“Let go of marytr complex,” urges Bridgefolk participant

Bridgefolk participant Julia Smucker recently published a letter to the editor in The Mennonite (Oct. 6 issue, p. 4).  Since her letter needed to be shortened, she asked to share the original letter here: Continue reading ““Let go of marytr complex,” urges Bridgefolk participant”

Remembering the Cloud of Witnesses: 2nd Ecumenical Conference on 16th-century Martyrdom

PRESS RELEASE
Mennonite World Conference
August 12, 2004

COLLEGEVILLE, Minnesota — Mennonite and Catholic historians and theologians continued the study of 16th-century religious martyrdom that began last year. Discussions at Saint John’s Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Minnesota, July 26-28, included plans to form an ecumenical institute for on-going scholarly research on this topic.

The conference was entitled, “Sixteenth century martyrdom in ecumenical perspective.” Ivan Kauffman, a Washington, D.C.-based writer and one of the conference organizers, provided this framework: “The church today stands between a past marred by extensive violence and a future committed to peacemaking. We must somehow connect our historical past to our very different future.”

Sixteenth-century martyrdom became a topic of ecumenical discussion when, in 1998, the Mennonite World Conference entered into a five-year dialogue with the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. Two major contributors to the international dialogue, Drew Christiansen, S.J., and Helmut Harder, spoke at this year’s martyrs conference.

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Anabaptist Martyrs Studied at Joint Mennonite-Catholic Conference

by Marilyn Stahl

Collegeville, Minn.- Mennonite and Catholic scholars gathered to begin a joint historical study of the sixteenth-century Anabaptist martyrs in mid-July at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn. Many of the martyrs were condemned to death by Catholic civil and church authorities.

Abbot John Klassen of St. John’s began his welcoming remarks by citing the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu in describing the work of South Africa’s Commission for Truth and Reconciliation: “For forgiveness to occur, the past must be reconstructed and acknowledged.” To achieve a real accommodation between Mennonites and Catholics, said the Abbott, “an analogous process is utterly essential.”

The conference was the first time that Catholics have publicly confronted these historical incidents, and the first time that Mennonites have reexamined this aspect of their foundational history in an ecumenical setting. Continue reading “Anabaptist Martyrs Studied at Joint Mennonite-Catholic Conference”

Catholic and Mennonite scholars announce joint project to study Anabaptist martyrs, 2003

A group of prominent Mennonite and Catholic scholars will gather this summer at St. Johns Abbey to begin a joint historical study of the sixteenth-century Anabaptist martyrs, many of them condemned to death by the Inquisition.

It will be the first time Catholics have publicly confronted these incidents, and the first time that Mennonites have engaged in historical study of the martyrs in an ecumenical setting.

Entitled “The Anabaptist Martyr in an Ecumenical Context” the conference is an outgrowth of the international Mennonite Catholic dialogue that has been taking place for the past five years under the auspices of the Mennonite World Conference and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.  Continue reading “Catholic and Mennonite scholars announce joint project to study Anabaptist martyrs, 2003”