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.
“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.
Rev. William Skudlarek OSB, Bridgefolk Interim Coordinator, makes the 2018 Conference Report available online as a PDF document.
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>.
From Catholic Peace Fellowship: Saint Marcellus Day 2015
Thursday, October 29th
Supper, Pilgrimage, Address and Prayers
The relics of St. Marcellus are housed in the main altar at Sacred Heart Basilica at Notre Dame and each year around his feast day pilgrims visit those relics to pray and meditate on the current-day meaning of his martyrdom for peace 1,700 years ago. Continue reading “Saint Marcellus Day Celebration – October 29th, 2015”
From Toronto School of Theology.
With the 500th anniversary of the Reformation at hand in 2017, the question of how to commemorate it is upon us.
Do we celebrate the Reformers’ renewal of the church in light of the gospel? Do we mourn the division of the one, catholic church? Or have events like the globalization of Christianity and the rise of Pentecostalism made the 16th-century debates irrelevant?
Join us as Professor Ephraim Radner and a panel of theologians representing a variety of Christian traditions wrestle through these important questions and more.
Lecture
Dr. Ephraim Radner, Professor of Historical Theology, Wycliffe College. Toronto
Respondents:
Dr. Gill Goulding, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Director, Advanced Degree Programs, Regis College, Toronto
Rev Michael Stahl, head of communications for the Evangelical Church of North Germany, Hamburg
Dr. John Vissers, Director of Academic Programs and Professor of Historical Theology, Knox College. Toronto
Dr. John Rempel, Director of Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre and previous Professor of Historical Theology and Anabaptist Studies at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), Indiana
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Sheraton Hall, Wycliffe College (5 Hoskin Avenue, Toronto)
Reception to follow.
Please let us know you are coming by emailing us at events@wycliffe.utoronto.ca.
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (Elkhart, Indiana) will be hosting a conference entitled My Spirit Rejoices in God my Savior: Mary in Anabaptist Dress in late March. Bridgefolk board members Mary Schertz and Marlene Kropf are among the event coordinators.
From the conference website:
We recognize Mary as woman who said yes to God. We recognize her as the first disciple in Luke’s Gospel. We identify her as a revolutionary. She tugs at us in art, music, poetry and drama.
As Mennonites have become more involved in ecumenical conversations, we realize that Mary plays a role in those discussions as well. While we will examine Anabaptist perspectives in particular, we want to encourage dialogue on the biblical figure of Mary and to examine recent interest in her from a variety of perspectives.
This conference, sponsored by the Institute of Mennonite Studies, will initiate and encourage wide-ranging discussion about Mary, including biblical, theological, pastoral and practical aspects. We are inviting people from a variety of disciplines to join us, so that these conversations involve pastors, church members, scholars, artists and church leaders. Our hope is that all who participate will join in conversations about Mary and will experience art—music, poetry, story and visual art—that will help us understand the place of Mary in our lives and thoughts
Click here to visit the conference site directly. A short article in the Mennonite Weekly Review can be found here.
Collegeville, MN (Bridgefolk) – For the ninth consecutive year a voluntary group of North American Mennonites and Catholics will meet for three days this summer for conversations about the faith which unites them—and the issues which divide them. The Benedictine community at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville MN will host the gathering, as it has six previous conferences.
Called the Bridgefolk conferences, these annual gatherings seek to build bridges between these two long-estranged Christian communities. This summer’s conference will be held on July 22-25. It is open to the public.
This year’s topic is the practice of footwashing, which has emerged in previous conferences as a common practice which both groups have traditionally shared, and which participants in the Bridgefolk movement have found they can share despite the divisions which still exist between their two communities.
This summer’s conference will be the first in a series focusing on the common spiritual practices which sustain both Catholic and Mennonite life.
The 2010 Bridgefolk Conference is subtitled “Practices for our Life Together in Christ.” It will explore issues such as service, hospitality and non-violence. Speakers will include scholars, pastors and laypersons from both Mennonite and Catholic traditions offering theological, academic and personal reflections on the practice of footwashing and its role in discipleship and Christian formation. Continue reading “Press release: 2010 Bridgefolk conference explores footwashing”
Here is another opportunity for ecumenical conversation in which Mennonites and Catholics have both played a part, in western Canada.
June 2-5, 2009 in Saskatoon, SK
The Summer Ecumenical Institute will function as a stock-taking and a vision-building exercise for the grassroots ecumenical community in Canada. 2009 marks the 25th anniversary of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism. It is also the 50th anniversary of the announcement by Pope John XXIII of the Second Vatican Council, one of whose main aims was the advancement of Christian unity. It is 50 years since our founder, Fr. Bernard de Margerie, received his call to the path of ecumenism. There is much to celebrate!
This conference will be the climax of a year of themed events giving thanks for the past achievements of the ecumenical movement and committing ourselves to Christian unity and reconciliation for the future. Continue reading “Summer Ecumenical Institute in Saskatoon, SK”
The Center for Reconciliation at Duke Divinity School has extended a special invitation to Bridgefolk to participate in a week-long training workshop May 31 – June 5. Three Bridgefolk leaders took part in a conference at the center last year and found it be a meaningful opportunity to explore the challenge of reconciliation at many levels — international, racial, and ecumenical.. Continue reading “Duke Summer Reconciliation Institute”