Young Anabaptist Radicals

For the past 4 weeks I was rotating at Christiana Care Hospital in Newark, DE.  During that time I was able to reconnect with a high school friend of mine who lives in the area.  He & his wife introduced me to a group of people with Anabaptist roots/connections/interests who have been meeting together informally and hope to start a church of sorts given the lack of a Mennonite church in their area (that’s not in Wilmington and/or in a “conservative” conference).

Anyway, last Monday I joined them for dinner & fellowship and learned of their interest in finding more participants and connecting with other congregations in the area (and in the Lancaster and Atlantic Coast Conferences) as they pursue organizing more formally as a church.  The person who has been the catalyst of the group is Scott Calkins - a former U.S. Marine turned Anabaptist who lives with his wife in Elkton, MD.  For anyone interested, they have a website & blog at the following links:

http://www.paxmin.com
http://www.paxmin.com/blog/blog.htm

Marketplace has an interactive game called “Consumer Consequences” that is worth checking out. My current lifestyle is estimated to require 2.9 Earths to sustain it. What about yours?

Check out the game and some background info by clicking here.

Just over 4 years ago the Mennonite World Conference held its World Assembly in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. At the time the country was in the midst of a downward spiral under the direction of president Robert Mugabe. There was concern about holding the assembly in Zimbabwe because of the worsening social/economic/political situation, but the hosts, the Brethren in Christ Church of Zimbabwe insisted that the assembly go on in their country. Since 2003 the downward spiral has worsened.  The country is near economic collapse if it has not collapsed already. I don’t hear a lot about Zimbabwe in American news these days (that might be because I don’t hear a lot of American news in general) but the BBC has a video report that is worth checking out.

I got a flier in my church mailbox a few months ago from MCC about the Days of Prayer & Action for Peace in Colombia taking place today and tomorrow. Part of my meager response was to give a short presentation and slide show at Wilkens Avenue Mennonite Church this morning to raise awareness about what is going on in Colombia, how the U.S. is involved and what Colombian Mennonites are asking for. I’d be interested to hear if other YAR readers participated and how.

I read some parts of the stories from Colombia in one of CPT’s books, but one of the things that stood out to me most in preparing my presentation was a Colombian “table grace” taken from MCC’s photo gallery:

“Thank you God for this bread. And give bread to those who hunger - and hunger for justice to those of us who have bread.”

Today the Writer’s Almanac featured another “Mennonite” poem. You can read it online at the Writer’s Almanac Archive. I will also copy it below:

“First TV in a Mennonite Family” by Julia Kasdorf, from Sleeping Preacher. © University of Pittsburgh Press.

1968

The lid of the Chevy trunk couldn’t close
on that wooden console with a jade screen
and gold flecks in the fabric over the speaker.

They sent us to bed then set it up
in the basement, as far from our rooms
and the dinner table as they could get,

(more…)

Good grief! I need to be studying, but I was sucked in by the latest poll (look to the right)[update 4.15.07 - click here for info about the poll]. Whoever put that up deserves a gold star!! Ever since I read the report about the ordination of women in the Lancaster Conference News last month I have been thinking about posting something about this (Katie already did). I’ve copied the relevant report below from the February 2007 issue. I think the poll speaks for itself; its commentary is more poignant than any I could muster. (more…)

I ain’t actually, but Sojourner Truth was. I copied this from the Modern History Sourcebook.

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883): Ain’t I A Woman?
Delivered in 1851 at the Women’s Convention, Akron, Ohio

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?

(more…)

This is the poem from today’s Writer’s Almanac. I don’t know if I allowed to post this poem, but Garrison Keillor apparently got permission to post it on the Writer’s Almanac Archive.

Listen (RealAudio) | How to listen

Poem: “Prayer Requests at a Mennonite Church” by Todd Davis from Some Heaven. © Michigan State University Press.

Pray for the Smucker family. Their son Nathaniel’s coat and shirt were
caught in the gears while grinding grain. Nothing would give, so now
he is gone. We made his clothes too well. Perhaps this is our sin.

(more…)

On this day, four hundred eighty-two years ago, in the Zürich home of Felix Manz (his mom’s place), a man named George Blaurock was baptized again for the first time by Conrad Grebel.

“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided [people].”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

It seems to me that church folk talk a lot about God doing this or that in our lives, and rightly so I guess. “God told me this or has been telling me that”, is a common utterance, but I’ve been avoiding that terminology for some time now. I guess I am uncomfortable with this assertion at times. Please don’t get me wrong, it is not my intent to discourage anyone who uses these expressions or to imply that they are wrong to do so. Nor am I calling God’s existence or presence into question. I am only expressing my own doubt or lack of understanding in the matter. My questions are of free will, and Divine orchestration. Good stuff happens to bad people and bad stuff happens too good people and vice versa and none of us can predict it consistently. (more…)

Nimblesixpence has a thoughtful Advent post, entitled What if God was one of us?, that I thought was worth sharing. Hopefully she won’t mind a few more readers. Below is just an excerpt:

Because I don’t believe that church is most meaningful when it goes exactly according to plan. I believe that if we wanted to, we could show up on a Sunday morning and sit like Quakers, with nothing planned at all, and God could do something. Or everything could go wrong, and we could still get something really important from gathering together.

Though I might aspire to be - an emerging scholar I am not. For those of you who are, or would like to be, a friend of mine mentioned this upcoming conference:

See also: the John Howard Yoder Project

Apparently the U.S. is developing (officially or unofficially) a dress code that proscribes T-shirts with Arabic lettering. I hadn’t heard about this story until this morning when a friend sent me the link to a BBC News article. He told me that he heard about it when he saw this video on CNN’s website. I must say what happened to Raed Jarrar is a little disturbing. שָׁלוֹם

Those who attended the Mennonite Youth Convention in Orlando, FL in 1997, may recall Tony Campolo commenting that ironically, “In the Catholic Church the wine turns into Jesus’ blood, but in the Mennonite Church, the wine turns into grape juice.” This past Saturday, at the wedding of two of our friends my wife and I participated in our first Catholic Mass. Not only did we partake in the ceremony of the Eucharist, but we had been asked to be the “Gift Bearers” (not to be confused with the “gift receivers” who collect presents for the bride & groom). The gift bearers carry the gifts- that is, the bread and wine - to the altar and present it to the priest. We considered it an honor to be asked to take on such an important role in the service. (more…)