Items

• 

  Interview with Dale Shenk

  Kyle Stocksdale interviews Dale Shenk, longtime Bible teacher at Bethany Christian Schools in Goshen, Indiana. Shenk reflects on his experiences growing up and working in a variety of settings in the Mennonite church as a pastor and teacher. Shenk also reflects on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on his life and his faith community at Berkey Avenue Mennonite Fellowship.
• 

  Community Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA Worship

  Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, VA pivoted to online worship as the spread of the coronavirus and subsequent lockdowns impacted Harrisonburg and the United States. This weekly worship format has continued since then. Members of the congregation and the pastoral team contribute music, children's stories, and sermons which are edited together by the church administrator Ben Bailey. The service is emailed out to members and publicly available on YouTube.
• 

  Passing the Light

  Since the church community was not able to meet in person for a Christmas Eve candlelight service, Assembly Mennonite Church organized and created a virtual candle lighting experience. Members submitted videos of themselves passing the light in their homes, which were combined and set to music. It was a meaningful opportunity to connect with each other and feel the presence of God as we gathered virtually to celebrate Christ's birth.
• 

  A COVID Christmas Party

  On Thursday afternoon, December 17, Mennonite Church USA Executive Board staff - from 9 different states - gathered for a virtual Christmas party. Activities included a Christmas crown contest (with gold, frankincense, and myrrh themes), a guided painting activity with Kelly Frey Martin, and pre-distributed snacks.
• 

  Merry Covid Christmas, God! A Chaplain's Lament

  I am a hospital staff chaplain. Last Monday (12/7) we had a very difficult day when four patients on the ICU with Covid-19 were removed from their ventilators and died minutes later. Just a couple family members of each patient were allowed to come see their loved one (per hospital protocol) before they were removed from the vents. This was the worse day yet for our nurses and other colleagues on the ICU since the pandemic started. This lament was the result of one: an assignment for a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education that I am currently taking in which I read it to the class on Thursday and they loved it. And two: the deaths on the ICU that Monday and the experience I had in a local store the next. And I suppose a response so far to the pandemic through my eyes as a hospital chaplain who is trying to serve.
• 

  COVID-19 Grant Awardee

  On November 2, 2020, the Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest at Villanova University announced Anabaptist History Today as one of 17 COVID-19 Grant awardees. The award provides critical funding for projects that contribute to advancing history in the public interest in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.
• 

  Praxis Mutual Funds among early signatories of ICCR Investor Statement on Coronavirus Response

  Praxis Mutual Funds®, a leading faith-based, socially responsible family of mutual funds from Everence® Financial, calls upon company leadership to uphold policies that care for employees, customers and suppliers in the face of the COVID-19 global humanitarian crisis.
• 

  Everence offers assistance and relief options during COVID-19 outbreak

  News release: As part of its mission to help people, churches, businesses and organizations integrate their faith and values into their financial decisions, Everence® is offering assistance and relief options to help members and customers impacted by the evolving COVID-19 outbreak.
• 

  Mennonite Church USA statement on racial injustice

  News Release: Mennonite Church USA released a statement on racial injustice today in response to events surrounding the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The statement calls for its congregations “to stand in solidarity with communities of color, walk alongside them and, indeed, be led by them.”
• 

  COVID-19 disrupts several MC USA meetings in 2020

  News Release: Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Mennonite Church USA announced that it is adapting its meeting plans for the remainder of 2020.
• 

  Mennonite education responds in faith and hope to the pandemic

  Our Mennonites schools, colleges, universities and seminaries were unique in their response to the pandemic, living into their Anabaptist faith values and demonstrating hope and caring in their communities.
• 

  Anabaptist vision for masculinity

  What does Anabaptism teach us about healthy masculinity? A recent book addresses this important question at a time when an aggressive model of masculinity is asserting itself in American culture. In collaboration with Institute of Mennonite Studies, Mennonite Men has produced Peaceful at Heart: Anabaptist Reflections on Healthy Masculinity (Wipf & Stock, 2019). This is a book by men writing to men. It promotes an Anabaptist Christian perspective on masculinity that is more peaceful, just, and life-giving for men and sensitive to women and children than dominant images of masculinity in popular culture and evangelical Christianity. While much has been written on the characteristics of masculinity and the impacts of patriarchy, this volume moves the dialogue in the direction of building a vision of discipleship, community and peace as an alternative for men's lives. Rather than supporting patriarchy and nationalism commonly advanced in traditional Christian thought, this volume draws on an Anabaptist perspective of faith which invites men to experience God's call to live at peace and be peacemakers.