Sacrifice or Fulfillment

  We continue our month of inspirational pieces and sermons by congregants. Addie Liechty is my niece, and hers is the featured image—red and green leaves—of my blog. Addie’s blog is: https://addieswriting.wordpress.com. You can view her biography below. ____________ Reflection: told by Addie Liechty at First Mennonite Church, San Francisco, 1/19/2014 Photo by Joseph Barrientos on…

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Courage, humility, and the Mennonite Arts Weekend

____________   There is a little, urban church in southwestern Ohio that creates a magical thing every even-numbered year. The Mennonite Arts Weekend takes place in Cincinnati, and the year 2020 will see MAW’s fifteenth gathering of Mennonite visual, musical, and prose/poetry artists. Even though the church is graced by commissioned artwork from MAW artists,…

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Courage, humility, and writing

As I stated in the introduction to my website, the book that saved my grade school life was Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry. The young Mafatu’s journey gave me hope. He dug deep, found the courage to survive, and gained confidence. A little of that rubbed off on me when I needed it, and…

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Pacifism and the Soldier – Part 2

Anabaptist Pacifism in the Western World : a Few Definitions and a Little History Next week we will take a look at “Going to War.” We’ll see the close friendships, patriotism, and sense of purpose that military life can bring. Today we’ll visit a brief history of pacifism in the Europe and the U.S., in which…

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Courage, humility, and vulnerability

Courage, humility and vulnerability: But first, God speed, Winnie Mandela. Life was not easy. Mom and Dad knew Hugh Masekela in Botswana. He helped bring about the Botswana International School of Music. For a long time, we had the VHS of the 1987 Graceland concert, now it’s in DVD. The concert was held in Harare, Zimbabwe.…

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Courage, humility, and heights

Courage, humility, and heights: April is poetry month! My thanks to Jeff Gundy for adding immeasurably to this post by allowing me to present his poem Stringer below. Photo by KAP Jasa on Unsplash When I (Greta) was five, I pedaled my tricycle all the way down Grandma’s many concrete steps in Berne, Indiana, gaining…

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Courage, humility and—business?

As I’ve searched for religious articles about quiet courage, I’ve found some beautiful and powerful examples. But the internet is a big place, and too often I have found articles in which simple faith and ethical behavior were not central. Those writings either pounded the reader with what the scriptures demand, or examined a courageous act…

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How are courage and humility shown?

Last year, we Mennonites and the U.N. lost MJ (Michael) Sharp to rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo. By all accounts, he was tough as nails, sometimes lonely, but absolutely determined to help people solve difficult problems using peace and justice. Links: https://mcc.org/stories/mourning-death-michael-j-sharp http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/03/29/521962848/remembering-michael-sharp-he-risked-his-life-to-make-peace But I imagine that many of his days were hum…

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Why courage and humility?

I’ve always been interested in how these concepts depend upon each other and interact with people and institutions, hopefully producing a type of quiet courage that gets things done. Definitions: Humility: the quality or condition of being humble; having a modest opinion or estimate of one’s own importance, rank, etc. Courage: the quality of mind…

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