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Jane at 90

One of my favorite living humans I’ve never met, Jane Goodall, turned 90 this month. She is, perhaps, the matron saint of paying attention.

She is most famous for her work among the chimpanzees of Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. Initially an outsider to the scientific community, without a college degree, she did things one wasn’t supposed to do in her observations of chimpanzee life. She affectionately named her subjects. She attributed human-like emotions to them. She bonded with them. In other words, she paid attention not as a detached observer but as a curious and...

The Warm Winds of Heaven

Last spring I blogged about a first of its kind gathering of Mennonites and Jews at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) called “Reading the Bible after the Holocaust.” We covered topics ranging from New Testament scholarship, shared historic experience, the dangers of emphasizing common ground in dialogue, Mennonites and the Holocaust, and Israel and the land.

Less than half a year later, members of Hamas crossed into southern Israel and slaughtered around...

What Holds Us Together?

A while back Joel preached a sermon where he talked about a theory originated by Phyllis Tickle that the Christian Church goes through a great shift or reformation approximately every 500 years. Tickle (and Joel) used the metaphor of the 500-year rummage sale as a way to think about how every once in a while the Church needs to reevaluate the things it is holding on to and what needs to be let go.

If this theory holds any water, it means we are in the midst of another great shift. Do you feel it?

Author and Mennonite pastor Meghan Larissa Good picks up on these ideas in her...

The Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth: Substitution vs. Solidarity

Sub.sti.tu.tion – the action of replacing someone or something with another person or thing.

Sol.i.dar.i.ty – union or fellowship arising from common responsibilities and interests.

It’s Holy Week, a time dense with memory and meaning. Within this short span, the gospels speak of the betrayal by Judas, Jesus’ final meal with his friends, prayer and arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter’s denial, the rushed trial before Pilate, the walk to Golgotha, the state execution of Jesus and burial of his body.

At the risk of vast...

Wider Church Happenings

Tomorrow morning I’ll be driving up to Goshen for three days of meetings with the Mennonite Church USA Constituency Leaders Council. The CLC is an advisory and listening group – rather than decision-making body — made up of representatives of area conferences and constituency groups. As the President-elect of Central District Conference, I’m one of our three attendees. I’m pleased that one of the newest groups to be represented is the Queer Constituency Council, a result of...

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