Menno Expert On Call
I take a healthy level pride in my various expertises. One of them is Anabaptist/Mennonite theology, history and sociology, or at least I like to think so. Tomorrow, my expertise has been called upon. Through a family connection at the church where I pastor, I have been asked to visit a local high school world religions class to talk about the Mennonite religion. Since it's a catholic school, I've been asked to highlight the places where Mennonite belief differs from Catholic belief. My biggest fear is that the presentation is supposed to take up the whole class, which is 75 minutes. My other worry is that I probably know more about the 16th century Catholic church belief structure than I know about contemporary Catholicism.

If I can, I'll use a few video clips which should help to both entertain and amuse. I'm also really hoping to get some good questions from the students, besides the typical horse & buggy and incest questions (I should have some good comebacks ready just in case).

I've already planned to talk about baptism, pacifism and symbolism. I think that should pretty much cover it. They want me to focus mostly on religion and not so much history or sociology. I want respect that, but as with almost all groups, the three are inextricably interwoven. The best explanation of a question from any one of those groups generally includes parts of the other two.

If anyone has any suggestions or points to highlight, or even questions that would be helpful or that you even want answered, feel free to post them in the comment link. Thanks.
(I leave at 10am EST on Tuesday)

   [ posted by William @ 4:31 PM ]

500 Years Later
In researching historical data, I hit a snag recently, and went to inquire with a local history prof regarding the info. In my script, I want to do a just representation of the person of Felix Manz. For those unfamiliar with the story, and even a refresher for those who knew it once, Felix Manz was a well educated scholar of the Bible and key figure in the beginnings of Anabaptism in Zurich Switzerland. His writings of word and song endure, and his impact on present day Mennonite, Anabaptist and Free Church theology is undeniable. The history books record all these things, but they also add a sidenote, that he was the son of a priest. In pre-Reformation Europe (Manz was born in the late 15th century), even though there was some dissent among the church, priests were still sworn in with a vow of celibacy.

The history books record that Felix lived with his mother in a house close to the Grossmünster in Zürich. The group of Radicals that wanted to speed up the pace of reform in the church, namely Conrad Grebel, Wilhelm Reublin, Blaurock, etc., also met at her house regularly for Bible study, and more famously on the night of January 21, 1525 when they all took turns baptizing each other.

The modern reader reads this story and sees Felix as an illegitimate child. Upon further research, I found that Heinrich Bullinger (the successor to Ulrich Zwingli in Zürich) was also an illegitimate child of a celibate priest. I wanted to do justice to Felix and his mother on stage, and I was curious for historical reasons as well, so I brought my list of questions. What was the nature of these relationships between priests and their wives/concubines/girlfriends? To what extent did Felix' status as an illegimate child play into his initial child baptism? How did it alter his status in society? at theological universities? How did it reflect upon his father?

The answer I got was quite surprising. The answer was that priests having children and long-term monogamous relationships was so commonplace that nobody cared. Many great figures of the Reformation (Desiderius Erasmus, Martin Bucer, Dirk and Obbe Phillips, etc.) were illegitmate children of priests. In fact, the only people wdisapprovedved of these relationships were the odd high church figures and the establishment in Rome. General society supported the local priests' in ignoring of their vows of celibacy, and they also resented Rome for discouraging these marriages.

Analyzing this reality, I started to wonder about contemporary clerical celibacy within the Catholic church. 500 years after the Reformation, the church is still able to enforce it? Some suggest that a new pope (likely not Benedict) could bring about badly needed development in this issue that many say is the most visible demonstration that the Catholic church is behind the times. Back when all of Europe was Catholic, and the church exercised powerful influence, many priests publicly broke their vows. Now, when the church has almost no political or civil power, almost no priests break their celibacy vows.

I also wonder what things has our society accepted as irrelevant vows? Maybe civil obedience? Every pastor I've ever driven with breaks the speed limit, some obsessively. Are there other things? Should we change our perceptions so that breaking our vows is okay, or change our vows because nobody keeps them anyway?

   [ posted by William @ 1:30 PM ]

Canada's Blunderland

For a while there, Will had me tied up so I couldn't write on here. He was worried I was getting more comments than him, but I've managed to break free and here I am!

Yesterday Will and I were at Canada's Wonderland with a few of his youth, and we had a blast. Given line-up times (for rides and washrooms) we made it to The Bat, The Vortex (my fave), The Fly, Top Gun and The Italian Job (Highly recommended--it's only given a "3" Thrill Rating, but I give it a "4").

We spent much of the day observing people, as there certainly were a lot of people to watch (I think that in itself is a fascinating phenomenon how thousands of people can enter and leave one place within a day...but I won't dwell on that).

Much of my observations led me to disappointment, such as hearing profanities being spoken as verbs, nouns and adjectives, everywhere we went. There must be a name for such a language (like "Cuss-slovakian", or "profan-ish"), 'cause certain words were used as a language, and not as punctuation or exclamation (which is what I thought swear words were for).

I saw that cell phones can kill you. Not just from talking on your cell phone while driving on the high way (why do people do that?!), but also while walking. A girl almost ran right in front of us in the Wonderland parking lot, oblivious because she was (guess!) talking on her cell phone. WARNING: Don't try these things near or in traffic!

I saw that when there are swarms of people, all accountability and politeness is lost. I got budded many times, and blatantly. I was waiting in line (of 10 women or so) for the toilet (patiently, might I add), and this woman walked right past everyone and straight for the toilet. Maybe she had to go badly, but so did I. Waiting in line for a hot dog, this girl behind me yells "I'll have nachos and cheese!" Okay, fine. Waiting in a line of 5 for pizza, these kids went to an empty spot (not a line) and started to order. Not to mention lines for rides.
What is it about crowds that makes people only think of themselves?

If Wonderland could be a considered a microcosm of society, then it is a sad commentary on it.

   [ posted by Anabee @ 5:29 PM ]

As the Spirit gives Utterance
I brought the Pentecost message this past Sunday. Here is an excerpt from the sermon:

We celebrate Pentecost as a Christian holiday, but Pentecost is a Jewish holiday as well. The apostles were in Jerusalem, waiting for a sign from God. Jerusalem was a busy place, because everyone had gathered to celebrate Pentecost. The apostles still celebrated Jewish holidays, because they were still Jews, they were still circumcised, they still kept Moses' law, like Jesus told them to do, they still attended synagogue regularly, like Jesus did with them, and like Paul did after them. They were Jews that recognized Jesus as their Messiah.

One chapter back in Acts, we see that Jesus ascends into heaven, and he tells his gathered apostles to wait for the arrival of the Holy Spirit. And he says to them, in Acts 1:8-9, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

The part about Acts 2, the Pentecost story, that most people will remember, is the speaking in tongues from the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit doesn't just show up out of nowhere, they were waiting for it. Jesus told them to wait, so they waited. While they waited, Pentecost came to Jerusalem. Pentecost in Jerusalem was like Friday the 13th in Port Dover, or Relief Sale Weekend in New Hamburg, people showed up from all around, specifically to that city to celebrate the holiday. The disciples waited for the Holy Spirit, and while they waited, their city grew full of these Jewish pilgrims. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a mighty wind blew threw the room, and it seemed as though everyone was receiving their own flame. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the gathered apostles began speaking in different languages. The Jewish pilgrims, in town for the Pentecost holiday, spoke many different languages. When the Holy Spirit filled Jesus' apostles, the languages that they spoke, weren't the languages that they understood, but the Jewish pilgrims did understand. They heard and understood, and they were amazed, "how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?" The apostles spoke, as it says in my New King James translation, "as the Spirit gave them utterance".

These two stories are very obviously connected. When you see two stories in the Bible that have similar events, pay attention, there might be something you're supposed to understand.

In Genesis, God saves the people from death with the ark. He tells them to spread out and cover the whole earth. The people don't spread themselves out, they starting building the tower and city of Babel and God uses language as a tool to help spread out the people.

In Acts, God has just saved the world from their sins with the sacrifice of Jesus. Jesus tells the apostles to spread the good news of his message. The apostles are in one place until the Holy Spirit comes and uses language as a tool to spread the good news.

The news of Jesus was not supposed to be limited to Jerusalem, and it was not supposed to be limited to the Aramaic language. We cannot limit God. Some people try to limit God's love. If you are a Christian and still hate someone, then you are limiting God's love. If you only use the Bible as a black and white rulebook, then you are limiting God's word. If you love Jesus, and are a part of the Kingdom of God, but you don't live it, you don't show it, and you don't talk about it, then you are limiting God. We may be ordinary people, but we serve an extraordinary God.

   [ posted by William @ 12:52 PM ]

Crokinole Revisited
As I've mentioned in here before, my new town of residence is home to the world championships of Crokinole. Although we haven't practised, my brother and I are still planning to enter in the doubles competition. If anyone else is interested in competing, I can hook you up with a place to stay.

There were a few young guys in the area last year at this time filming a documentary about the whole tournament and the process. There hasn't been any word (at least not that has been communicated to me) about how far along the video production is, but I'm sure it'll be an interesting watch as well.

I think it's good for small towns to support these kinds of things. As lame as the young people in the town might think it is (and there are a surprisingly high number of youth who love it, even though they pretend they don't), these kinds of events put small towns like mine on the map. Even if Crokinole is the only thing we can brag about (we also have a darn good cheese factory), still there is at least something that separates our small town from all the other small towns in the area. Every small town should have a similar point of interest, just don't copy ours.

Here is the link to the contest homepage:
www.worldcrokinole.com

   [ posted by William @ 5:27 PM ]

BC's STV
If you've been following the news in Canada recently, you may have heard of BC's STV. A while ago, a randomly selected group of 160 regular British Columbia citizens gathered to evaluate the method by which governments were elected in the province. They recommended that province change from the old SMP voting system (Single Member Plurality, commonly referred to as 'First Past the Post') to an STV system (Single Transferable Vote). It's going to a provincial referendum on May 17 to coincide with their provincial election.

It's a difficult system for some people to understand. Of those that do understand it, some don't like it, and some think it's the greatest electoral development in modern time. Before I weigh in with my opinion, I would like to declare that I am not a resident of British Columbia, nor do I direct my writing toward citizens of the province, and thus am not required by BC law to register as an election advertiser.

I really think that this is a fantastic development in democracy. It gives a better representation of the way people think, and will undoubtedly create more balanced representation in their provincial assembly, meaning that MLA's will need to be more accountable to their constituents and less to their parties. For a government to rule automatically with the mandate of a majority government leaves the voters out of the picture for too long, and I think that what the STV system will give BC does that far better.

In a nutshell, STV is about vote sharing and redistribution. The voting map will change, and each new riding will elect at least two MLA's. Voters rank the candidates by preference, and then using an algorithm, the candidates are elected from the results. The description gets a bit technical, but I think it's not as complicated as the CBC has made it out to be. The first step is to determine the voting quota, the number of votes a candidate needs to be elected. The formula for that is [(total votes cast in the riding)/(number of seats available + 1)]+1. Then the votes are counted using the #1 ranking for all. Any candidates who have more votes than the quota are elected, or if no candidate has enough, then the last place candidate is eliminated. If a candidate is elected, any votes over the quota are proportionately redistributed using the next preference. If a candidate is eliminated, their votes get redistributed using their next preference. This cycle continues until the appropriate number of candidates are elected. This will really help fringe parties get the representation that their votes suggest.

I think STV will make governing more difficult, but I think it will require the government to be more responsible about it. I could make rural representation weaker, but that depends on how the new ridings are drawn up. I support STV, even though I can't vote on it, and I'm not allowed to advertise to any one who is voting on it. For more information click on these links:
BC Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform
BC STV Electoral System
An animated explanation of the system
Elections BC
Why I can't advertise my opinion

   [ posted by William @ 11:38 AM ]

Once it was lost
Cleaning isn't my favourite chore. Of the chores I do on a regular basis, it usually only accompanies moving. The reward of cleaning is of course a more livable space, but an often forgotten reward in cleaning is finding lost stuff.

I always wondered about my moms ability to know where everything was. Her secret was not a phenomenal memory or women's intuition as she suggested, but she simply did all the cleaning. In her cleaning, she found things and moved things, things that the rest of us often counted as lost.

Recently, while cleaning out my car, I found my long lost blood donor card, for which I had since ordered and received a replacement. My roommate/landlord cleaned out his garage recently, and in doing so found two of my missing hockey sticks hiding behind his hockey sticks. I hadn't seen them since after last winter, which is okay, because I just lost my hockey stick that I bought for this season to replace the two that I lost. This week Monday, in preparation for this year's inaugural golf game, I found my watch, the one that I thought had been stolen from my car a while ago. Ana doesn't like it, but it's a beautiful Nautica watch that I got as a gift a long time ago.

Now if only I knew what I needed to clean to find my two Nalgene bottles, my newest hockey stick, my golf glove and my batting glove? Or do I subconsciously lose them to satisfy my simplistic lifestyle desires? Who knows.

   [ posted by William @ 1:44 PM ]

Pretend that I am Parson Brown
A few years ago when the opportunity was first presented to me to consider pastoring, I had my hesitations, but decided to go through the process and see what happened. I accepted an 8 month position as an interim youth pastor, meaning that the search would continue for a real youth pastor.

17 months after I started, I'm still the pastor, and on the first of September, I'll be starting my second contract extension, and a year after that, my position is indefinite. These two changes to my contract were made official a month ago, after a short review process, of which I was not a part. Of course getting the extension was an affirmation that I took seriously, but I was also made aware of some of the concerns that were shared about my work, which hit me harder than the compliments did.

Of course I know the various ways where I need improvement in my position, calling people for information, remembering meetings, remembering what was decided at previous meetings, sending in forms on time, planning ahead, etc. I acknowledge those problems, but those are institutional responsibilities, and my job should not be mostly institutional. We all need to be organized, but there has to be more to being a pastor than just administering programs and heading up initiatives. Of the pastors that I visited, one book is open on their desks more than any other. Not the Bible, not a commentary or some theological work, but their dayplanner. Practical, yes. Necessary, no.

I was driving one of my youth home from a fundraiser last night. He kept going on and on about how I was the best pastor he knows, because I'm cool, my sermons are good (funny and deep), and I connect well with people (teenagers and seniors). It was truly heartwarming, although he may have been influenced by the ice cream I just bought everyone. I thanked him, and then changed the topic of conversation. I was a little uncomfortable talking about how great I was, so we started talking about how messed up teenage girls are. Given my teenage experience, I could talk about that for hours.

Not that my concerns are fully alleviated, but that sure helped. I still need motivation for the organizing of the job, but it's good to know the rest of what I do is appreciated.

   [ posted by William @ 10:35 AM ]

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 ]