Bridgefolk asks how to repair harm to Indigenous Peoples
Participants in the Bridgefolk movement for dialogue and greater unity between Mennonites and Roman Catholics have long made the phrase, “Proceed through friendship,” their byword. Celebrating their 20th annual conference under the theme, “Standing at the crossroads,” as they met at Saint John’s Abbey in late July, Bridgefolk found reason to hope that the…
Deepening the meaning of baptism
After five years of meetings by an international commission of Mennonites, Lutherans and Roman Catholics on the topic of baptism, John Rempel, the commission’s Mennonite representative, presented a trilateral report from that dialogue at an event called “One Baptism? A Symposium on Baptism and the Christian Life,” at Waterloo North Mennonite Church on Nov. 8.…
Mennonite and Reformed representatives seek a common witness
“Reformed and Anabaptist are branches from the same tree,” said Hanspeter Jecker, a Mennonite theologian from Switzerland. “Anabaptist convictions that once were controversial—such as the voluntary nature of church membership and rejection of capital punishment—are now accepted by many Christian groups. Centuries of opposition have turned to reconciliation.” Five centuries after Swiss reformer Ulrich…
Catholic-Mennonite gathering planned for Winnipeg
One could say Anabaptism began as a rebellion against Catholicism. Our forebears bled and died so we could be not-Catholic. Time does not erase the past, but intervening centuries have led some to a sort of Reformation reconciliation. Differences remain, but a good number of people now travel bridges between Mennonite and Catholic worlds.…
Building unity in the body of Christ
There are hundreds of denominations within Christianity, and it can be easy to focus on the differences between them all. But a group of Mennonites and Anglicans is breaking through those walls. A group of 12 people from both denominations gathered from May 24 to 26 at the University of Manitoba’s St. John’s College in…
Mennonite pastors and scholars involved in ecumenical gathering
“I wonder whether Jesus’ call for Christian unity isn’t an invitation to focus on what unites rather than divides us, in order to see that everyone brings something valuable to God’s kingdom.” So said Kathy Koop, pastor of Winnipeg First Mennonite Church, in reflecting on a recent ecumenical gathering. On May 9, 2018, “Behold! I…
Mennonite helps Lutherans commemorate the Reformation
Serving communion at the 16th Biennial Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) was a profoundly humbling experience for Willard Metzger. “I felt as though I was surrounded by a huge cloud of Anabaptist witnesses from the past,” says Mennonite Church Canada’s executive director. The significance of that statement is deeply rooted in…
In the face of in/difference
As I write this I am flying over the ocean, returning from an international ecumenical gathering in the north of Italy. People from across the world were there, including some from countries I had never met people from. Places like Myanmar. Places like Senegal. And places like Germany, Italy, U.S.A, Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, Iraq,…
