A first-of-its-kind conference April 11-13 in Rome gathered Catholic educators and activists around the idea of moving beyond just-war theory to a greater emphasis on proactive peacemaking and Jesus’ life.
A first-of-its-kind conference April 11-13 in Rome gathered Catholic educators and activists around the idea of moving beyond just-war theory to a greater emphasis on proactive peacemaking and Jesus’ life.
The Mennonite family can now add Hmong to the growing number of ethnic groups embracing Anabaptism in Asia.
Franklin Mennonite Conference is leaving Mennonite Church USA, the third conference in nine months to announce a withdrawal. At their annual spring meeting April 18 at Marion Mennonite Church in Chambersburg, Pa., Franklin delegates voted 44-13 to withdraw from MC USA, effective immediately, and to remain without affiliation for a year, according to conference minister Allen Lehman.
HARRISONBURG, Va. — Eastern Mennonite University’s Presidential Search Committee announced Susan Schultz Huxman as its candidate of choice to be EMU’s ninth president at an April 13 all-campus meeting.
Calling sexualized violence a “cancer within the church that we need to expose,” the Mennonite Church USA Panel on Sexual Abuse Prevention released a statement March 30 urging congregations to “bring to light all that has been too long hidden in the shadows.” The panel, formed last year in response to a statement on sexual abuse passed by delegates at the Mennonite Church USA convention, said it issued the statement “in light of recent events.”
Advocates for deported Iowa Pastor Max Villatoro were hopeful after meeting with lawmakers in Washington, D.C., March 20-21, the one-year anniversary of his deportation. When he was deported on March 20, 2015, Villatoro was co-pastor with his wife, Gloria, at Iglesia Torre Fuerte (Strong Tower Mennonite Church), a Central Plains Mennonite Conference congregation in Iowa City.
The Mennonite Central Committee thrift shop in Harrisonburg, Va., is doing so much business it is investing in a $3.8 million expansion. Deb King is general manager of Gift and Thrift Shop Inc., an organization that includes not only the Gift and Thrift store but also Booksavers of Virginia and Artisans’ Hope, a fair-trade store. King said the thrift shop saw a 9.2 percent increase in revenue in 2015.
BLUFFTON, Ohio — Author, blogger, activist and professor Drew G.I. Hart presented the Keeney Peace Lecture, “What Has Shalom to Do with White Dominant Culture?,” during Forum March 29 at Bluffton University. Hart combined his pastoral experience with his academic training to challenge the church to pursue practices that make for justice.
Adam Miller was back at work March 10 at Excel Industries in Hesston, Kan. It was the first day the lawnmower plant was operating after four people died and more than a dozen were injured in a Feb. 25 shooting.
A judge dismissed a charge of solicitation of prostitution against former Eastern Mennonite University vice president of enrollment Luke A. Hartman on March 29, roughly a week after a Harrisonburg, Va., congregation acknowledged its pastors knew of an alleged “abusive relationship” involving him about a year and half before he resigned from his position in January.
Bethlehem, West Bank — More than 30 Mennonites and Brethren in Christ from North America encountered kindred spirits March 7-10 at the fourth biennial Christ at the Checkpoint Conference, hosted by Bethlehem Bible College at the Orient Palace Hotel in the town of Christ’s birth.
A Winnipeg, Man., woman who was sexually assaulted by a Mennonite Brethren youth pastor in 1996 has filed a $2 million lawsuit alleging his church fostered a climate that aided in the abuse of children.
