On the journey with Lutheran brothers and sisters: an interview with John D. Roth

By Andre Gingerich Stoner

At its most recent meeting, the Executive Board asked Ervin Stutzman, executive director, to send a letter of greeting and Christian friendship to Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The letter recounts with gratitude the remarkable developments in Mennonite-Lutheran relations in the past fifteen years. It acknowledges ways Anabaptists, too, have at times misrepresented Lutherans and Lutheran practices.

Further, the letter responds to occasional informal questions from Lutheran leaders as to whether Mennonites regard Lutherans as fully part of the body of Christ. Finally it affirms the current three-way dialogue on baptism between Mennonite World Conference, the Lutheran World Federation and the Vatican.

John Roth, professor of history at Goshen (Ind.) College, was part of the formal dialogue with Lutherans both on behalf of Mennonite Church USA and later Mennonite World Conference. We have asked him to reflect on the content and the significance of the recent letter sent on behalf of Mennonite Church USA to Presiding Bishop Eaton of the ELCA.

See the interview here.

Pope Francis apologizes for persecution of Pentecostals

by Josephine McKenna
Religious News Service

CASERTA, Italy (RNS) Pope Francis sought forgiveness for decades of persecution of Italian Pentecostals when he met with around 300 evangelicals from the U.S., Argentina and Italy in the southern town of Caserta on Monday (July 28).

The pope made his second visit in as many days to the Mafia stronghold near Naples, this time to meet evangelical pastor Giovanni Traettino, whom he befriended while he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.

During the visit, Francis apologized for the persecution suffered by Pentecostals under Italy’s fascist regime in the 1920s and 1930s and urged Christians to celebrate their diversity and unity. Continue reading “Pope Francis apologizes for persecution of Pentecostals” →

Resisting an evil spirit: persecuted Nigerians uphold the gospel of peace

May 8, 2014 by Paul Schrag, Mennonite World Review

While Christians in North America debate theology and church rules, those in Nigeria face far greater challenges. The threat of death, fleeing one’s home or seeing one’s place of worship attacked and destroyed will put other problems in perspective.

Victims of persecution include members of the Church of the Brethren, whose Anabaptist peace beliefs are being tested.

How can Brethren leaders tell their members not to defend their homes and families? asks Samuel Dante Dali, president of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, in the Brethren Messenger magazine. Dali describes a “struggle to face a virtually impossible situation and yet maintain a voice for peace.”

Continue reading “Resisting an evil spirit: persecuted Nigerians uphold the gospel of peace” →

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” →

Greek Catholics in Ukraine restore former Mennonite church building

Release date:

Monday, 5 May 2014

Kitchener, Ontario (Mennonite World Conference) – In Ukraine a former Mennonite church building is being restored and transformed – with the help of Canadian Mennonites – into a Greek Catholic church.

This development, according to observers, is an example of Mennonite-Catholic collaboration in the spirit of other exchanges over the past decade or so. Continue reading “Greek Catholics in Ukraine restore former Mennonite church building” →

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” →

A dialogue gets renewed

Brenda Suderman, a writer for the Winnipeg Free Press, describes ongoing ecumenical initiatives between Mennonites and Catholics in Winnipeg, including Bridgefolk participant Helmut Harder.

More than just friends, not quite a family, a dozen Christians who gather regularly to share their faith over a meal are quietly setting an example for new ecclesiastical relationships.

After 14 years of meeting in parish halls and church basements, the members of Winnipeg’s Catholic-Mennonite Dialogue have no plans to end this long-running liaison between their two faith traditions.

“I’ve tried now and then to shut it down, but then people remind me they see value in this,” explains Helmut Harder, a retired Mennonite theologian who has participated from the beginning.

“It (the dialogue) keeps me abreast of what is going on in the Catholic Church.”

Whether in basement gatherings or meetings between high level faith leaders, Christians should expect more initiatives of this type under Pope Francis, says Catholic theologian Catherine E. Clifford of St. Paul University in Ottawa.

Suderman goes on to quote Clifford on how ecumenism has evolved since Vatican II and the continued importance of working toward unity, and Harder on the renewed interest in ecumenism that he observes in Winnipeg. The full article from the Winnipeg Free Press website is available here.

Pope Francis reaches out to Pentecostals, says all share blame for church divisions

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In an unusual video message, recorded on an iPhone by a Pentecostal pastor Pope Francis knew in Argentina, the pope says all Christians share blame for their divisions, speaks of his “longing” for their unity and insists that God will bring the miracle of Christian unity to completion.

“Pray to the Lord that he will unite us all,” the pope tells a group of Pentecostals meeting in the United States. “Let’s move forward, we are brothers; let us give each other that spiritual embrace and allow the Lord to complete the work he has begun. Because this is a miracle; the miracle of unity has begun.”

In the video, posted on YouTube and never released by the Vatican, the pope quotes a character from a novel by Alessandro Manzoni; the character says, “‘I have never found that the Lord began a miracle without finishing it well.’ He will finish well this miracle of unity,” the pope added. Continue reading “Pope Francis reaches out to Pentecostals, says all share blame for church divisions” →