草莓社区 joins the nation in mourning the late former President Jimmy Carter, who was known for his humility, strong Christian faith, and lifelong dedication to service, peace and human rights.

Carter, president from 1977-81, died on Dec. 29, 2024, at 100. Jan. 9, 2025, has been declared a National Day of Mourning to honor his legacy. 

His wife of 77 years, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, spoke at EMU’s (then Eastern Mennonite College) 68th annual Commencement on May 4, 1986.

鈥淛immy and I have come to admire and love the Mennonites through our involvement with Habitat for Humanity,鈥� she said during the commencement speech. 

It was Donald and Faye Nyce, parents of EMU alumni Ed 鈥�86, Pam 鈥�86 and Doug ’85, who introduced the Carters to the Habitat for Humanity organization, the former First Lady said. Donald and Faye Nyce volunteered at the organization鈥檚 headquarters in Americus, Georgia, and attended the Carters鈥� church in Plains.

鈥淲e developed some very close friendships with them… we came to love them very much when they were in our part of the world,鈥� Rosalynn Carter said. 鈥淎nd it was through them that we learned about your [the Mennonites’] tradition of volunteer service.鈥�

A full transcript of her speech can be read . 

In a 1986 , the Nyces described the Carters as strong Christians who were supporters of civil rights 鈥渓ong before a civil rights stand became the popular thing.鈥�

鈥淛immy was our Sunday school teacher,鈥� Faye Nyce is quoted in the article. 鈥淲e were surprised, then delighted and pleased with his knowledge and application of the Bible.鈥�

A little more than two decades later, in 2009, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter received the Global Nonviolence Award from the Mahatma Gandhi Center at James Madison University. Former EMC President Myron Augsburger spoke at a ceremony honoring the Carters, and EMU鈥檚 Shenandoah Valley Children鈥檚 Choir (SVCC) sang at the ceremony.

In a recent Facebook post, Ken J. Nafziger, professor emeritus of EMU Music, shared his memories of meeting Jimmy Carter when the Chamber Singers were invited to sing at his church.

Two Eastern Mennonite Seminary alumni have created a blog and web magazine to provide a forum for young adults who are committed to staying in the institutional church but want to discuss what that means.

"Work and Hope: Finding Christ in the Church" was created by Jeremy Yoder, a 2010 graduate currently living in Baltimore, Md., and Laura Lehman Amstutz, a 2006 alumna, a Harrisonburg resident. Both completed the three-year master of divinity degree program.

Perspectives on faith, heritage and more

Their blog and quarterly online magazine will attempt to bring together various young adult perspectives about the church.

The first issue of the magazine was launched July 20 and focused on the theme, "Why am I [still] Mennonite" or in the case of one writer "Why am I [still] Brethren."

Six contributors address this question, citing family connections, ethical understandings and a commitment to a heritage and theology that makes sense to them.

Work and Hope

"We chose ‘Work and Hope’ for the blog’s title because are the words in the inscription on many editions of the ‘Martyrs Mirror,’ the historical account of Anabaptist martyrs," said Yoder. "It also signifies the perseverance we believe the church needs to survive."

"We feel like there’s been much emphasis on that segment of our generation who is leaving the church," Amstutz added. "We wanted to create a place for those of us who are staying to discuss what that means for us."

About the editors

Amstutz and Yoder are hoping to attract a wide cross-section of writers for the quarterly magazine from across the Anabaptist-Mennonite faith tradition and perspective.

The editors, Yoder and Amstutz, will also be blogging regularly about other topics related and tangential to their commitment to the church.

Yoder is currently looking for a ministry position within a Mennonite congregation. Amstutz is admissions associate and communication coordinator for Eastern Mennonite Seminary.

They spoke Aug. 8-9 to about 45 faculty, plus several graduate students, from schools including Kansas’ Bethel and Hesston Colleges, Ohio’s Bluffton University, Indiana’s Goshen College; Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg; Conrad Grebel University in Waterloo, Ont., and Mennonite Education Agency (MEA).

Willard Swartley introduces the faculty conference theme with a keynote address on “The World via the Word.” (Photo by Jim Bishop)

“How the logos creates the world is really unanswerable,” said keynoter Willard Swartley, speaking on “The World via the Word.” Dr. Swartley, professor emeritus of New Testament and former dean at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., was EMU’s 2004 alumnus of the year.

Referencing John 1:1-18, he characterized the creation-vs.-evolution debate as irrelevant, declaring God “the enabler” who makes change possible.

‘God’s Created World’

Speaking, in turn, on “The Word via the World,” Doug Graber Neufeld promised, “My forays into theology will be brief and filled with trepidation.”

Yet, Dr. Neufeld, who chairs EMU’s biology and chemistry departments, sees spiritual challenges in “what we’re doing to God’s created world.”

Having co-taught EMU’s “Green Design” course and served with Mennonite Central Committee in Cambodia, Neufeld recently received a National Science Foundation award for research on drinking water quality. While few minority students are entering scientific fields, he cited positive trends including “citizen science” and “creation care.”

In a roundtable session Mennonite professors reflect on ideas presented in the keynote address for their discipline. (Foreground) Lisa Thimm, Sally Weaver Sommer, Angie Montel, Greta Ann Herin, Jerrel Ross Richer; Background: Bill Eash, Bradley Kauffman, Merrill Krabill, Gerald Mast, Greg Luginbuhl. Photos by Jim Bishop

It was the first annual conference, and first visit to EMU, for Bethel’s Lisa Janzen Scott and Kulsum Kapacee.

“The title got my attention,” said Kapacee, a nursing faculty member originally from Kenya. She hoped to “to learn from what is working” at other schools.

Scott, a teacher-educator, enjoyed linking faces to names of colleagues whose publications she’d read.

Ted Grimsrud, EMU professor of theology and peace studies, often talks with non-EMU colleagues in his disciplines, but appreciated meeting conferees from other fields.

Ecology and Sustainability

Ryan Sensenig, who teaches biology at Goshen, hoped to find ways that “interdisciplinary faculty can work together in ecology and sustainability.”

Delivering one of the conference’s several short presentations, Sensenig, a 1992 EMU graduate, said he wants his teaching to reflect kenosis (receptiveness to God’s will). While he worked in Kenya with grassland ecosystems, Sensenig’s two five-year-olds enjoyed the diversity of plant life.

Back in Kansas, he said they demonstrated kenosis by asking, “Hey, Dad, when can we let our grass grow nice and tall like that?” Sensenig has begun a similar project on the prairie.

Bluffton art professor Gregg Luginbuhl expresses Creation themes through images of mushrooms; masks; the dorsal fin of a fish becoming a headdress. Comparing God’s work to human-made art, he said, “God’s creation is dynamic. My art is static, although it sometimes gains life.”

Vi Dutcher, professor and chair of EMU’s language and literature department, described grappling for words to convey empathy. “I have never shared with my students the excruciating nature of writing,” she admitted during audience questioning.

Dr. Dutcher recently submitted a children’s book for publication, titled “The Red Pop Beads” and based on her childhood reactions to the loss of a sister.

The conference included “table group” discussions as well as musical entertainment: “Anabaptist Bestiary Project,” by Bluffton’s Trevor Bechtel. In the project, modeled on the Medieval bestiary tradition, Bechtel saims to celebrate God’s creation by exploring the ways in which God’s creatures reveal God’s will.

EMU President Loren Swartzendruber cited today’s campus challenges as increased parental involvement, declining biblical literacy, and society’s de-valuing the life of the mind. He told attendees that in the 1970s, while he was an admissions counselor at then-EMC, someone suggested that all faculty be ordained. Impractical as that may be, Swartzendruber said, teachers do as important work as pastors.

Chris Edwards is a free-lance writer from Harrisonburg.

Sarasota, Fla., draws EMU students on spring break on a yearly basis.

It was spring break on Siesta Public Beach, and these college students were living it up.

Shirts were off. Bikinis and sunglasses were on.

Lounging on their towels after a long game of Frisbee, a few of them reached into their cooler for some nice, cold peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples and carrots …

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Sharon E. Kniss, a third-year Eastern Mennonite Student student from Harrisonburg, has won the C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest held Mar. 18 on campus.

Ms. Kniss took first place in the annual competition with her address, "Engaging the Terrorists: A Discourse on Living with the Other." She received a cash award.

Runners-up were Elisa J. Wolf, a sophomore from Lititz, Pa., and Zachary T. Kurtz, a senior from Keyser, W.Va.

In her presentation, Kniss asked what needs to happen to purposely engage "the other" – to begin to communicate with those of differing persuasions and viewpoints, noting that applying handy labels like "conservative" or "liberal" aren’t helpful in that process.

She used Christ’s parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 to support her points, arguing that "how we learn to live with each other forms the basis of peacebuilding in society."

A video and copy of Kniss’ presentation will be sent to Mennonite Central Committee, Akron, Pa., to be judged as part of a national competition among the winners of all participating Mennonite and Brethren-In-Christ colleges and universities.

Kniss, a major from Harrisonburg, is the daughter of Phil and Irene Kniss and a member of Park View Mennonite Church.

The Smith Oratorical Contest began in 1974 as a way to honor the late C. Henry Smith, Mennonite historian and professor at Goshen College in Indiana and Bluffton Unversity in Ohio. Smith had a deep interest in the Mennonite peace position. The contest encourages college students to present speeches that apply the Anabaptist peace position to contemporary concerns.