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
Why footwashing – a testimony
I read with interest your announcement of the Foot Washing Conference to be held this summer. I am a retired Mennonite Minister in Des Allemands, LA. I would love to attend your conference. But that is not possible. Instead I will share this testimony: Read more
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’s Gerald Schlabach in Commonweal magazine
Bridgefolk Executive Director Gerald Schlabach has just had an article published in Commonweal magazine, entitled “You Converted to What? One Mennonite’s Journey.” In it he offers nine “non-Roman” reasons why he became Roman Catholic, even while remaining Mennonite in many ways. Commonweal has granted Schlabach permission to post the article on his web site. You will find it at http://personal.stthomas.edu/gwschlabach/rc/.
Here are three excerpts: Read more
Two new books by Bridgefolk (good conference prep!)
Earlier this year Herald Press published two books written or edited by Bridgefolk board members Marlene Kropf and Gerald Schlabach. The themes of peacemaking and worship at God’s table coincide with the theme of our upcoming conference: Making Peace: At Table, in the World. Dip into one or both of these books as you prepare to attend the conference or join us in prayer. Read more
Eucharist Is “God’s Absolute ‘No’ to Violence”
3rd Lenten Sermon by Father Cantalamessa
VATICAN CITY, MARCH 11, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Thanks to the Eucharist, “God’s absolute ‘no’ to violence, pronounced on the cross, is kept alive through the centuries,” said the Pontifical Household preacher in a Lenten meditation.
With his sacrifice, “Christ defeated violence, not opposing it with greater violence, but suffering it and laying bare all its injustice and uselessness,” said Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa today as he led the third in a series of weekly meditations during Lent.
The meditations, held in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel in the Apostolic Palace, are attended by members of the Roman Curia and other cardinals, bishops and religious close to the Vatican.
“Handing Us Back Ourselves:”
On the Rediscovery of Mennonite Spirituality
by Mary Schertz
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary
An updated version of this article entitled
“Seeking the Taproot of Anabaptist Spirituality”
is now available at
http://www.cascadiapublishinghouse.com/dsm/autumn04/schema.htm
Have we, as Mennonite people of faith, “lost our spirituality,” or perhaps never claimed a spirituality and, consequently, do we need to look to other traditions, such as Catholic spirituality, in order to recover this vital aspect of religious commitment? These questions emerged recently in the context of the recent consultation on Mennonite-Catholic dialog held at St. John’s Abbey in the rolling hills of Steuben County, Minnesota-Lake Wobegon country. It was a wonderful weekend-replete with Benedictine hospitality, reunion with old friends and the excitement of making new ones, stimulating papers, reciting Psalms with the monks, singing hymns with the Mennonites, good food and great (relatively cool) weather. Read more
Learning the Ancient Rhythms of Prayer
Why charismatics and evangelicals, among others, are flocking to communities famous for set prayers and worshiping by the clock
by Arthur Paul Boers
Christianity Today
The place was overcrowded and noisy, and the food was unimpressive. Meals and meetings were held outside or in tents, depending on the weather. Visitors slept (and many snored loudly) in tents and overcrowded barracks. One had to stand in long lines (often up to 30 minutes) for everything, especially food. It hardly seemed like a setting for meaningful prayer, but my visit to Taizé turned out to be one of the most spiritually meaningful weeks of my life.
And not just for me. During the hot July week when I visited, Taizé welcomed more than 4,500 pilgrims, mostly young adults, from many denominations and from 60 nations (including a thousand from Eastern Europe). Summer weeks typically see between 2,500 and 6,000 visitors, with a total of 100,000 each year-although Taizé is off the beaten path (in France’s Burgundy region, midway between Lyons and Geneva).
What attracts so many to this place?
