MWC offers condolences upon the death of Pope John Paul II

NEWS RELEASE: Mennonite World Conference, April 13, 2005

MWC officials offer condolences to Catholic colleagues

Strasbourg, France — Mennonite World Conference officials, President Nancy R. Heisey and Executive Secretary Larry Miller, have sent a letter of condolence on the death of Pope John Paul II to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Over more than five years, Mennonite World Conference and the Pontifical Council have joined in an International Dialogue. The letter was addressed specifically to the leaders of the Council: Cardinal Walter Kasper, President; Bishop Brian Farrell, Secretary; and Monsignor John Radano, Head of the Western Section. Continue reading “MWC offers condolences upon the death of Pope John Paul II” →

Eucharist Is “God’s Absolute ‘No’ to Violence”

3rd Lenten Sermon by Father Cantalamessa

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 11, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Thanks to the Eucharist, “God’s absolute ‘no’ to violence, pronounced on the cross, is kept alive through the centuries,” said the Pontifical Household preacher in a Lenten meditation.

With his sacrifice, “Christ defeated violence, not opposing it with greater violence, but suffering it and laying bare all its injustice and uselessness,” said Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa today as he led the third in a series of weekly meditations during Lent.

The meditations, held in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel in the Apostolic Palace, are attended by members of the Roman Curia and other cardinals, bishops and religious close to the Vatican.

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Mennonites receive award from Catholic voluntary service organization

Network accepts on behalf of Mennonites in world service

(Editor’s note: This a joint release by Mennonite Mission Network and Mennonite Central Committee.)

TAKOMA PARK, Md. — On Nov. 13, Catholic Network of Volunteer Service

(CNVS) presented its Father George Mader Award to a group outside of the Catholic tradition for the first time in its 15-year history. Mennonite Mission Network accepted the award at the CNVS National Conference on behalf of Mennonites in mission across the world, including Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).

The Mission Network and MCC serve the church in more than 60 countries through direct relief, peacemaking and community development with resources of around $73 million U.S., engaging close to 2,000 personnel committed to terms of one year or more.

Del Hershberger, Mission Network director of Christian Service, accepted the award, which honors organizations and individuals that encourage Christian men and women to serve others in the U.S. and abroad. CNVS representatives singled out Mennonite Voluntary Service, a Mission Network program, for special acclaim.

“For six decades, Mennonite Voluntary Service of the Mennonite Mission Network has been a powerful influence serving the poor and marginalized in hundreds of communities throughout North America,” said Jim Lindsay, CNVS executive director. “MVS has been a powerful influence on the church.

Thousands of Mennonites (and increasingly people from other denominations) have served the marginalized people of North America in the past six decades. In the process, they themselves were served and transformed by the oppressed and hurting people among whom they lived and worked.”

Hershberger agreed that MVS, and service in general, has transformed the church over the last century. “We have become engaged with the needs and brokenness of the world. We have gone from being a rural people in close-knit communities, to being more urban and integrated into mainstream society. We have also become engaged in more ecumenical conversations and have built bridges to other Christian groups who are seeking to follow Jesus daily in life, and to be vessels of healing and hope in this broken world,” Hershberger said.

CNVS created the Father George Mader Award in 1989 to honor organizations and individuals that encourage lay men and women to serve others in the United States and abroad. The award is named after Father George Mader, of the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., who, together with his sister, Patricia Mader Stalker, in 1963 founded the Catholic Network of Volunteer Service, a non-profit association of more than 200 domestic and international volunteer and lay mission programs which currently has more than 12,000 volunteers and lay missioners serving in its member programs throughout the U.S. and in 115 countries worldwide.

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Mennonite Mission Network receives prestigious Mader Award on behalf of all Mennonites in service

TAKOMA PARK, Md. (Mennonite Mission Network/Mennonite Central Committee/CNVS) — On Nov. 13, Catholic Network of Volunteer Service (CNVS) presented its Father George Mader Award to a group outside of the Catholic tradition for the first time in its 15-year history. Mennonite Mission Network accepted the award at the CNVS National Conference on behalf of Mennonites in mission across the world, including Mennonite Central Committee.

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Remembering the Cloud of Witnesses: 2nd Ecumenical Conference on 16th-century Martyrdom

PRESS RELEASE
Mennonite World Conference
August 12, 2004

COLLEGEVILLE, Minnesota — Mennonite and Catholic historians and theologians continued the study of 16th-century religious martyrdom that began last year. Discussions at Saint John’s Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Minnesota, July 26-28, included plans to form an ecumenical institute for on-going scholarly research on this topic.

The conference was entitled, “Sixteenth century martyrdom in ecumenical perspective.” Ivan Kauffman, a Washington, D.C.-based writer and one of the conference organizers, provided this framework: “The church today stands between a past marred by extensive violence and a future committed to peacemaking. We must somehow connect our historical past to our very different future.”

Sixteenth-century martyrdom became a topic of ecumenical discussion when, in 1998, the Mennonite World Conference entered into a five-year dialogue with the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. Two major contributors to the international dialogue, Drew Christiansen, S.J., and Helmut Harder, spoke at this year’s martyrs conference.

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World Needs “The Spirit of Assisi,” Peace, Not Violence

VATICAN CITY, SEP 8, 2004 (VIS) – Made public today was a Message from Pope John Paul to Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, asking him to greet the representatives of Churches, ecclesial communities and the great religions of the world who met in Milan from September 5 to 7 on the theme “Religions and Cultures: The Courage of a New Humanism.” The Pope also saluted the organizers of this meeting, including Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, archbishop of Milan and the community of Sant’Egidio. Continue reading “World Needs “The Spirit of Assisi,” Peace, Not Violence” →

More coverage of Bridgefolk

In the last “Bridgefolk Brief” we promised to share a link to a article in the Mennonite Weekly Review on our recent gathering at Saint John’s Abbey, once it became available. In fact, MWR editor Robert Rhodes has three articles in the new issue (or at least the on-line edition) plus a collection of photographs on the abbey. Here are the links:

“Dialogue mirrors desire to seek more liturgical forms”
http://www.mennoweekly.org/AUGUST/08-23-04/LITURGY08-23.html

“Encounter with Mennonites changed abbot’s outlook on peace”
http://www.mennoweekly.org/AUGUST/08-23-04/TRAPPIST08-23.html

“Mennonites answer the call to become Benedictine oblates”
http://www.mennoweekly.org/AUGUST/08-23-04/OBLATES08-23.html

Photo gallery:”
A place apart: St. John’s Abbey offers help in building a bridge between traditions”
http://www.mennoweekly.org/AUGUST/08-23-04/SJUphotosA08-23.html

News reports on recent Mennonite-Catholic gatherings

Whether or not you were able to participate in the gatherings of Mennonites and Catholics in late July at Saint John’s Abbey, you may be interested in reading accounts of those events as they appear. A news story on the Bridgefolk gathering is to appear next week in The Mennonite Weekly Review; I will send out a link to the story when it becomes available. In the meantime here are two articles on the Martyrs Conference that took place in the days before, along with an editorial in the Mennonite Weekly Review that comments favorably on the state of Mennonite-Catholic dialogue.

“Mennonite, Catholic Scholars Consider Anabaptist Martyr Legacy,” by Robert Rhodes Mennonite Weekly Review, 16 August 2004
http://www.mennoweekly.org/AUGUST/08-16-04/MARTYRS08-16.html

“Remembering the Cloud of Witnesses: Second Ecumenical Conference on 16th-century Martyrdom” — Mennonite World Conference release from a report by Marilyn Stahl and Dirk Giseburt
http://www.mwc-cmm.org/News/MWC/040812rls3.html

“Faith’s Common Ground,” editorial by Robert Rhodes Mennonite Weekly Review, 16 August 2004
http://www.mennoweekly.org/AUGUST/08-16-04/EDIT08-16.html

Confession and Forgiveness Mark Anabaptist-Reformed Conference

NEWS RELEASE
Mennonite World Conference

For Immediate Release
July 9, 2004

Zurich, Switzerland – Christians from the Zwinglian Reform tradition and the Anabaptist global church confessed sins that separated them 500 years ago and extended forgiveness to each other at an event called “remarkable and memorable.” Settings for the Reformed-Anabaptist Reconciliation Conference were the Grossmunster and nearby Limmat River in the city of Zurich on June 26.

Throughout the day, some 400 people, representing four continents and the two traditions, took steps toward new understanding of what drove them apart and new relationships as brothers and sisters with a common vision.

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