Mennonite Catholic Theological Colloquium to discuss intercessorary prayer, October 1 at Notre Dame

Mennonite Catholic Theological Colloquium:
Intercessory Prayer

October 1, 2016
University of Notre Dame
Geddes Hall Auditorium
8:30 am to 5 pm

This daylong symposium will feature scholars from the Mennonite and Catholic traditions engaging in discussion of the historical context and contemporary liturgical practices around intercessory prayer. Formal presentations will lay the groundwork for informed engagement among participants, with the goal of advancing ecumenical dialogue through rigorous theological exploration.

Invited Speakers:

  • Marlene Kropf, Emerita, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary
  • John Cavadini, University of Notre Dame
  • Kim Belcher, University of Notre Dame
  • Karl Koop, Canadian Mennonite University

There is no charge for participation. Refreshments will be provided, and participants will take meals on their own.

Click here for flyer PDF.

Questions? Please contact Margie Pfeil at mpfeil1@nd.edu.

This event is sponsored by:

Sharing Peace: Mennonites and Catholics in Conversation now available

SharingPeacePapers from our  2007  conference at the University of Notre Dame on the Mennonite-Catholic dialogue report “Called Together to be Peacemakers” have now been published.  Edited by Gerald Schlabach and Margaret Pfeil,  Sharing Peace: Mennonites and Catholics in Conversation, is available directly from Liturgical Press or other booksellers.  Copies will also be available at the upcoming Bridgefolk conference in Ontario.

Sharing Peace brings together leading Mennonite and Catholic theologians and ecclesial leaders to reflect on the recent, first-ever international dialogue between the Mennonite World Conference and the Vatican. The search for a shared reading of history, theology of the church and its sacraments or ordinances, and understandings of Christ’s call to be peacemakers are its most prominent themes. Continue reading Sharing Peace: Mennonites and Catholics in Conversation now available”

Mennonite-Catholic dialogue featured in ecumenical conference

The recent Mennonite-Catholic dialogue will be among the projects discussed at an upcoming ecumenical conference in St. Paul, MN.  Hosted by Saint Paul Seminary, “A Century of Ecumenism” will be held June 17-19.  The conference is organized by Monsignor John Radano, Vatican staff person for the Mennonite-Catholic dialogue.

From the conference website:

The goal of this seminar is to concentrate the attention of scholars on an assessment of specific achievements of international dialogue. Special attention will be paid to international bilateral dialogues that began immediately after the Second Vatican Council involving the Catholic Church with many different churches and Christian World Communions, and the multilateral dialogue sponsored by the World Council of Churches’ Commission on Faith and Order.

The conference schedule and brochure can be found here.

New publication on martyrdom

Martyrdom in an Ecumenical Perspective: A Mennonite-Catholic Dialogue, edited by Peter Erb, is the most recent publication in the Bridgefolk Series by Pandora Press. Acknowledging the martyrdom of Anabaptists, the 1998-2003 bilateral discussions between the Catholic Church and Mennonite World Conference resulted in a call for further reflection on the experience of martyrdom. In 2003 and 2004, Saint John’s Abby of Collegeville, Minnesota hosted two conferences in which Catholics and Mennonites discussed this subject. Martyrdom in an Ecumenical Perspective is a collection of perspectives presented at these meetings.

Contributors:

  • Brad S. Gregory
  • Neal Blough
  • Helmut Harder
  • Margaret O’Gara
  • C. Arnold Snyder
  • John D. Roth
  • Drew Christianson, S.J.
  • Chris K. Huebner
  • Jeremy M. Bergen

Books may be ordered from: www.pandorapress.com

Notre Dame Theology Conference now available online

Wish you could have been at the Mennonite-Catholic Theological Conference at the University of Notre Dame late in July?  The conference brought together top Mennonite and Catholic theologians and ecclesial leaders in order to stimulate scholarly interest in Called Together to Be Peacemakers — the final report of the international dialogue between Mennonite World Conference and Vatican representatives — while also providing resources for Catholic and Mennonite ecclesial communities to study and discuss this text in an informed way.

Well now you have another chance.  You can “attend” the conference on-line.  Continue reading “Notre Dame Theology Conference now available online”

MCTC launches conversation on sacramentality. Papers invited.

We are pleased to announce that the Mennonite Catholic Theological Colloquium has opened a new round of conversation on the topic of Sacramentality, appearing at http://www.bridgefolk.net/theology/colloquia.

Since Bridgefolk assumed responsibility for the colloquium our intention has been not only to begin holding face-to-face meetings, as we did last July, but to continue inviting responses to selected papers.  We have modified the format of our earlier colloquia in a couple of important ways, however:

  • While previous exchanges occurred quietly behind the scenes, we will now be using an “open source” approach.  Papers and will appear on our website even as the conversation enfolds.
  • While Mennonite and Catholic scholars are especially invited to participate, others are welcome to contribute as well — including interested scholars from other traditions and all participants in the Bridgefolk movement.

Our new colloquium opens with a paper by Mennonite theologian Thomas Finger on “Sacramentality.”  Certainly there is an anti-sacramental tendency in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition, Finger acknowledges.. Yet if sacramentality names the promise that God’s grace can permeate and transform all of creation, he argues, then “historic Anabaptists were extremely sacramental,” for “they insisted, at least as strongly as any current religious movement, that grace inform all their concrete, material activities and relationships.” Finger identifies Anabaptist strands and thinkers who offer theological insights that could lead towards a fuller Mennonite affirmation of sacramentality. He also discusses recent proposals by Roman Catholic theologians attempting to explain sacramental theology in the modern world that might resonate with Mennonite theology. He points out similarities between some of these proposals and key Mennonite convictions about the presence of Christ in the church community and the need for liturgical practices to be ethically and socially transformative.

Initial responses come from two Roman Catholics.  In a paper by Dennis Martin of Loyola University in Chicago entitled  “Two Trains Passing in the Night,” the author insists that for Mennonite theologians such as Finger to engage in serious ecumenical dialogue with Roman Catholicism, they must engage settled  magisterial teaching, not just “cherry-pick” the Catholic theologians that attract them.  To do otherwise is to “converse with one’s Mennonite self, disguised superficially in ‘Catholic’ garb.”

Margaret R. Pfeil of the University of Notre Dame takes a different tack in “Liturgical Asceticism: Where Grace and Discipleship Meet.”  Pfeil especially calls fellow Catholics to practice “liturgical asceticism.” Rooted in the liturgical life of the worshipping community, liturgical asceticism connotes contemplative awareness of the mystery by which God transforms a “frail human community of believers into the Body of Christ,” so that individually and communally believers become icons of Christ in service to the world.

Here is where we invite others to continue the conversation, by responding either to Finger or to others or to both. Specific guidelines appear along with papers at http://www.bridgefolk.net/theology/colloquia.php. Responses should be sent to mctc@bridgefolk.net

Gerald Schlabach
Bridgefolk Executive Director
info@bridgefolk.net
www.bridgefolk.net

 

Presentations to Mennonite Catholic Theological Colloquium now available

All of the presenters at the July meeting of the Mennonite Catholic Theological Colloquium have now provided text versions of their presentations.  You can find them by going to the newly re-designed section of our website for Theological Dialogue and Reflection:  http://www.bridgefolk.net/theology/colloquia/2005theology.

The topic of the colloquium was “How Are We ‘Called Together?'”  A Mennonite and a Catholic panel was asked to comment on the final report of the international dialogue between Mennonite World Conference and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity by answering the question, “What have we learned and what’s next?”  Mennonite panelists were Nancy Heisey and Earl Zimmerman; Catholic panelists were Margaret Pfeil and Drew Christiansen SJ.

The event began with a keynote address by John A. Lapp, church historian and former Executive Secretary of Mennonite Central Committee on “Ecumenical Dialogue as a Ministry of Reconciliation.”

Mennonite, Catholic theologians discuss
“How we are called together”

Press Release:
How Are We “Called Together?”
A Mennonite/Catholic Theological Colloquium
Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA
July 20-21, 2005

By Marilyn Stahl

Harrisonburg VA, August 4, 2005 (BRIDGEFOLK) — Roman Catholics and Mennonites gathered at Eastern Mennonite University on July 20-21 to reflect on “Called Together to Be Peacemakers,” the report of the first international dialogue between the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Mennonite World Conference.  Approximately 30 theologians, historians and ecumenists attended.

Released in 2004, the report includes a common narrative of significant events in church history, focusing on the 4th and 16th centuries.  It explores areas of theological convergence and divergence between the two traditions on topics such as the nature of the church, sacraments and peacemaking.  It closes with mutual confessions of repentance for past violence and recrimination, as a path to the healing of memories.

The gathering was the first in-person program of the Mennonite/Catholic Theological Colloquium (MCTC) and was held immediately before the annual Bridgefolk conference.  Bridgefolk is a movement for grassroots dialogue and unity between Mennonites and Roman Catholics.  The MCTC convened to respond to the international dialogue’s report, with the theme “How Are We ‘Called Together’?”

The colloquium opened on Wednesday evening with an address by John A. Lapp, Executive Secretary Emeritus of Mennonite Central Committee, entitled, “Ecumenical Dialogue as a Ministry of Reconciliation.”   He noted many signposts of reconciliation between Mennonites and Catholics around the world and stressed that reconciliation is integral to the ministry of the church.

In response, Abbot John Klassen of St. John’s Benedictine Abbey in Collegeville, Minn., reiterated that ecumenism is never an “add-on,” but is at the very heart of the gospel.   As expressed by Jesus in the Johannine tradition:  “I have come so that you might be one.”  Abbot John also addressed the relationship between forgiveness and reconciliation and the importance of hospitality.

The next day, a Mennonite panel and a Catholic panel responded to the report.  The Mennonite respondents were Earl Zimmerman and Nancy Heisey, both of Eastern Mennonite University’s Bible and Religion Department.  Heisey is president of Mennonite World Conference.  The Catholic respondents were Margaret R. Pfeil of the University of Notre Dame and co-founder of a Catholic Worker House in South Bend, and Drew Christensen, S.J., editor in chief of America.  Christensen was a participant in the five-year dialogue and contributed to drafting the report.

In his remarks, Zimmerman contended that re-reading history together is one of the really significant developments in the report.  He expressed a desire for a study from a Catholic perspective on the life of the 16th century martyr Michael Sattler, a former Benedictine monk who wrote the Schleitheim Confession, a foundational Anabaptist text.

Zimmerman also noted that, in America, both Mennonites and Roman Catholics have been shaped by our experiences as immigrant churches and religious minorities in a predominately Protestant society, and noted the differing acculturation responses of the two traditions.  He encouraged participants to continue the on-going dialogue between our traditions, noting that there is “no great disappointment where there is no great love.”

The second Mennonite respondent, Nancy Heisey, noted that more than half of the world’s Mennonites live in the global South and framed her remarks on the basis of what she hears from Mennonites in that region.  While acknowledging the enthusiasm for dialogue with Catholics among Mennonites in North America and parts of Europe, Heisey noted a more hesitant response among Mennonite communities in Latin America and parts of Africa and Asia, due in part to different historical situations.       She affirmed the importance of communicating the significance of the international dialogue to Mennonite communities in the global South.  She juxtaposed the Mennonite concept of a global koinonia among congregations in the Mennonite World Conference with the term “catholicity.”  She also noted that her predecessor as president of MWC, Mesach Krisetya, participated without reservation in the pope’s Day of Prayer for Peace at Assisi because, Heisey said, he understood that we need each other.

The Catholic respondents brought additional perspectives.  As a Catholic, Margaret Pfeil asserted that the report didn’t go far enough in calling Catholics to deep mourning and real repentance for the persecution of Anabaptists in the 16th century.  Remembering the martyrs, and recognizing that Christianity is an incarnational, flesh-and-blood religion, she posed the question of what might be worthy of our blood as a sign of our baptismal commitment today.  She suggested that local churches need to cultivate the spiritual weapons for discipleship, and introduced the concept of “liturgical asceticism.”  She stated that, springing from the waters of baptism and the eucharist, liturgical asceticism is “the discipline required to become an icon of Christ and make his image visible in our faces.”  She asked how our worshipping practices shape our Christian response to the social dimension of sin, challenging both communities to act in greater solidarity with the poor and to name and dismantle unjust structures of power.

Drew Christiansen, a participant in the international dialogue, noted that Mennonites and Catholics share a commitment to live out the call to holiness of life in the postmodern world.  Both traditions must discern good and evil in secular developments, or, in the language of Vatican II, “read the signs of the times by light of the gospel.”  This call is not limited to nonviolence, but includes love of the poor,  and requires personal and communal discernment.  Secondly, in a challenge to Mennonites, he posed a question about church and culture.  Does God speak to the Church through the world? This question was framed by Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, which “expressed gratitude for what the Church had been taught even by those who had persecuted her.”

Following the presentations, the participants meet in affinity groups around the themes of history, ecclesiology, sacraments and theology, peacemaking, and healing of memories to consider next steps in the dialogue.   Among the many suggestions for additional study were (1) exploring connections between spirituality, peace and asceticism; (2) exploring together what prevents Roman Catholics and Mennonites from sharing the bread and wine; (3) exploring the question of how institutions repent; and (4) promoting and developing ways of both deeply understanding of others’ perspectives and respectfully challenging the unstated assumptions or prejudices in the others’ perspectives.

Pandora Press recently published a condensed version of Called Together to Be Peacemakers, with study questions, to help make the scholarly study more accessible to local parishes and congregations.  The Bridgefolk Series, published by Pandora Press, was established to share resources, papers, conference talks and other conversations that are contributing to the exchange of gifts between Mennonites and Roman Catholics.  Other topics in this series include On Baptism, ed. Gerald W. Schlabach, 2004; and Just Policing, ed. Ivan J. Kauffman, 2004. Books may be ordered from www.pandorapress.com or on the Bridgefolk website at www.bridgefolk.net.