Julia Smucker, “Respect for Life: The Consistent Life Ethic in Catholic Social Teaching”
Click here to read Julia Smucker’s recent article in Life Matters Journal surveying the development of “consistent life ethics” in recent Catholic teaching. Smucker is an enthusiastic Bridgefolk participant and an MA student in Theology at Saint John’s School of Theology in Collegeville, MN. She describes herself as proud that fellow students have dubbed her The Anti-Dichotomy Queen.
Darrin Snyder Belousek publishes major study on the atonement and peacemaking
Bridgefolk participant and board member Darrin Snyder Belousek has just published a major new book on atonement. The book develops a biblical theology of the cross in connection with justice and peacemaking. Published by Eerdmans, the book is entitled Atonement, Justice, and Peace: The Message of Cross and the Mission of the Church. Belousek notes that “one chapter focuses on ecumenical peacemaking in the church and is directly influenced by my experience in and reflection on Bridgefolk.” Here is the publisher’s description and a link to purchase online:
In this substantial new study Darrin Belousek presents a comprehensive and critical examination of standard Protestant atonement theology and offers an alternative to the theory of penal substitution that is both biblically grounded and theologically orthodox. Beginning with Paul’s message of the cross and the Gospel narratives of Jesus, Belousek develops a comprehensive vision of justice and peace in light of the cross — a vision that connects theology and ethics, salvation and mission. Integrating his biblical study and theological reflection with philosophical analysis, historical considerations, and social-scientific evidence, Belousek shows that Christian thinking on atonement is no mere academic exercise, but rather a practical theology that speaks to such concrete realities as economic justice, capital punishment, the war on terror, ethnic and religious conflict, and Christian disunity.
Latest issue of Vision on theme of baptism
The latest issue of Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology is dedicated to the theme of baptism. Vision is published at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Indiana and Canadian Mennonite University in Manitoba, and is edited by Bridgefolk board member Mary Schertz.
The theme of baptism is timely given that representatives of worldwide bodies of Mennonites, Catholics and Lutherans will soon be launching a trilateral dialogue on the theme.
Information and two sample articles from the issue are available at http://www.mennovision.org/Volume12-2.htm. One of the two sample articles, “Cultivating a congregational climate of discernment,” is by Bridgefolk co-chair Marlene Kropf.
Susan Harrison insists: Interfaith dialogue must include those “you can’t talk to”
Susan Kennel Harrison
Drawing especially on her experience with Iranian Shiites, former Bridgefolk Board member Susan Kennel Harrison recently spoke at Eastern Mennonite University’s Interfaith Forum recently. Her forum presentation, “You Can’t Talk to Them – Peacemaking and Dialogue,” focused on the importance of building relationships with persons of other religious affiliations, particularly fundamentalists, in order to promote understanding and respect. The talk is available as a podcast at http://emu.edu/now/podcast/2011/09/14/cie-interfaith-forum-susan-kennel-harrison.
New book interprets church apologies
In recent years, churches have repented for historical wrongs. In his new book, Ecclesial Repentance: The Churches Confront Their Sinful Pasts, Jeremy M. Bergen tells the story of these apologies and analyzes the theological issues they raise about the nature and mission of the church.
“In a context in which churches, as well as national governments, are increasingly offering public apologies for past acts of injustice and failure,” Bergen’s book, Ecclesial Repentance: The Churches Confront Their Sinful Pasts, “represents an important contribution.” In a review by Christopher Craig Brittain of the University of Aberdeen, Britton continues, “rather than seeing ecclesial repentance as undermining the Church’s reputation, or functioning as a self-serving public relations strategy, Bergen offers a theological account of how they help the Church be faithful to its mission. The result is a sensitive reflection on the complexities and perils of public apologies, as well as a thoughtful appreciation for their potential to facilitate the healing of past wounds.’ Read more
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? Read more
Catholic Peace Fellowship magazine features Bridgefolk connections
Now available online is the Catholic Peace Fellowship journal Seeds of Peace, which last year devoted an issue to exploring “Mennonites, Catholics, and the Peace of Christ.”
From the introduction:
Because the Catholic Peace Fellowship has its headquarters in Northern Indiana, we have been graced to live close to, and work closely with, many Mennonite friends. Some of us have been working with Mennonites for quite some time, since the early eighties when the Christian peace movement in this country was focused on resisting the arms race by witnessing to Jesus. The same was true during the First Gulf War, when Mennonites from around the country and in Europe took the lead in supporting military conscientious objectors. Since the attacks of September 11, Mennonites have made it their business to get in the way of war, particularly in their work in sending out Christian Peacemaking to Palestine, Iraq, wherever peace can be made. More recently, and closer to home, we have enjoyed the presence of Mennonites in animating the activities of peacemaking here in “Michiana,” as our region is called. And we in the Catholic Peace Fellowship have been the beneficiary of a close Mennonite friend, Biff Weidman, who rents out our space for a song. In ways temporal and spiritual, we are blessed with the Mennonites whose life and work we are privileged to share. In this issue, we have focused on the fruitful relationship between Catholics and Mennonites that has been patiently cultivated over the past thirty or so years.
The issue features, among other articles, an excellent reflection by Bridgefolk participants Margie Pfeil and Biff Weidman. Visit the journal in its original location here.
Vatican celebrates 50 years of ecumenical engagement
The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) assembled in November at the Vatican to mark a 50-year landmark in Roman Catholic ecumenical engagement. On Pentecost 1960, as part of preparations for the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII established the Catholic Church’s first secretariat for ecumenical dialogue. The PCPCU is its successor organization, and is the body that held an official international dialogue with Mennonite World Conference from 1998-2003. Read more
Saint John’s awards Mennonite peacebuilder John Paul Lederach its highest honor
As part of its commencement ceremony May 9, Saint John’s University and Abbey in Minnesota awarded Mennonite peacebuilder John Paul Lederach its Pax Christi award. The university’s highest honor, the Pax Christi award ” recognizes those who have devoted themselves to God by working in the tradition of Benedictine monasticism to serve others and to build a heritage of faith in the world.” Saint John’s Abbey has hosted Bridgefolk conferences and Abbot John Klassen is the Catholic co-chair of Bridgefolk. The text of the award appears below.
The public radio program Speaking of Faith, recently featured Lederach and his work. The program is at http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2010/art-of-peace. Gerald Schlabach, executive director of Bridgefolk and a colleague of Lederach’s in the 1980s, recommends this extensive interview as an introduction to the style of grassroots relationship-building that has influenced Bridgefolk’s approach to ecumenical dialogue.
Saint John’s Abbey and University
Collegeville, Minnesota
John Paul Lederach, coming from a Mennonite Christian tradition of peacemaking, you have had a life-long commitment to working toward the non-violent resolution of conflict. Read more
