Exploring Christian formation, post-Christendom
New book honors legacy of Alan & Eleanor Kreider
by Mary E. Klassen
News Release
Elkhart, Ind. (AMBS) – “For people who think being a Mennonite or Anabaptist is a disadvantage today, Alan and Eleanor Kreider prove it is not true,” James Krabill said at an event celebrating a new book that honors the mission-worker-and-educator team.
Krabill and Stuart Murray, a leader in the Anabaptist Network in England, hope to extend the Kreiders’ gracious and unapologetic approach to matters of faith with the book they have edited. Forming Christian Habits in Post-Christendom: The Legacy of Alan and Eleanor Kreider is a way to recognize their contributions and to expand on themes important to them, Krabill said.
Alan and Eleanor served in England with Mennonite Board of Missions for 26 years. In addition, they have traveled extensively inNorth Americaand many other countries in their ministry of teaching. More recently, Alan served on the faculty of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary from 2004 to 2009, and Eleanor was an adjunct instructor at AMBS in addition to being involved in Prairie Street Mennonite Church. They have participated regularly in Bridgefolk, often as conference speakers.
“The thing that has been most important,” Krabill emphasized, “is the balance in their approach to engaging people in conversations from a missional perspective. Alan and Eleanor have stayed in conversation with people in high-church groups, with Pentecostals, and with other believers, all with such a gracious spirit.” Read more
Herald Press devotional named “best of best”
by Steve Shenk
Mennonite Church Canada/MennoMedia joint release
WATERLOO, Ont. and HARRISONBURG, Va.—A Herald Press devotional book has been selected as Worship Leader magazine’s “best of the best” in the team devotionals category for 2011. The magazine published the winners list in its Oct. 7 issue.
The devotional is Take Our Moments and Our Days, Volume 2, published in 2010.
Worship Leader’s annual guide for the world of worship includes everything from the best music resources to the ultimate software, visual and presentation technology, worship training, musical instruments, apps, sound and recording equipment, books and devotionals to the leading products in lighting, screens, and projectors.
“The special annual issue has evolved from a general buyer’s guide and bonus issue to one of the year’s central issues for Worship Leader—and the most back-ordered,” said Daniele Kimes, vice president for sales and marketing.
Take Our Moments and Our Days, Volume 2 was compiled by Paul Boers, Barbara Nelson Gingerich, Eleanor Kreider, John Rempel, and Mary Schertz. It is subtitled An Anabaptist Prayer Book, Advent through Pentecost. The thick, hard-cover book is available for $40 in Canada and $34.99 in the U.S.
The devotional can be purchased at www.MennoMedia.org or 800-631-6535 (Canada) and 800-245-7894 (U.S).
Herald Press is the book imprint of MennoMedia, a ministry of Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA
Jesuit university partners with Mennonite congregation to aid homeless
Seattle University, a Catholic and Jesuit institution, has published an article in its quarterly journal that features an article on the partnership between its College of Nursing and Seattle Mennonite Church. The partnership contributes to the congregation’s ministry to people without homes. The article notes that ”The emphasis on social justice and community outreach among Mennonites is not unlike SU’s Jesuit Catholic character and mission…” Weldon Nisly, co-founder of Bridgefolk and long-time board member, is pastor of Seattle Mennonite Church.
Nobel Prize winner connected to peace-church tradition
Leymah Gbowee
Harrisonburg, VA (EMU) — One of the three women receiving the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, Leymah Gbowee, is closely connected with the “peace-church tradition” of the Mennonites.
Gbowee, who shares the prize with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and women’s rights activist Tawakkul Karman of Yemen, earned a master’s degree in conflict transformation from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She attended CJP’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute in 2004 and completed its Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (known as “STAR”) program in 2005.
EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) was one of the first university graduate programs in conflict and peacebuilding field. CJP’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute, the first of its kind, has become a model for other peacebuilding institutions around the world.
Gbowee led a nationwide women’s movement that was instrumental in halting Liberia’s second civil war in 2003.
“Leymah Gbowee mobilized and organized women across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and to ensure women’s participation in elections,” noted the Norwegian Nobel Committee in making the award. “She has since worked to enhance the influence of women in West Africa during and after war.” Read more
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.
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
Mennonite nuns?
This might be old news for a few Mennonites involved in Bridgefolk, but since they’ve never spoken up, it will be new news to others:
Anabaptist and Mennonite churches have long had deaconesses. But only a few years ago, well into the 20th century, the practice took a form that looks very much like a Catholic religious order, according to the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online:
By the 1950s 62 sisters had become members of the Bethel Deaconess sisterhood, 26 of whom were associated with the sisterhood in 1955. The deaconesses of this institution wore a special garb and were ordained by the church. Each sister had her place in the mother house, received full maintenance, a monthly allowance, an annual vacation, and a vacation allowance. She was expected to remain loyal and faithful to her calling but did not take an oath of celibacy. Should a deaconess change her mind, believing it to be God’s will that she serve in some other sphere apart from the sisterhood, she presented her resignation and received an honorable discharge.
We thought you’d want to know!
For source and additional information see:
Neff, Christian and Lena Mae Smith. “Deaconess.” Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/deaconess.
Mennonites begin ecumenical dialogue with Seventh-Day Adventists
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA– Representatives of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and the Mennonite World Conference held the first of several theological conversations June 28 to July 1, 2011 at the world headquarters of the 17 million-member Seventh-day Adventist Church in Silver Spring, Maryland. Read more
Introducing César García, in-coming MWC General Secretary
Mennonite World Conference
news release
By Kathy Heinrichs Wiest
As one amateur Mennonite historian likes to point out, the only real Mennonite name is Menno Simons. From there on down through history, the rest of the family names are just “add-ons.” After a series of Mennonite World Conference (MWC) secretaries named Dyck (1961-73), Kraybill (1973-90) and Miller (1990-2011) the name of García stands out as an historically recent addition to the Anabaptist family.
César García’s personal story with the Mennonite family began in Bogotá, Colombia, when his mother took him and his sister to several churches in search of a new church home. Eleven-year-old César chose the Iglesia Hermanos Menonitas Dios es Amor (God is Love Mennonite Brethren Church) as the place they would settle.
That choice was the first step on a continuing journey for García, who has come to treasure Anabaptist theology and history and has given his life to scholarship, to mission and to shaping the church from an Anabaptist perspective. Read more
