Tag: Sacraments and spirituality

Receiving grace through countercultural footwashing

By Brian Miller
Mennonite Weekly Review
April 21, 2011

There’s no way around it — washing someone’s feet can be a bit awkward, especially if you are newer to this practice. In a day of vibey church cafes and artsy gathering spaces with sofas and technological whatsits, in a day when every attempt is made to make church appealing to the “spiritual but not religious,” in this day, we gather once again to practice footwashing.

But why? What compels us to continue this practice? Continue reading “Receiving grace through countercultural footwashing” →

Praying the Bridgefolk prayer – 10 years and counting

Ten years ago this week, a small group of original Bridgefolk participants and leaders met together to talk, pray and discern.  How should we follow through on our initial meeting in Pennsylvania in 1999?  What kind of community are we becoming?  How will participants know if they are “members?”  Should we have a common discipline of prayer, the way religious orders do?  What will bind our life together when we depart?  It would be good to at least have a common prayer that would resonate equally with Mennonites and Catholics, they decided, but what might that be?

In the middle of the night, one of Bridgefolk’s co-founders found the following prayer taking shape, got up, and wrote it down.  When he shared it with the others the next day, the group embraced it as a simple answer to many of our questions:

  • If someone can pray this prayer with all their heart, he or she is Bridgefolk.
  • Our rule would be to pray this prayer daily, and live accordingly.

On this 10th anniversary of the Bridgefolk prayer, therefore, we invite you to pray our common prayer today, to make or renew your commitment to pray it daily, and to live out the groanings we share for a Church of unity, nonviolence, and faithfulness to our Lord Jesus Christ. Continue reading “Praying the Bridgefolk prayer – 10 years and counting” →

Kreiders publish new book on Worship and Mission After Christendom

Bridgefolk participants Alan and Eleanor Kreider have published a new book,  Worship and Mission After Christendom.  Their publisher, Herald Press, hints at why their work will appeal to the “sacramentally-minded Mennonites and peace-minded Catholics” who make up Bridgefolk:

Today, as Christendom weakens, worship and mission are poised to reunite after centuries of separation. But this requires the church to rethink both “mission” and “worship.” In post-Christendom mission, God is the main actor and God calls all Christians to participate. In post-Christendom worship, the church tells and celebrates the story of God, enabling members to live in hope and attract outsiders to its many tables of hospitality.

In this passionate and thoughtful study, Alan Kreider and Eleanor Kreider draw upon missiology, liturgiology, biblical studies, church history, and the vast experience of today’s global Christian church-to say nothing of their long tenure as teachers and writers in contemporary England and the United States. Academically responsible but also practical and accessible, Worship and Mission After Christendom is a much-needed guide for people who take seriously God’s call to be the church in a world where institutional religion is no longer taken for granted. Continue reading “Kreiders publish new book on Worship and Mission After Christendom“ →

Mennonite publication celebrates ministry of Marlene Kropf

Marlene Kropf, Bridgefolk co-chair, retired from her position as denominational minister of worship (Mennonite Church USA) last month.  The Mennonite featured an article in celebration of her ministry.

From the article:

Since 1983, Marlene has been a key leader in the creation of Mennonite worship resources and spiritual formation material and has helped lead six spiritual pilgrimages and numerous music and worship retreat weekends. She has introduced a variety of spiritual disciplines across the church. “The main focus of my interest in worship transformation,” Marlene says, ‘has not simply been a conversion from passive to active behavior in worship but rather toward a more active encounter with God.”

Lutherans and Mennonites seek reconciliation, forgiveness

STUTTGART, Germany– In what Bishop Mark S. Hanson, President of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), described as possibly “the most significant legacy this Assembly will leave,” the Eleventh Assembly of the LWF today took the historic step of asking the Mennonites for forgiveness for past persecutions. Delegates unanimously approved a statement calling Lutherans to express their regret and sorrow for past wrongdoings towards Anabaptists and asking for forgiveness.

Hanson described the act of repentance and reconciliation as “communion building and communion defining. “We will not just look back; we will also look towards together to God’s promised future.” Continue reading “Lutherans and Mennonites seek reconciliation, forgiveness” →

Bridgefolk conference explores footwashing

Collegeville – The annual Bridgefolk conference, which each summer brings together Mennonites and Catholics for four days of discussion and fellowship, met this year at Saint John’s Abbey at Collegeville, MN. This year topic was footwashing, which has emerged as a central practice of the conferences.

The program began with addresses by Mary Schertz, professor of New Testament at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, and Abbot John Klassen of Saint John’s Abbey. Schertz emphasized the Biblical foundations of footwashing in the Gospel of John. Abbot Klassen explored the status of footwashing in the Catholic tradition.

Other speakers discussed footwashing as prayer, as simplicity, and as nonviolence. Continue reading “Bridgefolk conference explores footwashing” →

Footwashing: one congregation’s story

Bridgefolk participant Pat Shaver from Seattle Mennonite Church offers these reflections on the challenges her congregation encountered while planning a footwashing service:

Hygiene and hospitality

Seattle Mennonite is an urban congregation with a growing homeless ministry. MRSA (virulent type of infection) is frequent among the homeless.  The congregation needed a way to protect the health of the participants while being open and welcoming.  To meet this challenge, the congregation provided an individual towel for each person and someone at each station to insure people used hand sanitizer after washing someone’s feet.

A local homeless chaplain said that to allow homeless persons to participate without feeling ashamed, the congregation should Continue reading “Footwashing: one congregation’s story” →