The Chamber Singers of EMU will present a program of worship through music 7 p.m. Sunday, Apr. 22, at Park View Mennonite Church, N. College Ave., Harrisonburg.

The 29-voice select ensemble, directed by Kenneth J. Nafziger, professor of music at EMU, will sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs featuring the music of Germans Johann Sebastian Bach and Johannes Brahms, Canadians Elanor Daley and Leonard Enns, US composers Ysaye Maria Barnwell and Francisco J. N

This year for the first time, 草莓社区 hosted the Bridgefolk Conference, an annual dialogue between Mennonites and Catholics that began in 1999. Its purpose is to build friendship, said the co-chairs, Abbot John Klassen of Saint John’s Benedictine Abbey, and Marlene Kropf, minister of worship for Mennonite Church USA.

About 65 participants, mostly lay church members, took part in activities that included attending Mennonite and Catholic church services together in Harrisonburg, Va., and sharing a footwashing service at the conference’s conclusion. The informal, grass-roots Bridgefolk parallels a series of high-level ecumenical discussions, which Bridgefolk organizers hope will spread to the local church level.

The Bridgefolk conference concluded with a footwashing service and agape meal.
Photo by Jim Bishop

A summary for lay readers of a five-year dialogue between Vatican and Mennonite World Conference representatives, entitled “Called Together to be Peacemakers

Three staff persons from 草莓社区 were among eight Harrisonburg area people who worked together to create resource materials for a 2005 Easter to Pentecost worship series.

The materials, titled "Unbound!", with a different subtitle for each Sunday, are intended for use by pastors and other congregational leaders and will soon be available in "Leader" magazine, published by Faith and Life Resources, a division of Mennonite Publishing Network.

At the invitation of Marlene Kropf, director of the Office of Congregational Life, Elkhart, Ind., the group gathered last winter at Park View Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg for a weekend to begin the planning process. The work was completed individually and in small groups through the spring and summer months with Shirley Yoder Brubaker of the Park View congregation as local team coordinator.

"The Office of Congregational Life has coordinated the development of worship resources for Advent and for Lent, but this was the first time to develop worship resources for the Easter to Pentecost church season," noted Brian Martin Burkholder, EMU campus pastor and a group member.

Other EMU employees on the planning team were Jill K. Landis, associate director of church partnerships at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, and Kevin Clark, part-time instructor at the seminary.

Other committee members included Kris Shank Zehr, Edie Bontrager, Gloria Diener and Lucinda Swartzendruber, all from the Harrisonburg area.