Beyond Ethics: Transcendence, Prayer and Spirit
In our May 2024 feature section, you will find:
Allan Rudy-Froese got sick of sermons—including his own—in which ethics overshadowed God, so he took a deep dive into grace.
In our May 2024 feature section, you will find:
Allan Rudy-Froese got sick of sermons—including his own—in which ethics overshadowed God, so he took a deep dive into grace.
If I’m not careful, I find myself surrounded by similar-minded individuals who are great at reflecting my own perspectives and values back at me. In a society that continues to grow increasingly polarized and tribalistic, the ease with which this can happen worries me.
A couple of years ago my sister and I had hammock party at the park with our friends.
Ian Funk remembers the last time he arrived on campus at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS)—how he walked into the guest house late at night and was welcomed by a fellow student sitting at the dining room table. People heard them exchanging greetings and popped out of their rooms.
I spent my mid-twenties holding my disability flag high, confident that I’d found my calling. This was my cause. These were my people.
“I think you are a contemplative.” Spoken by my spiritual director, those words caught
We asked numerous people to share three to five words that express the essence of Anabaptism for them.
The disciples were shocked when Jesus said, “One of you will betray me.” Judas’s story is told in different ways in the gospels, giving us some insight into how the disciples and gospel writers came to terms with the betrayal of Judas.
The gulf appears impossible to bridge.
As bombs continue to fall onto Gaza and rockets somehow continue to fly out of Gaza, a conflict nearly as old as time and as entrenched as the Jordan River spirals to depths unthinkable. To listen to people on either side is to hear vastly different narratives about the same reality.
On October 1, we launched our book, The Wall Between: What Jews and Palestinians Don’t Want to Know about Each Other, at the Charles Pachter Museum in Toronto. Guests included Jews, Palestinians and others who are interested in overcoming the enmity between the two sides that for so long have been in conflict. There was music and poetry.
“Deeply rooted in our Mennonite psyche is this idea that peacemaking is as simple as sitting across the table from someone and hearing their story,” says Joanna Hiebert Bergen, chair of the Mennonite Church Manitoba Palestine-Israel Network.
Baptism rates among teenagers and young adults who grew up going to church have plummeted. Why?
What will Christmas be like in Bethlehem this year? What can we learn about the birth of Christ from those who live where he was born and where he lived?
It might seem unlikely that young women would be drawn to church leadership and feel compelled to enter pastoral ministry. As young people, they are part of an underrepresented demographic in the church, one that is leaving organized religion in increasing numbers. As women, they have been barred for generations from leadership roles in the church and turned away from the pulpit.
There were nineteen beds in the hospice, that’s what I heard, most of them occupied, but I paid no attention to them.
There’s one church service that Fran Giesbrecht makes a special point not to miss: Eternity Sunday.
Observed at his Winnipeg church on the last Sunday before Advent, Eternity Sunday provides opportunity for Giesbrecht and others at Fort Garry Mennonite Fellowship to commemorate members of their community who have died.
“Sir,” said the man, “you and your family can be very proud of your son.”