15th annual Bridgefolk conference highlights common practices of mercy

This article has also appeared in The Mennonite.

Bridgefolk annual hymn sing in Sacred Heart chapel at St Benedict's monastery. Leading music (right to left) are Samantha E. Lioi, Julia Smucker, Sally McGill and Bro. John Hanson OSB. — Bridgefolk annual hymn sing in Sacred Heart chapel at St Benedict’s monastery. Leading music (left to right) are Samantha E. Lioi, Julia Smucker, Sally McGill and Bro. John Hanson OSB.

St. Joseph, Minn. (BRIDGEFOLK) — The 15th annual Bridgefolk conference was held July 28-31 at Saint Benedict’s Monastery and the College of Saint Benedict in Saint Joseph, MN. The conference proceeded under the theme, “‘I Desire Mercy:’ Practicing the Works of Mercy.”

Bridgefolk is a grassroots movement of sacramentally-minded Mennonites and peace-minded Roman Catholics who come together to celebrate each other’s traditions, explore each other’s practices, and honor each other’s contribution to the mission of Christ’s Church.

Previous conferences have alternated between Catholic and Mennonite locations in the United States and Canada. Of the forty-five participants gathered for this year’s conference, about thirty were Mennonite and fifteen Catholic.

On the opening evening of the conference, following welcoming words from Sister Michaela Hedican, OSB (Prioress of Saint Benedict’s Monastery), this year’s conference featured Father Columba Stewart, OSB¸ a distinguished scholar of early Church history, especially the evolution of early monastic and other forms of intentional community. Continue reading “15th annual Bridgefolk conference highlights common practices of mercy” →

Bridgefolk announces 2016 conference

Dear Friends of Bridgefolk,

I am pleased to announce the upcoming Bridgefolk conference for 2016!

Theme: “‘I Desire Mercy:’ Practicing the Works of Mercy”

Speakers: Fr. Columba Stewart, OSB, and Dawn Ruth Nelson

Location: St. Benedict’s Monastery and College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, MN

Dates: July 28-31

Description: Inspired in part by Pope Francis’ Year (Jubilee) of Mercy, this conference will explore how we joyfully receive mercy from God and how we practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Stories illustrating the practice of mercy will be drawn from the third century to today.

Registration information and conference schedule will follow soon on the Bridgefolk website.

We hope to see you there!
Peace,

Darrin W. Snyder Belousek
Bridgefolk executive director

Remembering Ivan J. Kauffman, Bridgefolk co-founder

Bridgefolk co-founder Ivan J. Kauffman died on July 15 in Philadelphia, surrounded by family, after suffering a massive stroke 11 days earlier. A funeral mass for Ivan was held on Monday morning, July 27 at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, Philadelphia, PA. A memorial service was also held in Goshen, Indiana, on Sunday, August 2, at College Mennonite Church. The family requested that memorial donations be made to Catholic Relief Services (crs.org) or Mennonite Central Committee (mcc.org).

Two other Bridgefolk co-founders shared their tributes to Ivan at the recent Bridgefolk conference:

Bridgefolk 2015 explores miracle of ecumenical healing

Collegeville, MN (BRIDGEFOLK) — Meeting at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, IN, the 14^th annual Bridgefolk conference was held August 20-23 under the theme, “Ecumenical Healing and the Mystery of the Communion of Saints.”

Bridgefolk is a movement of sacramentally-minded Mennonites and peace-minded Roman Catholics who come together to celebrate each other’s traditions, explore each other’s practices, and honor each other’s contribution to the mission of Christ’s Church.

Previous conferences have alternated between Catholic and Mennonite locations in the United States and Canada. Of the ninety participants gathered for this year’s conference, about sixty were Mennonite and thirty Catholic.

This year’s conference featured an array of guests and speakers from Japan, including members of the Mennonite communities in Japan and of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) in Japan. The keynote speakers were Prof. Nozomu Yamada and Fr. Alfonso Fausone SVD, both of Nanazan (Catholic) University in Nagoya, Japan. Continue reading “Bridgefolk 2015 explores miracle of ecumenical healing” →

On the bridge between Mennonite and Catholic shores

Bridgefolk couple Laura Funk and Gilbert Detillieux share their story in the Nov. 10 issue of The Canadian Mennonite:

Even if we grow up hearing stories of the Good Samaritan and the Woman at the Well, we may be more hesitant to seek out those who are different from us in real life. And that may be true all the more if we have grown up in a community where everyone knows everyone else and they all have a lot in common. (This can be true in faith communities, too, unfortunately. Sometimes we become educated beyond our faithfulness.)

But if we are to be true to the ways of Jesus, it may be important to look across the river, and get to know our neighbour on the other side. Sometimes surprising things happen when we venture out and stretch our comfort zones. Our story is one of those examples.

The full story is available here.

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” →

How I met the Mennonites

by Beverly Schmitt, Michigan

How I met the Mennonites is a story of stories which began in the early seventies. One glorious May Wednesday, my husband and I drove from our southwest Michigan home to the rural Shipshewana, Ind., community with three hundred some residents, for the weekly flea market and auction we’d heard so much about. On Wednesdays, however, an extra twenty thousand people, from all over the Midwest and beyond, showed up for the festivities: for the fruit and vegetable market, home-baked goods, and auctions of livestock, household goods and tools; acres of wares for sale and… the local community of Amish and Mennonites.

Yes, as we shared the road with horse-drawn buggies, we’d noticed the simple, white farm houses, no power lines, cheerful gardens, colorful laundry, teams plowing the fields, children at the one room schoolhouses, and bake sales of cookies, pies, breads, egg noodles and angel food cakes, tended by gentle people whose dress and language reflected another place and time. We stopped and sampled the quiet hospitality of folks living their faith with simplicity, in harmony with the land and others, not for show, but clearly in a way that set them apart. We were smitten, and wanted our Catholic grade-school children to experience this culture and its values – a spirit caught, not taught.

Continue reading “How I met the Mennonites” →

Mennonite Catholics and Catholic Mennonites, part two: bearing pain for the good of the church

The following interview was first published on the blog of the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, “On Our Minds.” To see the original post go to http://collegevilleinstitute.org/blog/mennonite-catholics-catholic-mennonites-part-two.

By Janel Kragt Bakker, Collegeville Institute

In Part One of our interview with Gerald Schlabach, Ivan Kauffman, and Weldon Nisly, all of whom are leaders in Bridgefolk (the North American Mennonite-Catholic dialogue), we discussed the origins of contemporary Mennonite-Catholic exchange as well as the gifts the two traditions offer to each other. Though sources of attraction between the Catholic and Mennonite traditions vary, Schlabach, Kauffman, and Nisly identified Mennonite strengths in service and lay participation, and Catholic strengths in sacramental life. Participants in Mennonite-Catholic dialogue are often united by their shared commitment to peace and justice as well as their desire to build understanding and a sense of common purpose across the two traditions. In Part Two of the interview, we discuss how those involved in Mennonite-Catholic dialogue navigate painful divisions and cultural trends hostile to community and tradition.

Continue reading “Mennonite Catholics and Catholic Mennonites, part two: bearing pain for the good of the church” →

Mennonite Catholics and Catholic Mennonites: bridging, not splitting, the difference

By Janel Kragt Bakker, Collegeville Institute

Mennonite Catholics and Catholic Mennonites: Bridging, not Splitting, the Difference

In one sense, Stearns County, Minnesota is no hub for Mennonite Christians. Heavily German and Catholic, with a smattering of Lutherans, evangelicals, and Somali Muslims, the county is home to nary a Mennonite congregation or Anabaptist community to speak of. But in another sense, because of what has been happening at the Collegeville Institute and Saint John’s Abbey, Stearns County has become a Mennonite landmark. Bridgefolk, the North American Mennonite-Catholic dialogue, meets regularly at Saint John’s Abbey, and the Collegeville Institute has attracted a number of Mennonite scholars and workshop participants over the years. Terms like “Mennonite Catholic” and “Catholic Mennonite” are commonly spoken on our campuses. In conjunction with a recent Bridgefolk gathering, we prompted a conversation among several leaders of the Mennonite-Catholic dialogue—each of whom has been affiliated with the Collegeville Institute and somehow claims the dual identity of Mennonite and Catholic.

Continue reading “Mennonite Catholics and Catholic Mennonites: bridging, not splitting, the difference” →