Category: News

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!)” →

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” →

Cardinal Kasper addresses WCC assembly

Addressing the World Council of Churches assembly currently meeting in Brazil, Cardinal Walter Kasper reiterated the Catholic Church’s commitment to ecumenism.  Here is the WCC’s news release.

World Council of Churches – News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org

For immediate release – 16/02/2006

CARDINAL KASPER: ROMAN CATHOLICS COMMITTED TO ECUMENISM

More articles and free photos at
www.wcc-assembly.info
The president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity has stressed the “irreversible” commitment of the Roman Catholic Church to ecumenism.
Continue reading “Cardinal Kasper addresses WCC assembly” →

Anabaptist Prayer Book revised

Our Moments and Our Days
An Anabaptist prayer book
Arthur Paul Boers, Eleanor Kreider, John Rempel, Mary H. Schertz, Barbara Nelson Gingerich, editors
Co-published by Institute of Mennonite Studies and Herald Press

The new version of Take our moments and our days is a four-week cycle of prayers for ordinary time. Lying behind the prayers is a pattern of themes that are especially important in the Anabaptist tradition. Continue reading “Anabaptist Prayer Book revised” →