Global Anabaptists dance. Photo by Nina Lanctot
I’ve had an abiding revulsion toward the type of modern church music known as praise songs: the simple, repetitive lyrics projected on a big screen, congregation singing along inaudibly beneath the overamplified performance of the “worship team” but with much arm-waving in praise to God the majestic all-powerful one and Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
Can’t stand it. Continue reading
A choir from Kenya performs on the Global Village stage at Mennonite World Conference Assembly
Cicadas, a crowing rooster, a misguided moth trying to find an opening in the porch screens. I am at home and otherwise alone with time to reflect for the first time in a month. Time, but little mental clarity. It has been quite a month.
On June 25 four friends arrived from DR Congo to spend three and a half weeks in our community, doing volunteer work with members of my congregation, cementing our congregational partnership. And then we attended the global assembly of Mennonites/Anabaptists that takes place somewhere in the world once every six years, this time in Harrisburg, PA. In the last time slot of the last day of the assembly, three of us presented a workshop on church-to-church partnerships. Continue reading
the practical mystic 