CHICAGO — At the largest annual gathering of Muslims in North America, thousands browsed a bustling bazaar showcasing products, businesses and opportunities by and for Muslims. Of more than 500 booths, only one represented a commitment to dialogue and friendship from the perspective of committed followers of Jesus.
HARRISONBURG, Va. — Christian activist Shane Claiborne announced a partnership with the nonprofit financial reform organization Jubilee USA Network Sept. 14 at Eastern Mennonite University. He joined with Jubilee’s campaign coordinator Andrew Hanauer to speak at chapel and give a two-hour lunchtime discussion, an evening lecture and a late-night residence hall discussion.
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Angélica Rincón could not stop smiling. All around her, crowds cheered and waved signs, banners and Colombian flags. Rincón — like others who have worked with Mennonite Central Committee’s partners in Colombia — have longed for this turning point toward peace for many years.
Mennonite Church USA has contracted with a Delaware firm to investigate how church institutions responded to abuse allegations against a former Eastern Mennonite University administrator.
NEWTON, Kan. — Creators of a musical about the life and teachings of Christ have resurrected the work with hopes of reaching an even wider audience than they did nearly a decade ago. Instead of going on tour, this time the script and score are available for lease, and a studio recording was just released.
NORTH NEWTON, Kan. — When the Steel Wheels come to Bethel College Sept. 20 to do a benefit concert at 7 p.m. in Memorial Hall, it will be one more link in a chain of connections aiding Russ Neufeld in his battle with cancer.
A fundraising website for the new song collection for Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada has been launched at HymnalProject606.com.
Forrest Mast’s Kentucky congregation felt a call to plant a church where there are few Mennonites. They found that place in Wyoming — home to about 100 conservative Anabaptists in a small handful of congregations.
Debra Zeit, Ethiopia — The college that serves the leadership training needs of the Anabaptist world’s largest cluster of churches is in a final push to complete a women’s dorm.
Mennonite Disaster Service volunteers have begun the arduous process of mucking out and cleaning up homes in the town of Central, La., resulting from the worst U.S. disaster since Superstorm Sandy in 2012. There is a need for more volunteers.
Huntington Mennonite Church in Newport News, Va., is home to four electric car-charging stations, thanks to a member with a passion for creation care who wants to see other congregations take on similar projects. Russell DeYoung is a senior research scientist at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, where he studies the effects of climate change on the Virginia coast.
When he was 15, Juan Marrero, now an Anabaptist pastor in Philadelphia, used a pair of boxing gloves to settle a dispute with a young man who attacked his aunt and broke her ribs. Hand-to-hand fighting isn’t how many Anabaptists interpret what it means to turn the other cheek. And yet, choosing to box — rather than wield guns or knives — created peace in Fairhill, one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.
