Bridgefolk Briefs took a break last fall, but Mennonite / Catholic dialogue did not! Continue reading “Local dialogues continue to emerge”
Author: gws
New energy and initiatives emerge from Bridgefolk Board meeting
Bridgefolk leaders found renewed energy as they met December 15-17 at Saint John’s Abbey in Minnesota. The Bridgefolk board of directors chose a theme for next summer’s conference, initiated a process for revamping communication efforts, and took decisive first steps toward putting the ongoing work of Bridgefolk on a sustainable footing. Adding to the meeting’s energy are three new members, Mary Schertz and Darrin Snyder Belousek of Indiana, and Ron Pagnucco of Minnesota. Continue reading “New energy and initiatives emerge from Bridgefolk Board meeting”
Articles on 2006 Bridgefolk conference
Recent articles on the July gathering of Bridgefolk may be found in two Mennonite publications. In The Mennonite Weekly Review Robert Rhodes offers a summary of the annual gathering, which focused this year on peacemaking and on Mennonite and Roman Catholic communion traditions. [Article no longer available online.]
In The Mennonite, Gordon Houser also reports on the way the gathering focused around understanding the table fellowship of each denomination and on ways that members of Bridgefolk might continue to move together making peace around the table. Click here to read.
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. Continue reading “Two new books by Bridgefolk (good conference prep!)”
An Anabaptist liturgy of hours
book review by Doris Murphy
St. Bridget’s Parish, River Falls, Wisconsin
Boers, Arthur Paul, Barb Nelson Gingerich, Eleanor Kreider, and Mary H. Schertz, eds. Take Our Moments and Our Days: An Anabaptist Prayer Book. Co-published with the Institute of Mennonite Studies. Scottdale, Pa.; Waterloo, Ont.: Herald Press, 2005. 226 pp. ISBN: 0-8361-9334-2. Price: $10.00; in Canada $12.00.
for more information and to order go to
http://www.ambs.edu/prayerbook or
http://www.mph.org/hp/books/takeourmoments.htm
Lionel Blue wrote: “To know another religion you have to experience it, taste it, join in its prayers.” Take Our Moments and Our Days: An Anabaptist Prayer Book gave me an opportunity during Lent to experience, taste, and join in the prayer of the Anabaptist communities. This prayer book is guided by the peace, goodness, truth, and beauty reflected by that community and by the Spirit that is God. No matter one’s denominational affiliation, it is a call to prayer that can truly make anyone feel at home. Continue reading “An Anabaptist liturgy of hours”
Invitation to attend Bridgefolk conference
Dear friends,
Please join us for our fifth annual Bridgefolk conference. This year we will again gather at Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. Meeting from Thursday evening June 29 through Sunday noon July 2, our theme will be “Making Peace: At Table, in the World.” This year we are able to offer online registration as well as mail-in registration. You will find a tentative schedule, as well as registration materials at http://www.bridgefolk.net/conferences/.
Calling ourselves a “movement of sacramentally-minded Mennonites and peace-minded Roman Catholics,” Bridgefolk has often examined the challenge of peacemaking. We have also encountered the pain of brokenness that prevents us from fully sharing at the table of the Lord. At the 2006 Bridgefolk gathering, therefore, we will continue to keep peacemaking in focus while frankly and lovingly facing the challenge of Eucharistic communion.
Nowhere is the scandal of Christian disunity greater than when Christians depart from the Lord’s Table to kill or exploit one another. Nowhere is the promise of God’s kingdom more tangible than when people from estranged nations and communities share a meal together. Through formal presentations, storytelling and discussions, we will explore peacemaking at tables set in various places — from the Eucharist, to the family, to communal and global settings.
The 2006 Bridgefolk conference is being held just prior to the summer Monastic Institute at Saint John’s Abbey. Entitled “One Heart, One Soul: Many Communities,” this week-long institute will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Benedictines in Minnesota by discussing “intentional communities” and other new monastic models as they are springing up in unexpected forms, places and denominations. Bridgefolk participants are encouraged to attend some or all of this event if they are able. More information on the Monastic Institute is also available at http://www.bridgefolk.net/conferences/.
Grace and peace,
Gerald Schlabach
Bridgefolk Executive Director
info@bridgefolk.net
www.bridgefolk.net
WCC panel on the challenges of dialogue
The following article provides a helpful survey of approaches and issues in interreligious or interfaith dialogue. While the issues involved in ecumenical dialogue among Christians may be somewhat different, there are many parallels.
Gerald Schlabach
Bridgefolk Executive Director
info@bridgefolk.net
www.bridgefolk.net Continue reading “WCC panel on the challenges of dialogue”
Pentecostal leader at WCC welcomes closer ties with other Christian traditions
When I sent out a Brief earlier this week on Cardinal Kasper’s address to the WCC Assembly, what had caught my eye was his identification of Pentecostalism as a new challenge to ecumenical dialogue, given the vast complexity of the movement and the difficulty knowing with whom to talk. The relevance of that to Bridgefolk may not be obvious, but some scholars consider the 16th century Anabaptist movement to be the forerunner not only of groups like the Mennonites, but also to the 20th century Pentecostal movement.* One of our hopes for Bridgefolk is that it might contribute in some way to the wider ecumenical movement by developing a model of grassroots dialogue appropriate to churches like these in the so-called Free Church tradition.
Now comes a news release reporting on a speech by Ghanaian Pentecostal leader Dr. Michael Ntumy, welcoming closer ties not only between Pentecostals and WCC churches, but also with the Roman Catholic Church. Also reported is an analysis of developments in Latin America.
Gerald Schlabach
Bridgefolk Executive Director
info@bridgefolk.net
www.bridgefolk.net
*For more on these connections see the presentation I made at our first Bridgefolk conference in 2002, on “Globalization and ‘Catholicity-from-Below'” at http://www.bridgefolk.net/conferences/past/2002bridgefolk/schlabach/
World Council of Churches – News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release – 20/02/2006
EVANGELICAL AND PENTECOSTAL VOICES HEARD AT ASSEMBLY
More articles and free photos at
www.wcc-assembly.info
Evangelical and Pentecostal participants in the World Council of Churches 9th Assembly have welcomed better relationships with WCC churches and called for greater co-operation in the future.
Speaking to journalists on Monday February 20 were three leading evangelical figures. Rev. Geoff Tunnicliffe, international director and CEO of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), said that the WEA “parallel network” of 400m Christians identified with many of the WCC’s themes, such as work on HIV/AIDS, violence and poverty. Continue reading “Pentecostal leader at WCC welcomes closer ties with other Christian traditions”
Bridgefolk participant Marilyn Stahl, peace church representative at WCC
Expect a few more Bridgefolk “Briefs” this week, as we continue noting of news of interest coming out of the WCC Assembly in Brazil. This article features Bridgefolk participant Marilyn Stahl of Seattle Mennonite Church, as well as German Mennonite ecumenist Fernando Enns, a friend of Bridgefolk.
Historic Peace Churches offer a unique voice for nonviolence
by Walt Wiltschek (*)
Marilyn Stahl has noticed recently that people have a growing interest in her church. “People hear I’m Mennonite, and they say, ‘I wish our church was a peace church’,” said Stahl, who has come to the 9th Assembly of the WCC from the School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University in the United States. Continue reading “Bridgefolk participant Marilyn Stahl, peace church representative at WCC”