by Melanie Zuercher
Collegeville, Minn.(BRIDGEFOLK)-History may show that Mennonites and Catholics have had little to say to each other for the past 500 years. But not all members of these two groups see it that way today.
When Mennonites and Catholics sit down together, the Catholics bring a long and rich tradition of liturgy and strong institutions. Mennonites bring a distinctive practice of four-part a capella singing and a historic peace witness.
Bridgefolk, a grassroots group of Catholics and Mennonites, convened July 17-20 at St. John’s Abbey (Benedictine) to examine these and other “Spiritual Practices for Violent Times.” It was the second “Catholic-Mennonite peace dialogue” at St. John’s in two years, and the group expects to meet there annually through at least 2006.
Bridgefolk began at an informal retreat in western Pennsylvania in August 1999, where 25 Catholics and Mennonites met to discuss why a growing number of adherents to both faiths were exploring each other’s traditions, looking for ways to enrich one with the other.
Probably not coincidentally, a formal dialogue between Catholics and Mennonites had begun one year earlier in Strasbourg, France, under the auspices of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and Mennonite World Conference.
Spiritual practices, said Mennonite Marlene Kropf at Bridgefolk 2003’s opening plenary, are “things we Christians do together over time in light of and in response to God’s active presence in the world.”
Kropf, from Elkhart, Ind., is a longtime spiritual director and teacher of Christian spirituality. “We are called to discern the practices that will call us into peacemaking and shape us into peacemakers,” she continued, “to make us signs of God’s desire for peace in the world.”
As have past Bridgefolk gatherings, this one emphasized how each tradition’s beliefs about peace can inform the other, and was grounded in storytelling. Participants heard two central stories about current events that have profoundly affected the two groups.
Abbot John Klassen told about the abbey’s response to the growing revelations of sexual abuse by priests in Catholic institutions across the country-including St. John’s.
Klassen outlined ways in which the abbey has met the allegations, which began as early as 1983 and have continued through 2002. The main lesson learned was that “the only way through is to focus on the healing of survivors.”
He said that prayer was “fundamental in times of conflict,” and that “telling the truth publicly about what happened is essential to healing the damage of violence.”
The next day, Marg and Weldon Nisly told about Seattle Mennonite Church’s response to the war in Iraq. Weldon is pastor of the congregation, and he joined a Christian Peacemaker Teams delegation that arrived in Baghdad just as the war broke out in mid-March.
“Seattle Mennonite Church went to Iraq,” said Weldon. “I just happened to be the body [that was present in Baghdad].”
He and Marg described the discernment processes they followed as a couple, with their two grown children, and with the congregation.
“The candle in the prayer room [at the church] stayed lit from the time Weldon left until he came home,” Marg recalled. “The prayer room was open every night while he was gone. I didn’t get there every night but knowing it was open and that people all over the country were praying for us helped me to go on with my life.”
Bridgefolk participants spent time in small groups identifying spiritual practices from these stories, their significance to the situation, and their value to others beyond those directly involved. Plenary worship featured four-part a capella singing under the direction of widely known Mennonite songleader and hymnologist Mary Oyer. One of the final events was a love feast with footwashing, also more common in Anabaptist tradition. Several times a day, conference participants could join in the abbey’s daily prayer and worship.
In the plenary between the two stories, several people talked about their experience with Sant’Egidio, whose “pillars are prayer, friendship and service, all essential to understanding peacemaking and living the gospel,” said Andrea Bartoli, a Sant’Egidio member and Bridgefolk participant who currently directs the international conflict resolution programs at Columbia University in New York.
Last spring, six Mennonites and Catholics visited with community members in Rome. Dirk Giseburt and Marilyn Stahl, Mennonites from Mercer Island, Wash., told of being deeply affected by how Sant’Egidio included poor and homeless people in worship and celebration.
“One thing that’s troubled me about peacemaking is how we tend to focus on what we think are the big things, such as protests, demonstrations and ‘over there’ wars,” said Randy Krehbiel, Newton, Kan. “All of those are about changing others. What I’ll take home is the story [told by Benedictine sister Janice Wedl of St. Joseph, Minn.] that asked: ‘What do we do with the timid who can only express their fear and pain through anger?’ These are the day-to-day challenges of peacemaking-transforming our interpersonal conflicts. The ‘small’ things are truly large.”
Also at this year’s Bridgefolk conference, Helmut Harder, a Mennonite theologian from Winnipeg, Man., and Peter Nissen, a Catholic historian from the Netherlands, reported on the 5-year international Catholic-Mennonite dialogue. The group has almost completed its report, a 72-page document that will be translated into French and Spanish and presented to the General Council of Mennonite World Conference and the Vatican this fall.
Peter Erb, a Catholic (who grew up Mennonite) from Waterloo, Ont., told about a conference that took place at St. John’s just before Bridgefolk. “The Anabaptist Martyr in an Ecumenical Context” grew out of the international dialogue when participants realized that many Catholics are unfamiliar with the stories of the 16th-century Anabaptist martyrs-a key part of Anabaptist history.
The “martyrs’ conference” included a number of prominent Mennonite and Catholic scholars from the United States, Canada and the Netherlands. It was described in conference literature as “the first time Catholics have publicly confronted the stories of the martyrs and the first time for Mennonites to engage in a historical study of the martyrs in an ecumenical setting.” Organizers hope to make it an annual event.
Bridgefolk has set its next gathering for July 29-Aug. 1, 2004. More information is on the web site.