Anabaptist and Quaker essays, sermons, and other writings
For the last 8 months, I have been engaging in a daily ritual of prayer and worship with the Iona Community. The Iona Community is an international, ecumenical Christian movement based on the island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland. The community was founded in 1938 by Reverend […]
This month marks six months into my first pastorate. As I continue to settle into my new role as Co-Pastor at Harrisburg First Church of the Brethren and integrate myself into different aspects of the city, I am constantly reminded that there is never a dull moment in urban ministry. […]
The Liberty Bell numbers among our best-known national icons. There is a biblical quote inscribed on the bell: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto the inhabitants thereof. Lev. XXV v. X.” Curiously, those words were cast into the bell about a generation before the Declaration of Independence, at a time […]
My name is Joanna Willoughby and I am a lay-leader at Common Spirit Church of the Brethren in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a microchurch in the Michigan District that started 10 years ago. Together with Roya Stern and Randall Westfall, we make up the leadership team using a Nonsalaried Team Ministry […]
How has being busy distracted from my faith life? As a public school teacher, my day is packed with decisions. The most common types of daily decisions include when to help students, making curriculum improvements, and which professional development topics to explore. And several other types of decisions are added […]
When I was in seminary, one of my assignments was to develop a Rule of Life. A Rule of Life is a thoughtful, practical plan for how we arrange our lives, giving special attention to what spiritual practices we are going to engage in to support the work of our […]
This week, we take a break from our four-part series, “The Bible As…” by Jon Prater, to welcome back frequent Brethren Life & Thought blog contributor, Jonathan Stauffer. Stauffer writes about his experience attending Brethren Woods Camp and Retreat Center’s recent Simplify Conference. Stauffer accompanied two current Bethany Theological Seminary […]
Working as a program director might be one of the only “office” jobs that connects me to the cyclical design of nature. As we move from season to season, our programming shifts in rhythm with the movement of nature. In the winter, we slow down, observing a slower pace, a […]
For this blog post, we are publishing two audio recordings in the style of NPR’s “This I Believe.” Below are the audio files as well as their respective transcripts. Each piece is less than four minutes. So listen. You will get a lot more out of both pieces this way. […]
Katie’s Story As I was crossing the Fox River on the Highland Avenue bridge on a misty Sunday morning in Elgin, IL, a Bald Eagle stretched its wings and soared directly over top of me. I don’t know if I would have caught it if I had been driving my […]