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.
Darrin Snyder Belousek <darrin.w.snyderbelousek@gmail.com> announces that henceforth Rev. William Skudlarek OSB <wskudlarek@csbsju.edu> succeeds to his former duties as Bridgefolk’s Executive Director.
Fr. William’s Bridgefolk title is Interim Coordinator. Dom William is a monk of Saint John’s Abbey and serves as the international Secretary General of the official Monastic Interreligious Dialogue.
Mennonites and Catholics in Dialogue
“Toward a Just Peace: Eradicating the Evil of Racism”The 17th annual Bridgefolk conference was held at Saint John’s Abbey, Collegeville, MN, 26-29 July 2018.
Anne McCarthy, OSB, Mount Saint Benedict Monastery, “Overturning Temple Tables: Toward Repairing a Racist Legacy”
Felipe Hinojosa, Associate Professor of History, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX. Teaching specialty in Latina/o – Chicana/o, Religion. Author of Latino Mennonites: Civil Rights, Faith, and Evangelical Culture (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014). Keynote title to come.
For more information: <info@bridgefolk.net>.
The 2017 Schedule for the 2017 Bridgefolk Conference is available online.
School of Theology and Ministry
Seattle University and
Seattle Mennonite Church
Seattle, WA
July 27-30, 2017
The 16th annual Bridgefolk conference, Pilgrimage toward Christian Unity: Beginning with Baptism, 27-30 July 2017, will be held at Seattle Mennonite Church and the School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University, WA.
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.”
Joetta Handrich Schlabach, pastor of Faith Mennonite Church in Minneapolis, recently spoke at the Third Way congregation in nearby Saint Paul about Mennonite-Catholic relationships. Click here or on screenshot below to listen or watch.
Highways can be dangerous places. I grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where highways were snow- and sometime ice-covered-for up to five months of the year. I have memories of being in cars that landed in a snow bank in both clear and stormy weather. During the five years that my husband and I lived in Central America, we had our share of breathtaking moments when the bus we were riding in decided to pass on a curve along a mountain road or when we were riding in the back of a pick-up at high speed.
But I’ve never been fearful that a highway encounter with the police might be dangerous. Thankfully, those encounters have been few in my life, but I am increasingly coming to understand that my sense of safety is not simply a matter of always following the speed limit, but also has to do with the color of my skin. I’ve also come to know that the highway that I get on each day, I-94, which many of you may have driven on to come to this gathering, endangered a whole neighborhood in its very creation, as it bored through the heart of St. Paul’s African-American Rondo neighborhood in the 1960’s.
Last month the nation—and many parts of the world—have become familiar with the name of Philando Castile. Philando was the young man shot by a policeman during a “routine” traffic stop in Falcon Heights, just north of St. Paul, Minnesota. Continue reading “Mercy in the borderlands”
This article has also appeared in The Mennonite.
St. Joseph, Minn. (BRIDGEFOLK) — The 15th annual Bridgefolk conference was held July 28-31 at Saint Benedict’s Monastery and the College of Saint Benedict in Saint Joseph, MN. The conference proceeded under the theme, “‘I Desire Mercy:’ Practicing the Works of Mercy.”
Bridgefolk is a grassroots 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 forty-five participants gathered for this year’s conference, about thirty were Mennonite and fifteen Catholic.
On the opening evening of the conference, following welcoming words from Sister Michaela Hedican, OSB (Prioress of Saint Benedict’s Monastery), this year’s conference featured Father Columba Stewart, OSB¸ a distinguished scholar of early Church history, especially the evolution of early monastic and other forms of intentional community. Continue reading “15th annual Bridgefolk conference highlights common practices of mercy”