Collegeville – The annual Bridgefolk conference, which each summer brings together Mennonites and Catholics for four days of discussion and fellowship, met this year at Saint John’s Abbey at Collegeville, MN. This year topic was footwashing, which has emerged as a central practice of the conferences.
The program began with addresses by Mary Schertz, professor of New Testament at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, and Abbot John Klassen of Saint John’s Abbey. Schertz emphasized the Biblical foundations of footwashing in the Gospel of John. Abbot Klassen explored the status of footwashing in the Catholic tradition.
Other speakers discussed footwashing as prayer, as simplicity, and as nonviolence. Twice during the conference participants washed each other’s feet. This first service included an Agape meal, the second was a Sunday morning worship service.
Ken Nafziger of Eastern Mennonite University led singing and worship services throughout the conference. In a final open session participants shared stories of their experiences with footwashing.
One Mennonite worship leader said she was returning committed to reviving the practice in her churches. Several Catholic participants voiced strong appreciation for the Mennonite tradition of mutual footwashing. In the Catholic tradition footwashing takes place on the Thursday before Easter, and usually involves the pastor washing the feet of twelve lay members.
About 60 persons from across the U.S. and Canada attended, roughly half Mennonite and half Catholic.
This was the tenth in a series of conferences which began in 1999 at Laurelville Mennonite Church Center. Annual conferences have been held since 2002. Since 2005, when the conference was held at Eastern Mennonite University, they have alternated between Mennonite locations and Saint John’s Abbey.
Next year’s conference will be held at Mennonite Central Committee’s Welcoming Center in Akron, PA.