Tag: Christian Peacemaker Teams

“If Any Become Followers” – Living the Disarmed Life

We are Each Other’s Bread and Wine
no. 12

Eichenberg's Lord's Supper (small)by Weldon D. Nisly
Preached at Seattle Mennonite Church
on March 16, 2003
(the week before Nisly left to join a Christian Peacemaker Team in Iraq) 

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Romans 4: 13-25; Mark 8:31-38

 

Something is wrong

I don’t usually begin with a story, but today I cannot resist.  A young pastor was nervously preparing for his first Sunday worship with his new congregation.  He checked and double-checked everything to make sure every detail was in place.  As worship began, he went to the pulpit for the call to worship.  Wouldn’t you know it?  The microphone wouldn’t work.  He began to panic and said, “Something is wrong with this microphone.”  And the people responded, “And also with you.”

Sisters and brothers, something is wrong – terribly wrong in our world.  There are those who think something is wrong with us or with me.  Why would anyone go to Iraq today?

The Apostle Paul unequivocally told the early Christians that they were called to be “fools for Christ’s sake” and that the wisdom of God exposed the foolishness of the world.  “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18).

To cut through the illusion and see what is wrong, we must as always be rooted in Scripture.  We must be biblical people — holding the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other hand.  Together, as faithfully as we know how, we live a disarmed life in a world that best knows an armed life.  That’s how foolish Christ and the cross are to the world. Continue reading ““If Any Become Followers” – Living the Disarmed Life” →

Reflection by Jim Loney, missing CPT member in Iraq

In defence of the Sacred Heart
by Jim Loney
Catholic New Times,  Sept 26, 2004

(Jim Loney is one of the four Christian Peacemaker Team members missing in Iraq.  Thanks to Tom Finger, Mennonite theologian and Bridgefolk participant, for drawing this reflection to our attention.)

I was never a big fan of the Sacred Heart. In fact, the Sacred Heart used to make me see red: white-bread, saccharine-soaked images of Jesus staring into the blue with puppy-dog eyes; robes and hair flowing in pious cascades; stow-book religious “camp” for the spiritually infantilized.

But, on a high summer Sunday morning in ordinary time, in a little country church located on the banks of the Saugeen River (back in the days of our failed attempt to begin a rural Catholic Worker community, but that’s a whole other story), it happened. The Sacred Heart changed my heart….

To continue, go to
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MKY/is_14_28/ai_n6245080

A Call to Pray and Fasting for CPT

Bridgefolk:

Many of you have been following news from Iraq about the four members of Christian Peacemaker Teams who went missing more than a week ago.  Rooted in the Mennonite Church and other historic peace churches, CPT is now a broader ecumenical effort to develop and practice active nonviolent alternatives amid conflicted situations.  One of the missing CPTers is a Catholic peace activist from Ontario, Jim Loney.

While Bridgefolk does not have a direct affiliation, many of us have followed its work with interest and a few of us have been directly involved.  Most notably, board member Weldon Nisly was part of a delegation to Iraq at the time the war broke out.

Below you will find two short news releases from earlier today, one from the Mennonite Church USA, and the other from CPT itself.

Please join with many others around the world in praying for the safety of the CPT team members, for the witness of creative nonviolence that they seek to extend, and for the suffering people of Iraq.

Gerald W. Schlabach
Executive Director, Bridgefolk Continue reading “A Call to Pray and Fasting for CPT” →