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.
Schlabach to share lessons from Bridgefolk in Doris H. Murphy Memorial lecture, Oct. 4th
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.
*Update: The recording is now available at https://youtu.be/vx077sfSrpA
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.
Hildegard of Bingen: A Model of Mennonite-Catholic Bridging
Bridgefolk participant Julia Smucker has jut published an article in U.S. Catholic magazine on ways that the 12th-century abbess, mystic, and musician has been “a companion on my meandering journey” of faith. Julia writes:
Hildegard’s ambiguity makes her an appropriate guide on my own journey, which has been characterized by in-betweenness and pilgrimage in various ways, most recently as I brought my Mennonite heritage into communion with the Catholic Church. Hildegard’s honest self-awareness and genius for integrating ideas helped show me the possibility of living such a duality and the contribution it may yet make in this church I now call home. Her example helps me to articulate what I hope I am also becoming: a complex woman of conviction and questions, reconciling differences and pointing to the connectedness of all things.
The appears in the February 2012 issue of U.S. Catholic (pages 63-64) or online by clicking here.
Week of Christian Unity 2021: A Report from the Vatican
On the occasion of the just-completed Week of Christian Unity, L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican daily newspaper, has published a report on the state of ecumenical dialogue by Bishop Brian Farrell, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The report mentions the trilateral Lutheran-Catholic-Mennonite dialogue, along with some 15 other bilateral dialogues and discussions in which the pontifical council was engaged during 2020.
Mutual understanding and reciprocal trust
22 January 2021
The year 2020 will long be remembered for the transformation of life, communal and personal, caused by the pandemic. The Ecumenical world, too, has suffered from the restriction imposed due to the health crisis. In relationships among Christians, divided but eager to overcome separations, personal contacts are essential. The mutual understanding and reciprocal trust necessary to deepen communion are born and grow only through encounter. Many meetings, many church gatherings and ecumenical dialogues have had to be cancelled or postponed to a future date. Certain meetings have been replaced by video conferences, but there is no doubt that a conversation mediated by technology does not produce the same effect as an exchange of ideas, beliefs, and motivations that takes place in person. Yet, even in this fateful year, the search for Christian unity has continued, and has made progress. Sixty years after its founding (June 1960), the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (pcpuc) carries onward with conviction its mandate: to promote ecumenism in the Catholic Church and the relationships of the Catholic Church with other Christians, in their Churches and communities. …
First hymn in new Mennonite hymnal will again be by a Catholic
A recent article in the Mennonite World Review answers a few questions about Voices Together, the new hymnal that the Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada plan to release this fall. Chief among them: What will be hymn no. 1?
Bridgefolk participants have noted approvingly that the first words of hymn in the current Mennonite hymnal, released in 1992 — “What is this place?” — were penned by the then-Catholic-priest Huub Oosterhuis of the Netherlands.
The new hymnal will again open with a text written by a Catholic, Sister Delores Dufner OSB, a member of St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota. Dufner has participated in Bridgefolk conferences and spoke on a panel concerning hospitality in 2006.
Duffner’s text, “Summoned by the God Who Made Us,” is being set to the tune “Nettleton” (best known as the tune to “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessingj”). The refrain:
Let us bring the gifts that differ
and, in splendid, varied ways,
sing a new church into being,
one in faith and love and praise.
Trilateral report on baptism by Lutherans, Catholics, Mennonites released
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
News release
30 July 2020
Representatives of the Catholic Church, the Lutheran World Federation, and the Mennonite World Conference met periodically from 2012-2017. These trilateral Conversations focused on the understanding and practice of Baptism in light of contemporary missional challenges facing these Christian communities.
The final report entitled Baptism and Incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church summarizes the outcome of these Conversations. The text is published together with a Catholic Commentary authored by Professor Peter Casarella (Duke University, USA). The report is published as a study document in the hope that through wide diffusion, both within the three communities and among Christians in general, it will contribute to better mutual understanding on the mystery of Baptism and greater faithfulness to Jesus Christ.
The report treats three fundamental themes: 1) the relationship between Baptism, sin and grace; 2) the celebration of Baptism and the communication of grace and faith in the context of the Christian community; 3) the living out of Baptism in Christian discipleship.
The publication of the report was announced by a joint communiqué issued for the publication of the report.
Lutheran delegation members were Prof. Dr Friederike Nüssel (co-chair, Germany); Bishop Emeritus Dr Musawenkosi Biyela (South Africa); Prof. Dr Theodor Dieter (France); Revd Prof. Peter Li (Hong Kong-China); Revd Raj Bharath Patta (India/UK); and Revd Dr Kaisamari Hintikka (co-secretary, Finland/Switzerland).
Catholic Church delegation members were Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga, IMC (co-chair, Colombia); Revd Prof. William Henn, OFM Cap (USA/Italy); Revd Prof. Luis Melo, SM (Canada); Sister Prof. Dr Marie-Hélène Robert, NDA (France); and Revd Avelino González-Ferrer (co-secretary, USA/Vatican).
“Catholics and Anabaptists Working Together for Peace” by Ross Ahlfeld
Gerald Schlabach is quoted by the UK Catholic weekly, The Tablet (21 July 2020):
“Bridgefolk Mennonite-Catholic, Gerald Schlabach, author of A Pilgrim People – Becoming a Catholic Peace Church, states – ‘we do not begin by assuming that a ‘peace church’ must mean pacifist church. Rather, we start by encouraging our Catholic communities to become ever more skillful at working through their conflicts without recourse to violence and without demeaning one another’s dignity.’”
https://www.thetablet.co.uk/blogs/1/1535/catholics-and-anabaptists-working-together-for-peace
Postponed: 2020 Bridgefolk summer conference
Dear Friends of Bridgefolk:
Because of safety concerns and the sheer uncertainty of the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, both here in Minnesota and across the nation, the Bridgefolk board made the decision to POSTPONE the 2020 Bridgefolk summer conference (July 23-26) at Saint Benedict’s Monastery and the College of Saint Benedict.
We are proposing postponing the conference to July of 2021, close to the usual dates for the Bridgefolk conference.
In the meantime, please be safe and proceed through friendship!
Marilyn Stahl Abbot John Klassen
Co-chairs of Bridgefolk