An inter-Mennonite newspaper, putting the Mennonite world together every week since 1923

EDITORIAL

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The version of the Doxology identified as 606 — because of its number in the 1969 Mennonite Hymnal — has accompanied me during my grandfather’s funeral, my wedding and in more mundane circumstances, tying together those times in its reminder that both momentous and ordinary events provide opportunities to praise God.

Traditions such as singing the doxology have connected me to Mennonite faith, although I grew up in Washington, D.C., and my family attended an ecumenical church, the Community of Christ. My parents instilled Anabaptist distinctions in me without the help of a surrounding community, at least between trips to Lancaster and Chester counties, Pa., to visit our large extended families.

My church left many questions open, and adults did not place strict expectations of beliefs on children and youth. I listened to older adults share their questions of faith, and absorbed the lesson that one could be a Christian and not cease to seek truth.

When my faith begins to falter, 1 Cor. 13:9-12 reminds me that I have not sought God as a way of gaining certainty. In this world we cannot know fully, whether it be God’s will, our own purposes or why tragedies befall even the most pious. Through faith we are able to trust that God knows us fully and yet infuses our lives with grace to meet any challenges and forgive all shortcomings.

The God who had known and loved me called me into deeper relationship when I was in high school. I also desired participation in a Mennonite community as a way of connecting with God. I looked at Goshen College materials, and talked to my grandfather Luke Shank, an ordained Mennonite minister, about baptism.

On Easter 2001, when I was 17, I was baptized by my grandfather in my home congregation. An older member said it was the first adult to be baptized in that church body. Before kneeling to receive the water poured on my head, I responded affirmatively to my grandfather’s inquiry as to whether I had repented from sin, received forgiveness and committed to following Christ.

When I began studies at Goshen College that August, I was a bit of an oddity. I had a Swiss-German Mennonite name and substantial genealogical knowledge, yet I didn’t know most of the acronyms, nor most of the hymns in Hymnal: A Worship Book.

I learned the details of Mennonite church life through attending Assembly Mennonite Church as well as studying Anabaptist theology and history. Goshen College courses also introduced me to Mennonites in Ethiopia and Colombia. The Christians I met and lived among challenged me with their questions about my faith, and inspired me by facing persecution with steadfastness, drawing their strength from the examples of Anabaptist martyrs as well as the early church.

Goshen made much of finding a vocation, and I finally began to do that during my senior year, when I was mostly done with a degree in environmental studies. I decided the best way I could sew together the various patches of my knowledge and concern was to become a journalist.

Journalism, like faith, for me is a search for a greater truth, which we can know only in part, at least on this side of the resurrection. After writing for several news services and a magazine, and completing graduate studies in journalism, as reported in the Jan. 14 staff transitions article, I found my way to Mennonite Weekly Review.

It is a good place for me at this stage of my faith journey as I continue to seek ways to serve God and the church. Another part of my current walk is pursuing membership, a first for me, at Chicago Community Mennonite Church as I continue to live in the city.

The Sunday morning before I embarked on a train to travel to Newton, Kan., for my first two weeks at Mennonite Weekly Review, one of the hymns chosen at my church was 606. As I listened to the rising and falling harmony, pushing my voice to follow the soprano line, I closed my eyes and felt surrounded by the Holy Spirit, a presence I experience most fully through Anabaptist faith.

— Celeste Kennel-Shank