Blog

Journeying with the Anabaptists (Part 2)

As I mentioned last month, I am participating in an online course called ““Exploring Anabaptist History and Theology.” When I wrote the last blog, it was the first week of the course, and we were still looking at the very beginnings of the the Anabaptist movement. Well, we are now in the fourth week, and we finally got to Menno Simons (our Mennonite namesake), which just goes to show how much more to the Anabaptist movement there was other than our particular stream.

In learning about Menno and reading some...

Thoughts and prayers

There are a lot of thoughts and prayers happening these days. Hurricanes, a mass shooting, and the re-awakened demon of nuclear war ought to cause a lot of thinking and praying. “Thoughts and prayers” has become a common phrase, shorthand for I care about this, something to say when you don’t know what else to say.

Whether these words are too cheap and easy is a topic for a different blog. I, for one, am glad to take them at face value unless there’s reason to be skeptical.

I do wonder how these two actions relate to each other. Are thoughts and prayers...

Going deeper with Sanctuary

This Sunday we’ll begin a fall worship series focused on Sanctuary. In the last month Sanctuary has become a major theme for our congregation. We have practiced Sanctuary in our building and been a part of a mobile Sanctuary surrounding Edith at various times after she left our building. It has been a very public commitment. With Edith now at her Columbus home discerning next steps after being denied a stay of removal, we continue to be in a position of holding space. Meanwhile, we are in the middle of a growing movement in the faith community. Yesterday 30 people representing at...

The new year: fear and joy

This morning I was part of a meeting that included Edith Espinal, her attorneys, and several key advocates. This coming Monday is an important day for her. She has a check in with ICE in which there will be one of three outcomes: 1) Her stay of removal will be accepted and she’ll be told the amount of time she can stay in the US, up to one year. 2) Her stay of removal will be rejected, she’ll be released, and given a date in the next three weeks when she’ll need to appear before ICE with a plane ticket back to Mexico that she has purchased. 3) Her stay of removal will be...

Journeying with the Anabaptists

I am currently participating in an online course through the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary called “Exploring Anabaptist History and Theology.” Because I attended a Methodist seminary, this is a chance for me to gain more formal training in the history of the tradition in which I am now ministering.

Like many of you at Columbus Mennonite, I came to identify with the Mennonite tradition later in life; thus, much of the history of the Anabaptists movement that eventually brought forth the Mennonites is new to me. (Those of you raised Mennonite just know this stuff, right...

Blog

Pages