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CIDA minister praises MEDA project
The sustainable approach to economic development in Ethiopia by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) was recognized recently by Julian Fantino, Canada’s minister for international cooperation. During his visit, Fantino met with weavers involved in the Ethiopians Driving Growth through Entrepreneurship and Trade (EDGET) program. The project, which aims to help 10,000 farmers and weavers create…
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Bogale Kebede: Apostle to the Kaffa
As the notorious persecutor Saul of Tarsus was transformed by God’s grace and is now remembered as the “apostle to the gentiles,” so Bogale Kebede, charged and imprisoned for murder, was transformed by God’s grace to become Christ’s apostle to the Kaffa. More than any other person, Kebede was the founder of the Meserete Kristos…
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For discussion
1. What powerful stories have you heard in your congregation? Who did the telling? What was the setting? What made the story powerful? How did it influence the teller or the listeners? Was it important that the teller was physically present and not recorded on a video clip? 2. How vulnerable do you feel when…
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Storytelling and the people of God
Reading the Bible for ethics calls for a new approach to community. Above all else, it calls for the centrality of storytelling: storytelling at the centre of the community, between community members and between communities. Reading Scripture is about being transformed by Scripture, and interpreting Scripture is about accumulating power. But living in peace means…
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For discussion
1. Who in your congregation takes a leadership role in interpreting the Bible? How do they acquire that role? What happens if anyone challenges their interpretation? Who has been most influential in the development of your personal understanding of the Bible? 2. Bruce Hiebert writes that the one who “controls the interpretation is the one…
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Power and community
Reading the Bible for ethics is an act of power. Reading the Bible for ethics is about using the language and images of the Bible to transform ourselves and those around us. It is not the power called control or force. It is the power called “shaping the operational imagination.” It is the power of…
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For discussion
1. Bruce Hiebert says we will make better ethical decisions if our brains are filled with biblical images. Do you find his arguments convincing? Have we been doing a good job of immersing ourselves in the biblical stories? Have we been filling our minds with too many non-biblical images? 2. Hiebert suggests that it doesn’t…
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Imagination, hope and peace
Reading the Bible for ethics is no easy task. It means facing an obscure document held as vital by an older generation, but of increasing irrelevance to a changing world. Or does it? It might be that, in fact, Scripture holds the keys to imagination, hope and how we actually go about evoking a world…
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For discussion
1. Tom Yoder Neufeld says that teaching and learning are acts of faith, especially when it comes to sacred texts such as the Bible (page 6). What learning or teaching experiences have stretched or deepened your faith? Are there settings that are more effective than a traditional classroom? What factors encourage or hinder us from…
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In conversation with Tom Yoder Neufeld
RWM: For much, if not all, of your adult life, you have served as a chaplain, pastor or professor. What—or who—were the influences in your growing-up years that led you to a life of ministry in these ways? TYN: There is no doubt that my parents, engaged their whole life in missionary and pastoral work,…
