February, March, April, 1982 |
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culture of Mennonite peo;
Festival. q
exploring the art, faith,
“Mennonite Family” by catherine Prescott
; , ' Mennonite Historical Library | : | : ’ Goshen College - Goshen, Indiana
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Herald Press: Fun, Help, and Inspiration for the Entire Family
For Children:
God’s Family
Eve MacMaster’s first volume in the new Herald Press children’s Story Bible Series. Book 1 retells Genesis, the story of how God made everything and what happened next. For
people 8 to 80. Paper $5.95, in Canada $7.15
Strawberry
Mountain
Birdie Etchison’s novel for _ 8-to-12-year-olds of a foster child, a haunted house, a mysterious old man, and maintaining one’s faith and principles in the face of
adversity. Paper $3.25, in Canada $3.90
Gina In-Between Dorothy Hamilton’s 27th
children’s book for 9-to-14-year-
olds tells of a girl who has lost her father in an auto accident and how she and her brother come to accept the loss of a
7 parent. _ Paper $3.25, in Canada $3.90
For Adults:
God’s Managers
Ray and Lillian Bair provide motivation and complete instructions for Christians to create budgets and to keep accurate financial records. Practical help on practicing good stewardship.
Paper $2.95, in Canada $3.55
The Price of Missing Life
Simon Schrock writes that life is worth living and that life at its best includes a commitment to the lordship of Jesus Christ. He sincerely believes that to miss the Christian life, and consequently heaven, is a high price to pay.
Paper $2.95, in Canada $3.55
In Favor of Growing Older
Tilman R. Smith’s guidelines and practical suggestions for planning your retirement career. Maturing should mean continued growth and joyful living.
Paper $8.95, in Canada $10.75
Preacher of the People
Sanford G. Shetler’s biography of the well-known Mennonite preacher, evangelist, and educator, S. G. Shetler (1871-1942).
Paper $13.95, in Canada $16.75
Hardcover $16.95,
in Canada $20.35
Something Meaningful for God C.J. Dyck edited this collection of stories of 15 individuals and couples who have served “in the name of Christ” through MCC at home
and around the world. Paper $7.95, in Canada $9.55
Four Earthen
Vessels
Urie A. Bender’s memorial to the contributions of Oscar Burkholder, Samuel F. Coffman, Clayton Derstine, and Jesse D. Martin to the Mennonite Church, especially through their service to the Ontario Mennonite Bible School.
Paper $7.95, in Canada $9.55 Hardcover $10.95,
in Canada $13.15
Identity and Faith: Youth in a Believers’ Church
Maurice Martin explores the place of youth in the life of the church as well as related concerns of conversion and church membership. He traces how youth mature and gain the capability of making a “conscious decision” of lifelong. commitment to Christ and the church.
Paper $3.95, in Canada $4.75
Herald Press
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table of contents
We’re Grown Up Now
There’s a line in the new movie Shoot the Moon which crops up several times in various forms. It implies that when a marriage breaks up, we should be “‘adult”’ about it and accept the situation. “We’re grown up now.” Or something like that.
It’s an intriguing idea. Sure, | understand what is meant. Certainly, we must all grow up. Adult life is more difficult in many ways than childhood. Dreams and illusions are brushed aside in the face of sobering realities.
But | believe the notion so easily erodes convictions. Rather than imply that growing up means working harder at our convictions, the phrase often suggests that growing up means easing up on our
convictions.
Leaving my spouse is more “mature” than digging in anew, the modern voice says. Driving a car is more “realistic” than traveling with a horse and _ buggy. Accepting the nuclear age and its risks seems more “grown up” than raising questions. Trading on our _ idealistic background and faith is more “adult” than reasserting it. Sometimes it seems that a great many in our family of faith are listening to that modern voice. But | celebrate the many who continue to believe that increasing our faith and conviction takes more courage and maturity than letting it slip away.
—MG
Looking for a Sane and
Orderly Life
It was the day our house painter came that | learned Kelifa Ali went to prison.
Just when we’re finishing up the painting fringes (left gaping for three years) and | feel like we can at last have “comp’ny” with fewer apologies about our house-in-process, | hear of a Mennonite being jailed for his faith.
Now a lot of my energy goes toward tying up loose ends. Dismantling a pile of files that has accumulated by my desk,
replenishing our light bulb supply, hemming up Christmas pants (in February), tracking down shelves to
house our toys instead of the cardboard box presently giving them shelter, getting the painting done. Always working
toward a little more order in our lives. Believing that a litter-free kitchen table and a drawer and shelf for every doodad would get us a little further along on the road to the responsible life.
Now I’m not shooting for ease or extravagance. I’m just looking for predictability, an extra touch of efficiency, a secure routine.
Then | learn that Kelifa and his wife and children are hoping he has his life for another day. The ultimate kink in the schedule.
Well, I’ll realign my focus again; work toward a little more order without being consumed by it.
—PPG
Taxes
For readers of FQ unfamiliar with the history of our peoples, one smail note: The current news about the Amish being opposed to receiving welfare from the government highlights a question which has continued to haunt us through the years in various forms.
What is the relationship between a Christian and the government? Does one pay all taxes? Does one accept all benefits
from the state? To what extent is compromise necessary?
The Amish stand on Social Security and the stand of many more modern Mennonites on war taxes both require courage. As with all convictions, these expressions are open to ridicule. But I’m happy to be a part of a people who constantly struggle with these issues.
—MG
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Editorials Letters Borders American Abroad People Stories Dis-Quest
Our traditions, when one of our group dies, have historic roots, no matter where we live in the world. What’s more, we’re affected by the surrounding culture’s prac- tices. This time, a look at Dutch, Russian, and Canadian Menno- nite customs. Out of Mighty Waters
A young woman fights for her sanity, personhood, and faith in this excerpt from a forthcoming book. Its powerful imagery and raw courage cause the story to linger and return to the reader’s mind. Is History an Affliction of the Dying?
Does a people’s interest in their his- tory signal new life, or the irretrievable passing of something precious? Creativity Diffuses Shirk’s Hardships
Stan Shirk’s artistry has been shaped by his commitment to others and has flourished despite health problems. The Hyena
An American MCC-er finds himself entranced by an African storyteller and his tale. Worldwide News Quarterly News
How did the painting featured on FQ’s cover come to be? Creatively Aging
Anniversary celebrations can become whole family occasions. Foreign Beat International Quiz
Which is the world’s oldest Menno- nite congregation? Publishing Notes Mennonite Books: In Review fq’s Quarter-Order Farmer's Thoughts Family Creations Trends in Music
An annual Festival in Harrisonburg, Va. keeps a cappella music alive. Best-Selling Books: In Review Quarterly Film Ratings Reclassified Comment
page 18
Festival Quarterly 3
Goshen College Presents
A Not-Always-Serious Week
For Serious Musicians
t
| Music Week June 13-18
Who says hard work can’t be fun? High school singers and instrumentalists enjoy Goshen College Music Week so much, many return year after year.
For more information about Music Week ’82, June 13-18, write Marilyn Graber,
Goshen College, Goshen, Ind. 46526.
The Goshen College Workshop for Piano Teachers and Students will also be offered June 13-18, featuring the GC piano faculty and guest artist Nelita True. For further information, write “Piano Workshop” at Goshen College.
DIRECTORY Ill
a hospitality travel directory forthe years 1981, 1982,1983
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Featuring:
105 International, 2100 N.A. hosts * What to see in 25 communities * Special on Ger- mantown plus map e 10 day worship guide © Centerfold map of important places ¢ Hosting guidelines © 46 countries, 45 states, 9 provinces.
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6% tax- PA residents TOTAL ENCLOSED
NAME Address
Mail to: Mennonite Your Way Box 1525, Salunga, PA 17538
4 February, March, April, 1982
FQ readers receive a 20% discount on many books reviewed or mentioned in our book review and news section. Check the “Quarter- Order’ between pages 24 and 25 for details.
Just one more benefit of belonging to the FQ family!
festival quarterly
The Festival Quarterly (USPS 406-090) is published quarterly by Good Enterprises, Ltd., at 2497 Lincoln Highway East, Lancaster, PA 17602. The Quarterly is dedicated to exploring the culture, faith, and arts of the various Mennonite groups worldwide, believing that faith and art are as inseparable as what we believe is inseparable from’ how we live.
Copyright © 1982 by Good Enterprises, Ltd. Vol. 9, No. 1. All correspondence should be addressed to Festival Quarterly, 2497 Lincoln Highway East, Lancaster, PA 17602. Second- class postage paid at Lancaster, PA. For U.S. readers: one year — $7.75; two years — $14.80; three years — $20.90. All other countries: one year — $8.95 (U.S. funds); two years — $15.80 (U.S. funds); three years — $21.90 (U.S. funds).
Editor — Phyllis Pellman Good Publisher and Associate Editor — Merle Good
Design Director — Craig Heisey Circulation Manager — Miriam Buckwalter
Contributing Editors — David W. Augsburger, Hubert L. Brown, Kenton K. Brubaker, Peter J. Dyck, Sanford Eash, Jan Gleysteen, Keith Helmuth, James R. Krabill, Jeanette E. Krabill, Paul N. Kraybill, David Kroeker, Alice W. Lapp, John A. Lapp, Wilfred Martens, Mary K. Oyer, Robert Regier, Jewel Showalter, Carol Ann Weaver, Katie Funk Wiebe.
Reporters — Rebekah Basinger, Jim Bishop, Will Braun, Ferne Burkhardt, Karen Glick- Colquitt, Donna Detweiler, George Dirks, Gwen Doerksen, Ernest Epp, Ivan Friesen, Paul Hostetler, Jon Kauffman-Kennel, Lawrence Klippenstein, Don Krause, Glen Linscheid, Randy MacDonald, Loyal Martin, Arnie Neufeld, Myrna Park, Karen Rich Ruth, Dorothy Snider, Stuart Showalter, Peter Wiebe, Shirley Yoder.
Phyllis Pellman Good, Merle Good
On the cover — “Mennonite Family” by Catherine Prescott. The 72” x 96” oil painting hangs in the Climenhaga Fine Arts Center at Messiah College, Grantham, Pennsylvania.
We enjoy FQ very much. The last issue was especially helpful, as myself and Wilmer Froese, Laird, were in a panel on “Mission — Past, Present and Future.”’ Of course | enjoy Peter Dyck’s (my brother’s) articles, and Katie Funk Wiebe. Our years are creeping up, too, so the full life so many elderly are leading is inspiring. We too believe in being “re- treaded” instead of “‘re-tired.”
A. J. and Helen L. Funk Laird, Saskatchewan
We really appreciate FQ! It’s a magazine we look forward to receiving and read from cover to cover (usually).
| would like to see more about and from the “dramatists” among us. as Mennonites. Surely there are some exciting theatre projects going on across the country and I’ve noticed that FQ rarely has the news. Being at Eastern Mennonite College, | would be interested in knowing what theatre is happening in other Mennonite Colleges. | would like to see essays, articles by Mennonite dramatists and theatre enthusiasts: Loretta Yoder, Urie Bender, June Yoder (I was glad to see she was part of your artists series), Stephen Shenk, etc.
Also — have you considered trying a Theatre Conference in the same tradition as your Writers’ and Church Music Conferences?
Keep up the good work — God bless.
Barbara Graber Hunsberger Harrisonburg, Virginia
In a recent editorial you asked if MCC is pulling our leg by simultaneously appealing to the “gut” through relief sales and to the “mind” when recruiting volunteers for the complex tasks of development. As a former MCC administrator | suggest that the problem is not so much “double-talk” on the part of MCC as it is the dilemma of whether MCC should be an educator/“sensitizer” of the constituency or whether it is a servant of the constituency in the sense that MCC must do as the constituency desires. At the risk of over- generalizing, | venture to say that most administrators of MCC have a heavy bias toward working at the complexities of development (i.e., concentrating on local production) rather than relief. The problem is that the MCC administration constantly receives requests for concrete things the constituency can give such as food, clothing, school kits, health kits, etc. Also relief has become an appallingly booming business among agencies which mushroom in size ina matter of months by flashing grotesque pictures of starvation on the T.V. screen or in glossy brochures. MCC constitutents are moved by this kind of publicity and would prefer to give through their own agency rather than an unknown one. MCC must therefore accommodate these “gut” reactions or run the risk of losing funds to non-constituency competitors. You should realize too that the MCC relief sales. are grass-roots constituency movements that have been initiated by local communities and not MCC administrators, although obviously MCC is deeply grateful for the funds thus generated.
The dilemma thickens as MCC accommodates the constituency’s penchant toward relief by giving suggestions for “hands- on” projects, as MCC delivers the goods as appropriately as possible and then rushes to get a news release out to report on end-use. All of this stirs ever deeper interest in relief and
generates ever more material goods (along with funds for relief), to the extent that MCC appears to be cashing in on the relief bonanza that is making so many agencies “successful.” And the MCC administrators, while continuing to talk the language of development, get ever more deeply enmeshed in the relief mentality quagmire. Thus, MCC ends up appearing to “double-talk.”
Your editorial and my response beg the question, “What is MCC?” Is it narrowly defined in terms of the administrators in Akron, Pa, and the regional offices? Or is it defined in terms of the whole constituency, especially those thousands of volunteers who put so much work into organizing relief sales, food drives, etc. You see, the two speak somewhat different languages and therein lies your problem of “double-talk.” | prefer to see this “double-talk” as a necessary and healthy tension.
Ray Brubacher Elmira, Ontario
Editor’s Note: The following is a copy of a letter sent to Paul Kraybill, one of FQ’s columnists. Because it pertains to material printed in the last issue of Festival Quarterly, we included it here.
As a teacher of Mennonite history‘ +l especially enjoy the international quiz section of Festival Quarterly. It is a good way for many people to test their knowledge.
| want to point out an error in question 8, p. 20-1, of the issue of FQ which arrived today (the “November, December, 1981, January, 1982” issue.)
The General Conference Mennonite Church does not trace its history toa common origin resulting from a division with the Mennonite Brethren in Russia in 1860. The General Conference Mennonite Church was organized at a meeting at West Point, lowa, the second day of Pentecost in 1860. The meeting was initiated by recent immigrants from South Germany who were interested in the progressive causes of education, publication, missions and Mennonite union. It did not result in the first instance from a church split- although some representatives from the East
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Pennsylvania Mennonite Conference, which resulted from an earlier 1847 schism in Franconia, were active in the new group from the beginning. It is quite doubtful if these organizers of a new General Conference had any idea of what was transpiring in Russia between the new Mennonite Brethren and the old Kirchliche group.
Eventually many of the former “Kirchliche’”’ Mennonites from Russia joined the North American General Conference, but the old organization was never transferred over from Russia.
| would be interested in the source of your information on this, because it needs to be corrected if it is getting into the history books or the popular literature this way. Please excuse my pickiness on historical details. It must be a professional hazard!
Jim Juhnke North Newton, Kansas
Thoughtlessly, | did not respond to your renewal notices even when you suggested action be taken before a needed price increase — so the inevitable has taken place and with the seasonal mail many items have been mislaid, but | wish to continue receiving your magazine which | have come to both enjoy and love. It should not surprise you that a Quaker has found some light and joy radiating from the pages of the Festival Quarterly. As | do not recall present rates enroll me for the year and reimburse me in whatever way you are led — (no cash please) — perhaps literature.
Felix M. Boyce Brooklyn, New York
The editors welcome letters. Letters for publication must include the writer’s name and address and should be sent to Festival Quarterly, 2497 Lincoln Highway East, Lancaster, PA 17602. The editors regret that the present volume of mail necessitates publishing only a representative cross-section. Letters are subject to editing for reasons of space and clarity.
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“Look, if you don’t want to watch the movie you can sleep. But we can't have you reading.”
Festival Quarterly 5
© Punch/Handelsman
borders —
Only C Eye But 20/20 Vision
Herbert Bergen had only one eye; the other was covered by a black patch. He had a special reason for feeling uneasy about that black patch.
Herbert was safe in West Berlin. In the Russian zone of occupied Germany, today known as the German Democratic Republic or East Germany, he had never been safe. At any moment he might have been identified as a refugee from Russia and shipped back. This was the fate of thousands of Mennonites and others who were not as lucky as he was.
Herbert had made it to the MCC refugee camp in West Berlin, although that had not been his original intention. Like every other refugee, he had two major preoccupations: to get enough food to survive and to find the missing members of his family.
When Herbert discovered the whereabouts of his aunt, the joy was mixed with apprehension—she was in the Russian zone. If he were to be reunited with her, he would need to bring her to West Germany. But she would not be able to manage such a venture on her own. He would have to help her across the
| american abroad
dangerous border. That meant that while everyone was trying to get out of East Germany, he would have to try to get in. Only then could he help her come out.
But taking her across the border turned out to be much more complicated and difficult than they had imagined. After several unsuccessful attempts, they gave up the plan and came instead to the MCC camp in Berlin in the heart of the Russian zone.
And that is where he found his real mission and fulfillment; going into the Russian zone and leading refugees to Berlin. Each trip was a cliff-hanger. Sometimes he returned promptly and sometimes after many days. Sometimes he brought two or three people, and
sometimes more; on one_ occasion sixteen. He was sick and had to be
hospitalized after that trip. It had been particularly strenuous, not only because the group was so big, but also because there were old women and small children among them. The women couldn’t move very fast and the children wouldn’t keep quiet when absolute silence was a must.
It seems he got farmers to haul people by wagon at night to a railroad station. Then he would “‘negotiate ” with the ticket agent to sell him tickets to the blocked city of Berlin. That was only part of the nerve-wracking business. The more difficult part was to avoid boarding atrain manned by secret police and _ thus inadvertently delivering all his passengers directly into their open arms.
On this particular occasion he had all his sixteen people safely on board only to discover that the police were at that very moment systematically combing the train for suspect passengers. Getting all those old ladies and children off again undetected, walking them to another town and getting them onto a different train—and wondering at every stop whether the police would board that one too—was too much for him. When he delivered the sixteen safely to the camp, he collapsed.
One day | asked him how many persons he had led to safety and how many times he had risked his own life doing it. He shrugged his shoulders and said it wouldn’t be right to keep a record.
On Taking N Nothing Except a Stick ¢ (or
by James and Jeanette Krabill
Then Jesus called the twelve disciples together and sent them out two by two... and ordered them, “Don’t take anything with you on your journey except a stick — no bread, no beggar’s bag, no money in your pockets. Wear sandals, but don’t carry an extra shirt.”
When explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley wrote his now-famous letter from Uganda, East Africa, which appeared in the November, 1875 London _ Daily Telegraph, requesting that missionaries be sent to Mtesa, he suggested such an outfit for the missionary as would have suited a trading expedition. And in fact the Church Missionary Society (CMS) estimated during this same period that each of its newly arriving missionaries would require a ton of goods for a year’s stay in East Africa, consumable provisions alone surpassing 700 pounds. Sixty African porters were needed, according to New York University Professor Thomas O. Beidelman, for transporting each shipment from the coast into the interior. One missionary at the time estimated having arranged during the course of one year for about 1,000 porter-loads not
6 February, March, April, 1982
including additional personal trips to the coast for checking accounts, ordering shipments and recruiting and screening new porters.
Getting foreign workers installed— and keeping them that way—are problems which have preoccupied overseas ministries of all kinds for many years. There are the practical concerns of making sure that the many supplies “essential to the work and to mere survival” arrive when and where they are supposed to. And there are certain theological considerations, such as, asking the question whether so much “stuff” is in reality all that necessary and justified, especially given the fact that what may be for the overseas worker indispensable equipment for passing on the Gospel will more likely than not be perceived by those helping to unload the ships as the Gospel itself.
Most persons we know serving on third-world soil find themselves plagued by a never-ending circle of self- interrogation concerning this matter. The circle goes something like this: Witnessing to the Good News of Jesus
means doing as He did, identifying wholly in life and thought with those we are sent to serve .. . recognizing of course that being Western, educated and rich will in fact mean never totally identifying since we can always fall back on our “hidden resources” ... nor should we feel guilty since those around us don’t expect us to live as they do for this would be hypocritical, ‘playing games” and what the locals most desire of us is honesty and authenticity . . . which means (what a relief!) we can in all good conscience be “true to ourselves” and live “differently” (generally more comfortably and _ less hassled) than the indigenous population
. although there are of course certain limits since we know that witnessing to the Good News of Jesus means doing as He did, identifying wholly . . . (and we’re back to zero).
Our dilemma is not of recent date. This year, 1982, marks the one-hundredth anniversary of a speech given by the West African writer and statesman, Edward W. Blyden, in which he predicts the obstacles Europeans would inevitably encounter in evangelizing Africa, due largely to their
—— by Peter J. Dyck
But he did wish he wouldn’t be quite so conspicuous because of his black eyepatch. He wondered whether someday we might get him a glass eye.
We did get that artificial eye for him, but only after he got to Paraguay and didn’t need it anymore, at least not for the original purpose. Still he was glad to have it.
However, we never doubted that Herbert had 20/20 vision all along. He had his priorities straight and was ready to surrender his own freedom as the price for helping other people into free- dom.
Peter Dyck has spent a rich life shuttling refugees to new homelands, overseeing relief programs, and telling wise and witty stories. At home in Akron, Pennsylvania, he works in Constituency Relations for Mennonite Central Committee.
er vO
having strayed from the simple, unencumbering mission strategy outlined by Jesus for the Twelve.
What is of course obvious is that if nineteenth century Europeans had difficulty reducing their baggage, their problems were peanuts compared with those of foreign workers disembarking from the abundant North American shores of the 1980s. But we’ve got to keep trying. On the field. And already at home. Disciplining ourselves to accumulate less shirts so that when the time comes to “carry only one,” we have fewer from which to choose.
&
James and Jeanette Krabill, Mission Associates under the Mennonite Board of Missions, live in Ivory Coast, West Africa, where they are available to the independent African churches.
Being a
Black
Administrator in the Mennonite Church
by Edward C. Taylor
| have been asked to write frankly and honestly about what it’s like to be black in Mennonite Officialdom. | must say that in many instances it has been a very disappointing experience. Perhaps my assumptions on what Christian Officialdom would be was my mistake. | came believing that it would be a two-way learning experience as we _ worked together in the Lord’s work. That was my first mistake.
| have made every effort possible to
My being black in an administrative role in the Mennonite Church has been very difficult for some of my Anglo brothers.
learn, understand and respect Mennonite Culture, but when | speak on behalf of the Black Culture it seems to fall on deaf ears. When | speak on broader issues of the Church, the refrain | hear is, ““We need to hear that, Ed, keep saying it,’”’ but nothing happens. At this point | need to ask, why was | hired?
| am committed to Jesus Christ as Lord of my life; therefore, 1am committed to Kingdom-Building in every area of a person’s life, educationally, economi- cally, socially, politically and spiritually.
Secular institutions hire you for your expertise in a certain field and they immediately expect results. It boils down to whether or not you are achieving the results they expected. The color is not the issue, the profit for the company is the issue. | may be naive, but | believe that we are in business with and for God so that it really should not matter what a person’s color is, but rather how his or her gifts can be profitable for God.
Being black in a white institution at administrative levels is not new to me. My being black in an administrative role in the Mennonite Church has been very difficult for some of my Anglo brothers. They question my right to make certain decisions that involve them (seemingly whites can make decisions for blacks and other minorities, but there is a problem when the roles are reversed).
Sometimes a decision is changed by those to whom | report without discussing the issue with me. (White is right.) Where is the brotherhood? Yet the decisions | have made have proven to be the right ones.
Being a black administrator in the Church, | have also established some very meaningful relationships with some of my white brothers and sisters in the church and in the office that will be lasting.
| am not ashamed of my blackness. It is God-given. It is the world that I live in that has problems with my color. God has endowed me with all the facilities that whites have and in spite of the indifferences and racism that | have found in the Mennonite Church, | will continue to work with malice towards no one.
| have and will continually speak against going into areas to perform services with no intentions of sharing our faith or even starting Bible classes, and against paternalistic practices because they subject persons to becoming non- persons. We are not to take care of people; we take care of children. One develops people so they can take care of themselves.
| have been called of God to Kingdom-Building, and whether | am in the Mennonite Church or else- where | will con- tinue to do just that.
&
Edward C. Taylor, Indiana is
Elkhart, Director of Home Missions for the Mennonite Board of Missions of the Mennonite Church.
Festival Quarterly yi
_ dis-quest
How does your fellow- ship group deal with death?
How do you express orief?
Do your church’s practices differ from those of the larger society around you?
Prussian Practices Continued in Canada
by D. D. Klassen
To understand the Russian-Mennonite tradition, we must look back to West Prussia, from where the Mennonites emigrated to Russia beginning 1788-1870.
In West Prussia, Mennonites in many areas had to pay a tax to the clergy of the Protestant and Catholic churches for speaking at the burials of their deceased. As late as 1890 a Mennonite minister was taken to court because he had a funeral service on a graveyard at ““Mariennau Prussia.” A Government decree of 1852 said only the clergy were to speak at a funeral service on a recognized graveyard. The so- called lay-ministers of the Mennonites were not regarded as clergy, and therefore forbidden to speak. However from October 9, 1898 on, Mennonite ministers were recognized.
Maybe that is why Mennonites did not preach funeral sermons before the beginning of the nineteenth century. Their services consisted in singing a song composed for the occasion by a friend or relative of the deceased. Gergen Berentz wrote, ‘“‘A song at the death of our Elder Dirk Jantzen, consisting of 28 stanzas, the singing of which could have consumed as much time as a funeral sermon” (Mennonite Encyclopedia, Volume II, page 420).
There were no government-registered graveyards in the
8 February, March, April, 1982
early years of the Mennonite settlement in Manitoba. So many buried their deceased in the gardens or on their homestead. In the small village of Halbstadt between Emmerson and Gretna, one-half mile from the U.S.A. border, there were three graveyards within one-half mile of each other, and none of them in good repair. In 1927 a meeting of all the different churches was held, and it was decided to register the largest one with the Government. No one was to be buried in the other two. The Committee in charge was under obligation, however, for the upkeep of the other two!
In the early years of our settlements there were no hospitals, so most people died in their homes. We also had no undertakers or funeral directors. The local carpenter would make a casket of white spruce lumber; some older women would wash the corpse and lay it in the box with a removable lid the length of the casket. The body was covered with white linen and green house-plant leaves and some flowers. For the funeral the cover was removed and left open for viewing after the service. This viewing part became a nuisance later when we held funerals in large churches and 800 or more people filed past the coffin, one by one, shaking hands with the bereaved.
Before good roads and cars came, funerals were held in the homes. The corpses were stored in the coolest room in the house; in hot weather large iceblocks were piled around the coffin. The graves were dug by voluntary labor; the burial was also done by those who came to the funeral. The family stayed by the graveside till the finish. It was almost unbearable for the bereaved to hear the frozen blocks of earth fall on the coffin with a bang!
Since there were no telephones or cars, the funeral was announced by general letters, with the names of invited guests on one page, with each person being requested to share the letter with the next person in line. Now all the invitations are made by our own local Radio Station CFAM Altona every morning at 9:00 o’clock a.m. Recently there were 15 announcements. My wife and | listen to them every morning, and if we are not among them we go to our daily tasks!
D. D. Klassen, Carman, Manitoba, Canada has been a Mennonite minister for 51 years. He continues his pastoral work by writing radio meditations. His hobby — writing words of comfort and sympathy to bereaved families.
Cremation Practiced in Netherlands
by Jeltje T. de Jong
The people in the Netherlands let it be known if a loved one dies through cards sent to relatives and friends. We recognize the cards by the black or grey border on the envelope and card itself. The cards can be very simple with only the deceased’s name, birthday, date of death, the names of close relatives, and the time and date of the viewing and the funeral. Christians often have a Bible verse on it or a song that expresses their feelings.
There is an announcement in the local paper, and if the person is better known, in the larger newspapers. Friends and relatives, and others that were acquainted may express their sympathy through announcements of condolence in the
newspaper.
This spring when one of our Mennonite ministers died there was a viewing the evening before the funeral in a special room in town. People could go to meet the family and see, if they wanted to, the box partly opened.
The next day before the funeral service started it was also possible to see him. The box was in the front of the church, close to the pulpit, with many flowerpieces around it. The flowers were mostly white; there were ribbons attached with the name of the persons or organization that gave them with messages on them. (In recent years many relatives ask that money be given for mission work or relief work, in the deceased’s memory, instead of flowers.) Most of the people would walk up front, look for the last time at the man they had known so well, and stand there for a moment. The coffin is usually very simple, inside and out. The deceased is dressed in Sunday clothes, or in a new nightgown or pajamas. The body does not have to be embalmed.
(In some villages in Friesland the cemetery is around the main church. A few years ago | attended a funeral where the deceased was to be buried. The church bell rang as the church service started; then again at the time the box was carried three times around the cemetery, and again after the Lord’s Prayer was said at the grave, while the box was lowered into the ground. The tradition of ringing the church bell and circling the church with the coffin began as an attempt to confuse the evil spirits.)
Just before the church service started the relatives came in. During the service the minister mentioned some specific events from the life of the person that died.
After church, we went to a place outside of town, where the crematorium was. In the auditorium there was a short devotion, with music and quiet time. Especially then there was the strong feeling of parting.
After this we all went to a room where we could meet the relatives and express our feelings, have something to drink and something small to eat.
Many people in Holland choose cremation. But there are still those that want to be buried. Then the church service is held at the cemetery.
This funeral was so different from the one | attended a few years before this. The person was not a Christian. We left from home right away for the crematorium. There we sat for a time with the relatives in the auditorium. The box was there with some flowers. We listened to classical music. After a while the daughter thanked us for coming and we left the auditorium again. We could meet the family; there was a drink and a snack. | know that some non-Christians will read a poem, or have a commemoration.
Jeltje T. de Jong grew up in the Netherlands, has lived in Luxembourg, served in a mission program in Indonesia as a housemother, and is presently
a student at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, Elkhart, Indiana.
A Mennonite Funeral Today in the City of Winnipeg by Gerhard Lohrenz
Mrs. Mary Braun has passed away and the family calls the minister. He comes immediately. Then they cail the
undertaker. There is a Mennonite undertaker here in the city and most of our people avail themselves of his service. He picks up the body and arranges for an appointment with the family the next day.
At this appointment the place and the time of the funeral are decided upon, a coffin is selected and the price agreed upon.
Next the family meets with their pastor. The service and other details are decided. The pastor and another minister are asked to speak, one in English and the other in German, each for about 15 minutes. A group of members will sing two songs and a relative will read the obituary of the departed. The service will last about 45 minutes. Funeral expenses are met partly by the family and partly by the congregation. All help, such as in preparing and serving the meal. Singing is gratis and is willingly rendered by members of the congregation.
The evening before the funeral there is a meeting of the family and close friends at the funeral parlor. The body, resting in an open coffin and dressed in a dress supplied by the family, usually the departed’s best dress, is viewed by the visitors.
Someone has been asked to be in charge of this meeting. They sing two or three well-known songs and a ten minute sermonet is given. Words of encouragement and hope are spoken. Then the family assembles around the open coffin and expresses their grief.
Next day at about ten o’clock the body is brought into the church. The open coffin is set up in the foyer where visitors can view the departed. The family assembles about twenty minutes before eleven in a special room of the church and at five to eleven, preceded by the funeral director and the ministers, walks into the foyer. They once more view the body and then the coffin is closed. The ministers, followed by the coffin and the relatives, slowly enter the sanctuary and move to the front of it. The congregation stands. The ministers mount the platform and the coffin comes to rest in front of the pulpit. The family take their places in the front pews. In their messages the ministers evidence empathy and point to the source of hope and comfort found in Christ. At the end of the service all those present are invited to come into the lower auditorium for a fellowship meal. The coffin is carried into the hearse. Most of the visitors come down for coffee.
In the lower auditorium the tables have been set. The members of the family and the ministers take their place at the head table. Coffee, buns, cookies and cheese are served. A brief prayer is said. Many friends express their condolence to the family. A member of the family then thanks all visitors for their presence and participation.
Then those who wish and those who must accompany the body to the cemetery. Here the closed coffin is placed over the open grave. All gather around it and the minister reads a few verses from holy scriptures and offers the final prayer and benediction. Then the funeral director takes a few flowers from the coffin and gives one to each member of the family. Now the coffin is slightly lowered into the grave. All the guests leave the cemetery.
Many come up to the bereaved family and express their condolences.
Gerhard Lohrenz, Winni- peg, Manitoba, has chronicled much Russian Mennonite history in his published stories, and photo histories.
Festival Quarterly 9
Editor’s Note: Out of Mighty Waters is a full-length book, scheduled for publication in June, 1982. It is an unusual book, memorable for the author’s courage in telling her very excruciating story; unforgettable for the powerful images she uses. The following excerpts are taken from throughout the book.
W.. black oceans heaved and
rippled and sighed and twisted far beneath wispy white clouds. The TWA jet flawlessly droned high above the Aegean Sea, the lonian — seas of Ulysses’ nightmare odyssey among the gods.
In my seat by the airplane window, | twisted restlessly, thirsting for escape from the panic and doom sneaking among my feelings like ceremonial masks with grotesque teeth dancing ominously. | was fleeing primordial Africa — and the Dragon.
By my ankles in an airline cot slept my firstborn son, six months old, breathing, protoplasmic organism needing food and diapers constantly.
“John, we don’t have any more diapers!” | turned to my husband beside me. ‘Whatever shall we do?” Stewardesses were for such things —
“Ask the stewardess, would you, please, John.”
“| hate to bother her... .
“Well, what else can we do,” | snapped. “Why did you check that other bag with the luggage?” I wasn’t concentrating on other people’s smooth feelings right then. We were headed for a fight.
“Lois, please!”
The tone infuriated me further. Pleading, cajoling, ignoring — What was | to do! Everyone was so blind! Didn’t they see we were all careening blissfully, smoothly, sleepily, hopelessly to our doom?
It was July 1969, the stewardess handed us a couple of disposables for the wet infant who had been born on Valentine’s Day. We were taking him home with us to America.
High school sweethearts, John and | had been married after our third year in college. John was the fourth child of
a”?
10 February, March, April, 1982
Out of Might
pioneer missionaries to Tanganyika. He taught me about the world. | taught him about America.
Amid the work in Africa, my time had been internally tumultuous. With God and my journal | wrestled privately with theological, social, and psycho- logical questions. My upbringing to be a “submissive” Mennonite woman had not equipped me for visible sharing in the forums where such questions were avidly and openly discussed; nevertheless, | had much to say, and | said it to myself and God.
| had not been in Kenya for a year when vague physical symptoms began to bother me. | felt overly tired and short of breath. As a child | had experienced severe allergies. Perhaps, now, some of them were flaring up again. Perhaps it was the chalk dust. Or some pollen.
One day | was wearily and doggedly pinning wet diapers to the clothes wire beside our house. It was noon, and the equatorial sun blazed through the thin atmosphere of the highlands. Suddenly a flash exploded inside my head. | felt a surge of panic. Something seemed to direct me to run. Partly in a trance, | left the laundry and ran inside. Following an inner compulsion | grabbed my Bible and opened it randomly. | hardly knew my eyes were falling on the chapter called Revelation 12. But suddenly | bolted, every fiber of my being alive. | read the apocalyptic symbolism of a woman with child, of a dragon, of a pursuit.
“And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood .. . And'the dragon was wroth... .” gene:
| read, heart beating wildly, of the sun and the moon and great portents in the heavens. Yes! | was being pulled in two directions by the “sun” and the “moon.” The sun was my desire to do “man” things and the moon my desire to do “woman” things. | arrived at that logic by recalling that in Joseph’s dream the sun and moon were his father and mother. . .
| was already on my long flight. Revelation said the woman was given
the wings of an eagle to fly to the desert. No one else saw the danger — yet. | would fly out of Africa on the “eagle” before the onslaught of The Dragon. No doubt the others would eventually follow.
Thus began the Great and Terrible Escape. My flight led through visions, wild actions, intricate reasonings, apocalyptic symbolizing, and always fear, fear.
Now I was in a hospital room in Washington, D.C. The nurse and the orderly accompanied me to the mattress on the floor. At their wary commanding invitation | sat upon the device. The nurse and orderly backed quickly out the door. The door closed and a lock clicked. With a horrid realization | knew | had been betrayed, trapped, and abandoned.
Trying to control my panic | saw that the walls were chipped and smeary with violent suggestions. | banged my bare fist upon the battered lock. The. pain startled me as if in a dream. | circled the room restlessly like a lionness in a cage. The Apocalypse — it would come. ..1 could not stop it... | had not been able to salvage even my family. My grave would be with the wicked. My mind sank deeper and deeper into the black abyss.
Well, now | was “home,” wasn’t I? Home to Ephrata, Pennsylvania, land of my physical birth, spiritual rebirth, and early training. Home, broken in mind and spirit, confused and agitated, befogged with stuporous mind- medicine. ...
To raise my children. To be a “good Mennonite wife.” | tried determinedly and dutifully to obey.
“Carest thou not that | perish?”
Dr. Hyle stepped into the room to introduce himself. An earthy sort of man with a surprisingly casual appearance, he seemed full of energy and confidence. Before he left us, he pounded his fist into the air above his head.
“We’re gonna get this!” he said, like a football player ready to tackle. For the first time in many months a glimmer of hope shone into my life.
My feelings broke through the ice of suppression in jerky spurts. Sometimes | felt wildly creative, and then | wrote poems. Poetry was a way of taking the tip of a feeling which | spotted projecting above the debris of fear, gently scraping away the surrounding earth and lifting the prize in my hands to cherish and relive. It
Waters
also became a way to release intense feelings that began to keep me awake at night.
| again took to opening the Bible at random, seeking answers for the unanswerable. Once when | was overcome with confused feelings, my Bible fell open and my eyes rested on Mark 1:31: “And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and
immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.” Some peace, gratitude, and hope surrounded me then, even in the midst of my restlessness.
| struggled to keep my mind on a similar wave as other people’s. It was more and more exhausting. | tried to remain objective, as | observed and figured and struggled to conclusions | hoped would keep me tenuously tied to the world as everyone seemed to see it. The harder | tried to remain rational, the more my mind did not serve me.
| was acutely aware of the possible future. Barred forever from the exhila- rations and sensibilities of humanity. Discredited in my conclusions — for did she not “have mental problems’’? (Anyone who disagreed with any of my ideas could rationalize thus.) Was | doomed to a sensitive chemistry that refused to cooperate? Doomed to eternal watchfulness and control, to questioning the validity of my perceptions? Doomed to the control of the scientific sovereigns who legislated standards of ‘appropriateness’? Doomed to a plodding life of manual chores?
“It’s marvelous the way the mind and body work together,” said Dr. Hyle. “What we’re working for is deep inner balance and peace. | would like, with your permission, to give you something that will help a whole lot!” said my PhD. friend who had first trained to be an orthomolecular psychiatrist.
At home in my kitchen, | swallowed Ziman (zinc and manganese), vitamin E, vitamin C, buffered niacinamide, a multi-B vitamin, vitamin B6, dolomite, and zinc. It was a start. | went into our bedroom to lie down. | felt some headache and nausea and continued twinges of sensitivity.
Because of the many-sided “coincidences” that finally fell together to create wholeness, it seems clear to me that it was God who brought me out of the mighty waters, from my foes when they became too strong for me.
“When will | begin to notice a difference?” struggling people yearn to know when they start their vitamin therapy.
“Oh, it took me two years,” was the disheartening response of Dr. Hyle’s secretary/receptionist in 1978. (Fortunately, today orthomolecular science has greatly improved its diagnostic accuracy and speed of effectiveness.)
A restored mind and body, opportunities for investigative and creative release, and a marriage that also was in process of renewal was a healthful combination. There came a time | could do without the last traces
by Lois Landis Shenk
of the haldol drug completely. It coincided with increased understanding of the damage such drugs can do, and a more precise ability to cope nutritionally with times of stress in my life.
One night | fell asleep early without my quarter milligram of haldol. In a dream | found myself suddenly laughing and laughing — long, delicious laughter.
| awoke to find it was midnight, but felt as if I'd had a good night’s sleep. | went downstairs to take my vitamins. | looked at the teeny bit of haldol drug with revulsion. | didn’t swallow it.
The next night | felt all right, and thought maybe | could do without it while continuing with the vitamins. For the next couple of days, minor nausea, abdominal cramps, twitching muscles, and “raw feeling” nerves were the only sign of withdrawal. The second night without the drug, after having taken it for a total of more than seven years, plus two years of thorazine in addition, | lay on my bed and prayed.
“Lord, | believe I’m following you in this, but | am a little scared. Take my hand and heal me, if you will.”
Excerpted by permission from the forth- coming book, Out of Mighty Waters by Lois Shenk. © 1982 by Herald Press, Scottdale, PA 15683.
Landis
Shenk, Pennsylvania, today divides her time among
Lois Lancaster,
being a wife and mother, writing, and
completing a Master’s degree in General Education.
Festival Quarterly 11
Is History an Affliction of the Dying?
he editor of Festival : Quarterly wonders whether “a Men- nonite group, when it builds a museum to house its artifacts is on its way to its end.” Some of the most traditional Mennonite and Amish groups, she observes, don’t seem to need ‘books, programs, societies, and collections.” Is the concern for history “something we grab for when something vital is slipping away?”
As a sometime historian, | can hardly think of a more provocative set of questions. As one interested in the growth and well-being of the church it is clear these issues cannot be ignored.
The same day this query came my way, the historian, William H. McNeill, wrote in the New York Times (Dec. 28, 1981) that truth lives within myths, those stories among us that stress our commonness, make our experiences understandable, and help us act. We ought to study the past to keep the many sides of those myths alive and working.
Some see history as an affliction; others see it as essential for well-being. David Donald, a contemporary American historian, thinks the American experience (myths) of abundance may now be irrelevant in an age of scarcity. Even Lincoln, he argues, believed that ‘‘the dogmas of the quiet pass are inadequate to the stormy present.” On the other side, the younger, more radical Christopher Lasch thinks that today’s “preoccupation
with the self’? is rooted in our “devaluation of the past.” We must explore whether the
historical concern, recovery and revision among Mennonites are _ positive contributions to a growing tradition or whether they are romantic ideals of a people afraid of the late twentieth century.
What do museums in Souderton, St. Jacobs, Steinbach and Archbold signify? What vitality is expressed through libraries in Lancaster, Goshen, North Newton and Winnipeg? Can histories, journals and articles produced in Harrisonburg, Elkhart, Fresno and Waterloo provide useful, relevant stories for the renewal of the church and strengthen the resolve of the peoplehood?
There is no simple or obvious answer. It is difficult to make an assessment
12 February, March, April, 1982
History that celebrates but does not recall pain and struggle will inspire no one.
midstream. Some of this historical work has a narrow and specific focus: to preserve artifacts and stories.
Another dimension of this historical concern is an effort to understand the inner life, the logic of the Mennonite movement. Only a minority of even the professional historians among us have been able to find the myth that can explain our past and at the same time, generate a vision for now and the future.
Just because the more traditional groups among us are not building museums or writing their histories does not mean they are without a sense of history. The books they use — the Bible frequently in German, the hymnbook, often the Ausbund, the commentaries either Menno Simons or Matthew Henry — are evidences of a great sense of continuity in time. Their lively stories threaded throughout their conversation are likely not from the newspaper but from the oral records of family and church. And the “charter” or covenant they cherish and pass to the next generation is as real as ancient Israel’s when “‘the glorious deeds of the Lord, and His might, and the wonders which He wrought” (Psalm 78) were the heart of the worship liturgy.
The flurry of activity called history is not necessarily fully developed history. Records without interpretation,
restorations without explana- tion, are not history. History that celebrates but does not recall pain and struggle will inspire no one. Genuine history, the real thing, grows out of a profound recon- struction of the mentality and spirit of another epoch. Re- cords and artifacts represent an artistic sensitivity, a level of technological a- chievement, a sense of purpose, a corporate view of life, a spiritual vision and struggle, a level of prosperity, and some sort of political stability. History is the re-enactment of the past. But at the most creative level history generates the truth in a story; McNeill called it myth.
The answer to the question of this little essay is not either/or. There are indeed many histories and many myths. Harold S. Bender’s The Anabaptist Vision, a daring history which gave birth to a myth, inspired a generation of Mennonites. But new times, new situations, and new evidence requires that myths be modified, revised and updated. The most recent surge of interest in the Mennonite past tends to emphasize the more recent past in North America and Russia rather than the more distant past in Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. The new Mennonite history will speak to an audience no longer primarily European but global in character. The story will not only appear in German, Dutch and English, but also in Swahili, Hindi, Spanish, Japanese and Indonesian.
Whether history serves the living or the dying will be determined by more than those who record and interpret. The user, a participant in contemporary history, can put into practice the essence of the story, enlarge the picture, and find new frames of meaning. The user can also treat the Mennonite past as a noble experiment, fondle the memory but otherwise ignore its relevance. Then surely history will be the affliction of the dying.
John A. Lapp is the provost at Goshen (IN) College and professor of history.
Creativity Diffuses Shirk’s
Hardships
Wren Stanley R. Shirk of Lyndhurst, Virginia painted his first cardinal at five years of age — using dime-store water colors — an artist was born. He didn’t know it then, but years later when he arrived in the Sherando area of Virginia, his innate gift found fresh inspiration from the colorful valley and majestic mountains. A native of Pennsylvania, Stan grew up mainly on the flatlands near Atmore, Alabama, where his parents rana cabinet shop weekdays and pastored a small rural congregation part-time. Stan’s
skills in drawing, painting, and woodcrafts
were honed by the hard knocks of experience.
His only brush with professional training occurred during high school days when he took a course in charcoal. Each student prepared a “masterpiece” for exhibition at the completion of the course. To Stan’s dismay, someone — “‘no doubt out of jealousy,’ Stan says — marred his sketch with big X’s the night before the exhibition. “lI couldn’t even enter the competition at that late hour,” Stan says.
After marriage to Mary Jane Detweiler of Blountstown, Florida, in 1967, Stan served as vice-president and salesman for Five Star Mobil Home Marketers in Tallahassee, Florida, until he felt a call to something more challenging. In the fall of 1969 he resigned and the family moved to Rosedale, Ohio for a year of Bible Institute and preparation for the ministry.
After completing school in the spring of 1970, Stan and Mary Jane accepted a pastoral assignment in Jamaica. Before leaving, the Mountain View Mennonite Church “adopted” them as their mission family. During the seven years of their work in Jamaica and during furloughs every two years, Stan continued to develop his drawing, painting, and
1974, four-year-old daughter Sandi had
by J. Allen Brubaker
woodcraft skills.
During a second furlough in 1974, the family purchased three-and-a-half acres of land along Route 664 near the Mountain View Mennonite Church.
The beauty and harmony of God’s world that Stan captures in his paintings and woodcrafts counterbalance the pain and hardship he and the family have known. A pony-riding accident in his mid-teens eventually required several spinal surgeries that left him with several less spinal discs and a vulnerable back. In
open-heart surgery to repair a hole in the two upper chambers of her heart.
A lung disease hospitalized him in Jamaica in 1976. While in King George V Sanatorium in Kingston for three weeks, he took graph paper and designed a
house on their mountain land. After recuperation and furlough in 1976, the family returned to Jamaica. Ten days later, though, the symptoms of Stan’s lung disease returned. At the advice of their doctor, the family terminated their work in Jamaica and returned to the Sherando community in April 1977. “During this time the mountain people surrounded us with love and made us one of them,” Stan notes.
Stan quickly recovered and during the summer, he and a brother, Sanford, along with help from the community, built their rustic house, using rough sawn fir siding. They built the house themselves, including the cabinets, built- in desks for daughters Debbie and Sandi, a china cabinet, etc, “One of my friends helped with the electrical wiring and | later built his kitchen cabinets,” Stan notes.
From 1977 to 1980 he served as a minister on the pastoral team at Mountain View Mennonite Church. He also did public relations for the Virginia
Mennonite Board of Missions and conducted evangelistic meetings from New York to Florida, Michigan to
Delaware. He also found time to paint and craft wooden wall plaques and rustic centerpieces.
“| painted Cockfight to remind Mary Jane and me not to fight,” he notes with a twinkle in his eye. When he was 19 years old he painted “Orchids in Portrait’ for Mary Jane’s grandmother on her 40th wedding anniversary. Some of Stan’s handcrafts are on sale at Mountain Blue Crafts along Route 814, just beyond the entrance to Sherando Lake and the Mountain View Church.
Stan and Mary Jane recently purchased a cabin along Route 664 into which they have poured their creative energies. Dubbed “Cabin Creekwood,” they have refurbished this quiet, secluded resting place for anyone who wants to get away and enjoy the cool breezes of the Blue Ridge Mountains, hear a mockingbird, pick a wild flower, fish for trout in Back Creek, or swim in nearby Sherando Lake. Renters enjoy Mary Jane’s oven fresh bread topped with apple butter or jelly, or cookies or a pie and a lazy rest in a hammock, swaying to the tune of water tumbling over rocks in the nearby stream.
The family has woven together all the ingredients for home-spun togetherness, tranquility, and good ole’ Virginia mountain hospitality. Known as “The Wheatly Place,’ the Shirks have developed this country cottage into a resort mountain cabin, as a project to raise money for their church and mission board.
In November, 1981 Stan began pastoring the Mountain View Mennonite Church along nearby Route 814. He also continues to craft momentos and to
capture the beauty of God’s world in oil paintings, as time permits.
J. Allen Brubaker, Harrisonburg, Virginia, is director of news services for Mennonite Board of Missions, Media Ministries.
Festival Quarterly 13
Photos by Allen J. Brubaker
t was late in the afternoon by the time we pulled into
Boni. We had been driving all day, stopping
periodically to talk to people about water. We had seen many dry wells. At lunchtime in a small restaurant we had found some rice that gummed to the roof of your mouth. It was warm, though, and relatively free of stones, and so felt good filling an empty stomach.
There are two main roads to Boni and we had traveled the east-west one. You can travel there from the capital on a paved road but we had come in the back way, on a good dirt road.
It was early in the month of May. The ground was dark and spotted with shoots of grass, the fruits of the first rains of the season. It was like the green specks were taunting the dominating brown shades ready to snuff them out.
Our contact in the village was Martin Lanu. He was what we would call a “progressive farmer.” He always planted in rows and he collected the dung his oxen left under their hangar for fertilizer. He kept his fields clean and he had made a trip to Bobo to ask about new sorgum varieties. He loved to talk about his farming. It was like he was married to the brown earth.
Martin was the leader of the local cooperative. He wanted to work together with others even though he could do just as well on his own. In fact the cooperative probably inhibited him. But he was just the man the cooperative needed.
We found his house and were given chairs to sit in while we waited for him to return from his fields. My chair was slightly off balance and always jerked to the left when | leaned back. Ed’s cloth chair was low-slung creating an impression that made me smile. Ed looked at me quizzically. We both leaned back. It felt good to get out of the car at day’s end. We drank of the water that was brought to us in a green metal bowl. We sat there and relaxed in the shade of the tree.
Some chickens walked by. They scratched, scratched and pecked, their heads darting from side to side. Chickens never appear satisfied. When | lifted my right leg to cross it over my knee three of them flapped their wings and cackled as they sprinted away. Then they began scratching and pecking again.
Martin returned with two relatives. Each of them had a
ENA___
Artwork by Craig Heisey |
14 February, March, April, 1982
daba over his shoulder. We stood up to greet them. Everyone’s family and home was doing fine. Everyone was in good health too. We all shook hands. Martin’s hand was rough and calloused. He must have noticed that mine was smooth. | don’t often work with a daba.
It was getting dark. To the east you could see rain clouds forming. Martin looked out at the clouds. He said it would start raining later in the evening after we ate.
We talked about his fields. His oxen were trained and he hoped to farm more land this year than ever before. If the rains would come it could be a good year. We all agreed that we would be grateful should God grant Boni abundant rainfall during the coming months.
The cooperative was not going so well. Everyone wanted credit but they weren’t sure how to apply for it. We had some papers with us and tried to explain. Martin nodded his head in agreement but we doubted if his relatives understood. The papers asked many questions and seemed to confuse them. One of them asked why they needed to answer in writing all these questions when it was clear they needed credit and that they were hard workers. We agreed that they would work hard but said this is just how the system works.
Soir’ would come on the radio. Everyone who under-
stands French listens to the evening news. A song from Senegal was played, filling the last seconds before 8:00. We listened quietly. The song faded out. It was 8:00. There was the sound of drums. “Ouagadougou Soir’ had begun. The announcer said the President had met the French ambassador that afternoon. At the same time, Martin’s wife brought us our tO and sauce. The men would eat together first and later the women and children would eat. | noticed several pieces of chicken in the sauce. We would get more meat than the women and children.
The t6 burned my fingers. It was good t6, not nearly as grainy as you get farther north. The sauce was spiced perfectly, warming the mouth. It felt good to gnaw on the chicken bone even after all the meat was gone. She was a good cook.
We talked little as we ate, listening to the news. In the
: t was dark now and time to eat. Soon “Ouagadougou
distance the clouds moved closer. Martin ate twice as much as | did.
When we had finished we licked our fingers and washed our hands in a bucket of water. We let our hands drip dry as we waited for the coffee. The coffee was dark and full of sugar. | added milk to mine. It was like a warm soft drink. Ed does not normally drink coffee but now he sipped slowly from his tall glass.
| asked Martin and the others if there were any lions around Boni. Jean said that lions used to terrorize the villages around Boni but now they were rarely seen. ‘That is too bad for the lion is a beautiful animal to see,” said Ed, remembering his days in East Africa.
“But it is not so beautiful when it attacks people,” said Jean. “They don’t really, do they?” | inquired. “Do you want me to bring you the old one; he will tell you,” came the reply. We sat silently. | remembered now hearing stories about animals eating people. During the day you can think about such stories and talk about them with a light heart and a carefree spirit. But now at night strange and foreboding thoughts began to fill my mind. The lantern was burning dimly on the table made from wood slats. We each held our glass of coffee in our hand. The clouds were growing darker.
“But it is not the lion | worry about,” said Martin, “‘It is the hyena that | must be careful of.”
All the men nodded their heads. | could see a bead of sweat forming on Martin’s forehead near his hairline.
66 any times during the night we hear the laugh of hyenas. There are many of them around Boni. They live back in the bush away from our fields. At night they seem to come closer to our village.
“The hyena is a very strong animal. Its jaws can crush with ease any bone in your body. They are always looking for flesh to chew on. The hyena will devour a dead animal and will attack a living one. And they will kill human beings.”
We sat motionless as Martin paused. Then he continued.
“Many people in Boni believe that some people who once lived here are now hyenas.”
Had | heard correctly? Maybe my ears were playing tricks on me.
“You mean the hyenas remind people in the village of
Festival Quarterly 15
certain people who have died,” | ventured.
“More than that. Some people have disappeared and the villagers think they have become hyenas.”
“Surely you don’t believe that?” | asked.
No one said anything. Then Martin spoke.
“1 will only tell you of an incident that happened about a year ago in our village. There was a man living on the other side of Boni opposite from where we are right now. He had only been here a few years. He had come from south of Bobo. He asked for land and the chief gave him some. He worked hard in his fields and did not speak much.
“It is unusual for a man to come to a village without already knowing someone there. But that is what this man had done. Of course, he needed food to eat. So he arranged with a neighbor lady to prepare some to for him every day. She did so and her daughter brought the food twice a day. He seemed a first happy enough although he didn’t say much to anyone else.
“Then one day he got into an argument with a neighbor. It seems that the neighbor’s field bordered his. The neighbor accused the man of stealing some tools that he had left in the field the night before. The man denied it. The two almost fought but some others intervened. Three days later the man disappeared. The girl who brought his to said he had left everything neatly in place as always but he was gone. She thought maybe he had gone somewhere and would be back in the evening. So she brought more to in the evening but he still wasn’t back. This went on for a couple of days. Soon it was clear that the man was gone for good.
ow the neighbor he argued with was the kind of
person who made everyone laugh but whom no one
could respect. He drank too much and he talked too much. Still, he was funny even though you always laughed at him as much as with him. When he learned the man was gone he talked all the more. He took it upon himself to proclaim that he had chased an unnecessary element from the village.
“The neighbor always wore a floppy hat and a bright red shirt. One evening he was drinking and talking again about how he had chased the man from the village. He was wearing the hat, the red shirt and a pair of old brown pants with a rip
on the side. Sometimes he would wave the hat as he spoke.
“His family and others staying at his house said he slept outside in the courtyard that night. Since the rains had not yet begun in earnest it was the only sensible thing to do.
“In the morning he was gone. During the night the others said they heard a noise near the wall and the sound of something scratching at the mud-brick wall. One little boy thought he had seen an animal perched briefly on the wall. But nothing was seen for sure. However, everyone heard, later in the night, the howling of the hyenas. They seemed especially loud that night.
“The next day several hunters went out into the bush. They saw a hyena standing by itself under the shade of a tree. The hyena was big and well fed. The hunters shot it with their rifles; the second bullet killed it instantly.
“They walked up to the hyena. One of them took a knife and cut it open underneath. Out came the floppy hat, the red shirt and the brown pants.”
e all sat around the table looking at the lantern. The coffee was cold. The wind was beginning to blow. The rain was about to fall.
We gathered our chairs and hauled them inside. Martin’s wife reached for our glasses. | brought the lantern in. Ed carried the table. The rain was beginning to fall. The clouds were big and dark. Maybe it would be a good rainy season. Then we heard a long roll of thunder and the sound of rain crescendoing on the tin roof. No one would sleep outside tonight.
Ks)
Stephen Penner lives in Upper Volta, West Africa as a Mennonite Central Committee country representative.
SOA HAREM,
16 February, March, April, 1982
worldwide news
Puerto Rican Mennonites View Anabaptist History
At the invitation of the Puerto Rico Mennonite Conference two’ North American Mennonites recently made a fraternal visit to the annual Puerto Rico Mennonite Convention.
Historian Jan Gleysteen and writer- editor Levi Miller, both of the Mennonite
Jan Gleysteen
Nicaraguans Study Peace
When set in a country wracked by war, a peace study retreat will be full of hard questions and deep fellowship. Such was the case recently in Nicaragua when 130 pastors, church leaders, and lay members gathered to discover how their faith should express itself when their country is experiencing revolution.
José Ortiz, originally from Puerto
Rico and now Secretary for Latin
$ , sh/
Levi Miller
Publishing House in Fathers.”
“Faith of Our
Scottdale, Pennsylvania, travelled to the Convention and congregations around the island, showing ‘‘Faith of the Church,” a Spanish translation of the slide presentation,
Originally conceived and put together by Gleysteen,
the program sketches Anabaptism’s beginnings in Europe and its spread throughout the world.
The reason for Gleysteen and Miller’s visit was two-fold: to bring the visual history to the Puerto Rican church (at their request) and to allow Gleysteen to photograph all of the Mennonite meetinghouses in Puerto Rico and then add those photos to the slide presentation. In addition, the pair has written stories about the Puerto Rican Mennonite Church for publication in North American periodicals.
Key quotes from Menno Simons and other Anabaptist leaders were translated into Spanish and incorporated into the slide program as well. “Menno Simons looks like a Spanish padre anyway!” commented Miller.
Was the visit a success? “When Anabaptist forces, charismatic- Pentecostal influences and Puerto Rican culture have a conversation, it may not be measurable success, but at least there was interaction,” said Miller. “The church leaders there are certainly interested in learning more about Anabaptism.” fay
Concerns in the Mennonite Church, led four sessions using J. C. Wenger’s We Believe booklet series as resource material. He discussed the history of the Latin American Church and the eventual coming of churches with Anabaptist origins, the fact that one’s faith will be expressed in one’s life, the way of peace, and finally the role of the Anabaptist pastor in the future.
It is likely, judging from the warm response of the participants, that more such training-fellowship retreats will become a regular part of Nicaraguan Anabaptist life. kal
Menno-Home Opens in Bolivia
Menno-Home has been established in downtown Santa Cruz, Bolivia, as a sort of guesthouse Anabaptist center. Situated near major bus routes and the train station, the Home has three rooms for overnight guests and a book corner offering German and English books for sale which are along Anabaptist historical and theological themes.
In addition, the hosts at the Home which is supported by Mennonite Central Committee are prepared to help Canadian Mennonites with immigration and settlement papers.
Congregation’s Life Explored in “Festschrift”
The German Mennonite congre- gation of Bechterdissen has published a “Festschrift” on the occasion of their 25th year of existence. Cause for their celebration comes also from the fact that they grew during those 25 years from sixty original members to 1060 members.
The “Festschrift” explores their history and growth from the viewpoints of a cross-section of the members.
Agape Verlag Publishes Second Title
A German publishing company which has reopened under the name of Agape Verlag has just published its second title in a year’s time: a translation of Ronald J. Sider’s Christ and Violence, originally published by the Mennonite Publishing House. Agape Verlag’s first title was the German translation of John Howard Yoder’s The Politics of Jesus. The translations have found a large response since their publication.
Festival Quarterly 17
Why A
Family’’?
When Catherine Prescott and her husband, Ted, came to Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania, to teach art they met Paul and Laura Nisly and their family. Paul Nisly is Associate Professor of English and chairman of the Department of Language, Literature, and Fine Arts at Messiah. He and Laura are the parents of Janelle, Lamar, and Randy. It was a rich encounter for Catherine, who after watching the Nislys for several months at faculty dinners and around campus, decided to ask them if she could make a painting of them.
“My motivation for doing the painting was that the Anabaptist sensibilities were all new to me. The Nislys were the first family that | met that exuded those things. Asa family, particularly, they showed those things. . . and | can’t say more than that verbally. | can say more visually, and that’s what | wanted to show. Their sensibilities were new and dramatic to me. It had to be a family, a whole family. And | had to paint it.”
The result is “Mennonite Family,” a 72” x 96” oil on canvas which was completed earlier this winter and now hangs in Messiah College’s new Fine Arts Center.
“Other people more rooted in Anabaptism have said, ‘Oh yes, it’s right, it’s right!’ ”’ commented Mrs. Prescott to Festival Quarterly. She takes those remarks as deep compliments since her attempt was not to simply record quaint figures. “I had to paint someone | knew. | couldn’t come to Lancaster and just paint folk figures. That would be deadly. It would be killing the very thing | want to capture.”
For “Mennonite Family” Prescott’s primary information came from many photos of the Nislys in a variety of poses. But her painting departs, then, from that raw material. “l would say that my work is more ‘painterly’ than photos are. I’m not so much interested in representation and accuracy as | am in characterization, in truth?’
The portrait was three months in the making. “I really agonize over my paintings,” explains Prescott. “That’s why they take so long. It’s like most people who make something; | just change it and change it and change it. | probably did the father’s face five different ways. Then there’s a point at which | just stop; | know
18 February, March, April, 1982
‘Mennonite
| have it the way | want it. Then | have to make everything work together. Those things in the background are not just incidental; they have to enhance the people. The tea cups and a clock aren’t symbolic. But they belong there in that kind of house with those kind of people.”
How did the Nislys respond to the nearly life-size oil? “Il don’t think they realized how large it was going to be,” said Prescott. “But they were beautiful. Paul wrote me a wonderful note thanking me for showing their closeness. | think it was easier for him to write it to me than to say It.
“| invited them to my house for a private viewing before it was to be displayed publicly. They didn’t reveal a lot of their feelings, which | guess is typical!
“The women were especially modest and solemn. When Janelle, the daughter, came to the opening and saw not only this large painting blasting away, but another head and shoulders portrait of her done in pastels, she said she felt somewhat exposed. But that is exactly what | want to have happen when | paint portraits.
“ “Mennonite Family’ is a portrait. It’s about these people. It’s an important painting to me.”
Mennonite Festival of
Arts Scheduled
The Mennonite Festival of the Arts, a nine-year old tradition for the Kitchener- Waterloo, Ontario area will be held Saturday, April 24 from 3 to 8:30 p.m. at Rockway Mennonite School in Kitchener.
Festival planners are putting together their usually popular smorgasbord of activities, this year around the theme, “Created in the Image of God.” The focus is International Arts, honoring creativity from countries outside North America where Mennonites have lived and worked. Displays of these arts and crafts will be arranged throughout the school buildings.
Live stage presentations for the whole family will be offered, from music to creative movement to storytelling. A supervised play area will be an option for children ages three to nine. And international foods will be served from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
The Festival is sponsored by the Rockway Mennonite School Association.
Randy Shenk
Vera Kuhns (left) and Carla Mast
A quilted mural portraying part of Eastern Mennonite College’s campus is being completed (above) for an auction to be held during Homecoming Weekend in April.
Art graduate Carla Janzen Mast designed the scene which shows the old administration building from the fish pond. Vera Kuhns of Greencastle, Pa. is overseeing the appliqueing and quilting being done by women of the Cedar Grove Mennonite Church near Greencastle and by EMC students.
The quilted mural will hang in the EMC administration building, a gift of the highest bidder who will receive a sketch or reproduction of the quilt. &
creatively aging .
When Oscar and Bessie Weaver’s fiftieth wedding anniversary rolled around, their seven children offered them a weekend celebration that stirred old memories and made new ones.
Explained daughter Melba Martin of Goshen, Indiana, “Too often in life we tend to take things for granted and do not praise God and affirm each other for things that might not have been — suchas a marriage that lasts 50 years.”
And so the four daughters and three sons gathered with their families on a Friday evening last fall to present their parents with a quilt full of symbols of their life together (pictured). The setting is Yellow Creek Farm near Goshen where all the children (each is pictured in a typical farm task) and Bessie were born. At the top of the quilt is a knot representing the durability of Oscar’s and Bessie’s marriage. Highlighted in the background is the Yellow Creek Mennonite Church which was a cornerstone in the budgeting of the family’s time, finances, talents, and energies. The farm scene is framed by three scriptures — a praise, a pledge, and a promise — which reflect the teachings in the Weaver home. Maple _ leaves quilted into the sash of the piece remember the large old hard-maple trees that shaded the rambling farm house.
Family Gathers to Give Thanks
On Saturday evening the elder Weavers’ brothers and sisters joined the gathering for a pig roast and story telling.
Then on Sunday morning the worship service at Yellow Creek included a litany of thanksgiving for the Weaver
family, also presented by the children. “We reviewed the stages of our growing- up years and thanked God for understanding parents and our heritage,” commented Melba Martin. A_ public reception at the church followed on Sunday afternoon; a chance for other friends and extended family to greet the Weavers.
It was a celebration for more than just Oscar and Bessie. Reflected Melba, “For the first time we seven children and our
spouses worked together in a joint effort, a rare experience which may never happen again. We were amazed at the variety of gifts we all had to bring. It was a rich time for all of us.”
Slabaugh Returns “Tree” to EMC
Ye
Randy Shenk
Moses Slabaugh, retired minister in the Virginia Mennonite Conference, has made his eighteenth grandfather clock. His latest one is crafted from a walnut tree which grew near original Eastern Mennonite College buildings. Slabaugh discovered the tree when it had been felled by a storm and offered to make the College a clock from it, if he could have the tree. The College agreed; Slabaugh asked for one qualifier — that he be given
Slabaugh (left) and Detweiler examine the new clock.
LR
no time limit for completing the project, in case his age caused interference.
Intent on quality, Slabaugh built the clock case entirely of walnut, in contrast to many kits which have plywood backs. Slabaugh’s reason? A solid walnut back gives the clock a “firmer chime.”
The 84-inch high clock is in the President’s Room of the EMC Library but will eventually be moved into President Richard Detweiler’s office. Detweiler,
upon receiving the clock for the school, expressed his gratefulness, too, for Slabaugh who is known for ‘‘making the most of his time’ and for being an advocate for the elderly.
Some Advice for Middle-Aged Children
A Guide to Caring for and Coping with Aging Parents by John Gillies is full of practical ideas as well as reflections on Gillie’s own experiences with his parents- in-law. Released in 1981 by Thomas Nelson Publishers the book is written from the point of view of a middle-aged offspring. Gillies covers the issues and decisions that come to children as their parents require more dependency while
still needing to maintain some independence. In addition, fourteen chapters detail “‘Evaluating Care
Alternatives,” ‘Providing Health Care,” “Handling Money Problems,” and other practical concerns.
Festival Quarterly 19
The Artist as Social Critic
How to Apply To Receive FQ — Free
20
by Jan Gleysteen
festival quarter Last summer the ARTRAIN, a five-car front as social critics, first and foremost in Se ey eee nes museum on wheels, came to Scottdale. It Germany. And apparently their was my privilege to serve as guide- statements hit home. In 1937 Adolf
lecturer, sharing a witness of peace and Hitler’s_ propaganda minister, Josef
Also in this issue — Trying a Kenyan Solution to a Kenyan Problem *° Who are the Umsiedier? — A photo essay * Reviews of 10 Mennonite Books « Red Dirt, by Pam Heap of Birds
compassion to the visitors while explaining the lithographs and woodcuts of the German artists between the wars.
The artist’s role as social critic is relatively recent. One of the first to
It wasn't till our century that the artists, poets, and musicians came to the front as
Goebbels, published a catalog to go with an exhibit of what the Nazis considered “Degenerate Art.” The show and the catalog featured works by Ernst Barlach, Kathe Kollwitz, Erich Heckel, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Ernst Kirchner, and others.
One of them, Otto Dix, was considered so ‘“‘degenerate” by the Nazis that no fewer than sixteen of his pieces were included in the show. Most of Dix’ works were scenes from World War I, recorded with urgency on whatever
paper was available, such as brown ° : ue : wrapping papers. Dix’ sketches show (through the International social critics, first and cavernous Seder craters filled with
Subscription Fund)
The International Subscription Fund is to assist persons overseas (excluding western Europe but including Central and South Americas) to receive FESTIVAL QUARTERLY magazine free of charge. Overseas personnel of Mennonite programs and projects are also eligible.
Qualified persons will receive a two-year subscription free. The signature of the congregational leader or organizational representative recommending the application is required.
It is suggested that the applicant be active (or interested) in the life of the church (not necessarily Mennonite) and have a fair command of the English language to qualify.
Forward coupon to: Mennonite World Conference International Subscription Fund 528 E. Madison St. Lombard, IL 60148
Date Name Address City Country
Congregation Affiliation
Address
Verified by Representative
signature
title or relationship
February, March, April, 1982
foremost in Germany.
express social concerns was Francisco Goya (1746-1828). Like most of the Spanish artists and intellectuals of his day, Goya had his opinions about the frivolous, stupid, and contemptible rulers of Spain. Indeed, as a celebrated court painter, he knew them well.
So when in 1808 Napoleon invaded Spain, Goya looked forward to a more enlightened regime. When instead, the French invasion was accompanied by senseless brutality, Goya began recording the horrors of war in a sketchbook in graphic detail. From these sketches he developed eighty engravings under the title: Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War). The prints were considered too violent for their time and were not published till 35 years after his death. Apparently they were eyewitness accounts, for Goya’s simple captions read, “This |saw... And this too...”
Although Goya’s works were the record of specific historical events, one can hardly imagine a more forceful indictment against all wars!
A contemporary of Goya, the Frenchman Honoré Daumier (1808-1879), one of the greatest draughtsmen of all times, used humor, realism, and satire to expose the injustices of society around him. One of his lithos, No. 12 Rue Transnonain, April 15, 1884, is his statement against police brutality. In another we see a fat and sleepy judge lecturing an unemployed man: “So you were hungry... you were hungry ... that’s no excuse ....1 myself am hungry nearly every day, but that doesn’t make me steal!”
It wasn’t till our century that the artists, poets, and musicians came to the
socket-eyed cadavers. The works are as strong a statement against war as Goya’s Disasters.
Of Erich Heckel’s works at least seven hundred were gathered by the Nazis to be hacked to pieces and burned. Ironically, Goebbels’ 1937 catalog has become a handy checklist of great German art of this century, including the works of two great Christian pacifists, Kathe Kollwitz and Ernst Barlach. Outside of Germany the Flemish woodcut artist, Frans Masereel, is worthy of mention. In one of his prints a draftee looks puzzled when handed his rifle: “... Yesterday acrime... but now?”
The great Mexican muralists of the twenties, José Posada, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Siqueiros produced powerful statements against the exploitation of the poor by the rich land-owners and industrialists. In 1933-34 Diego Rivera made a mural for the Rockefeller Center which was_ later destroyed because Rockefeller, Morgan, and Ford saw themselves exposed as exploiters of the people in a panel called “The Millionaires.” Quite often in history the artist and the poet have been able to do more to create a mutual awareness between groups with divergent ex- periences than could be done by social reformers, politicians, or edu-
cators. &
Ses
Jan Gleysteen, an artist and historian, lives in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, where he works for Mennonite Publishing House and participates in Tour-Magination as a leader of tour groups in Europe.
international quiz — :
What About Your European Cousins?
by Paul N. Kraybill
10.
11.
72;
Which of these European nations do not have any Mennonite (Anabpatist) congregations? a) Portugal b) Italy c) Monaco d) East Germany These German villages, Backnang, Enkenbach, and Espelkamp, are so familiar to many North Americans because they were their ancestral homes.
True or False?
The Umsiedlerbetreuung is which of these?
a) a town in Austria b) a youth camp in the Netherlands
c) an organization that ministers to Russian immigrants in Germany Which well-known German Mennonite leader was the person largely responsible for initiating the first three meetings of Mennonite World Conference? a) Fritz Kuiper b) Christian Neff cc) Fritz Goldschmidt Match these European Mennonite periodicals with the sponsoring conference.
A. Mennonitische Blatter 1. Verband, Germany
B. Gemeinde Unterwegs 2. Dutch Mennonite
C. Algemeen Doopsgezind Brotherhood — Netherlands Weekblad 3. French Mennonite Conference
D. Der Zionspilger 4. Swiss Mennonite Conference
E. Christ Seul 5. Vereinigung, Germany
Which is the world’s oldest Mennonite congregation?
a) Witmarsum_ b) Basel c) Geisberg d) Langnau
The official name of the Swiss Conference is “Altevangelischen Taufgesinnten — Gemeinden” (Old Evangelical Anabaptist Community). True, False?
“Worte des Lebens” is the name of a German language Mennonite radio program originating in Switzerland. | True or False?
Match the names of these European Mennonite sisters with the proper
description. A. Marie Noelle Faure 1. President of the Dutch B. Jo van Ingen Schenau- women’s organization Elsen 2. Minister in the congregation C. Ruth Wedel in Hamburg, Germany D. Anita Lichti 3. Professor in the European
Mennonite Bible School — Bienenberg, Switzerland
4. French Conference delegate to MWC General Council
5. Secretary of Intermenno Trainee Program
6. President of the Dutch Mennonite Brotherhood
Name the countries in which each of these institutions is located. A. “European Mennonite
Bible School” — Bienenberg B. “Bibelheim — Thomashof”
(Conference Center)
C. “Le Bon Livre” (Bookstore) D. ‘‘Mont-des-Oiseaux”’
(Home for retarded children) Savile bo Ts ll Sens el The two Mennonite conferences in which country merged in 1980? a) France b) Germany c) Netherlands The joint mission organization representing Mennonites in France, Switzer- land, Germany and the Netherlands is known as a) EMEK b) IMO. c) MERK
E. Mary Matthijssen F. Louise Nussbaumer
(Answers on page 22.)
Paul Kraybill is Executive Secretary for Mennonite World Conference.
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Festival Quarterly
Punch/Rothco
22
Quiz Answers . a) Portugal; De
c) Monaco
False. These are villages where Pax men from North America built homes to resettle Mennonite refugees after World War II.
. c) An organization that ministers to
Russian immigrants in Germany.
. b) Christian Neff
Aw5*> Bo 1232 aD 4 bos
d) Langnau (Switzerland)
True
True
As 3! Bs 67 Ca2) Deon. i be 4,
. A. Switzerland; B. Germany;
C. Luxembourg; D. France
. a) France . a) EMEK (European Mennonite
Evangelization Committee)
(Questions on page 21)
+budelt(be ~
“With this model, in the event of peace you simply remove the upper partand t's a ploughshare, with no beating.”
February, March, April, 1982
2
_ publishing notes
@ The Mennonite Board of Congregational Ministries (Elkhart, Indiana), has compiled major articles from the first ten issues of Youthink, their biannual youth ministry publication, into a booklet by the same title. The articles, in essay form, are accompanied by original drawings by Joel Kauffmann.
e The story of a General Conference Mennonite missionary couple’s sojourn to and in China during the early 1900’s is recorded in Clear Shining After Rain, by Matilda K. Voth (Mennonite Press, 1980).
@ Simon Schrock, author of Get On With Living, has written a new book on the rewards of living the Christian life, now called The Price of Missing Life (Herald Press, 1982).
@ A unique book approach has brought together four major theologians, among them Mennonite Church Moderator-Elect Myron Augsburger, each to state their beliefs on war and non-resistance, and then to be critically answered by the three others. Published by InterVarsity Press, 1981, War: Four Christian Views, is edited by Robert G. Clouse.
@ A new book in German, Die Mennoniten Bruedergemeinde in Russland 1925-1980, by Heinrich and Gerhard Woelk, has been published by the Center for Mennonite Brethren (MB) Studies. A modern Martyr’s Mirror Story, it depicts not only the struggle between the Russian Government and Mennonite Brethren, but also between MB’s and Baptists, and MB groups themselves.
@ Down Singing Centuries: Folk Literature of the Ukraine, compiled and edited by Louisa Loeb of Ukrainian Mennonite background, brings songs, folk poems and legends from Russia, originally published by Florence Randal Livesay, 65 years ago. This 1981 edition by Hyperion Press (Winnipeg) is color illustrated by the Canadian artist Stefan Czernecki.
® 220 years of the Lancaster County, PA-based Conestoga Mennonite Church are commemorated in As Long As Wood Grows and Water Flows by J. Lemar and Lois Ann Mast on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of that congregation’s first church building.
@ Art Gish’s 1973 book on simple living, Beyond The Rat Race, has been reprinted by the Mennonite Publishing House in a new trade paperback edition with a new cover design.
e@ Short stories, poetry, dramas, ink sketches, songs and black and white photos are being solicited by the Mennonite Central Committee’s Task Force on Women for possible inclusion in a published collection of Artists’ Approach to Women’s Concerns. Contributions are to be sent to Esther Wiens, 77 Henderson Highway, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R2L 1L1, by June 1, 1982.
e A_ group of Manitoba Mennonites, originally from South America, has begun a new magazine called Mate Monthly. Mate, (pronounced phonetically mah-tay,) is a popular hot beverage among Mennonite Brethren in Paraguay, prepared by pouring hot water on yerba leaves, or made into a drink called terrerre by using cold water. Mate Monthly’s goals are to explore the religious and social influence of mate in several branches of Mennonite Culture, for example on the poetry of Sara Binks of Saskatchewan.
e@ Preacher of the People (Herald Press, 1981) by Sanford G. Shetler is a biography of S. G. Shetler (1871-1942), reflecting not only the family life of a Mennonite bishop and teacher, but also an era in the Mennonite Church.
e MCC (Canada) has issued a 28 minute filmstrip, complete with cassette and leader’s guide, called Grave of an Unknown Salvadoran Refugee, a church worker’s view of refugee fate in Honduras. This filmstrip can be a companion to the MCC study packet The Face of Change in Central America.
e@ Elmer S. Yoder is the author of The Amish Mennonites of Macon County, Georgia (Diakonia Ministries), a new 259 page softcover book with 110 pictures detailing 17 years (from 1953 to 1980) of history of the Beachy Amish community of Montezuma.
e@ Mennonite Brethren in Canada now have a forum for expressing concerns in Perspectives, a new monthly magazine published in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Themes in one of the earliest issues included discussion of theological, social and political issues.
@ Mennonite music and prayer are two themes explored carefully in Church Music and Worship Among the Mennonites by Orlando Schmidt and Prayer in Corporate Worship by Anne Neufeld Rupp. Both booklets are prepared by the Worship and Arts Committee of the General Conference Mennonite Church and published in 1981 by Faith and Life Press in conjunction with the Mennonite Publishing House.
@ Out of the 1978 centennial celebration of the Blumenfeld, Manitoba village has grown the book Blumenfeld: Where Land and People Meet by Peter and Irene Friesen Petkau, published by the Blumenfeld Historical Committee.
® Conrad Press of Waterloo, Ontario has published Solomon Stucky’s 224 page paperback, The Heritage of the Swiss Volhynian Mennonites, which traces the history and development of this Anabaptist group from their beginnings, up to the 1874 migration to Kansas, and their subsequent merging into more mainstream Mennonitism.
mennonite books: in review
Family Night at Home (A
Manual for Growing Families), Kindred Press, 1981, 153 pages. $8.50.
Reviewed by Muriel Thiessen Stackley
This book is credited to the Pacific District Family Commission of the Mennonite Brethren (MB) Church, but if you dig into “Acknowledgments” you find that Phyllis Martens is the editor. FNAH is an ambitious project, all the more because it is unapologetically MB, thus limiting sales.
Thirty-six chapters are in four sections: ‘“‘The Family,’ ‘‘Myself,”’ “Beyond Family,” “Mennonite Brethren History, Missions, Services” (Chapters 34- 36).
The book assumes two-parent families and rootedness in the Scriptures. MB families have here a rich and lively textbook. The same can be said for non- MB families who can adapt Chapters 34, 35 and 36.
Here are games, recipes, irresistible activities, Conversation starters, charts, role plays, stories, litanies, puppet plays, Bible studies and drills. Here is also a nod
to the larger Mennonite family: recommended reading includes authors David Augsburger, Doris Janzen Longacre, Guy Hershberger, H. A. Fast, J. C. Wenger, Elaine Sommers Rich, Barbara Claassen Smucker, and Ruth Unrau, as well as Christian Living’s 37-article series on “When Your Child...”
Some concerns: A female and/or minority race “genius” could have been listed along with Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison in the chapter on gifted children; three writers of the book are named in “Acknowledgments,” but frequent first person pronouns call for sectional by-lines.
Muriel Thiessen Stackley, Lincoln, Nebraska, is editor of the bi-monthly Report on MCC’s Task Force on Women in Church and Society.
FQ price — $7.65 (Regular price — $8.50)
Practicing the Presence of the
Spirit, Myron Augsburger. Herald Press, 1982. 288 pages. $7.95.
Reviewed by Robert L. Hartzler
This small book will be most helpful to study groups and to persons seeking direction through the current maze of charismatic claims and opinions. Augsburger affirms the positive relational aspects of the Spirit-filled life while rejecting the polarizing and manipulative tendencies of neo-pentecostalism.
Written from an evangelistic bias, it is a corrective commentary on the charismatic movement from the perspective of a Mennonite churchman. The author does not limit his audience to Mennonites nor does he apologize for his Anabaptist perspective.
The Nicene Creed is included in the preface as a healthy hedge against any new unitarianism. The pages are sprinkled with quotes from Torrey, Tozer, Wesley, Jones, and Moody. A simple helpful prayer closes each chapter.
The fourteen chapter titles are not descriptively clear. The book suffers from
a lack of human interest illustrations. The tone is a bit preachy. The theological language will be heavy for some. The study questions like the chapter titles tend to be abstract and unclear to the average reader.
On the other hand, Mennonites should rejoice at the way the Anabaptist doctrines of discipleship, community, non-resistance, and humility are emphasized as integral to the Spirit-filled life. Itisa good book. (And a needed one.)
Robert Hartzler is pastor of the Washington (lowa) Mennonite Church and a writer of curriculum and worship materials.
FQ price — $6.35 (Regular price — $7.95)
Epic Fiction: The Art of Rudy
Wiebe, w. J. Keith. U. of Alberta Press, 1981. $10.00
Reviewed by Alice W. Lapp
Prof. W. J. Keith of the University of Toronto here discusses the novels of Rudy Wiebe. He mentions other works of Wiebe in passing as they relate to his novels and a Bibliography which includes novels by Wiebe, books edited by Wiebe, his fiction in books and_ periodicals, articles and reviews by Wiebe, articles of criticism by others about Wiebe’s work, and background studies on Mennonites and Canadians of other ethnic groups.
Rudy Wiebe demands re-reading and concentration. His writing is sometimes rough-edged but always virile and colorful. Critics have scored him on his sometimes clumsy style and misuse of words. One must remember that English is not his mother tongue.
Peace Shall Destroy Many and First and Vital Candle complete his fictional apprenticeship. In these two novels are hints of future epic quality. With The Blue Mountains of China he becomes a major novelist. This saga traces both the character and the spiritual development of a people. In The Temptations of Big Bear, Wiebe explores another ethnic minority, the Indian, and a tragic clash between two irreconcilable views of
human beings and their environment. The legendary Metis rebel Louis Riel is the protagonist of The Scorched Wood People.
According to Keith, Wiebe has set out to do what he can for the epic of Canadian life past and present.
Alice W. Lapp, Goshen, Indiana, is an English teacher and active as a church and community volunteer.
FQ price — $9.00 (Regular price — $10.00)
Festival Quarterly 23
mennonite books: in review
Study War No More: A Peace Handbook for Youth, David S. Young, editor. Brethren Press, 1981. 95 pages. $3.95.
Reviewed by Wally Kroeker
At first glance this looks like the perfect book for wavering teenagers who find army recruitment ads appealing.
But it’s not. Those uncommitted to the way of peace likely won’t be persuaded by these Church of the Brethren writings. Not that it isn’t a good book; it just presupposes an audience already somewhat committed to peace. Talk of economic injustice, Nestle’ boycotts, draft resistance and Rocky Flats trespassing may be a bit advanced for the youngster who thinks Jesus was kidding when he told us not to fight.
A strength of this book is its con- viction that peace is a broadly based life- style rooted in a right relationship with God. “Peacemaking is not as much a decision about military service at time of war as it is building a positive lifestyle for handling conflict,” says editor Young.
Like many multi-author books, this one suffers some unevenness in tone and
style. And despite its target audience of “junior high and youth groups,” many teenagers may find the lofty peace-and- justice rhetoric tough going. The Brethren content (historical sketches, conference statements) is high, but this is, after all, a denominational book.
Serious readers wanting an overview of the issues surrounding “a spirit of peace and an attitude of nonviolence” will find this book useful. Those who want something to convert the uncommitted can look elsewhere.
Wally Kroeker, Hillsboro, Kansas, is editor of the Christian Leader.
FQ price — $3.55 (Regular price — $3.95)
Nuclear War and Lancaster
County, (Donald B. Kraybill and John P. Ranck. 1981. 105 pages. $3.95.
Reviewed by Levi Miller
This is an ugly book. The photos of burned victims of Hiroshima are repulsive. The figures that 89,000 people would be killed if a bomb fell on Lancaster remind us that our friends would be among that statistic. Occasionally one should read an ugly book.
In this 105-page monograph the authors have personalized the issue of thermonuclear war by placing it in a specific place, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The book notes the present nuclear build-up and arms race. The U.S. and the Soviet Union have over 17,000 nuclear warheads. Then the authors make some assumptions about an attack on Lancaster. In this case, a one megaton bomb is exploded directly over the city.
In separate chapters the authors describe the physical, the human, and long-term effects of such a bomb. Although the authors use no exclamation marks or impassioned diction during this
gruesome description, exclaims.
Generally, the authors took conservative figures and estimates which lend credibility to this scenario of horror. That there is virtually no defense against nuclear weapons seems somewhat hopeless.
In an epilogue the authors make some suggestions on preventing a nuclear war. In another forum, | might argue about the assumptions and the viability of some suggestions, but this is not the place, nor the main burden of the book. The point of the book is to inform people of the danger, the ugliness, of nuclear weapons. In that it succeeds.
yet the copy
Levi Miller, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, is editor of Builder magazine.
FQ price — $3.55 (Regular price — $3.95)
| Forever Summer, | Forever Sunday
Peter Gerhard Rempel's Photographs of Mennonites in Russia, 1890:1917
Forever Summer, Forever Sunday, edited by John D. Rempel and Paul Tiessen. Sand Hills Books, Inc. 1981. 144 pages. $17.95.
Reviewed by Wilfred Martens
24 February, March, April, 1982
Occasionally, | discover a book that I’d love to spend an evening with in front of the fireplace. This is such a book. It is a collection of photos of Mennonites in Russia. So. .. What else is new? But these photos are done by a professional studio photographer — Peter Gerhard Rempel. And therein lies the difference.
Rempel grew up in the Ukraine, but studied photography in Germany. He returned to Russia to practice his professional skills, 1890-1917; then in 1923, emigrated to Canada.
The uniqueness of this collection lies in the many professionally-posed shots. The poses reveal an image of European culture rather than ordinary village life. It is the golden age of which they dreamed rather than the village life which they really experienced.
The photos are arranged in four sections which correspond to periods of development in Rempel’s career.
Accompanying the photos are selections from his diary.
Although it is an impressive publication, there are no page numbers. There is no table of contents to identify or introduce each part — only notes at the end of the book.
The 27-page introduction by the editors is excellent and provides a good context for the photos.
Wilfred Martens, a novelist and poet is Professor of English at Fresno (California) Pacific College.
FQ price — $16.15 (Regular price — $17.95)
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Regular Our Price Price A. Main Offers Family Night at Home (Martens), paper 8.50 7.65 Practicing the Presence of the Spirit (Augsburger), paper 7.95 6.35 Epic Fiction: The Art of Rudy Wiebe (Keith), paper 10.00 9.00 Study War No More (Young), paper apse S600 ee Nuclear War and Lancaster County ; (Kraybill and Ranck), paper 3.95 3.55 Forever Summer, Forever Sunday (Rempel and Tiessen), cloth 17-9507 16.15) = A Cloud of Witnesses: Profiles of Church Leaders (Wenger), paper O05ne 26-040 From Word to Life (Yoder), paper 12.955. 411.65 Sara’s Trek (Schloneger), paper 4.95 4.45 _ B. Past Offers In Favor of Growing Older (Smith), paper 8.95 rep lh rae _____ Step by Step Through the Parables (Miller), paper 6.95 Sh) a —______ The Best of Sisters and Brothers (Kauffman), paper 4.95 See ieee —_____ Quilts Among the Plain People (Pellman and Ranck), paper 3.50 2.30 22 ______ The Divorce of Russell Hershey (Lehman), serialized 13005 gu 2.000 ______ Identity and Faith: Youth in a Believers’ Church (Martin), paper 3.95 35 See ______ Four Earthen Vessels (Bender), paper 7:95 6.35) ____ Darkening Valley (Aukerman) 8.95 S| —_____ TEE in Japan (Sprunger), paper 15.990, “14:35: 2 C. Books as Advertised Page 2: God’s Family (MacMaster), paper 5.95 eC ol Dea _______ Page 2: Something Meaningful for God (Dyck), paper 7.95 (fe _______ Page 2: The Price of Missing Life (Schrock), paper 2.95 ED. keene aaee _______ Page 2: God’s Managers (Bair and Bair), paper 2.95 FEY ________ Page 2: Preacher of the People (Shetler), paper 13.95 13:95 q ees (Please note: Subtotal All orders must be paid in U.S. funds or equivalent. Pa. residents We do not wholesale to retailers. Thanks.) add 6% tax: FINAL TOTAL:
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Festival Quarterly 25
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ADIAMAS SYASINDSANS by
mennonite books: in review
OOS As
A Cloud of Witnesses: Profiles
of Church Leaders, edited by J. C. Wenger. Eastern Mennonite Seminary, 1981. 288 pages. $9.95.
Reviewed by David Smucker
This rather arbitrary selection of seventy-two brief biographical sketches, averaging four pages, ranges across church leaders from the first to the twentieth centuries—from Ignatius of Antioch and Bernard of Clairvaux to Wolfhart Pannenberg of West Germany and George R. Brunk | of Virginia. As the editor states, the purpose of the book is to instruct, whet the appetite for more reading and “alert to error.” The contributors, almost entirely Mennonite scholars, adequately perform their cramped tasks.
The perspectives of Anabaptism and contemporary Protestant Evangelicalism loosely inform both descriptions and evaluations of the witnesses. Many authors highlight their subjects’ beliefs which mesh with Anabaptism/ Evangelicalism and identify unacceptable views. Occasionally one meets excess— when Kierkegaard is transformed into a
precursor of contemporary Evangeli- calism. Yet the basic weakness of the book, lack of a clearly articulated and unifying rationale, limits its usefulness as an introduction to church history.
The book will appeal to a Mennonite and evangelical audience who feels secure with the guidance of interpreters from within the camp. To those who have always looked with suspicion on witnesses outside the free church tradition, it might give an ecumenical nudge; some of the authors have been inspired by their subjects. To those who have already identified with the full cloud of Christian witnesses, this book will be only a partially satisfying reminder.
David J. Smucker is the genealogist at the Lancaster, (PA) Mennonite Historical Society.
FQ price — $8.95 (Regular price — $9.95)
From Word to Life, Perry Yoder. Herald Press, 1982. $12.95.
Reviewed by Marlin Jeschke
Like many other Christians, especially Protestants, some Mennonites have been bothered by the recent development of the so-called historical-critical study of the Bible, the unfamiliar and threatening method of analysis and exposition that offers startling conclusions varying in many instarices from old and familiar views.
In these Conrad Grebel lectures for 1980, Bethel College (KS) Professor of Bible Perry Yoder spells out in plain English an eight-step method of biblical study that proposes to initiate any interested and literate lay person into the biblical scholar’s art. Yoder illustrates the method by applying it to four texts, four different kinds of biblical material, passages from Genesis, Amos, Matthew, and Romans.
If | had to predict, | would guess that Yoder will find a handful of motivated readers who accept the challenge to get
hold of his method. For the majority, however, it will be too formidable, for the simple reason that the more thoroughly Perry explains the method, the longer and more complicated the book becomes.
In the process the author performs some superb commentary, and it is this as much as anything that will capture many readers. Which shows once more the crying need for good commentaries for lay people. Just showing the fruit of critical study may still be the best way to entice people into it.
Marlin Jeschke is professor of philosophy and religion at Goshen (Indiana) College. He is the author of Discipling the Brother.
FQ price — $11.65 (Regular price — $12.95)
Sara’s Trek, Florence Schloneger. Faith & Life Press, 1981. 106 pages. $4.95.
Reviewed by Jillian Hershberger
Sara’s Trek is the story of a young Russian Mennonite during WWII. It tells of her flight from the advancing Russian army, her separation from and eventual reunification with her family, and her life in MCC refugee camps before emigration to Canada. Many of the incidents are based on the real experiences of a friend of the author.
Sara is a convincing character, timid and conscientious, only dimly understanding the forces which are violently reshaping her world. Schloneger has brought her own keen memories of childhood to the experiences of her friend, resulting in moments that are authentic and moving.
However, the book suffers from a weakness of literary purpose. Three crucial years in Sara’s life are compressed into one hundred pages; despite hunger, homelessness, fear, and the death of her father, the fourteen-year-old Sara_ is
essentially unchanged from the eleven- year-old at the book’s outset. Schloneger has not taken sufficient control of her source material to mold it into a meaningful statement. Sara’s “trek” does not clearly mirror an inner journey.
This is essentially the story of an individual. Sara’s Mennonite identity is significant primarily as the reason for her persecution and for the form her rescue takes. Her occasional feelings of belonging to “something greater than war” are almost incidental. Children will be able to identify with Sara, but Henry’s Red Sea is still tops.
Jillian Hershberger is a children’s librarian and mother of three, living in Takoma Park, Maryland.
FQ price — $4.45 (Regular price — $4.95)
Festival Quarterly 27
When traveling through Ontario this summer....
.. we d like to welcome you to Elmira and St. Jacobs. Whether you are interested in scenery or in antiques, whether you like shopping or hiking, taking pictures or just meeting people, there is plenty to see and to do in the area.
And while you are there, a visit to the Stone Crock restaurants is always “in good taste.”
_the STONE CROCK |
Restaurant & Gift Shop
Now in two locations: King Street, St. Jacobs, Ontario NOB 2NO0 and 59 Church Street West, Ontario N3B 1M8 Phone: (519) 664-2286
Elmira,
for people who enjoy wood
A whole line of unique home furnishings for your kitchen, living room, den, and bedroom. Rockers, tables, stools, and plank bottom chairs.
Write for brochure or
visit our showroom at
20 South Market Street
Elizabethtown, PA 17022 Phone: 717/367-4728
Specializing in solid black walnut furniture
Harvest Drive Farm Motel and Restaurant
Located in the gentle rolling hills of the peaceful Amish country on an actual farm. Motel and restaurant owned and operated by Mennonite folks, serving authentic home- style cooking, family-style, dinners and platters, seafood or steak.
You will enjoy our tasty food and scenic dining area or banquet facilities. Located one mile southwest of Intercourse. Take Clearview Rd. off Rt. 340 to Harvest Dr. or two miles north of Paradise off Rt. 30 on Belmont Rd. to Harvest Dr.
You'll be glad you did.
3370 Harvest Dr. Gordonville, PA 17529
Phone: 717/768-7186 For Reservations: 1-800-328-5511
28 February, March, April, 1982
farmer’s thoughts
A Word for
Subsistence Farming
by Keith Helmuth
| am not suggesting that 200 horsepower tractors and our dazzling chemical support force will disappear tomorrow, but | do suspect that, in the long run, industrial agriculture will prove to have had the character of a bubble. It was born in a gusher of oil, a child of the petroleum age, and will be sustainable only so long as the black gold flows.
The agribusiness food system has a habit. It is a petroleum junkie. The way it stands now, without oil we don’t eat.
| am not thinking of a meager survival. | am thinking of golf courses crawling with squash VINnGSame
Security of fuel supplies is on our minds but security of food supplies is the real issue.
No doubt farmers will be allotted their needed petrol products long after the last Indianapolis 500 race has been run and the last strawberry has been airfreighted from California to Boston. Yet the time will come when the costs of the agribusiness food system will have outrun the benefits. The evidence is strong for this already being the case.
What interests me is how we will feed our families and communities after we cease feeding our tractors and combines. If we reflect on human society before our industrial era we see that the food system was largely subsistence farming with local and regional marketplaces serving cities.
Now it is the peculiar mistake of the half-modern mind to regard subsistence agriculture as completely outdated. | suggest we purge it of our medieval associations and begin to see a revitalized subsistence agriculture as a_ practical strategy for getting our basic food system unhooked from its petroleum habit.
Subsistence agriculture is simply people of households, neighborhoods, communities and regions growing, raising, harvesting, marketing and storing the basic food supplies they require. To be sure, many of us engaged in this level of food production use small tractors and
tillers, cars and trucks. But the challenge, it seems to me, is in limiting their use and shifting to human and draft animal energy.
| am not thinking of a meager survival. | am thinking of golf courses crawling with squash vines; the lawns of country estates tasseling with sweet corn; suburban backyards brimming with chard and kale, broccoli and beans; peas hanging from trellises on the sides of city houses; rhubarb, chives and comfrey sprouting along sidewalks; watercress and catfish in the ponds of parks; tomato plants in big pots on front porches; potatoes and turnips growing in borders around graveyards; back lots planted to fruit and nut orchards; box gardens and bee hives on the roofs of high rises; garages turned into hen houses and rabbitries; swimming pools covered with greenhouses and turned into fish farms; goats, sheep, cattle and horses grazing the lush grass along parkways and interstates.
| am thinking of people who turn their creative energies and professional competence to the design and building of a sustainable food system; of people who, with spiritual devotion, return to the garden each spring and who, with a prayer of gratitude, store the harvest for winter nourishment; of families who once again feel united in an important endeavor; of neighborhoods who make sure their surplus reaches those unable to garden; of communities who shop first at the local farmer’s market; of regions which feel a distinct pride in their agriculture and which can move quickly to supply areas hit by a hail storm or early killing frost.
| am thinking of a truly native agriculture once again blossoming across this continent; one that cares about the health of the earth, the integrity of the community and the strength of the household; one that ; eeeuinan causes the mind to walk in beauty and the heart to lie down
in peace. &
Keith Helmuth has developed a small- scale diversified farm in New Brunswick, Canada. He writes out of “a background of ecological and social concern.”
Courage. Beauty.
ie Asked Questions about the _ (AMISH and “MENNONITES
Peaphe's Place Roakiee Wad : By Merle andPhyliaGood
No. 1
20 Most Asked Questions about the Amish and Mennonites by Merle and Phyllis Good.
The most common inquiries about these people are answered with insight and accuracy. Lots of photos. Easy te understand. $3.50.
QuiefAhdPeaceable “Life
By John L. Ruth
SFeapies “Place Booklet Wo, @
No. 2 A Quiet and Peaceable Life by John L. Ruth.
A beautiful poetic selection of photography and text, highlighting the beauty among the austerity of the plain way: faces, artifacts, folk art, buildings, and fields. $3.50.
onviction.
Plain Buggies
Amish, Mennonite, and Brethren Horse-Drawn Transportation
hy Stephen Scoit
No. 3
Plain Buggies: Amish, Menno- nite, and Brethren Horse- Drawn Transportation by Stephen Scott.
A fascinating, thorough expla- nation of why nearly 100,000 persons refuse to drive cars, for religious reasons, who they are, where they live, and the 90-some variations of their vehicles. More than 100 photos. $3.50.
People’s Place Booklets are published by Good Books, Intercourse, PA 17534.
No. 4 Quilts Among the Plain People by Rachel T. Pellman and Joanne Ranck.
Why this splash of beauty? What are the favorite designs? How has quilting become a part of the very fabric of Amish and Mennonite life? Whare are basic how-to’s of quilt- making? $3.50.
Gooa Books
Festival Quarterly 29
“The end of all things.”
Start looking now for your vision of “THE END OF ALL THINGS”! We invite imagination. We weicome humor. We wouldn't object to profundity.
Winners will be featured in the August, September, October, 1982 Festival Quarterly.
Entries must be black and white, include the name, address, and phone number of photographer, type of film and camera used, photo title, and a self- addressed envelope with adequate postage for teturn. Cash prizes will be awarded to winners. Submissions must be made by May 4, 1982 to
Festival Quarterly Photo Contest, 2497 Lincoin .
Highway East, Lancaster, PA 47602.
WHEN VISITING HISTORIC LANCASTER COUNTY .. . enjoy breakfast in our Pantry, and lunch and dinner at one of the many famous nearby restaurants. Tours leave twice daily .. . and you'll return to your immaculately clean room, even overlooking the Mill Stream if you request. Five miles east of Lancaster on Rt. 896, between 30 and 340. For reservations, write or call 717/299-0931.
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family creations |
Summer Schedules
Anyone?
Some of my most unpleasant childhood memories center around “‘rest hour’’—that siesta time after lunch when perfectly awake, active, energetic children had to accomplish the impossible feat of lying still for 60 minutes.
I’m sure the culture and climate of Ethiopia reinforced this practice of my childhood, but now as | face a summer with children | fully understand why the adults in my life insisted on rest hour. The hour, of course, was much more for their benefit than ours!
While at boarding school we devised endless pantomimes to wile away the time within the letter of the law—‘“‘no talking and head on the pillow.” All down the row of bunks we timed breath-holding contests or produced finger plays and teddy bear dances from bunk to bunk or bunk to ceiling, betrayed only by squeaking springs or telltale giggles.
On Saturdays, however, we were permitted the delightful luxury of reading during rest hour. Then the teddy bears got their rest.
On _ one occasion when | was caught in the unpermissible sitting position, Mrs. H. lamented, “Girls, girls, why can’t you ever learn self-discipline? Why must | continually be checking on you, disciplining you? You know our rule about no talking and everyone lying flat during rest hour.” Sigh. “All of you who were either talking, and that includes whispering, or sitting up, get out and kneel beside your beds. I’m going for my strap.”
Many in the dorm slid sheepishly to their knees—awaiting the coming doom in that most reverent position.
Suddenly | had an idea, “Hey, when she comes in let’s all start smacking ourselves to show her our self-discipline.”
She entered and we all complied— smack, smack, smack—heads buried in blankets, hands applied to posteriors.
| looked up sweetly and said as contritely as possible, “Mrs. H., we’re trying to obey you and use self- discipline.”
She actually laughed and told us to get back in bed for the remainder of rest
by Jewel Showalter
horrors—rest hour! And consequently, what was known as the Summer Schedule emerged.
Printed with brown magic marker on bright yellow construction paper and posted prominently on the refrigerator door, this schedule helped order our days.
“So let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace.”
8:30 —
Family devotions and breakfast 93loa8 12 00'—
JOBS — Report for duty
Lists prepared by Mom and Dad
If finished before 11:00 check in for more!
Practice piano.
No neighbor children allowed on the premises until jobs are done.
(Eager faces peered in the window. Voices urged, “Hurry up Chad.” “When are you gonna be done, Matt?”’)
11:00-12:00 — Free time
12:00-1:00 — Lunch and clean up
1:00-2:00 — REST HOUR — books and quiet crafts permitted if done individually. No talking allowed. No help from parents given.
2:00-5:00 — Free/work time depending on garden needs, ball practice, trips to lake for swimming, etc.
Of course the schedule was constantly being revised and adapted, but the skeleton structure produced enormous improvement in morale and motivation. It was just what we needed to fill the “crazy, hazy, lazy” days of sum- mer with at least a hint of reason, rhyme and result.
hour without further discipline.
But now as time will have it, the abused becomes the abuser, the student the teacher, the child the parent.
Last summer after a few days of sleeping-in and unstructured time | was convinced that for the survival of all involved I’d have to institute—horror of
“The finest selection of Amish and Mennonite quilts anywhere.”
Jewel Showalter and her family are resettling near Nairobi, Kenya, to work with African churches.
wee ATs made to order. Mo (vist Send $1.00 for catalog.
30 February, March, April, 1982
trends in music
Hymn Festival Becomes A Tradition
text and photos by Jim Bishop
The Sunday before Thanksgiving has become a special time for many churches in the Virginia Conference of the Mennonite Church. That’s when participating congregations across the state converge in the Eastern Mennonite College chapel-auditorium for the Shenandoah Valley Hymn Festival.
The name implies the purpose: an occasion to celebrate and perpetuate the Mennonite Church’s tradition of singing its Christian faith.
The Festival evolved from a class project that Roy D. Roth did while enrolled at Westminster Choir College the summer of 1973. The first program, sponsored by EMC’s music department on November 18 that year, featured singing from the Mennonite Hymnal and the Harmonia Sacra, special music by area church groups, plus hymns sung by a mass choir of nearly 200 persons from 20 congregations throughout Virginia Conference. Since 1976, the conference Board of Congregational Ministries has sponsored the Festival.
Roth, who teaches church music courses and directs the chorus at Eastern Mennonite Seminary and is minister of music at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church, is a prime mover of each year’s program. Yet he prefers to stay behind the scenes, modestly crediting the ad-hoc planning committee he works with each year—as well as Festival participants themselves—for coordinating the event.
“lam concerned that congregations promote good hymn singing, and the Festival allows persons to experience it in a setting of a thousand or more voices uniting in worship and praise,” he says.
Roth fears that Mennonites “are taking their four-part, a capella style hymn singing for granted,” and he hopes the Festivals can in some small way “help to remind us of our distinctive musical heritage.”
No two programs are alike. Several have stressed congregational singing from the Mennonite Hymnal. Less familiar selections are introduced and variations on hymn tunes presented—some with instrumental accompaniment— to illustrate ways of enriching worship. Always there is a mass choir that interprets hymns and joins with the audience in lifting musical offerings to God.
The 1978 Festival emphasized hymns for children and included a children’s chorus. The next year an intergenerational chorus gave the premiere performance of a specially commissioned cantata, “Children, Saints and Charming Sounds,” written by Alice Parker of New York City.
The 1980 program spotlighted the new Sing and Rejoice! songbook. Its compiler, Orlando Schmidt of Elkhart, Indiana, was present to lead selections, aided by soloists, ensembles and choral groups.
The Festival’s main funding source is offerings taken during the programs. Roth notes that expenses usually exceed income, casting a shadow of uncertainty on the future of the event.
“It’s been rewarding to be involved with these Festivals over the years, and | certainly hope they continue,” Roth says, adding with a quiet smile, “But | wouldn’t mind seeing someone else plan this fall’s program.”
The theme of the ninth annual Shenandoah Valley Hymn Festival, attended by some 800 people, centered around events of the church calendar—Ascension Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and others.
Festival Quarterly 31
| best-selling books: in review _
Gorky Park, Martin Cruz Smith. Random House, 1981. 365 pages. $13.95.
Certainly a stripe or two above the average suspense story, Gorky Park succeeds best at washing the reader with a sense of Russia. One feels one knows what it’s like to live in modern Moscow. Whether or not the author portrays it truly remains for anyone to guess.
Three frozen, mutilated bodies are found beneath the snow in Gorky Park in the middle of Moscow. It is not only an unusual crime; the grotesqueness of the affair points to a daring perpetrator.
Arkady Renko, the Chief Homicide Investigator, sets out to solve the murders. He becomes a likeable character, not overly clever or brilliant nor totally cynical either. The people in his life are partial human beings; their relationships seem clinical. The reader ends up with a feeling of observing them through a one-way mirror rather than one of being in the room with them.
Yet the strange unfolding of the tale, the new sights and sounds, and an atmosphere of telling, not unlike the dissonance of some modern music, lures
Martin Cruz Smith
Bob Adelman
one along through this intricate book. One participates in astate of empathy one step removed from warm and a state of suspense one step removed from thrilling. In the end, one remains most stimulated by the atmosphere of the story. A writer could do worse.
The KGB injects itself into the crime from the very beginning. Arkady puzzles over their breathing down his neck, yet when he tries to hand the case over to them, they pull back. Apparently the case has political overtones, but it’s somehow too hot for them to handle.
Two Americans, one a_ wealthy businessman and the other a New York cop, become intertwined with the Moscow murders. Arkady pushes forward because he has no other choice, encircled as he is with a sense of eventual failure, but intelligent enough to want to know the truth.
Gorky Park fills several enjoyable evenings with snow, KGB, and fur caps. Then it’s gone, leaving a trace of a feeling in one’s mind.
THE ORIGINAL TOURMAGINATION
There’s no reason to settle for a copy. When comparing tours, look carefully at the facts:
—TourMagination has had twelve years of experience.
—TourMagination’s prices include all meals, tea and cof- fee, lodging, entrance fees, all transportation, in- surance, and even tips.
—TourMagination can give you personal attention with at least two leaders on every tour.
—TourMagination’s leaders are carefully selected so every day will be educational and enjoyable.
—TourMagination will help you absorb a new culture by providing authentic local food, traveling on back roads, meeting the people.
—TourMagination develops a Christian community spirit. Each individual or couple receives a diary following the tour which records the group experience.
—TourMagination will give you your money’s worth and more.
TOUR:
MAGINATION
1210 Loucks Avenue SCOTTDALE, PA 15683
225 Forsyth Drive WATERLOO, ONT N2L 1A4
1982 Ey TOURS
U.S. $ 1885 U.S. $ 1800 U.S. $ 1950 U.S. $ 1300
In preparation
May 3-24
May 24—-June 5 Aug. 2-17 TM 82A Europe Aug. 6-28 TM Western Canada Dec 27-Jan 14 ’83 TM South America
TM/Out-Spokin’ TM Israel
22 Days 13 Days 16 Days 23 Days 19 Days
32 February, March, April, 1982
quarterly film ratings
Buddy, Buddy — A silly, shallow bit about a hired gun (Walter Matthau) and a man constantly threatening suicide (Jack Lemmon) who end up in hotel rooms next to each other. Disappoint- ing. (3)
Cannery Row — A stylish adaptation of John Steinbeck’s vision and romanticization of the down-and-out losers in California. Stars Nick Nolte. (6)
Evil Under the Sun — Forget it. Contrived, slow, and uninteresting. Based on Agathe Christie whodunit on an elegant island. (1)
Ghost Story — A stylish horror film about four old men and a secret they share which comes back to haunt them. Stars John Houseman, Melvyn Douglas, and Fred Astaire. (6)
Night Crossing — Rather interesting as Disney films go. Based on the true story of two families who try to escape from East Germany in a homemade balloon. (5)
Pennies from Heaven — Steve Martin spreads his wings in a brave attempt to do a different kind of musical. The story of a salesman in the Depression is intercut with the wistful musicals of the period. Sorta flops. (3)
Private Lessons — A rather sordid yarn about a man and a woman posing as a maid and a driver who try to blackmail the teenager of a wealthy family by sexual lure. (2)
Ragtime — An impressionistic, masterful cinematic eyeful, set in turn-of-the- century America. A black man takes revenge against a callous, indecent white race. Very involving. It will follow you. (8)
The Best of 1981
Chariots of Fire
Atlantic City
Heartland
Reds
Ragtime
On Golden Pond Gallipoli
Absence of Malice Southern Comfort Raiders of the Lost Ark French Lieutenant’s Woman Raggedy Man
Whose Life Is It, Anyway?
The Seduction — Plastic and awful. A tele- vision anchorwoman is pursued by a psychotic photographer. Embarrass- ingly self-conscious. (1)
Shoot the Moon — A powerful if somewhat melodramatic story of a marriage falling apart and the pain that follows. Superb acting by Albert Finney and Diane Keaton. (7)
Taps — Beginning woodenly, but improv- ing as it goes, this film unspools the rather implausible tale of a group of military-academy students who forcibly take over their school. Tim Hutton is good as the lead. (5)
Venom — Not half so scary as the ads pre- tend. A dangerous snake is loose in the midst of some terrorists. Some fine acting, though. (5)
Whose Life Is It, Anyway? — A superb, highly-involving film about a sculptor who becomes paralyzed and decides he wants to die. Richard Dreyfuss is brilliant as the bright, angry, cynical victim. Is the story too slanted? (8)
Films are rated from an adult FQ perspective on a scale from 1 through 9, based on their sensitivity, integrity, and technique.
enjoyment.
A quiet, relaxing atmo- sphere for your group’s re- treats. Each of our motel rooms offer DD phones, color TV, and Inn Room cof- fee. Acres of lawn, play- ground, tennis and volleyball courts, game room, and indoor pool are all for your
Our restaurant specializes in good “home cooking”’ including daily local specialties. Banquet and meeting rooms are available for up to 275 persons.
Hird-In- Hand Motor Jun-Kestavrant
Located 7 miles east of Lancaster on Route 340. Phone (717) 768-8271
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Festival Quarterly 33
Ue
to educate / to challenge / to live by
Suspense story for young people:
SARAS TREK
The book is full of excitement. The underly- ing theme is the faithfulness of God.
Sara is ten. She and a friend are separated from their Mennonite families as they flee from Russia to Germany during World War I1.
The girls experience hunger, cold and bomb- ing raids before they are united with their par- ents. Together again, the families are in constant fear of the Russians, near starvation, and Sara faces ridicule at school because she is ‘‘different”’ —a refugee.
Life gets better for Sara and her family when a care organization arrives with food and estab- lishes camps.
The story moves along quickly and makes en- joyable reading for youth and adults.
BASED ON FACT...
Mennonite history comes alive in these pages.
by Florence Schloneger
ISBN 0-87303-071-0
Paperback 108 pages...
$4.95 (U.S.)
Faith and Life Press
Box 347, Newton, KS 67114 oe
34 February, March, April, 1982
reclassified
“Business Is Business” by Katie Funk Wiebe
A young woman wanted to join an inter-Mennonite church and requested baptism by immersion in the river. A four-year-old boy watched these new proceedings with interest. The water was somewhat turbulent, and the woman and the minister maintained their footing with difficulty.
The next week, the woman called at the home of the boy’s family. “You know who | am, don’t you?” she asked the boy, who had drawn back. “Yeah,” he said, ‘“‘you’re the lady who went swimming with the minister on Sunday.”
Friesen: What’s the matter with your wife? She looks all broken up.
Yoder: She’s had a terrible shock.
Friesen: How come?
Yoder: She was helping at the MCC Thrift Store and took off her new $35 sweater, and someone sold it for fifty cents.
Frederick the Great occasionally stayed with local people on his maneuvers in the Dutch Netherlands in the 1700s. Once his host, a Mennonite, would not accept payment because of his wealth. Frederick asked him, ‘‘Are you rich?” “Yes, Your Majesty.” “How did you become wealthy?” “By always paying a penny more than the market price for everything and by selling everything for a penny less than the market price.” Unamused, the king wanted a better explanation. The man continued, “‘That’s the truth. When the grain was inexpensive, | always paid a penny more per bushel and then stored it in my granary; when the price rose, | sold it for a penny below the current price.” His simple life made it possible for him to be satisfied with half the profit required by others.
—P.M. Friesen, Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia
The visiting rabbi offered a dollar to the child at the school assembly who could tell him the name of the greatest man in the history of religion.
“The Pope,” said the Italian boy.
“Billy Graham,” answered the American evangelical.
“Jerry Falwell,” said the Baptist.
“Abraham,” said little Menno.
“The dollar is yours,” said the rabbi, “but why did you say Abraham?”
“Deep down in my heart, | knew it was Menno Simons,” replied the boy,“but business is business.”
&
Katie Funk Wiebe is a writer of many books and columns, and an English teacher at Tabor College.
The editors invite you to submit humorous stories and anecdotes that you've experienced or heard. We are not interested in stock jokes — we want human interest stories with a humorous Mennonite twist. Keep your submission to no more than 100 words and send them to Katie Funk Wiebe, Tabor College, Hillsboro, KS 67063. She will give credit to anecdotes she selects.
comment
Housewives
by Sondra Gotlieb
Each quarter Festival Quarterly features speeches or essays from the larger world which because of their subject, unusual sensitivity, or wisdom are of interest to our readers.
Loyal wives, whether they are married to politicians, diplomats or coal miners, have become the lepers of our society. The women’s movement and glossy fashion magazines accuse loyal wives of living vicariously and of not conforming to the “correct” image of the new “Dream Woman.” Yet Dream Woman is no more than an invention of the advertising types of Madison Avenue, pandering to the fantasies of naive feminists. What’s wrong with cleaning your husband’s bathtub? Coal miners’ wives do it as a matter of habit. Or of scheming and plotting to help your husband’s career? Loving political wives have no qualms about it. By contrast, that repellent creature, the Virginia Slims ‘““You’ve come a long way, baby” woman, has abandoned her mops, cleansers and brutish husband, and is now the president of a mining and smelting company. She might clean the bathtub of her coal miner lover as an erotic exercise, once, but she knows that sexual titillation would utterly vanish if removing his coal grime were to become her daily chore. At one time she might have been called selfish, but not today.
Women who appear to subordinate their personal fulfillment because they have no careers are made to feel half human by the propaganda of the women’s liberation movement and the media. Yet the support and stability they offer their families cannot be understated. A friend of mine, whose husband is one of the most successful men in his field, is alarmed at the inevitable cocktail party question: “And what do you do?” “I’m so and so’s wife,’ she responds, as her companion quickly turns away. “If only | could say that I’m a truss manufacturer,” she complains, “then I’d be fascinating to talk to.”” Nancy Reagan is criticized by the media because she’s ambitious for her husband and likes pretty clothes. Ironically, though, we never criticize a well-dressed career woman who determinedly furthers her own ambition. Pushy wives and mothers are out. Assertive working women in Faye Dunaway crepe-de-chine blouses are in.
These days the assertive working
Are People, Too!
woman is not only the role model of feminist magazines like Ms. and glossies like Cosmopolitan, but, distressingly, she has become the sweetheart of such Canadian homemaker’s institutions as
What’s wrong with
cleaning your husband’s bathtub?
Chatelaine. Whereas Chatelaine used to dedicate its editorial to “Perfect Domestic Bliss’”” — remember that wife with seven children who canned chickens the same day she cheerfully entertained her husband’s boss at dinner — the magazine nowadays has banished this domestic wizard from its pages. A single issue (October, 1981) features three articles about Chatelaine’s new ideal woman — The Mover and Shaker — and her career- minded sisters. She’s a woman doctor interested in varicose veins; her sisters are “women in pharmacy” and “bright new women artists.”” How can Chatelaine’s editors ignore that about 50 percent of Canadian women are still homemakers? At that, it is my understanding that a good portion of the women who claim to be wage earners work for as little as six weeks a year. In a 1980 U.S. Gallup poll, three women in four indicated that marriage and children were still essential ingredients of the ideal life. Why are their interests and concerns not reflected in our media?
Don’t misunderstand me — ! am not against equal rights for women. If a woman wants to become a high flyer in the corporate world or bottom drill in a coal mine, she should have the same opportunity as a man. But | can’t understand why feminists worship the 20th-century work world of men. Daily work from nine till late becomes a treadmill. And from my experience, most businessmen, public servants, politicians and truss manufacturers think and talk exclusively about their own narrow concerns. Their conver- sation consists of “my latest deal,” “my new promotion,” “my importance to the voters’ and ‘“‘why my trusses are better than the competition’s.”’ It’s all narcissim and fatuous egotism. I’d rather talk to their wives, who know
how to listen and who are capable of laughing at themselves.
| consider myself an “appendage” wife. | married at 18 with no thought of becoming anything but a wife and mother. While raising my three children, it never occurred to me that | was an inferior species of female because | didn’t have a paying job. | was lucky. Dream Woman had not yet been invented to make me feel guilty and diminished. My husband did not clean out bathtubs, or even enter the kitchen — the sight of raw chicken legs lying on the counter makes him feel queasy — yet this was never a contentious issue in our marriage. After my youngest child was at school full time, | found that | had time to take up writing. But | always planned my work around my husband’s hectic schedule, for too much emphasis on my “freedom” might threaten something enduring in our lives — the fact that marriage and family come first.
During those years | discovered that women whose sense of self-value did not feel threatened because they had chosen to stay at home are natural givers. They have time to give to their families, their friends, and they can take on a multitude of worthwhile volunteer activities. | can’t help but feel that if every woman had a full-time paying job, both women as individuals and society in general would be shortchanged. Whether it be helping in the hospitals, raising money for the arts or medical research, or even reading a book or giving a party — all are activities that contribute to a civilized society. As Barbara Grizzuti Harrison wrote in the October issue of Harper’s, “If the real work of the world is that which extends into the future, that which is not ephemeral, and that which sustains life, we are talking about poetry and bread and babies.” Caring for a family is not ephemeral, but lasting work. Women who deliberately stay at home for reasons of the heart are certainly as liberated as the movers and shakers. It’s time they stopped feeling debased by the media or the ideologues of the women’s movement.
Sondra Gotlieb is an author and the wife of Canada’s new ambassador to Washington. “Housewives are People Too!”’ first appeared in Macleans February 1, 1982 issue. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Festival Quarterly 35
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CCX S ao
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Look for the revelation of the above writers identities in the next issue of FQ.
David Augsburger was the baby appearing on the back cover of the last issue.
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“The Times of Our Winifred Beechy
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exploring the art, faith,
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festaval quarterly
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(with a ribbon)
Give FO to your Graduates — It's a link to their past and a vision for their future.
ca LEAVE THE DRIVING TO WILLI
Have you wanted to visit the great European cities: Amsterdam, Koln, Brussels, Zurich, Berne, Heidelberg, Strasbourg?
Would you also want to travel on the back roads to Pingjum, Griiningen, Wappenswil, Trachselwald, Haslibach, all places with unusual Anabaptist significance?
Are you interested in some fun things like a cruise on the romantic Rhine, a cog-train ride to the top of the Rigi Kulm, an authentic Swiss fondue supper?
Can you appreciate the value of a stop in Mennonite communities such as the Weierhof (Germany), Mont des Oiseaux (France), and Berlikum (Holland)?
Join TourMagination 82A to Europe, August 2- 17, and leave all the driving to Willi Schweikard, who owns the modern MAN bus. If Willi can’t go, he will send Rolf, or Hans-Jirgen. There are no better drivers in Europe. You just enjoy the trip! Price—U.S. $1950
1210 Loucks Avenue Other TourMagination tours: a 4=6SCOTTDALE, PA 15683
TM Western Canada 82—August 6-28, 1982. 225 Forsyth Drive TM South America 83—February 10-28, 1983. WATERLOO, ONT N2L 1A4
MAGINATION
table of contents
A Holy Reminder
| was in no mood to socialize, be friendly, do research for FQ, or answer questions about what brought us to London when Merle made his suggestion. “Let’s see if the Mennonite Centre has church tomorrow.”
It was late Saturday afternoon. Jet lag was playing its funny game. We needed to debrief our first meeting with the screenwriter. We were to see a play that evening, not by ourselves, but again in the company of the film producer and her pricey English cousin. My body and spirit needed some collecting.
But remembering how I’ve scroung- ed for news of Mennonites elsewhere in the world | dragged out the phone book. “Come ahead,” said Alan Kreider. ‘““And stay for lunch. We’ll water the soup.”
| recognized tne spirit. And we weren't disappointed. Never have | been SO wrapped in music — violin, guitar, piano, and recorder washed over each other and us. It was an hour of reclamation for me. it reinforced that chorus, “Remember who you are!” that went with me many teen-aged Saturday nights. It was a surprise of Grace. | was at home. | belonged.
Later that day we waded through more film negotiations; we sampled Filipino hors d’oeuvres; we smalltalked in a home decorated with original Picassos. None of which touched my soul like the worship we had joined in a cramped, living room-turned-chapel on Shepherds Hill. That gathering had been a holy reminder. =-PRG
Mother’s Day and
Nuclear War
| live with the realization that my daughters carry a potential time bomb inside themselves. When they become teenagers, just completing school, full of promise and energy, leukemia might strike.
You see, we’re survivors of Three Mile Island. Kate was two and Rebecca snuggled in the womb on March 29, 1979.
Yesterday was Mother’s Day. The day here in Lancaster County was incredibly beautiful. Kate’s wearing chicken pox, Rebecca’s hatching. As Phyllis and | left for church, entrusting the two cuties to the care of Great-Aunt Anna, we gota call announcing the birth of a new niece, Amy. It was a happy Mother’s Day, in spite of chicken pox. The Garden of Eden couldn’t have topped it.
Then the radio reminded me that Billy Graham was in that church in Moscow which Mennonites like to visit, preaching against nuclear war. The Falklands were being bombed. And Israeli planes had strafed southern Lebanon.
How can one be a happy parent in such a world?
| confess | get so tired of hearing about “the dangers of nuclear war,” | might just vomit the next time | hear the phrase. Add to that ‘“‘peace and justice.”
Yet | think | really care. It’s just that the tulips, the dogwoods, the children’s eyes and the family handshakes so refreshed me yesterday. And the news of a new niece.
Can’t my soul ever be restored? Must my joy always be so qualified? Shall we offer our children a childhood of fear and worry?
Not that | don’t admire what Billy Graham and Don Kraybill are doing, even though | can’t figure out what to do myself.
Yesterday | just wanted to look at the flowers and the children, chicken pox and all. Forget the leukemia that Three Mile Island may have planted inside their young bodies. Forget the jets and the bombs and the marches. A nest. Warm sun and spring fragrances. And a refuge from the storm. We can’t worry every day.
Of course, today’s another day...
—MG
i>)
10
12
14
16
Editorials Letters Communication By-line
It’s Augs- j burger’s hunch that giving to beggars is wrong. Farmer’s Thoughts Second Sight
Two fish stories provide counsel for José Ortiz as he thinks about a new career. Sunday Sabbatical
Robert Kreider draws some - interesting par- 2 — allels between Sunday morn- pase 19 ing television and Sunday mornings in Lancaster Conference Mennonite churches. The Artist as a Social Critic
Gleysteen presents those inspired pieces of art that go beyond a cause to capture the spirit of being human. Perils of Professionalism
Our people have entered the professions. That step has brought tension to marriages, families, and congregations; it has caused dilemmas for a people who traditionally perceived themselves as servants but find themselves with personal power. The Times of Our Lives
Winifred and Atlee Beechy reflect on what kept them close to the church. Dis-Quest
What role does music play in our congregational life? How vital is it? Reflections from France, India, and California. Creatively Aging Worldwide News American Abroad
Elisabeth Anne Neff Krabill’s parents receive African advice upon her arrival. International Quiz Publishing Notes Mennonite Books: In Review FQ’s Quarter-Order Eyeful Borders Family Creations Best-Selling Books: In Review Quarterly Film Ratings Reclassified Comment
Beware of retirement!
Festival Quarterly 3
4
A quiet, relaxing atmo- sphere for your group’s re- treats. Each of our motel rooms offer DD phones, color TV, and Inn Room cof- fee. Acres of lawn, play- ground, tennis and volleyball
courts, game room, and indoor pool are all for your
enjoyment.
Our restaurant specializes in good ‘home cooking’”’ including daily local specialties. Banquet and meeting rooms are available for up to 275 persons.
Bird-In- Hand Motor Jnu-Kestavrant
Located 7 miles east of Lancaster on Route 340. Phone (717) 768-8271
Mennonite
Way DIRECTORY Ill
a hospitality travel directory for the years 1981, 1982, 1983
NOW AVAILABLE
Featuring:
105 International, 2100 N.A. hosts * What to see in 25 communities e Special on Ger- mantown plus map e 10 day worship guide e Centerfold map of important places ¢ Hosting guidelines ¢ 46 countries, 45 states, provinces.
single copy 2 copies $10.00* 3-11 copies each$ 4.50* 12 or more - wholesale list available
$ 6.00*
“U.S. funds only, price includes postage (4th class) to one address
copies at $ total due 6% tax- PAresidents TOTAL ENCLOSED NAME
Address
Mail to: Mennonite Your Way Box 1525, Salunga, PA 17538
May, June, July, 1982
Experience the history of St. Jacobs by visiting The Meetingplace .. . a unique tourist information centre utilizing a well-documented multi-media presentation that presents an accurate account of Mennonite history and lifestyle. Bus groups welcome.
the meetingplace
tourist information centre
May - Oct.
Mon. - Friday 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m.-7: 30 p.m. Sunday 1 p.m.-6 p.m.
reduced hours until May
33 King Street, St. Jacobs 664-3518
Festival Quarterly
The Festival Quarterly (USPS 406-090) is published quarterly by Good Enterprises, Ltd., at 2497 Lincoln Highway East, Lancaster, PA 17602. The Quarterly is dedicated to exploring the culture, faith, and arts of the various Mennonite groups worldwide, believing that faith and art are as inseparable as what we believe is inseparable from how we live.
Copyright © 1982 by Good Enterprises, Ltd. Vol. 9, No. 2. All correspondence should be addressed to Festival Quarterly, 2497 Lincoln Highway East, Lancaster, PA 17602. Second- class postage paid at Lancaster, PA. For U.S. readers: one year — $7.75; two years — $14.80; three years — $20.90. All other countries: one year — $8.95 (U.S. funds); two years — $15.80 (U.S. funds); three years — $21.90 (U.S. funds).
Editor — Phyllis Pellman Good Publisher and Associate Editor — Merle Good
Design Director — Craig Heisey Staff Writer — Rachel Stahl Circulation Manager — Miriam Buckwalter
Contributing Editors — David W. Augsburger, Hubert L. Brown, Kenton K. Brubaker, Peter J. Dyck, Sanford Eash, Jan Gleysteen, Keith Helmuth, James R. Krabill, Jeanette E. Krabill, Paul N. Kraybill, David Kroeker, Alice W. Lapp, John A. Lapp, Wilfred Martens, Mary K. Oyer, Robert Regier, Jewel Showalter, Carol Ann Weaver, Katie Funk Wiebe.
Reporters — Rebekah Basinger, Jim Bishop, Will Braun, Ferne Burkhardt, Karen Glick- Colquitt, Donna Detweiler, George Dirks, Gwen Doerksen, Ernest Epp, Ivan Friesen, Paul Hostetler, Jon Kauffman-Kennel, Lawrence Klippenstein, Don Krause, Glen Linscheid, Randy MacDonald, Loyal Martin, Arnie Neufeld, Myrna Park, Karen Rich Ruth, Dorothy Snider, Stuart Showalter, Peter Wiebe, Shirley Yoder.
Phyllis Pellman Good, Merle Good
On the Cover — Robert Kreider with his back to television and his face to the church reflects on his Sunday Sabbatical. Photo by FQ/Kenneth Pellman.
A suggestion: Occasionally, FQ might Open a corner for: (a) job openings for Mennonite young people or couples; (b) Mennonite businesses changing owners; (c) farms to rent or sell; (d) young people advertising their skills, so needy communities can contact them if any openings are in our local communities. Young people need jobs and places to make their homes.
Mrs. Roy Nafziger Harper, Kansas
| feel very much at home with you despite the fact that | do not know you personally. | have taken you into my heart and fellowship over the several years of Festival Quarterly from the beginning when we were recipients of a free Quarterly for a year. | haven't forgotten this, neither have | forgotten the efforts that are entailed in publishing and selling a paper, much more one like yours of a religious nature, and one that speaks out against as well as for your Mennonite breinren.
I’ve been intrigued with the “new face of Mennonite life,” and at the same time immediately remember the many faces, the various factions of Mennonite life and doctrine.
In the community where | grew up near Stayner, Ontario, there were two Brethren in Christ (B.I.C.) and Mennonite churches side by side. The Mennonites were more progressive and had Sunday School while the B.I.C. had none at that church. Some of our elder ladies taught in the Mennonite Sunday School, but we never attended. But they also had revival meetings!! And of all things a lady evangelist whose husband accompanied her. In order to satisfy our desire to “go out for achange” one Sunday afternoon, we young folk gathered up a reinforcement from our neighbors for company and walked 3 miles to attend this meeting to hear the lady evangelist preach. We
walked home 3 miles, did the farm chores and had lunch, and with enthusiasm running high added a few more to the group (for nite time protection) and did another 6 milestint, allona Sunday afternoon and evening!!
So with this kind of association, and many of our church fellows and girls falling in love and marrying Mennonites, | have had “‘a next to” relationship in my early years.
| have no _ criticism. |! have much appreciation for such a magazine as this.
Mrs. Elsie Sider Wainfleet, Ontario
My husband and | thank you for your permission to reprint “Things That Life is Too Short For’ by Doris Longacre. We have included this in our monthly newsletter which will be mailed this Friday.
Her husband gave us permission, and sent me a copy of the sermon to read. | was moved and impressed with it. How very beautiful, that the words of a person we have never met can speak, and shed such light upon our path!
We thoroughly enjoy our subscription to Festival Quarterly. Thank you for the excellent work that you do. And thank you for sharing what | believe will be very meaningful to the members of this congregation.
Janet R. Parthemore First Church of God Middletown, Pennsylvania
We thoroughly enjoy all the articles. The variety of subjects covered are interesting, educational and written simply enough for all to understand. We are grateful for your efforts, and wish to express our sincere thanks and wish you God’s blessings.
Stewart M. Moyer 874 Main St. Harleysville, Pennsylvania
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* Red Dirt, by Pam Heap of Birds
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Festival Quarterly
communication by line |
D lalogue with a Beggar by David W. Augsburger
“Baksheesh, Sahib,” the woman says, holding up the baby for me to see its wide black eyes in the dim Calcutta street light. She reaches with a cupped hand, then passes it by her mouth in the universal gesture of hunger. She follows us, crowding against us down the block that is her turf.
“Baksheesh.” That is not the word for alms, or charity; it is the word for payment, payment of an obligation, a debt. She is collecting what is owed her in a duty-directed society.
On the basis of conscience, because of my own principled morality, | cannot pay. How can | explain this to her as she holds out an empty hand?
“No, | do not want to reward your use of a baby to demand sympathy.” All day in the sun, smog, and dirt of a Calcutta street. Fifteen hours of breathing black fumes from the giant diesel lorries. Even though it’s only once a week (“They borrow the babies from other mothers in the bustee, like rent-a-baby; it only ‘works’ now and then,” an MCC worker explained.).
“No, | do not want to support begging as a way of life. There are
opportunities for self-help, for work with dignity, for walking straight and tall rather than this placating, ingratiating, imploring hand outstretched half stoop.” (This “work” has dignity for her in her world view. She is fulfilling a time-honored
“No, | do not want to reward your use of a baby to demand sym- pathy.”
role.)
“No, | do not believe in this obligational system which requires the castes above to pay the cues of their own spiritual elevation to the nearest beggar.” If | give her the rupees loose in my pocket,
she will feel no gratitude to me. It is only my “karma,” my working out my duties for my salvation. It is | who should be grateful to her for offering me_ this privilege of advancing another square toward nirvana as | walk her block.
(Remember Ranchi? The beggars went on strike. “You people are under- paying us. We will not accept your small offerings. We'll let you suffer for six months without our services. That will teach you. No good karma will come to you until you come around to our demands.” It worked. Six months later, receipts doubled.)
“No, | do not care to add to today’s take.” The average beggar may make two to three times the wages of a worker who puts in eight to ten hours of labor.
“No, | cannot give with a clear principled conscience. To give in this instance violates the values, the universal goods, the ultimate faith commitments that shape my life.”
It is late. The street is dark. The sadness in the baby’s eyes is deep. And the beggar is a woman. In this society a woman’s lot is hard, even at best. She is my sister too, this bent woman with baby.
farmer’s thoughts _
Sounds
When | was a boy every farmstead had its chicken coop. We could hear the neighbor’s roosters crowing in the distance, a great wake-up sound. In the early summer mornings we would see the mother hen leading her little brood of cheeping chicks, hunting for food, insects, bugs and worms, the chicks often fighting for them.
But the rooster, his crowing done for the day, was irresponsible for the little flock. He strolled around with his head held high, looking over his harem. But he made a warning sound when a hawk flew overhead.
These are all sights and sounds we no longer hear. Where did all the hens and roosters go? Probably penned up in an environmentally controlled building, living on wire.
Then there was the three-legged milking stool beside the cow, and the first streams of milk hitting the bottom of the tin pail. It was a special sound. If we milked fast enough, the sound changed to milk hitting thick foam as the pail filled. Today the milking sounds have
6 May, June, July, 1982
by Sanford Eash
progressed to electric motors, sucking pulsators, and milk gushing into a special bucket or a pipeline.
Over in the horse barn we heard the sound of horses munching hay or
People sounds don't change with time: a friendly informal church that has dismissed and everybody Is visiting.
crunching ears of corn. They ate their
favorite oats with only a quiet nibble. Today horsepower is fed by an electric motor pumping diesel fuel into a tractor.
There was the sound of the three-
horse team going to the field, the harness tinkling along with the heavy clump clump of the horses. The plow slid through the soil almost silently as it turned it over, but the harness changed to a squeaking stretching sound along with the heavy footsteps of the horses. Many years have passed since | heard these sounds.
Studebaker wagons were built in our neighboring city of South Bend, Indiana. | don’t think they were made anymore when | was a boy but there were still a lot of them in use. They had a heavy steel tire in a big wooden wheel that turned on a large axle and made a certain crunch, going over a gravel road. Even the horse- drawn wagons didn’t sound like that.
The sounds of nature don’t change with time. Howling winds with flying snow so thick you can’t see over a few hundred feet sound the same. When the temperature drops below zero and the winds howl, it sends chills down the back of a livestock man, in more than one way. The snow squeaks underfoot. The traffic sounds of the nearby highway are muffled
Pec ee Halfway to Tarshish
What is it Mother Teresa says? “The issue is Compassion, not conscience, to love is to help the person in need without asking questions.”” One cannot live by that. It is not a principle that is universalizable. It is not consistent. It is not rational. And in many circumstances, to help is not truly helpful. Such first aid can be the worst aid. But this is the face of human pain. The coins fit her hand, with the smooth movement of a long-practiced gesture. The night lights of Calcutta reflect in the infant’s eyes. And both are
gone.
Was it bak- sheesh? Was it compassion? Nei-
ther. It is sadness.
It is grief, not guilt or relief that lingers.
David and Nancy Augsburger recently spent two months in Asia. David is associate professor of pastoral care and counseling at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries in Elkhart, Indiana, and the author of many books about communication and relationships.
by the huge snowbanks. When we were young we used to listen to the old-timers talk about the severe winters of the past. Now we are the old-timers and we find ourselves talking about the milder winters of the past.
People sounds don’t change with time: a friendly informai church that has dismissed and everybody is visiting. The sounds of children on the playground, laughing and shouting. There was a time when folks were annoyed by the sound of babies crying during the worship service, but we have accepted this noise again. It is the sound of a growing young church. It is a good sound.
Sanford Eash is a retired farmer from Goshen, Indiana. Sanford, with the help of his wife, Orpha, is writing regularly. Together they also do a lot of traveling.
by José M. Ortiz
The Old Man and the Sea and the story of Jonah in the Bible are twin books about big fish stories. Jonah comes out of the Hebrew tradition, while the other comes out of the pen of Ernest Hemingway, the American writer who made the turtleneck respectable attire. Both stories are well landscaped with action, safe language and wholesome characters as they struggle to survive in the sea, in the deep.
By now as a Sunday School alumni, | realize that maybe the fish that swallowed Jonah was not so big after all, but | am impressed by the commuting between Nineveh and Tarshish. | am also struck with how God harnessed the sea and the wind, advised the tribulation and even reserved space in the belly of the fish in
Let us resurrect Jonah and Santiago from their sleep. Let Jonah speak to us about his commuting be- tween Nineveh and Tarshish and the passages in adult life as we deal with Our own travel plans without confirmation from above.
order to let a simple mortal like Jonah know that he couldn’t get by God with his own agenda. Jonah deserves credit for trying harder, but he was overpowered and recycled!
Santiago, is a veteran fisherman at a port in a Cuban town. Even his assistant left him because he was having bad luck (“salao”) lately. But this time, he tries again... like the many other occasions recorded in his calloused hands and his salty wrinkled face. Early in the evening he feels a pull on the line. He realizes that his bait has been discovered by the big one. For hours the old man battles the fish, the sea, the night. At times he pulls the fish, at times they exchange the pulling, but the
old man will not surrender to his catch, nor to the dark, nor the deep. After a hard night’s fight on the way back to the port the old man realizes that the sharks are tearing away his trophy. With little energies left he brings ashore the boney skeleton as a token of his catch and his bravado.
Let us resurrect Jonah and Santiago from their sleep. Let Jonah speak to us about his commuting between Nineveh and Tarshish and the passages in adult life as we deal with our own travel plans without confirmation from above. Twentieth century personscommute a lot. We change jobs every seven or eight years. Twenty-five percent of our population moves every year. Voters commute from one party to another. We even shop around for churches to worship or not worship at all. Yes we commute and it can be to Tarshish.
Let us confess to Santiago that we sacrifice our health and security to enter into the deep and the dark for a bigger catch, a bigger pay check, the desired promotion, additional acreage on the farm, and another degree. Let us confess that we also reverse the roles. We become captives of our very own goals. At Indiana University campus in South Bend, non- traditional students are labelled ‘““DAR’S” (damned adult racers) by the younger fry. The frontier is over, but not the slogan that there is a bigger steak ahead.
| find myself continually facing the question of direction. Sometimes | find affirmation. Sometimes | want to fly out of the “cuckoo’s nest.” | don’t find comfort in tradition, nor in routine. Yet goals and direction continue to be topics of major concern for us mortals.
Financiers say that a billion dollars is not worth what it used to be. Marriage counsellors indicate that married life is not fantasy island anymore. Newscasters say that jobs have faded away, that faith has become an expensive commodity reserved for a few. In times like these... watch your move, watch that big catch!! Watch your 3;Quo vadis? your moving, and what you are after. It could be beneficial to your spiritual health!
José M. Ortiz spent the last seven years as Associate General Secretary for Latin Concerns in the Mennonite Church. He leaves that post this summer for a new and unknown career.
Festival Quarterly 7
Sunday Sabbatic
We live this year in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania—1400 miles from our home congregation in Kansas. On Sundays | am doing two things new for me. | have been watching and listening to a number of weekly TV religious programs. These come in various shapes, sizes and styles, but they have common characteristics. And, each Sunday morning | have been attending a different Lancaster Conference Church. These pastors and congre- gations also vary, but they too have common characteristics.
First, my TV diet in religious broad- casting. | have watched and listened frequently to a number of TV religious personalities with weekly programs. Ten somewhat tentative generalizations emerge in my mind; each admittedly has exceptions:
1. To my surprise TV religious programming has little biblical content. A Bible verse here, a Bible verse there, but rarely do you hear blocks of Scripture explained. Some pat and caress the Bible more than they quote it.
2. | Much of TV preaching has little or no place for the church. We hear affirmations of Christ’s atoning death on the Cross and we hear invitations to let Jesus come into our life. On the Body of Christ, the Church, there is mostly silence. They give so few leads on where to go to find kindred souls—just that plugged in TV set, that TV preacher, and that toll free number.
3. Worship is spectacle. I can’t touch, sing with, nod toward, stand with, talk to, hold hands with, smile at anyone. If | can afford it, there is a tour to the Holy Land | can join.
It is spectacle, not unlike the Superbowl, the Oscar Awards spectacular or a late night celebrity talk show:
—Backdrops of tropical foliage or glittering show business sets. —Expensively costumed choral ensembles going through carefully choreographed routines, tripping up and down glistening white stairs, across foot bridges in floral gardens or along sandy beaches at sunset.
—Soloists fondling microphones, rocking back and forth, faces imaging a rapidly changing series of intense emotions, bowing demurely at the end to the applause of the audience.
8 May, June, July, 1982
—The TV camera’s vulgar invasion into the private response of the audience—tears streaming down a girl’s cheek, a hand clasped on a Bible—and the lingering on those few black faces to confirm that it is an interracial gathering.
—A cosmetic look to those on stage: lean, well-tailored, handsome men with contact lenses, never bald; beautiful women—elaborately coiffured, glittering with rings, jewelry and paint, dressed in the latest mode. —The gestures—especially that extended, jabbing index finger— suggestive of patterns of lineal thinking.
—Sometimes TV talk show formats with guests smiling, touching, name-dropping, in a vision of relaxed, folksy koinonia camaraderie.
—In and out of the scenes, up and down at the pulpit that genial master of religious ceremonies, the TV preacher.
It all seems so materialistic, so rehearsed, so contrived, so fake, so secular, so humanistic.
TV preachers paint a bleak picture of the world slipping deeper and deeper into a morass of sin. Liberals and secular humanists are accused of naive expectations of human and institutional better- ment. In a curious switch TV religious shows seem so consistently upbeat, self- confident, success-oriented. One sees in TV religious programs shades of a secular humanism. Try harder, raise more money, out- smart the enemies, get more station affiliates—a “we can win” optimism. There is not much said here of God’s faithful ones being a remnant people, the meek of the land, a pilgrim people.
There appears to be a superficial view of the depth, power, and pervasiveness of human depravity. Prime targets are illness, lust, alcohol, drugs, but the speakers are silent on the private and corporate sins of greed, pride, violence, and popular idolatries. They never speak of worship of the state, the cultic claims of professional sports, or the peril of trusting in “horses and chariots.”
TV religious showmen are
entertainers in center stage, receive adulation, and talk much
about themselves. Pride and power, rather than humility and servanthood, are the controlling images.
8. An invitation to be reborn in Christ is at the core of the Gospel. | am struck, however, that the evangelistic message is limited to individual salvation and issues such as illness, ridding oneself of bad personal habits, backing the American military, and giving funds for the program. It is salvation without a full-circle discipleship. It is salvation without the church. It is salvation without the whole wheat bread of Jesus’ Lordship over all of life.
oh One hears a lot of putdown of ill- defined enemies: liberals, professors, do-gooders, Eastern establishment types, pacifists, secular humanists—a blurry group of bad-guys—along with abortionists, pornographers, drug pushers, Communists, Arab terrorists, and atheists. Granted that most of these are a part of the network of evil, | personally prefer to receive the Good News
of Jesus not wrapped in a dirty newspaper of hatred and putdown.
10. Finally, TV religious shows come in a made-in-the-U.S. wrapping. So much of it is worshipping the golden calf of U.S.—the first, the best, the brightest, the most benevolent. As one listens, one often asks: ““How would this message sound to a peasant farmer in Guatemala? These shows have so little to say about the hurts of the world, so little to share about world-wide fellowship in Christ, world missions and ministries. It is an American Gospel, prideful and materialistic.
Lest | be misunderstood—and | will be misunderstood—! have alsa heard on religious television that which
. by Robert Kreider
nurtured my soul. | once heard an exposition of a parable on the Prodigal Son that was fresh in insight. | was moved by the story of a son’s alienation from a famous father and then his reconciliation in Christ and to his father. | have heard some TV evangelists tell jokes about themselves which helped to make them to be human and winsome. Certainly there is some spiritual nourishment to be found here. Most of us, | think should find better ways to seek food for our souls and fellowship in God’s family.
In sharp contrast to TV religious showmanship are worship services in the simple, rectangular meeting- houses of Lancaster Mennonite Conference congregations. Forty years ago while in CPS service | attended regularly services in one of these congregations. Then | felt cramped by the rigid plainness, authoritarian polity, restricted program, and all too frequent dull sermons. The redeeming part of that experience were those Sunday School classes taught by gifted laymen—rich in biblical wisdom, fresh in applications, world-encompassing in relevance.
This year | have attended services in almost twenty Lancaster congregations with quite a different set of impressions than those derived from TV religious shows. Church life has changed in Lancaster County: less rigidity, restrictiveness, dullness. Or, perhaps, | have changed.
1. On entering a Lancaster Conference meetinghouse one is greeted by real people. Names are exchanged, a hand extended, a bulletin offered, and one is invited to attend a Sunday School class where one meets people. The mimeographed bulletin normally does not carry the full order of service, but gives the name of the preacher and worship leader, and provides much information of what is
going on in the life of the congregation.
2. ‘The literature racks preach a sermon supportive of the pulpit: informational and devotional materials ranging from tracts on Mennonite history, soul winning, nonconformity in dress, Menno Housing, a seminar on nuclear issues, corn for Somalia, a nature study weekend, openings in VS, mission news from East Africa, a Bible conference, family worship helps, marriage enrichment seminars, and much more. A wholistic program.
3. The place of worship is plain but pleasing to the eye—no stained glass, no organ, occasionally a piano (used only for special music), no choir loft, in a few places—a cross. The walls are invariably painted in a pastel off- white hue. Drapes on the windows usually blend in with the walls. The floor is carpeted. The wood benches, arranged in straight rows, are occasionally padded. In the alcove at the front is a raised platform for the preacher, worship leader, and song leader—now more frequently chairs rather than the traditional bench behind the pulpit. At the center is the pulpit with microphone with greenery to either side. It is a quiet, worshipful setting with no visual aids to help or distract.
4. Most adults bring their Bibles to the service and members are invited to follow with the worship leader and preacher the reading of the Scriptures.
5. Hymns are sung a cappella from one of the three or four different hymnbooks. Only occasionally is there special music. Members of the choral group come forward from their places in the congre- gation to sing.
6. Visitors may be asked to stand and introduce themselves to the congregation. One is a person and is welcome.
rf The purpose of the offering is announced with a sentence or two and without emotional appeals. Ushers, usually young people and sometimes in quite informal dress, gather the offering, often while a hymn is being sung by the congregation.
8. The preachers are mostly
unknown to me. Their sermons are always biblically grounded, solid, illustrated with applications from daily life. Sermons seem to well up out of the Scripture and a sharing of the Christian experience. | hear no ego- tripping, no hard selling, no attention-attracting techniques, little or no legalism, no put- downs. The preachers develop Anabaptist/Mennonite themes without parading Mennonite labels. In my notes are recorded sermon themes on personal salvation, cultivation of the devotional life, church, discipleship in daily living, family relationships, neighbor relation- ships, hunger, communicating the Gospel at home and overseas, peacemaking and warmaking, seeking first the Kingdom of Heaven, being one of God’s people. Some sermons are only average. In a few services there are vestiges of an earlier pattern where other pastors and deacons gave brief affirming or amplifying comments on the sermon— responses from “the bench.”
9. After the service people introduce themselves, seek to learn who we are, try to find linkages, express their pleasure in having us present. There are invitations to come home with them to dinner. After watching TV one receives no invitations to come home to dinner.
Much has changed in Lancaster Conference churches. People seem more open. Some dress plain, but not as they once did. In only a few congregations did we kneel for prayer. Occasionally we hear a piano. Overall, however, the appearance of the people and the style of worship is simple.
Lancaster Conference congre- gations may have their flaws of character. Judged, however, by those worship services in Lancaster meeting- houses, | as a visitor feel nourished. Here is the whole wheat bread of life. If | were staying longer in these parts, | could easily find my church home in one of these congregations. | would have no need to dial that toll free number.
Robert Kreider is a professor at Bethel College, North Newton, Kansas, a historian, editor of Mennonite Life, and active in Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and Mennonite World Conference. He is based at MCC this sabbatical observing and working on writing projects.
Festival Quarterly 9
"foreign beat _
THE ARTISTASA Zé“
SOCIAL CRITIC
by Jan Gleysteen
— a selection of illustrations
In my previous column | pointed out that the artists’ role as a social critic is a relatively new idea. And on the whole this role has not inspired a lot of first-class work. The most universal and timeless poems and paintings are not likely to be comments on the passing scene, because that is indeed passing.
But occasionally, in the hands of a great craftsman fired by deep conviction, a statement of concern rises above this limitation to become a statement for all times, addressed to all humanity.
This page features representative pieces from various countries. Not surprisingly, many of the works are heartfelt statements against war, the ultimate enemy of the arts, and all things living and beautiful.
NEVER AGAIN WAR, Kathe Kollwitz, Germany = :
Y,
cs
OLD AND FROZEN, Ernst Barlach, Germany THESE SEATS RESERVED FOR THE WAR ;
DISABLED, Erich Heckel, Germany
_LARRIERE
YESTERDAY THIS WAS CALLED MURDER ... THE LABORERS, José Venturelli, Chile TODAY? Frans Masereel, Belgium HOPELESSNESS, Rika Unger, Germany
10 May, June, July, 1982
THE SURVIVORS, Kathe Kollwitz, Germany
THE WAR HERO, Jan Lenica, Poland
Jan Gleysteen, an artist and historian, lives in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, where he works for Mennonite Publishing House and participates in Tour-Magination as a leader of tour groups in Europe.
Festival Quarterly 11
Perils of Profession¢e
Editor’s Note: Perils of Professionalism is a full-length book recently published by Herald Press. It is a collection of articles interlaced with personal stories written by members of the Mennonite and Brethren families, who are professionals — but uneasy with that title and the dilemmas it brings. The following excerpts are taken from throughout the book.
Donald B. Kraybill is associate professor of sociology at Elizabethtown (PA) College and author of The Upside- Down Kingdom.
An ad in the newspaper informs me that there’s a “professional popcorn “= popper” which comes in a gift package “with professionally prepared corn and professional butter’”’ — probably from professional cows with professional udders. While such careless and flippant use of the term “professional” evaporates its meaning, it still carries a strong appeal for most of us. The meaning of the word has been utterly corrupted, yet the professional label continues to be attractive, prestigious, and sought after.
The editors, Kraybill and Good.
There is a sense in which the following pieces represent the collective wisdom of a community of people on a journey from the plow to professions.
Lois Yake Kenagy, Corvallis, Oregon, farms with her husband and is a church and community volunteer.
The special status granted to professionals in the community tends to be carried over into the church. For instance, one church-related board as recently as 1976 asked that persons nominated be chosen from the categories “church person, businessperson, educator, and professional.” Professionals included “doctors, attorneys, and others who have specialized resources and technical knowledge which persons in the other categories cannot provide.” Consequently, that particular board included several doctors, although medical expertise was not related to the work at hand.
Ruth Detweiler Lesher is doing an internship in Philadelphia for her eq COctoral program in psychology.
Autonomy, freedom, individual initiative, and the need for quick decisions make the responsibilities of a farmer and a professional similar in many ways. Both involve risk and reward. The freedom to “be one’s own boss” is similar in the stable and the office. The decisions in both occupations are made against equally unpredictable odds of changing weather, changing human emotions, behaviors, and money markets. And yet there is a profound difference between life on the land and life at the desk. Historically, the farmer had little power over people compared to the professional of today. The farmer did not enjoy the prestigious respect given to the professional.
My tradition didn’t teach me how to handle power. Quiet farming was such an easy way to salt the earth and light the world. The professional world demands vocal, aggressive, and shrewd power brokers to cope with the multiplicity of forces in professional life. This seems so
12 May, June, July, 1982
different from my cultural heros — the quiet, faithful farmers.
Being a Christian woman doesn’t make power easier to handle. Differences between a Mennonite farm woman and a professional woman have more to do with the status that society gives educational degrees than with a shift from stereotyped feminine skills to masculine ones. Many Mennonite women that I’ve observed on the farm demonstrate significant responsibility, independence, and good management skills.
v, Nancy Fisher Outley is social service director of the Women’s Alternative Center in Media, PA.
Amish society is a community of nonprofessionals. However, many in the __ “2, community have developed knowledge and skills that would qualify them as competent agriculturists and home economists .. . . If success is measured by outcome or results, surely Amish farms and the array of handicrafts and culinary goods within the home are evidence of the work of highly qualified “professional” people. But, our society has ruled that no matter how successful the outcome, it is only crofessional if an individual passes through a long academic process. Using our society’s definition of professional, | had no professional role models as a young Amish child.
| think my first conscious move away from
professionalism was to stop using the possessive ‘“‘my” when referring to the persons with whom | related. It seemed demeaning and dehumanizing for both of us when | referred to them as “my clients” or ‘“‘my boys’’. In this deprogramming process, my old Amish values began to supersede my newly acquired professional value system. In professional jargon, | began translating the skills, values, and cultural framework that | had acquired as an Amish child into an “Amish or brotherhood” treatment modality.
Phyllis Pellman Good is editor of Festival Quarterly and co-director with her husband, Merle, of The People’s Place near Lancaster, PA.
Unfortunately, there are few models of successful marriages where both spouses a have found partnership and fulfillment in their careers (whether at home or in a_ profession).
It’s a stiff climb, and one that doesn’t end. In
addition to love, two people need to bring some less romantic qualities to their marriage: respect for each other (no matter what either’s professional status is); willingness to be vulnerable (not considered a virtue in professional circles); the commitment to spend time together at the risk of needing to say “no” to the voracious appetite of one’s profession and its demand for time (like the Mennonite pastor who refused to meet a visitng Mennonite leader on his only evening in the area because it conflicted with the pastor’s family night); the deliberate attempt to collaborate rather than compete, no matter the size of the issue at hand (“My time is more valuable than yours” is an assumption strictly out of bounds).
There are attitudes to cultivate. Perhaps the hardest and yet most basic is servanthood. It must be learned and kept in shape, the same as one’s profession. If that ideal prevails in one’s mind and behavior, the dominant grip of one’s profession is weakened. That may create plusses at home and
ISM, edited by Donald B. Kraybill and Phyllis Pellman Good
fallout at work. And since home and office are connected by a person, the balance inside him or her doesn’t happen without tensions. “I feel defeated no matter what | do,” becomes an often repeated chorus.
Carl Rutt is associate professor of psychiatry at the University of South Dakota School of Medicine.
At home, mother the doctor or father the teacher is simply a parent and a spouse. | lose patience with my children despite the fact that my daily professional work involves counseling parents in distress who lose patience with their children! In the family setting, the professional parent needs to be human, imperfect, and on a par with the other parent. He or she must be vulnerable and subject to criticism.
. If a busy parent waltzes in after a heavy day at the office, expecting to be waited on or to be treated with homage, conflict is inevitable. The remaining family members need to sense they are as important as the career of the professional parent.
Frank Ward is pastor of the Rainbow Boulevard Mennonite Church in Kansas City, Kansas.
Some people clearly don’t pay attention to me unless they can think of me as a [2 Ma professional. | remember Mrs. Miller in my Ly pastorate who always introduced me to influential friends s “Doctor Ward” or “The Reverend Frank Ward.” | always was tempted to respond with, “Just call me Frankie.”
But another group won't listen to me unless they perceive me as a nonprofessional. Should | play the game? Do | really want authority? (Why are management skills workshops so popular with ministers right now? | get two or three notices in the mail each week.) Okay, | don’t want to lord it over people, but | do want them to give fair consideration to what | say, both from the pulpit and in committees.
Another question. Do | give as much consideration to the ideas of nonprofessional people in the congregation as | do to those of the professionals? To the ideas of the less affluent as well as those of the more affluent? Do | automatically attach more worth to some than to others? Better think about that, Frank.
Donald B. Kraybill.
The whole framework of professional care assumes that it is the clients or students who are the needy. In fact, the professional providers are often the ‘‘needy” ones, however. They must have clients to maintain their job and income and “cases” to support and feed their economic structures.
Gordon D. Kaufman is professor of | theology at Harvard Divinity School.
The problems with which members of %} modern professions must deal most of the = time simply were not addressed by
the writers ay the Bible, because they are
problems that arise from a completely different cultural situation, one that those writers could never have imagined
. It is not at all clear how the Bible can remain authoritative