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 Read more

Conference ride-sharing information

A number of people have indicated interest in sharing rides to this summer’s conference.  Anyone interested in ride-sharing should e-mail coordinator @ bridgefolk.net.  An e-mail list will be formulated in early July to allow interested parties to offer or request rides to/from the conference.

Press release: 2010 Bridgefolk conference explores footwashing

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. Read more

Bridgefolk director calls new book the fruit of much interchurch dialogue

Gerald W. Schlabach, Bridgefolk co-founder and long-time director, has just published a new book on the practices of stability that all Christian churches need to sustain community in an age of individualism and mobility of all kinds. “I know I’m being a little provocative with the title,” says Schlabach, “but Unlearning Protestantism is really the fruit of many years of interchurch dialogue. I have tried to listen to various traditions as they have grappled with the challenges of loyalty and dissent, and to share my reflections in a way that helps all of us grow together toward Christ.” Read more

Bridgefolk co-sponsors ecumenical peace conference

Peace Among the Peoples is a gathering of ecumenically minded Christian peacemakers. This conference will be an opportunity to reflect on the future of ecumenical peacemaking in North America, and beyond. Bridgefolk is a co-sponsor of this conference.

In May 2011, the World Council of Churches will hold the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in Kingston, Jamaica, culminating the 2001-2010 Decade to Overcome Violence program. The immediate objective of Peace Among the Peoples is to critically appropriate the agenda of the 2011 Convocation.

The meeting will include panel presentations from leading thinkers and activists, such as Stanley Hauerwas, Rita Nakashima Brock and Brian McLaren.

For more information, click here.

Conference registration now open

Registration is now open for the 2010 conference.  The conference will be held July 22-25 at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, MN.  Visit the conference page for more information or click here to access the registration form directly.  Online registration will be available soon.

Bridgefolk 2010 Conference schedule updated

To see the updated schedule for this summer’s conference, please click here.  For registration information, please click here.

Bridgefolk revamps leadership, announces 2010 conference

COLLEGEVILLE, MINNESOTA (Bridgefolk.net) – Bridgefolk had much to celebrate as it held its 10th anniversary conference in Laurelville, Pennsylvania last August, but is also entering a crucial time of transition. That was the sentiment Bridgefolk Board members shared as they met in mid-October at St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota to plan their next conference and discern how to guide their grassroots ecumenical movement of Mennonites and Roman Catholics through its next steps. Read more