From Apartment to Church to Apartment
As you approach our church building from the south, walking up Broadway Place between North Broadway Street and Oakland Park Avenue, you pass three apartment buildings on your left, each a quad. The third is unique. It’s attached to the church. Inside, the rooms have been converted to our downstairs…
The Backstory is the Story
On Sunday, I met with the junior high Sunday school class. We’ll celebrate our nine sixth graders at the Coming of Age service February 4. One of the ways we prepare together is through study and discussion of that morning’s Bible story. Because the junior highers requested we also declare…
Mennos in DC
On Monday and Tuesday, Ila (our 11 year old daughter), Kyle Kerley, Carolyn May, and I represented Columbus Mennonite in Washington, DC at the Mennonite Action call for a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel. There are good write-ups out there, like The Washington Post and Common Dreams. I love that…
Nonviolence Rising
A core principle of nonviolence is recognizing the humanity of your opponent. -opening line of an editorial in the January issue of Sojourners magazine From our beginnings, Mennonites have emphasized the peacefulness of Jesus – his teachings, his life, his refusal to violently resist his execution at the hands of…
Yesterday’s Action for a Ceasefire
It’s 11am on Tuesday and the CMC fellowship hall is coming to life. Carpools, caravans, and solo drivers from as far north as Bluffton/Pandora and as far south as Cincinnati are converging in Columbus to hold a service of prayer, singing, and testimonies outside Senator Sherrod Brown’s office downtown. We…
Advent Full House
Church health is much more than numbers, but it’s helpful to track how many people are joining the circle of care and community that is congregational life. Please pass the black registers at the end of the bench… Music Sunday has always been a high holy day on the church…
“What Shall I Cry?” Advent 2023
Since September, we’ve been working our way through the Narrative Lectionary. This series of readings roughly follows the chronology of the biblical story. We began with creation and have reached the Babylonian exile. One of the inherent features of the Narrative Lectionary is that we go nearly four months without…
Land Back and Land of the Freed
During our recent fall congregational meeting, we discussed money in our budget for reparative debt payments. Several years ago we made a commitment to step this amount up to $20,000 annually (currently at $15,000 for our 2023 budget). At the meeting, a strong majority affirmed we are ready to step…
Thank you South Dakota and Father Haire
One hundred and twenty five years ago, South Dakota did something no other state in the nation had done. They affirmed a process for people to have direct lawmaking powers. Soon other states followed in allowing for ballot initiatives and referendums. A key leader in this movement was Father Robert Haire, a…
Trust the Circle
Midweek Blog: Trust the Circle 25 October 2023 “Trust the circle” was a favorite phrase of Rubén Castilla Herrera, best known to our congregation as the organizer behind Edith Espinal’s sanctuary stay in our building. That phrase is also the name of a new book about Rubén’s life: Trust the…
