A few days before Ramadan began I visited London Central mosque. It’s a huge building at the edge of Regent’s Park in the middle of the city. London is a bustling and diverse city with its first Muslim...
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I read the 150-page report from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office about the abuse cases of the Altoona-Johnstown (Pa.) Catholic Diocese in the midst of writing a doctoral dissertation on...
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I am fascinated by the power and possibility of Pentecost. Whether the speakers were suddenly gifted with new languages or the hearers simply understood the gibberish in some way, it’s among my favorite New...
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Several years ago during the Easter vigil at Resurrection Catholic parish in my hometown of Johnstown, Pa., I found myself weeping almost uncontrollably. The Saturday Easter vigil is among the grandest of...
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The news of violence broke late in the evening in Philadelphia, mid-morning in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Jan. 14. Philadelphia, where I live, has the largest concentration of Indonesian immigrants on the East...
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These last weeks have seemed feverish both in personal and online spaces as people have sought to respond to incidents in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. These days I get a lot of my news via social media. I...
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In the beginning of his acclaimed book Between You and Me, written as a letter to his adolescent son, Ta-Nehisi Coates wonders how Mennonites came to be included within the “people who think of themselves as...
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Author Peter Steinke suggests Old Testament understandings of salvation are connected to openness rather than constricting. Steinke writes about how healthy communities behave in times of anxiety. His...
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The Jewish high holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are soon upon us. I grew up celebrating these days of the Jewish calendar because my mom worked for a Jewish-owned business and had these days off of...
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Tearing cloth is not enough to show you are sad; let your heart be broken. — Joel 2:13 In the Jewish tradition, as part of the period of mourning after a death, the mourner wears a torn piece of clothing....
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The Pew Research Center’s study on religion in the United States, released this month, revealed that the church is in the midst of significant changes. Mennonites are too statistically insignificant to be...
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The Mennonite Church USA credentialed leaders survey has opened a conversation that research coordinator Conrad Kanagy says highlights a growing divide. Kanagy sees homosexuality as a proxy issue that brings...
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The night in November when the news broke that officer Darren Wilson would not be charged in the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., I joined a group of religious leaders intent on providing a...
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There are never enough winter jackets in the stacks of sorted clothes in the salon de fiestas (fellowship hall) at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen, Texas. The stream of Central American refugees who arrive...
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The powerful words of Advent readings from Isaiah tend to get lost in this feel-good season of tinsel and twinkling lights. Familiar music, family gatherings and special worship times mark the holiday with a...
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I remember wincing when British Anabaptist Stuart Murray Williams suggested wryly in one of his trips to southeastern Pennsylvania that we had managed to create our own Mennonite Christendom. Murray Williams...
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I’ll start with a confession: There is no such thing as objective reporting. I know this after working around journalism for 20 years. If you and I were to see the same thing occur, we would likely see it...
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In July I traveled with a group of four Eastern Mennonite Seminary students to bear witness to Mennonite Central Committee’s ministry of presence in New Orleans, now nearly a decade after Hurricane Katrina...
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I’ve stepped into a new area of responsibility in my role working alongside pastors in Franconia Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Church USA. This role change, which began in November, has to do with...
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I’m a product of church schools. Every level of my formal education since age 12 has been within the boundaries of church-related institutions — from a broadly evangelical high school with Mennonite roots,...
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I still remember the words of my tour guide in St. John Lateran in Rome. She referred to our group’s Protestants with loving disdain. She announced, “For the Protestants here, I want you to remember that...
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I attended my first binational conference ministers gathering in December. This meeting happens annually with conference leaders from Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA. It’s a closed meeting...
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On the first Sunday of November, our lead pastor was out of town and asked me to lead communion in our Indonesian language worship gathering. We share small wafers and tiny cups of juice monthly as a reminder...
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