Blackened trusses stand against the sky above the walls of an old church that burned. I often pass the corner where the church has sat since long before I knew the neighborhood’s name, long before I was...
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Every 500 years or so, the church has a giant garage sale, getting rid of the stuff it no longer needs. That’s what author Phyllis Tickle said in 2008 in her book The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is...
[read more]Lancaster Mennonite Conference’s decision to withdraw from Mennonite Church USA by the end of 2017 is a major loss, and not just because Lancaster is the denomination’s largest conference. Lancaster...
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HARRISONBURG, Va. — When a person you know well makes a regrettable choice, how do you reconcile what you know about that person with his or her actions? And how do you share what you know about this person...
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Perry Bush’s Peace, Progress and the Professor is technically a biography of Mennonite historian C. Henry Smith. But it’s actually a timely time machine. It transports readers back to the late 19th and...
[read more]Do we really believe Jesus? Many read the Bible about the birth of Jesus and the miracles of his birth and life. The Christ story is going around the world, and many are dying for him, and many are coming to...
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HALLE, Germany — Eastern Mennonite Missions workers here say refugees need Jesus more than clean bedsheets, but they want to give them both. As Germany deals with Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World...
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Unity and division crossed paths in Pennsylvania this summer as Harrisburg hosted the Mennonite World Conference assembly and Lancaster Mennonite Conference moved to leave Mennonite Church USA. Word of...
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We sometimes think that we are the church on our own — whether that’s our local congregation, our area conference or our denomination. But every time we pick up our hymnal, it connects us to brothers and...
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Dear Apostle Paul: I know this comes almost two thousand years late, but I want to thank you for helping carry the gospel to Europe where my ancestors eventually came to know Jesus. Sometimes in your mission...
[read more]Consecutive issues of MWR carried opinion pieces speaking negatively of the nonviolent movement to oppose Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territory. “Resolution on Mideast Harms Efforts for Peace...
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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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“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God with us’).” Immanuel. God with us. What a dangerous name. Jacob and Laban strike a deal: seven years...
[read more]The Mennonite Church USA Executive Board staff cabinet has called together a panel to continue the work of healing and prevention of sexual abuse within the denomination. The panel’s formation is a response...
[read more]Mennonite Church Canada is changing, and its transformation could instruct other denominations. Declining donations were deemed to be a trend rather than an aberration, and something had to be done. A Nov. 28...
[read more]“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!” My morning mantra comes by rote rather than conviction. A sip of orange ginger tea calms me, but only for a moment. My spirit slides...
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KIGALI, Rwanda — Mwasa Niyon Senga felt trapped as a first sergeant in the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, an armed group that terrorizes villages in the eastern Democratic Republic of...
[read more]It is so sad to see churches and conferences leaving a denomination. To see them leave under false assumptions is tragic. It seems the traditionalists who are leaving complain because they make the assumption...
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Bluffton (Ohio) University has become the third Mennonite college this year to leave the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities after expanding its nondiscrimination hiring policy. The Bluffton board...
[read more]Among several large Anabaptist conventions and assemblies in North America this year, the biggest was put on by a relatively small denomination. The Church of God in Christ, Mennonite, held its general...
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A donation shortfall has prompted Mennonite Church Canada to reduce staff and accelerate structural change, placing more ministry activities at the provincial level. A Nov. 28 news release cited “a pressing...
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