NORTH NEWTON, Kan. — Lois Kreider, who helped develop the first U.S. Mennonite thrift stores and was among the first Mennonite Central Committee workers in Europe after World War II, died Jan. 31 in North Newton. She was 94.
NORTH NEWTON, Kan. — Lois Kreider, who helped develop the first U.S. Mennonite thrift stores and was among the first Mennonite Central Committee workers in Europe after World War II, died Jan. 31 in North Newton. She was 94.
SHIPSHEWANA, Ind. — Persecution of Anabaptists in the 16th century by Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed churches created centuries of mutual mistrust and suspicion. In the last 30 years, however, these churches have persistently reached out to Anabaptists.
Two of the most traditional Anabaptist groups — Old Order Amish and Old Colony Mennonites — were only vaguely aware of each other 24 years ago. Since then, they’ve built a relationship of trust based on a common interest in education that preserves separation from the world.
MOUNT PLEASANT, Pa. — Anticipation for the new Voices Together music and worship collection — which is nearing the end of the research, song-collection and testing phase — was in high gear Jan. 11-13 at the annual Laurelville Music and Worship Leaders Retreat.
In late 2016, Ohio Mennonite Conference regional pastor Cliff Brubaker decided to hit the road and visit every congregation in the conference.
Yes, there’s a homeless shelter in Hutchinson, Kan., but no, it’s only open at night. That bothered Lois Mast and her daughter Heidi Mast, who recognized the cold can be just as bitter when people are turned out at 7 a.m.
A series of shootings that killed four people and critically wounded another Jan. 24 in State College, Pa., took the lives of a father and son who were members of Walnut Creek Mennonite Church in Sugarcreek, Ohio.
Evana Network’s next executive director foresees the group broadening its tent and continuing a conversation among Mennonites and like-minded Anabaptists about how to collaborate.
It seemed unlikely that a topic with apparently little common ground — the relationship between humanity and divinity —could serve as a starting point for Christian-Muslim dialogue.
Yet it did, with help from a contemporary story of Mennonite peacemaking.
Challenges accompany the joys of growth as tens of thousands of people new to Ethiopia’s Meserete Kristos Church swell the denomination.
Now with more than 600,000 participants, the world’s largest Anabaptist conference struggles to train enough pastors, find adequate meeting spaces and keep vehicles maintained for its teachers, who travel to distant outposts on rough roads.
TEMPE, Ariz. — Enough U.S. Mennonite Brethren want to allow women as lead pastors that they’ve opened an official discussion about it.
Recognizing diversity of belief, they want to build unity and understanding, whether or not the policy changes someday.
