The Mennonite provides Anabaptist content and is a publication of Mennonite Church USA.
Daily News
Friday roundup: Five things worth paying attention to this week
A new year, when so many conversations seem cyclical, reviewing the repetitive silliness in our nation’s capital, the redundant articles and analyses in media, the repeated tragedies along the border. It is a time for silent grief and stammering conversations, but here are a few things that we return to in our dialogue with friends […]
January recipe: Chocolate custard cake
Chocolate custard cake is our favorite chocolate cake. This fabulous cake is flourless, supremely decadent, dead simple to make, and perfectly balances the subtle spiciness of ancho and cinnamon with a dark fudgy texture. But perhaps the most eloquent endorsement is the bite mark on the stained recipe page by our late greyhound, Leo, who always […]
The little green dove: Who is MC USA?
A version of this article originally appeared on MC USA’s Menno Snapshots blog. This article is the first part of a three-part blog series. Who and what is Mennonite Church USA? That is a question we must continually ask ourselves as we seek to fulfill our mission as a denomination. The answer is complex, and the answer […]
March 2019 Call for Submissions: Lent
The Mennonite, Inc., invites your original submissions for our March 2019 print magazine issue and corresponding online content focusing on Lent: Repentance and Transcendence. Description of the theme: Lent begins on Ash Wednesday (March 6 this year) and leads up to Good Friday (April 19) and Easter (April 21). In the Christian tradition, this is a […]
Friday roundup: Five things worth paying attention to this week
Here are five things worth paying attention to this week. These are designed to expose you to a perspective you may not normally come across. Epiphany – Last Sunday, our church celebrated Epiphany. While many of my clergy friends chose to have a “star words” theme (cutout stars contain a word of hope the congregant is […]
Friday roundup: Five things worth paying attention to this week
Here are five things worth paying attention to this week. These are designed to expose you to a perspective you may not normally come across in your daily lives. Right now the government shutdown is on my mind. The longer this shutdown continues, the more ripple effects we will all feel. As of Jan. 2, […]
I was wrong about Christian education
This is a web-exclusive article on the theme “Education.” For more stories on this theme, see the January issue of The Mennonite. I never wanted to send my kids to a Christian school. In fact, I’m pretty sure if you asked young-adult me where I would like my future children to go to school, I would […]
Three spiritual disciplines: A source of joy in times of fear and sorrow
Photo: People of Bethany Mennonite Church walk the church’s labyrinth. Photo by Tom Smith. This is a web-exclusive article on the theme “Good News, Great Joy.” For more stories on this theme, see the December issue of The Mennonite. I have accumulated spiritual disciplines slowly, over decades. They are a source of joy in times of […]
Transformative teaching: A practice of righteous resistance and liberating love
This article comes from the January issue of The Mennonite, which focuses on “Education that is just, equitable and liberated.” Read more reflections online or subscribe to receive more original features in your inbox each month. “Education either conditions the younger generation into acceptance of society’s status quo or becomes the practice of freedom through which people deal critically and creatively […]
Is there a place for me in this world?
Photo: L’Arche community members in Portland, Oregon, including Adam, far right. Photo provided by L’Arche Portland. This is a web-exclusive article on the theme “Good News, Great Joy.” For more stories on this theme, see the December issue of The Mennonite. Adam and I took frequent walks down to the Food Lion on the corner to […]
Advent Manifesto: Does my soul still sing?
This article comes from the December issue of The Mennonite, which focuses on “Good News, Great Joy.” Read more reflections online or subscribe to receive more original features in your inbox each month. First words I too decided to write an orderly account for you. Luke 1:3 1. Some good friends in the world of Mennonite publications asked if I might […]
An innovative solution to affordable housing
Photo: Ruth Dunlap, right, who attends Community Mennonite Church of Lancaster, and Rose Sheaffer, who attends New Holland Mennonite Church, reside at the Cooperative Living House at Garden Spot Village in New Holland, Pennsylvania. Photo provided by Garden Spot Village. This is a web-exclusive article on the theme “Health care: a biblical and cultural concern.” […]
Mennonite witness amid suffering and hope in Ukraine
Photo: This former Mennonite school served 130 hearing- and speech-impaired children at Tiege in the Molotschna region. When the German army swept through Ukraine, soldiers took the students out to a field and shot them. Photo by J. Nelson Kraybill. In a region of Ukraine that thousands of Mennonites left generations ago, two dozen of […]
What to say on the eve of an election?
Recently, I spoke with a millennial who told me she’s not going to vote. She doesn’t really know the issues, she said. What is more, she doesn’t like what politics does to people and therefore she doesn’t want to participate. I am sympathetic. I would rather be birding than debating national issues. I am by […]
Love in the face of tragedy in Pittsburgh
Every week on Shabbat, the seventh day, when Jews come to the synagogue to observe the Sabbath, the Torah scroll is removed from the ark, lifted up, then laid gently down on a broad lectern and rolled out so the Scripture portion of the day may be chanted directly from the Hebrew text. Before and […]
One year in: a sanctuary reflection
Photo: In observation of Mother’s Day, Columbus Mennonite Church held an event May 10 that put Edith Espinal’s story alongside two other mothers: facing separation from children through possible deportation (Espinal), living without a son killed by Columbus police, and leaving behind a child in a refugee camp. The three woman are standing in front. […]
Doors, not walls: Why LGBTQ inclusion is so divisive in MC USA
I joined the Mennonite church as a teenager. Mennonite Church USA as a denomination was still new, and I found it fitting that I was starting my journey as a Mennonite at the same time this denomination was trying to get itself off the ground. I was pretty convinced this denomination was a perfect fit […]
Three reasons why gay acceptance has been so divisive in MC USA
Since its formation in 2001, Mennonite Church USA has declined from more than 120,000 adult members to about 67,000 adult members today. Most of this loss has been due to congregations, as well as some area conferences, leaving the denomination. Although congregations and conferences have left over a variety of issues, the most prominent one […]
