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

Saint John’s awards Mennonite peacebuilder John Paul Lederach its highest honor

As part of its commencement ceremony May 9, Saint John’s University and Abbey in Minnesota awarded Mennonite peacebuilder John Paul Lederach its Pax Christi award.  The university’s highest honor, the Pax Christi award ” recognizes those who have devoted themselves to God by working in the tradition of Benedictine monasticism to serve others and to build a heritage of faith in the world.”  Saint John’s Abbey has hosted Bridgefolk conferences and Abbot John Klassen is the Catholic co-chair of Bridgefolk.  The text of the award appears below.

The public radio program Speaking of Faith, recently featured Lederach and his work. The program is at http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2010/art-of-peace.  Gerald Schlabach, executive director of Bridgefolk and a colleague of Lederach’s in the 1980s, recommends this extensive interview as an introduction to the style of grassroots relationship-building that has influenced Bridgefolk’s approach to ecumenical dialogue.

Saint John’s Abbey and University
Collegeville, Minnesota

John Paul Lederach, coming from a Mennonite Christian tradition of peacemaking, you have had a life-long commitment to working toward the non-violent resolution of conflict.  Continue reading “Saint John’s awards Mennonite peacebuilder John Paul Lederach its highest honor” →

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 Continue reading “Footwashing: one congregation’s story” →

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.” Continue reading “Bridgefolk director calls new book the fruit of much interchurch dialogue” →

Summer conference travel information

Those traveling to Minnesota for this summer’s conference may be interested in extended their trip to include a visit to the Twin Cities area.  The Dead Sea Scrolls will be on display in the Science Museum of Minnesota.  See this link for additional information.  Visitors to the museum can also view a display of the St. John’s Bible, a hand-written, hand-illuminated Bible commissioned by St. John’s University.

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.

Resource for interchurch families

Follow this link to the website for the Association of Interchurch Families.  The organization “seeks to link all those families, groups, and Associations so that together we may grow in Christian unity, and become for our churches an ever-greater gift of healing of the scandal of disunity.

It takes seriously both our marriage commitment to one another and the fact that two churches are represented in our family; by affirming at local, national and global levels the gifts of interchurch families and their potential as a catalyst for wider church unity.”

The most recent newsletter can be found here.  Topics in this newsletter include “Spiritual Ecumenism in Interchurch Marital Spirituality” and “Interchurch Families: Domestic Churches.”