Anabaptist and Quaker essays, sermons, and other writings
Rachel Held Evans’ new book, A Year of Biblical Womanhood is getting a bunch of press, which I’m glad about. There’s a lot of predictable internet bickering going on, a lot of posturing and arguing and name-calling, some pointed and snarky responses and some responses full of grace. Some […]
As brand-new Iowa transplants with our first landline, we both have to admit to being a bit giddy at our new-found status as coveted “swing state voters,” who happily give our time and opinions to nearly every pollster who seeks us out. So, we should admit to a bit of […]
By Brian R. Gumm As a Brethren sojourning with Mennonites at EMU in Harrisonburg, Virginia for the last four years, I’ve made many wonderful connections and friendships. As I went through my theological peacebuilding education, these friendships have often been fostered through deep conversations about any number of pressing theological, philosophical, […]
When was the last time that you changed your physical appearance to enter into worship? Have you removed your shoes to walk a labyrinth? Removed your hat for a moment of silence? Have you placed a covering on your head to enter a sanctuary? Each of these practices is rooted […]
The following “Call to Giving” was shared by Jeanne Davies, Associate Pastor of the Highland Ave Church of the Brethren. Call to Giving I want to quote a reflection for you on church struggles and their relation to church giving. This is from a post on sister Dana Cassell’s blog […]
By Andrew Hamilton I was recently rereading an old edition of Brethren Life & Thought and rediscovered a thought provoking article by Nadine Pence Frantz. ((39 no 3 Sum 1994, p 153-166 )) In her article, “Biblical Interpretation in a ‘Non-Sense’ World,” Frantz offers a thought provoking discussion regarding the […]
By Christopher J. Montgomery Read part one of this series… Liturgical Place Early Brethren meetinghouses arranged their liturgical furniture in a rectangular or circular fashion. The benches faced inward to emphasize the community of believers gathered for worship. The presiders, often a panel of elders and ministers, occupied a bench […]
By Christopher J. Montgomery Read the second installment of this series… Gordon Lathrop asserts that the role of the presider in the assembly’s worship is to “make the center strong.” ((Gordon W. Lathrop, Holy People: A Liturgical Ecclesiology Augsburg Fortress, 2006, 94)) Throughout my work in pastoral ministry, either in proclamation, leadership, […]
by Dana Cassell from screens and screens, airport corridors and the adjoining seat, grocery store lines and rush hour traffic erupts this manufactured outrage – a pointed explosive perfectly aimed to obscure – with its hateful, prickly hot lava vomit – any trace of what actually is: the beguiling, the […]
By Randall Westfall If I were to ask you to make a list of things that you loved to do as a child, what would be on your list? For me that list includes (but is not limited to): running barefoot, building forts, catching things, building campfires, climbing, getting dirty, […]