Mennonites and Organizing
Right after Sunday school I jumped into the car and headed down to Harrisonburg, Virginia, home of Eastern Mennonite Seminary. I made it just in time for the beginning of the conference “The Promise and Possibility of Anabaptist Organizing.” I was part of a panel of “Pastor Organizers” on Monday,…
Resistance and Rest
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the relationship between resistance and rest. Put another way, how does actively and openly confronting our cultural pathologies of greed, violence, and racism relate with things that restore our souls, things we enjoy for their own sake – time with friends, eating good…
Communing with the World
This coming Sunday we will be celebrating World Communion Sunday with faith communities around the world. This annual event is a chance to practice unity across denominational, political, social, and other boundaries that so often only serve to separate us. While this event focuses on promoting unity within the global…
Rental Registry Rising
BREAD…Rises. Last evening 11 of us from Columbus Mennonite joined a full house at City Hall for a hearing on a proposed rental registry, headed by Council Member Nick Bankston. The overwhelming majority of folks in attendance were from BREAD congregations, our interfaith organization that does advocacy for local justice…
We Rise
Two and a half weeks ago, Central District Conference (CDC) leaders held our annual visioning retreat in our church building. As part of the opening meditation, Conference Minister Doug Luginbill played the song “We Rise” by Batya Levine. The soulful lyrics wove their way into our process of creating the…
500 and Counting
Mennonites are part of a movement known as Anabaptism that erupted in central Europe 500 years ago. “Anabaptist” (meaning Re-Baptizer) was not a chosen name. Critics created it to highlight the key act that set these folks apart. At a time when the universal baptism of infants issued one not…
An Invitation for Drawing Near
On September 7, we will be starting a worship series centered on “Anabaptism at 500,” marking that anniversary by exploring stories of those within the Anabaptist streams both historical and modern. You will hear more about that series and what all to expect from it soon. But for now I…
Sabbatical Observations
Hello again, Yesterday was my first day back with the church after a restorative Sabbatical. Here are some non-comprehensive observations from these three months: Time goes slower out of routine. Not sure on the physics, but my brain says it’s true. After a week of touring Rome, Anabaptist beginnings in…
Preparing for Peace
A few weeks ago a number of us gathered at the church on a Saturday to participate in an Active Bystander Intervention and De-Escalation training. The Leadership Team at CMC had coordinated this training through the organization DC Peace Team in response to questions about how we as a congregation…
Summer Gratitude
Written by: Robin Walton It is July 30, but my summer interim pastor of pastoral care stint is about to come to an end. (If only the cool, less humid winds of September were here to mark the end of this “summer.”) Today, as I consider the things that were…