Author: admin

Benedictine monk of Saint John's Abbey, Minnesota, since 1969.

Signs of that peace: peacemaking is everybody’s business

by Gerald W. Schlabach
America magazine, 22-29 December 2014

 

ROOTED IN FAITH. Israel’s President Shimon Peres, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (partially hidden), Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in the Vatican gardens on June 8.
ROOTED IN FAITH. Israel’s President Shimon Peres, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (partially hidden), Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in the Vatican gardens on June 8.

For decades now, popes and episcopal conferences have been insisting that to work for peace is the vocation of all Christians. Too often, however, peacemaking seems the domain of special vocations or technical specialists. This is certainly not the church’s hope. As Pope John Paul II proclaimed in his World Day of Peace message at the opening of Jubilee Year 2000: “The church vividly remembers her Lord and intends to confirm her vocation and mission to be in Christ a ‘sacrament’ or sign and instrument of peace in the world and for the world. For the church, to carry out her evangelizing mission means to work for peace…. For the Catholic faithful, the commitment to build peace and justice is not secondary but essential” (No. 20).

Yet peace often seems an activity only for those who are “into that sort of thing.” Many associate peacemaking mainly with protesting war and injustice. If they know a little more, they may think policymaking. If they know even more, they may think of on-the-ground practitioners in the developing field of peace-building. But even if all these associations are positive, peacemaking can still seem like other people’s business. Protest requires a certain disposition. Policymaking requires expertise. Peace-building practitioners need training in techniques like conflict resolution.

Pope Francis would change this by widening our focus in a way that places every vocation, technique or tactic in the wider context of God’s overarching strategy in history.  Continue reading “Signs of that peace: peacemaking is everybody’s business” →

Washing feet, getting real

Gerald W. Schlabach
Homily for liturgy of footwashing
Bridgefolk 2014
Texts: Psalm 33, Philippians 2:1-11, John 1:1-27

Perhaps you have read the novels of the Southern writer Walker Percy. Percy had barely begun a medical career in the early 1940s when he contracted tuberculosis. During his long recuperation he began reading the Russian novelist Dostoevsky, the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, as well as other existentialists. He never practiced medicine again, but instead became a writer. And in 1947 he became a Catholic. Together with Flannery O’Connor and Graham Greene, his work has played some elusive role in weaving a Catholic worldview for me and perhaps others here. (In checking his bio I even learned this new factoid: Three months before his death in 1990 he became a Benedictine oblate and is buried in a monastic cemetery.)

Especially in his first two novels, The Moviegoer and The Last Gentleman, Percy’s lead characters are all uneasy. 1950s America has told them how to prosper, succeed, make their ways through the world, and engage in its obligatory pursuit of happiness. Yet the pretense and unreality of it all nags at them. Binx the “moviegoer,” for example, sees himself on a secret search, for what he is not sure. His step-cousin and possible love interest Kate is intermittently depressed in a slightly manic way. But is her condition simply depression? Continue reading “Washing feet, getting real” →

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” →

Gerald Schlabach reflects on religious freedom in Commonweal magazine

An article by former Bridgefolk director Gerald Schlabach on religious freedom appears in the current issue of Commonweal magazine.  The article, “Outvoted, Not Persecuted: Four Lessons about Religious Freedom” takes the experience of Mennonites, historic peace churches, and other minority churches into debates among American Catholics about whether their religious liberties are being threatened.

The full article is available for Commonweal subscribers at http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/outvoted-not-persecuted, but the following excerpts convey the arc of Schlabach’s argument:   Continue reading “Gerald Schlabach reflects on religious freedom in Commonweal magazine” →

Darrin Snyder Belousek to become next Bridgefolk director

News Release
June 11, 2012

Collegeville, MN (BRIDGEFOLK) – As Bridgefolk meets for its 11th annual conference in July, the grassroots movement for dialogue and sharing between Mennonites and Roman Catholics will mark its hopes for a second decade by welcoming Darrin Snyder Belousek of Lima, Ohio, as its new executive director.

Snyder Belousek will replace long-time director and Bridgefolk co-founder Gerald Schlabach of St. Paul, Minnesota. Schlabach has been encouraging fellow Bridgefolk leaders to begin nurturing a new generation of leaders that brings fresh insights into the difficult and changing church scene that is challenging all Christian traditions.

A member of the Bridgefolk Board for six years, Snyder Belousek agrees.  One of his hopes for a second decade of Bridgefolk, he says, is to “solidify what’s been accomplished in the first decade and put in place ways of handing that work over into the stewardship of a ‘next generation’ of leaders.”

Snyder Belousek has been actively engaged in Bridgefolk since its first summer conference in 2002.  He has made significant contributions to the movement as a board member, as a presenter at summer conferences, and as writer.  At the local level, he served as coordinator of the Michiana Bridgefolk group from 2005-2008 and also as one of the planners of the Mennonite Catholic Theological Colloquium, which met at Notre Dame in 2007. Continue reading “Darrin Snyder Belousek to become next Bridgefolk director” →

Bridgefolk invites applicants for part-time Coordinator position

 

Bridgefolk, an organization committed to ecumenical dialogue and sharing between Mennonites and Roman Catholics, seeks a part-time Coordinator to work eight hours per week assisting the Executive Director with administrative tasks, including financial bookkeeping, grant writing, fundraising appeals, and database management.  The Coordinator will also assist with communication needs, including correspondence, website postings, and editing work, as well as event planning.

The ideal candidate would bring a collaborative spirit, an ability to work independently, enthusiasm about ecumenical relations, and good communication and logistical skills. The Bridgefolk Board welcomes applicants who can volunteer their time; as funding is available, the Board aims to provide an honorarium for this role.

To apply for this position, or request more information, write to search[at]bridgefolk.net.

Margaret Pfeil and Gerald Schlabach suggest fresh Lenten practices in America magazine

Two Bridgefolk board members, Margaret Pfeil and Gerald Schlabach, are among four writers who suggest positive practices to “take up” for Lent in order to move beyond typical practices of “giving up.”   Schlabach suggests ways to “Love the Enemy in Your Pew” by inviting fellow Catholics with whom one most disagrees to share their back story face to face.  Pfeil invites readers to “Feed the Hungry with Local Food.”  In her article she recounts how the Catholic Worker community in South Bend, Indiana, has created a grocery co-op in  its mostly African-American community and made baked goods from nearby Amish communities a popular item.

The article is in the February 20 issue of the Jesuit magazine America and is available online to subscribers at http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=13259.

Advent greetings from Bridgefolk

 

Dear friends,

The season of Advent is a time of hopeful expectation and prayerful reflection.  At Bridgefolk, we share in this spirit of hope for what is to come, as well as gratitude for what has been.  The past year has brought many blessings to the Bridgefolk movement:  A successful conference at MCC Welcoming Place challenged and enriched us.  New friends have broadened our circle.  Developments in ecumenical dialogue have given us cause for hope and renewed opportunities for progress.  We have much cause for praise and celebration.

At the same time, we are aware that we rely on the support of committed friends of Bridgefolk to continue to pursue the vision set before us.  In the coming year, we hope to devote resources to adjusting our administrative structure, developing our annual conference and encouraging participation in local and broader Bridgefolk activities.  To meet our aspirations, we will rely on your support.

We invite you to take a moment during this busy time to consider making a financial contribution to the ongoing work of Bridgefolk.  Your contribution will help ensure that the work of Bridgefolk moves forward in the coming year.

Bridgefolk is a tax-exempt nonprofit organization.  Your contributions will be tax deductible. Please consider sending a check of $50, $100, $250 or more to Bridgefolk, Saint John’s Abbey, Collegeville MN 56321.  You can also donate online by going to http://bridgefolk.net/howtohelp.  Thank you in advance for your generosity.

In deep gratitude,

 

Marlene Kropf and Abbot John Klassen,
Bridgefolk Co-Chairs