MWR : Articles : Dec. 24, 2007

Articles : Dec. 24, 2007

Quotes from 2007

Death didn’t have the final say with Jesus and doesn’t have to have the final say with us.
— Stephen “Tig” Intagliata, Bluffton University campus pastor, at a memorial service for five students who died in a bus accident

Peace for pacifists, just-war believers

Mennonite theologian and peace activist Ron Sider contends that by working together, Christian pacifists and believers in just-war theory could make peace on Earth a reality.
MCC returns to Iraq with teacher assigned to seminary

AKRON, Pa. — Mennonite Central Committee is finding more opportunities to help Iraqi peacemakers bring healing to their divided and traumatized society.

Mental health care

Thanks for the fine editorial “A New Challenge in Mental Health Care” by Robert Rhodes. The point is well taken that in this country we need to rethink our walking away from mental health care as a priority. Much has been written in the past about what happened to mental health care after the Mennonites came back after World War II to a number of communities and, in truth, changed the face of inpatient treatment for mental health. This was because of what those Mennonites saw in the “snake pits” that were run by the states until that time.

Hesston alumnus honored for defusing hostage crisis

HESSTON, Kan. — Sadi Othman, a civilian contractor in Iraq since 2003 and a 1993 graduate of Hesston College, has received a Civilian Award for Humanitarian Service from the U.S. Army for his role in defusing a dangerous hostage situation involving Iraq and Turkey.
Pastor asks for prayers after church shootings

ELKHART, Ind. — In the aftermath of the Dec. 9 shootings that left people five dead at a Colorado Springs church and an Arvada, Colo., missionary training center, Mennonite leaders connected to the families and congregation of the shooter ask for increased prayer from Mennonite Church USA.
Mennonite’s research contributed to Nobel award

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — When former Vice President Al Gore and a United Nations environmental panel received the Nobel Peace Prize on Dec. 10, an ecologist who is a member of Fort Collins Mennonite Church had a hand in the research that helped garner the award.
Prof. who guided pastors dies at 63

WINNIPEG, Man. — Erick Sawatzky, associate professor emeritus of pastoral ministry at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, died Dec. 6. He was 63.

Inspired to inquire

In his 19th century autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself, Douglass tells of learning his ABCs when he was nine. Long afterward, Douglas remembered his master’s anger when he discovered his wife was teaching young Frederick to read.

Grief, healing united Mennonites during 2007

Tragic deaths in 2007 united Mennonites in grief and journeys of healing.
Deaths in the Anabaptist world

Daniel B. Suter, 86, Eastern Mennonite University professor, Dec. 24, 2006.

Recover a sense of wonder

One of the best things about Christmas is experiencing it through the eyes of children, with their innate sense of wonder.

Sights of light for this world

Still living and learning, I’ve approached Christmas this year from a new angle. I’ve seen what I had not noticed before. But I can’t be the first to have seen this light.