May 27 issue
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Photo by MDS
MDS prepares for Oklahoma tornado response
An outbreak of tornadoes on May 20 in the Oklahoma City area claimed dozens of lives, leveled entire neighborhoods and launched Mennonite Disaster Service into action.
The most severe, a mile-wide tornado that ripped through the town of Moore on the south side of Oklahoma City, flattened entire blocks. By morning on May 21 the state medical examiner’s office confirmed 24 deaths.
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Sister Care events go international
When Carolyn Heggen considered going abroad with Sister Care — a Mennonite Women USA-sponsored seminar to empower lay women for caring ministry — she, as co-facilitator, wondered what she could possibly have to teach women outside the U.S.
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Phoenix numbers lowest
Registration for the Mennonite Church USA convention July 1-6 in Phoenix is down from past assemblies, reflecting a regional pattern that likely means the event won’t go westward again in the near future.
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Japanese Anabaptist pastors defend ‘peace Constitution’
Japanese Anabaptists’ peace stance is being tested as the government considers amending its constitutional article prohibiting war.
May 13 issue
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Indonesia pioneer partnership bears lasting fruit
In 1978 Luke and Dorothy Beidler moved to Kalimantan, Indonesia — where the Dayak people live along wide rivers in a great tropical forest — as pioneer missionaries with Eastern Mennonite Missions.
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Kenyan pastime
NAIROBI, Kenya — Travis Tice teaches kids baseball in a country where few play the game. He works with the Kenya Redsox, a Nairobi-based organization that ministers to at-risk youth through recreational sports.
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EMU volleyball coach facing charge of battery
HARRISONBURG, Va. — Eastern Mennonite University announced April 30 its men’s volleyball head coach was charged with sexual battery, a misdemeanor.
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Holy rollers move Ohio church
The old Sonnenberg Mennonite Church building of Kidron, Ohio, traveled half a mile down the road and took over a month to get there.
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MCC regional director biking to 50 churches in Kansas
NORTH NEWTON, Kan. — Before John Stoesz steps down as executive director of Mennonite Central Committee Central States, he’s spending the month of May on a farewell bike tour of 50 Mennonite churches in Kansas.
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Welcoming stance affects church transfer request
CONESTOGA, Pa. — A Pennsylvania congregation hoping to transfer from one Mennonite Church USA area conference to another after expressing openness to gay members has received an invitation to associate membership.
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Congo’s growth exceeds resources
The quest to learn more about how Mennonite Church USA congregations and agencies find resources for their ministries brought visitors from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the U.S. in April and May.
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Ten Thousand Villages Canada cuts staff and stores
Ten Thousand Villages Canada has responded to a disappointing Christmas sales season by reducing staff and stores and increasing ties with its U.S. counterparts.
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Modern hymn writers revive a lost musical art
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Most songwriters in Nashville want to get their songs on the radio. Keith and Kristyn Getty hope their songs end up in dusty old hymnbooks.
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New name, new hope for survival at Colo. church
ARVADA, Colo. — Arvada Mennonite Church reached what longtime member Menno Gaeddert sees now as the height of its activity in the mid-1970s.
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Visits to mosque lead to Muslim friendships
EDMONTON, Alta. — A young man at the Al Rashid Mosque warmly welcomed Donna Entz and Miriam Gross and thanked them for their work within his Muslim community.
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After Christendom, what?
Our culture is undergoing a profound post-Christian shift. Pew Research continues to track a growing number of those who claim no religious affiliation. Barna Group recently released a study evaluating 15 measures of nonreligiosity that indicated 37 percent of Americans are post-Christian. As a culture, we are moving away from shared language and assumptions of Christianity. The church as we’ve known it is moving to the margins.
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