Marathana Prothro is assistant professor of communication at Bluffton (Ohio) University. She lives in Bluffton with her husband and their son. This piece originally ran
NEWTON, Kan. — The first time J.R. Cady met Mennonites, he was in prison at Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility. Due to suicidal depression, he was sent there for psychological tests as part of his prison sentence for first-degree murder, which he received in 1988 when he was almost 17.
SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras — Pastor Porfirio Zelaya Rubio gestured to the street outside the front door of Iglesia Menonita Sion (Zion Mennonite Church). He spoke in a quiet voice, not wanting to draw the attention of neighborhood children eating sweetbreads in the congregation’s tutoring center.
Millions of people will never pick up a book about Mennonites or enter a Mennonite church. But they will visit thirdway.com to get a glimpse of what Mennonites are about.
With Christian denominations generally declining in North America, Mennonites are looking for new ways of being the church together. Shrinking or refocusing national offices while building up regional and local responsibility is the order of the day.
