Recharging, recreating and reforming
On January 21, 1525, at a meeting of religious thinkers on the fringes of their local church institution, George Blaurock asked Conrad Grebel to baptize him. That baptism is seen by many scholars as the beginnings of the Anabaptist movement. (Others, like myself, see it as only one of a series of events in various parts of Europe that gave rise to the Anabaptist movement).

477 years later to the day (in 2002), I joined two other guys to begin work on a Mennonite history play. Showing events like the initial adult baptism, we told the story of how the Mennonite movement developed theologically and culturally leading up to our specific present day situation. That play was produced in our home community, retelling the story to our own particular branch of Mennonites. Working on that project injected a lot of meaning and enthusiasm to my life, at a time when my work break from school failed to excite me.

Three years after that (this year), I began a similar but newer project. Together with the graceful and musically talented Ana, we have begun a project utilizing both her passion, music, and mine, Anabaptist history. We both have other things on the go this summer, but we formally began the project this weekend, and are both quite excited about it.

I had forgotten how much fun it is to pour over the history books to piece the data together. I had also forgotten how necessary it is to do so. I am quite happy with how much I know, and I feel that I can retell it adequately, but to tell the story well, details need to be verified, events need to be contextualized, and historical characters need to be analyzed. Pouring over the work of C. Arnold Snyder and John Howard Yoder, I will be able to occupy myself for months. When things become more solid, we will announce it in here.

Also, for those following my other play, a second draft has been completed, and is slowly being reviewed before further developments take place. I am open to having interested parties review my second draft. My G-mail user name is william.loewen, thanks.

   [ posted by William @ 7:35 PM ]