s action or the encounter on the Emmaus road as “the Christian Big Bang” because it is the moment when the Christian sacramental universe unfolds. Likewise, his description of real presence comes alive when he says, “Jesus is not present because he has hacked reality and imposed himself, but because reality was always meant to be open to him.” Such fresh comparisons and analogies will delight and enlighten readers.
In the midst of theological explorations, Roth does not avoid some of the thorny questions surrounding communion: Who can participate? What about children? What is the relationship between baptism and communion? His discussions are generous; even when his study leads to conclusions that satisfy him, he finds what is worthy in varying viewpoints.
A feature of Roth’s eucharistic theology that many will appreciate is his attention to Anabaptist voices. Though Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and some Protestant traditions have given exhaustive attention to the Eucharist, Mennonites and other Anabaptists, with few exceptions, have not explored this territory in depth.
An original contribution of Roth’s thinking is the connection he makes between “Gelassenheit” and the bread and wine of communion. Describing Gelassenheit as “Anabaptism’s little treasure,” Roth defines this German loan-word as the stance of disciples who are being transformed as they “yield to the will, ways, work, and presence of Christ.” In a brilliant analogy, he perceives the miracle of communion as a similar transformation: the bread and wine yield to the presence of Christ and become a kind of material expression of Gelassenheit, representing “bits of mended reality, a reality that depends on and finds its fulfillment in the risen Christ who in his resurrected body is not limited to a local presence in heaven but can be anywhere with his people.” The Bread of Heaven indeed!
Despite the thoroughness of Roth’s work, he misses a maternal aspect of communion that would have enriched his book, especially in his treatment of Jesus’ words, “This is my body … this is my blood.” Since the early days of Christian history, theologians such as Irenaeus and Chrysostom perceived Jesus as our Mother, feeding us during gestation and nourishing us at his breast in the blood flowing from his side. “Christ himself is food,” they agreed, not as a theological abstraction but as a warm and intimate feeding like that of an infant at her mother’s breast. The 14th century mystic, Julian of Norwich, wrote similarly:
Our precious Mother Jesus can feed us with himself and does most courteously and most tenderly with the blessed sacrament, which is the precious food of true life … our tender Mother Jesus can lead us easily into his blessed breast through his sweet open side.
In a final inspiring chapter, “Ite missa est” (“Go, it is dismissed”), Roth makes a strong connection between the celebration of communion and the church’s life of mission. He says, “The grammar of Christian worship isn’t a period, but a colon. You have been gathered, you have heard the word, you have been fed at Christ’s table: now go forth.” What follows are
heartwarming stories – an account of what happened when his own congregation made communion a centerpiece of their life for a year as well as stories from other faith communities.
With regard to the Bridgefolk community, both Roman Catholics and Mennonites will benefit from reading The Hunger Inside. The book offers Roman Catholics an inside look into the mind and experience of Mennonites who have not been formed in a sacramental world view; it can also refresh and renew their own understanding and experience of Eucharist. Because of Roth’s attentiveness to scripture and especially to Anabaptist history, the book can also provide a reliable pathway for Mennonites who desire a deeper and broader understanding and experience of the Lord’s Supper. Though Roth may have intended the book to offer a “bread crumb trail” toward such understandings, many readers will find instead that they have been served huge chunks of nourishing whole-grain bread on their journey. Let’s eat!
The Board of Bridgefolk is delighted to introduce Joetta Handrich Schlabach as the newly-appointed Executive Director of Bridgefolk. The Board confirmed Joetta’s appointment at their meeting in early March 2022.
Joetta retired in 2018, following eleven years of pastoral ministry at Faith Mennonite Church in Minneapolis, MN. Previously she worked as a program coordinator at the University of Notre Dame, Bluffton (OH) University, and at St. Catherine University (MN), where she completed an MA in Theology and Certificate in Pastoral Ministry.
Together with her husband Gerald Schlabach, Joetta served with Mennonite Central Committee in Nicaragua and Honduras in the 1980s. She is the author of Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook. Since retiring, Joetta and Gerald divide their time between Grand Marais, MI, where she grew up, and Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, where Gerald developed friendships during 20 years of taking students to Guatemala. Joetta also serves as a long-term volunteer with Mennonite Disaster Service.
Joetta has been an active participant in Bridgefolk events since its inception, giving presentations at two of the annual conferences. Her sermon, “Communion and Peace” is included in the Bridgefolk website anthology We Are Each Other’s Bread and Wine.
“We look forward to Joetta’s leadership and contribution to the work and vision of Bridgefolk as we enter the third decade of the organization’s existence,” comments Bridgefolk co-chair Muriel Bechtel. “We hope all Bridgefolk participants will join us in welcoming her to her new role.”
Joetta can be contacted at coordinator@bridgefolk.net.
BARRY’S BAY, Ont. — A family separated by illness is being reunited through the joint efforts of the Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Ontario Unit and the Roman Catholic Knights of Columbus.
Through the project, Marc and Carole Jobin and their nine children will be able to live together in the same house.
The family was separated three years ago after their youngest child, Marie-Ange, suffered a brain injury at birth.
Until that time they lived together in a 100-year-old farmhouse near Barry’s Bay, where the family raises livestock and bees and grows vegetables.
Due to the injury, Marie-Ange requires a sterile and temperature-controlled living space—something not possible in a century-old house that uses a wood stove for heating.
“With a house that old, you get all the charms and the flaws,” said Marc, who works as a paramedic.
Since her birth, Carole and Marie-Ange—who requires around-the-clock care from her mother and health care workers—have been living in a rented house in town, about a 15-minute drive from the farm.
The situation causes stress since the children can’t see their mother or sister on a regular basis. It’s also an added expense for the one-salary family.
Marc, Carole, Marie-Ange and Jean-Dominique Jobin. Credit: Osiah Horst
“We considered moving into town, but we don’t want to have to sell the farm,” said Marc. “We like living close to the land. It suits our lifestyle and helps us feel closer to God. Selling it would be heartbreaking.”
But moving seemed the only option until they came to the attention of Myles Dear, a parent of a medically fragile child and an advocate for families with medically fragile children.
Dear, a Roman Catholic from Ottawa who is also a member of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal service organization, was moved to help.
“During a prayer time last year, God told me now is the right time to bring this family together,” he said.
Dear contacted various levels of government and non-profit organizations looking for assistance. But he came up empty.
Then he remembered how MDS Canada had worked with Roman Catholics in 2019 in Westmeath, about an hour from Barry’s Bay, to help repair homes damaged by flooding. That included volunteers staying at the rectory belonging to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Parish.
“This is a divine orchestration, bringing together MDS and the Knights of Columbus. God is a big God. He wanted us to work together. Together, we can make the world more beautiful for this family.” — Myles Dear, Member of the Knights of Columbus
“I thought, ‘Why not ask the Mennonites if they can help?’” Dear said, adding he believes “God led me in that direction.”
He called a local Mennonite pastor, who suggested he call MDS Canada. MDS Canada contacted Nick Hamm of the Ontario Unit, who asked Osiah Horst to visit the Jobins.
“When I met the family, and saw their circumstances, there was no question about what we had to do,” said Horst.
After considering the situation, the MDS Ontario Unit agreed to provide the labour to build an addition to the farmhouse where Marie-Ange could live.
Marc Jobin with his children Mary-Esther, Anthony, Sophie, Mary-Claire, William (black), Samuel (checkered shirt) Benoit-Joseph. Missing: Jean-Dominque, Marie-Ange and mother Carole. In front: Jack the dog. Credit: Osiah Horst
Donald Macdonald, Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus of the Saint Patrick Basilica Ottawa Council 485, is leading the $150,000 fundraising campaign for materials and subcontracts.
What makes fundraising easier is knowing MDS is involved in the project, MacDonald said.
“Due to the flood response project in 2019, there is a high level of trust between Mennonites and Catholics in the Ottawa Valley,” he said, adding about a third of the needed funds have come in to date.
As for Marc, he’s amazed by what is happening for his family.
“I don’t know where we’d be without this light at the end of the tunnel,” he said, noting the plan calls for the addition to be ready by March or April. “It will be great to have us all under the same roof.”
The project has also strengthened the Roman Catholic family’s faith.
“We really sense God’s hand in this,” he said.
Dear agreed.
“This is a divine orchestration, bringing together MDS and the Knights of Columbus,” he said. “God is a big God. He wanted us to work together. Together, we can make the world more beautiful for this family.”
People who want to volunteer with MDS to help build the addition to the Jobin house can contact Osiah Horst at 613-281-1525. Those who want to donate to MDS can click here and select Barry’s Bay.
by Melody Pannell Director of Diversity and Community Engagement at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia
Mennonite Mission Network invited Melody Pannell to share a reflection on World Communion Sunday, Oct. 3. She dovetails her thoughts with 1 Corinthians 11:17-22 (NRSV). Mennonite Mission Network published the reflection on October 27, 2021 and has given permission to Bridgefolk to include it in this series on Eucharist and Peacemaking, We are Each Other’s Bread and Wine.
As a child growing up at Seventh Avenue Mennonite Church in Harlem, New York City, New York, one of my favorite songs to sing together as a congregation was “We Are One in the Spirit.” This song was not in our traditional Mennonite hymnal book. It was considered a contemporary hymn and was written in the 1960’s by Peter Raymond Scholtes (1938-2009). He was a parish priest and choir director, who created the song for an ecumenical event.
Experiencing many different cultures and aspects of social identities within my church and community, I developed a deep appreciation for the lyrics of this unifying song.
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord; We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord; And we pray that all unity may one day be restored. …
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.
The 19th annual Bridgefolk conference was held August 13–14, 2021, via Zoom. The conference theme was Called Together to Face Racial Injustice: Starting Close In. Links to recordings of sessions have now been added to the conference page: https://www.bridgefolk.net/conferences.
Catholics and Mennonites need each other. This is the conviction that animates the ecumenical group Bridgefolk, in which Doris Murphy was an enthusiastic participant. On October 4th, Dr. Gerald W. Schlabach will share lessons from Mennonite-Catholic dialogue at the 8th Annual Doris H. Murphy Memorial Lecture at St. Bridget Catholic Church in River Falls, Wisconsin, with online streaming at https://www.youtube.com/saintbridget.* His talk, entitled “Pilgrim People of Peace: Looking for a Map,” will conclude with his vision for how Catholics can heed their call to be peacemakers by being the “pilgrim people” that the Second Vatican Council envisioned. The lecture will begin at 6:00 p.m. CDT.
This lecture series was established in 2014 in memory of Doris H. Murphy (1937-2011), a former Faith Formation Director at St. Bridget Church and a teacher, writer, lecturer, and mentor who had a passion for catechesis, social justice, scripture study, liturgy, the Eucharist, Vatican II, and Environmental Spirituality. In her own words, most of her work was “trying to put together theology and the people of God.” 2021 is the 10th anniversary of Doris’ death.
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
