“Every course in this series is brand new,” said Cook, academic program director for the seminary’s Pathways for Tomorrow grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. and visiting assistant professor of Christian ethics. “We built an academic and professional degree that’s cohesive, integrative, and invites students to bring their whole person.”

The D.Min. program at Eastern Mennonite Seminary (EMS) is the first of its kind to combine study in the fields of justice, peacemaking, and theology. Students who graduate the three-year online program will receive a terminal degree that equips them to lead in faith-based settings, including in congregations, nonprofits, community organizing, and some teaching roles. The program is accredited by The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) and is pending accreditation approval by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS).

Applications are now being accepted for the first cohort of students starting in August 2025. Cohort capacity is limited, so applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Along with their applications, candidates must submit three references, an academic writing sample, and a personal statement. 

EMS looks forward to begin extending offers of admission in March, and will continue to review applications as part of a rolling admissions process. Scholarships will be awarded to D.Min. program applicants on the basis of academic merit, leadership strengths, and financial need.

Students in the online doctoral program will complete one course at a time, devoting about 15 hours per week to their coursework. Those courses can be completed fully asynchronously, allowing students — who also will be engaged in practicing ministry — to fulfill their personal and ministerial commitments.

The Rev. Dr. Sarah Ann Bixler, assistant professor of formation and practical theology and associate dean of EMS, said this flexibility and balance is essential in providing support for student success.

“We want our D.Min. program to contribute to leaders’ wholeness,” she said. “EMS will support students to complete their doctoral degree in a timely fashion with integrity and flexibility. Students will be encouraged to pursue doctoral research that enhances their current ministry, rather than draining energy from the heart of their calling.”

Each course in the D.Min. program is designed and taught by continuing-contract, full-time EMS faculty with terminal degrees (PhD or D.Min.) in specific fields relevant to the courses they’re teaching. That’s something not seen at a lot of other Doctor of Ministry programs, which are often run on the labor of contingent faculty, Bixler said.

“This struck me as a justice issue, unethical for the program we envisioned in peacemaking and social change,” she said.

The D.Min. program reflects ��ݮ����’s core values of academic excellence, peace and justice, and active faith, providing a transformative education that prepares leaders to engage in ministry with integrity and purpose.

For more information about the Doctor of Ministry degree offered at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, visit:

Read more

• EMU News (July 2024): “Board of Trustees approves new Doctor of Ministry program”

• (January 2025): “Eastern Mennonite Seminary to offer first doctor of ministry program”

The new degree, grounded in Anabaptist theology, is among the seminary’s latest innovative offerings. EMS is distinguished among U.S. seminaries for its historic emphasis on peace and justice and its location within a larger Anabaptist university, according to The Rev. Dr. Sarah Bixler, associate dean of the seminary and assistant professor of formation and practical theology.

“Our seminary faculty members are excited at the new possibilities this degree offers to attract a global community of students seeking deeper academic study in theology and culture, biblical studies, or peacebuilding infused with an Anabaptist perspective,” exclaimed Bixler.

A growing number of seminary students are coming to EMS with professional and personal interests outside the traditional avenues of pastoral ministry, she said.

“This new degree answers their need to expand their knowledge and skills in culture and peacebuilding within EMS’s long-standing curricular excellence in skills for ministry,” Bixler shared.

The MATS includes 15 core units, with 21 elective units focusing on the student’s specialized study in concentrations of theology and culture, biblical studies, or peacebuilding. 

This degree will equip nonprofit leaders, leaders in nonpastoral settings who want to explore the intersection of theology and another field of study, students who wish to pursue further graduate study below the PhD level, and students who want to study theology for personal enrichment.

“This flexible, short, new degree program is a unique slice of EMS’s distinctive curriculum, with core grounding in spiritual formation, biblical studies and peace theology and more coursework in elective offerings that students choose to meet their personal interests and vocational needs,” said The Rev. Dr. Jacob Cook, academic program director for the seminary’s Pathways for Tomorrow grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. and visiting professor of Christian ethics.

Lilly Endowment’s consistent financial support places EMS on the cutting edge of education among select North American theological schools. In 2022 and 2023, the seminary received two separate grants of $1 million or more each: The Pathways for Tomorrow grant focuses on resources and training for pastoral and lay leaders to address 21st century challenges, while a second grant received in 2023 supports research, practice and resources in Christian parenting. 

Students can expect to become well-versed in seminary distinctives with direct practical application such as formation for peacebuilding, adaptive leadership and conflict transformation, Cook said. Learning is rooted in Anabaptist perspectives, threaded with an invitation to explore theologies of nonviolence and practices for just peacemaking and transformational leadership.

Prospective students are encouraged to talk with seminary faculty and staff about their learning goals and objectives, as each degree program has been designed with a different focus, Bixler said.

The MATS, with 36 required units, is the shortest graduate degree offered by the seminary with an academic focus and integrated emphasis. The 48-unit MA in Christian leadership is focused on professional skills for pastoral leadership, while the 60-unit MA in religion prioritizes academic preparation in the theological disciplines. The Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree, at 81 units, is required for ordination in some denominations.

The Holy Week ritual of footwashing symbolizes servanthood, but Jesus had something greater in mind. Read more in Anabaptist World from Eastern Mennonite Seminary Associate Dean The Rev. Dr. Sarah Ann Bixler.

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In honor of National Pastoral Care / Spiritual Care Week Oct. 24-30, Penny Driediger was asked to share a reflection about her work as chaplain at Sentara RMH Medical Center.

Her article appeared in an internal newsletter and is shared here with permission. Dreidiger is director of Clinical Pastoral Education at Eastern Mennonite Seminary and an .��

To hear her and four of chaplaincy students share more about their experiences from the summer CPE program, (there is no obligation to join Facebook). EMS chapel services stream each Tuesday at 11 a.m. and an e-chapel reflection is posted each Thursday.

“In light of all the burden on healthcare workers during COVID’s resurgence this fall, our EMS CPE program is providing an important spiritual support service to Virginia hospitals, retirement communities and medical facilities,” said EMS Associate Dean Sarah Bixler. “In some cases, our CPE students provide the only chaplaincy services available; in others, they supplement care offered by existing chaplaincy staff who are often overwhelmed by the needs. This experience, supported by Penny’s expert guidance, is shaping their ministerial formation in profound ways as they practice a ministry of presence during this difficult moment in American history.”

Eastern Mennonite Seminary is unique as one of only eight seminaries in the United States with its own ACPE-accredited CPE program.

On the Chaplain’s Work: by Penny Driediger

CPE is a nationally accredited educational program that trains chaplains and pastors in providing spiritual care to those whom they serve. We have a good partnership and many Chaplain Interns have served at SRMH through our program for 20 years. I have the privilege of walking alongside patients, families, staff and students, promoting healing through spiritual and emotional care as a part of the wonderful care team at SRMH.

My work involves caring for individuals in some of the most distressing and challenging moments of their lives. I am constantly amazed by the resilience, courage and faith that so many exhibit as they face health challenges, pain and loss. I am aware of the importance of connection, of caring – sometimes holding hope for someone when they can’t hope for themselves. I have discovered that joy and sorrow are close companions. Often in the midst of deep sorrow, laughter will make its way to the surface in a way that offers a sense of healing and connection in the midst of the storm.

During the COVID pandemic, my Chaplain role has been challenging. It was very disorienting when we could not visit patients with Covid, knowing the fear and disconnect from loved ones that they were experiencing. We needed to be creative about how to care for patients, family, and staff. Sometimes, my heart has felt broken by the emotional toll that caring has taken on our wonderful staff. When the pandemic began, I felt like I was watching their distress from a distance – unable even to touch them, to give them a hug. Often, we resorted to video chats or phone calls to connect with patients and to connect families to patients. I recall one visit last year, once I was able to enter Covid rooms of those who requested a visit. One local chaplain from a residential home had four different patients in the hospital with Covid. I recall “walking” him around to these patients with a tablet so that they could have a visit with their pastor. Often tears would come as they connected with him and with God through his prayers and care for them. This was sacred work for me.

This past year and a half has touched us all and demanded so much, impacting every aspect of our personal and professional lives. As a chaplain whose role it is to listen and to provide space for another’s story, I have witnessed incredible resilience and courage from those on the front line of this pandemic. Not all experiences are equal; some seem to fare better than others. But there has been wounding, disorientation, sorrow, anger, fear. And there has been hope, love, patient compassion which shines through despite the challenges. I bear witness to their stories, to their distress, to their fortitude to carry on…because they have made a commitment to do so.

Last year during some of the worst days of the pandemic, I wrote a reflection after a visit with a patient. I’m including it here to share a glimpse into the unique role that chaplains play and express gratitude for the opportunity to serve the Sentara RMH community.

The man sat in a chair in the corner as I entered the room. I was covered from head to toe, double masked with N-95, goggles, hairnet, protection from him, from the disease he carried in his body and spread through the air with his labored breathing.

Communication was a barrier as he struggled to hear me – unable to see the articulation of my words.

He seemed vulnerable and scared – I had heard this to be true from others – fear for himself and his wife who he believed was dying. How do I meet him? How do I touch his pain without increasing his feelings of despair and isolation?

The feelings were there: fear, pain, anger, grief. The lived experience was there: isolation, sickness, O2 stats dropping, separated from his loved one. Uncertainty that so many with this disease face – will I get better, or will I die with this disease – never able to physically be with my family again?

Chaplain before him—representing God? Hope?

The question that he had lived with for his lifetime took shape. “Why does God allow such horrible things to happen? Over and over – different articulations of the same question – his eyes often pleading with me. And I felt hammered by his words – by his crisis that touched so closely to my own questions, my own unknowing. Between despair and a longing for a God who loves, who cares, who has compassion, who heals. No words, no words.

I sat uncomfortably with him – trying to convey compassion, hearing his lament, anger, questions. I joined him, “I don’t know.” He searched me with his eyes. Finally, he quieted down with a heavy sigh. He asked me what I hold onto – looking for an anchor. I shared brief glimpses because he couldn’t understand everything I said. Of the God I believe in, that I have held to in my own times of despair. The suffering God who also cried out, “God, why have you forsaken me?” The man lowered his eyes and said, “I can’t be forgiven.” I said, “As far as the east is from the west,” God removes our sins from us. I offered grace – in my presence, through being a witness to his questions, his grief. I suggested that he could talk to God, as if God were a friend.

He quieted and again looked pleadingly into my eyes – the only part of me that he could see. “What do I do, he inquired?” I sensed his openness and desire for a connection with this gracious God. I offered; Can I pray for you?” He heartily said, yes! In my prayer, I declared him a loved child of God. I prayed, grace, forgiveness over his life. I prayed for a balm for his broken spirit. I prayed for his loved one whom he could not touch. When I finished, he said, “When do I pray?” I said, how about now? We connected, holding hands. He squeezed tightly. And he talked to God like a friend.

Several EMU faculty and alumni have contributed to a new resource published by MennoMedia. Covering subjects from faith formation to sustaining leaders, have resonated with Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada pastors wrestling with deep and difficult issues amid the lingering pandemic.

The content covers six subjects: faith formation, worship, sustaining Leaders, community engagement, navigating polarization, and connection.

With more than 2000 downloads to date, the content has clearly filled a need in the church.

“We were able to determine that more than two-thirds of pastors in Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada signed up to receive these resources,” said Joe Hackman MDiv ’11, director of development and partner engagement.

Among the contributors are several EMU faculty:

• David Brubaker, dean of EMU’s School of Social Sciences and Professions; 
• Jayne Seminare Docherty, executive director of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding; 
• Cheree Hammond, professor in the graduate counseling program; and 
• Sarah Ann Bixler, associate dean of Eastern Mennonite Seminary.

Alumni include Hendy Matahelemual MA ‘19 (Christian leadership); Nelson Okanya ‘02; Jane Hoober Peifer ‘75, MDiv ‘98; and Martin Rhodes ‘02. Former faculty member Lisa Schirch, now with the Kroc Institute at University of Notre Dame, also contributed.

MennoMedia received a Schowalter Foundation grant in May 2021 to help churches thrive after COVID-19. MennoMedia used the funds to develop the “What Now?” podcast series and downloadable resources distributed to an opt-in email list and housed on the MennoMedia website.

“What Now?” resources were released in three installments in August, September, and October . The full set of resources are available for download at MennoMedia.org and the What Now? podcast episodes are hosted on the “-ing” podcast.

On Tuesday evening, just a short time after the verdict was announced, I sent a message  to our campus community. I named the value of a cathartic, collective exhale on the swift verdict, and our shared witness around a faith-informed justice on the occasion of this historic moment. Indeed, the trial was a long-awaited step towards repair in our country’s long and awful legacy of racialized violence. 

I also expressed support of deep listening and bold collaborative action: We especially surround our BIPOC students, faculty and staff tonight with care and compassion. We commit ourselves to continuing to hear their voices, to stand with them, and to do the hard and necessary work to extend the movement to expand racial justice and equity in our nation, our community, and on our own campus. We will work together to make our community of learners more and more fair and equitable inside and outside the classroom. 

The Black Lives Matter movement has taught me many things. Saying the names of our black citizens senselessly killed or injured at a shockingly disproportionate rate at the hands of law enforcement is a powerful reminder of my own white privilege. And so again I say his name: George Perry Floyd Junior, to remind myself this is not an ending at all.

As educators, we still have much work to do. Here is a brief summary of some tangible steps our university has taken recently on issues of racial and social justice, with special attention to diversity, equity and inclusion at all levels of our community of learning:

• Diversity objectives are featured in the President’s Annual Report and EMU’s 2020-25 Strategic Plan.
• A new fund to support DEI training and related initiatives benefited from nearly $93,763 in current and pledged donor support this spring.
•  EMU’s Board of Trustees is led by Manuel A. Nuñez, professor and faculty director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Villanova Business School. The board remains deeply committed in specific ways to diversity, equity and inclusion outcomes in learning objectives, campus climate, and representation.  
• More than 10 newly established endowed scholarships and direct grants to increase access and opportunities for BIPOC undergraduate and graduate students have been cultivated just this year.
• We continue supporting, building relationships, listening to and learning from leaders of our student organizations, including Black Student Alliance, Latino Student Alliance, International Student Organization, SafeSpace, and the newly established Asian Pacific Islander Student Association.

And finally, we are delighted with an important addition to our team: Dr. Jacqueline N. Font-Guzmán. She started as our executive director of diversity, equity and inclusion just a few weeks ago, and has already made connections with our Committee for Diversity and Inclusion, and among our student groups and their leaders. We look forward to her leadership as we make our actions toward racial and social justice more concrete. 

Below, Dr. Font-Guzmán shares a short reflection on the verdict. Continue on to read reflections from our student leaders, and leaders of Eastern Mennonite Seminary and the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. 

No one person can enact the kind of dramatic change our schools, communities, and country needs. We must listen together and lead together. Each member of our university has a contribution to make. We welcome your support and your prayers on the journey ahead.

From Dr. Jacqueline N. Font-Guzmán, executive director of diversity, equity, and inclusion

The murder conviction in the case of Mr. George Perry Floyd Jr. has been unprecedented in many ways. It is a rare event in the history of the United States that a White policeman is found guilty of murdering a Black man. 

At the personal level, I have mixed feelings about the verdict. Although I felt encouraged by it because it held the perpetrator accountable, justice did not triumph. True justice requires giving each person their due. Mr. Floyd should be alive today. 

And yet, I do not despair. I am hopeful that this verdict can move us to take the needed crucial steps towards transforming – and when necessary – dismantling the systems that allow for this violence to continue. There is no better act of subversion than building relationships and communities. This verdict was possible thanks to all the organizers, peaceful protesters, students, and people willing to – as John Lewis said– “Get in trouble, good trouble.”

Here at EMU, we are committed to peace, social justice, and community. We will continue to work together with love and compassion to create an environment where everyone can be their true selves, belong, and be safe. 

A joint statement from two leaders of the Student Government and Black Student Alliance

Ma’Khia could have been any of us. In the span of two hours, our collective conversation had shifted from a tense relief that Derek Chauvin had been found guilty in the murder of George Floyd, to the overwhelming grief and anger that we know so intimately. 

After George Floyd’s murder this summer, the Student Government Association sent an email affirming protests and demonstrations being carried out in the name of justice. We also named that many of our clubs that serve as affinity groups for marginalized voices unfairly bear the burden of providing programming aimed at educating our broader campus community. Weeks later, the Black Student Alliance presented a list of demands, calling our campus community to live more fully into our self-proclaimed values of justice and peace. 

Now, after the verdict has been read, we as student leaders continue to commit ourselves to standing alongside those who fiercely speak truth to power, uprooting systems which cause harm, including those within our university. We will rage until LGBTQ+ communities feel safe, until ICE is abolished and the prison industrial complex is destroyed, until families are no longer torn apart on the border, and the ongoing Indigenous genocide is stopped.

We know that there is much work to be done. We envision a community that rejects notions of scarcity,  where justice is abundant and freedom is genuine. This is a vision that EMU says it shares, and so we call EMU to answer, to act: 

To create and hold spaces for BIPOC students, faculty and staff. To offer tangible support through meals and offer extensions on deadlines. To compensate the unpaid labor of those who have consistently borne the brunt of liberation work within EMU. To show up for your students in the classroom, at our events, in this nation and this world. Show up for your marginalized  students in the ways we’ve been asking of you. This is how we live into our mission. 

Anisa Leonard, co-president of Student Government Association; Maya Dula, secretary and past co-president of Black Student Alliance

Eastern Mennonite Seminary

In the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition, we believe that the mutual flourishing of relationships is essential for faith. We belong to one another as members of the human family. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the body of Christ, “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it” (1 Cor 12:26). When one person, family and community suffers injustice, the harm impacts us all. 

A verdict from our national justice system may provide some clarity, but that alone cannot restore human dignity and wholeness. We commit fully and collectively to this restorative work: to practicing justice in compassionate relationships as a learning community and in the communities in which we participate throughout the world.

Learning how, within our own faith communities and our university community, we can truly resist the systemic racism made so visible in this moment impels us to deeper prayer and richer action. We thank God for leaders in many communities of color in the United States, and some of our own community members, who have long modeled the discipleship of work for justice.

Dr. Sue Cockley, dean; Dr. Nancy Heisey, associate dean; Rev. Dr. Sarah Bixler, incoming associate dean.

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding

The United States was built on a mixed message – all men are created equal and only white men who own property count as full citizens. The territory of the United States was created through displacement, genocide, and war against indigenous peoples and a neighboring country, Mexico. Wealth was amassed by white men who exploited enslaved peoples from Africa and violently suppressed attempts to organize for labor rights. As a country, we have struggled with these tensions since our founding. Our history cannot be ignored in our move toward a different future.

Rooting out and transforming the original sin built into the United States is a long, hard, slow process and once again we are being challenged. Do we settle for order masquerading as peace or do we demand justice that supports authentic peace, healing, and equity? As the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, we have answered that question. Now, we must actualize it in our current context. As a predominantly white institution, this work is deeply personal for each of us and for CJP and EMU as organizations. Thankfully, the jury in Minnesota has held Derek Chauvin accountable for his actions. Let us continue our work to grow justice with humility and integrity. That means listening to and following leaders who have experienced the violence and injustices of our current systems.  

Dr. Jayne Docherty, executive director

EMU’s campus community entered into a wave of critical discussions about faith, race, and gender this semester. Three book clubs emerged independently, while yet another reading group and a film series came from projects in a graduate counseling course focusing on multiculturalism.

Faculty, staff, and student participants have wrestled with questions about how race, racism, faith, gender, and sexism influence power, theological formation, campus life, and beyond.��

These book studies are making visible normative structures in our community that limit our capacity to experience one another in all of our complexities. That is good work. We cannot correct that which we cannot, or refuse, to see. I think we are awakening to realities of the ways anti-blackness functions on our campus.��

Professor David Evans

Deep reading, deep listening

supported 10 faculty and staff with copies of by Willie James Jennings. Seminary instructor Sarah Bixler and Professor David Evans facilitated.

As part of the 2021 Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration, Evans and co-facilitator Ezrionna Prioleau ’17 led more than 20 faculty members and students in studying by Ibram X. Kendi.

Supported by the , a group of faculty and staff read three books on the themes of race, faith, and justice, contributing towards an action plan to develop and deepen commitment to and competency in interfaith engagement and racial justice. (Read more specifics below.) Facilitators were Tala Bautista, adjunct faculty for Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, and Mikayla Waters-Crittenton, associate director for student accountability and restorative justice.

Two groups of graduate students in Professor Jennifer Cline’s two-semester multicultural counseling course series created and co-facilitated community advocacy projects within the EMU community: 

• Sarah Morehouse, Mary Rebekah Cox and Richard Grosse led 10 undergraduate and graduate students and staff members in studying by Rebecca Solnit.
• A larger group of 11 graduate students facilitated a semester-long series “Somethin’ to Talk About: A Film and Discussion Series Around Race.” The three-part series included viewings of films ” (California Newsreel); ; and a pre-recorded open discussion on race and its personal impact between four of EMU’s graduate counseling students: two women of color and two white women. The events were open to the campus community.

‘A deep interest and hunger’

“There is a deep interest and hunger among students, staff, and faculty to engage in a process of reckoning and reform related to racial, sexual, and gender equality, as well as other identities,” said Morehouse, a student in the master’s in counseling program.

Men Explain Things to Me focuses “on how power is wielded in society and the resulting inequalities, and … the relationship between gendered language, the silencing of women and those with non-binary identities, disbelief in their experiences, and gender-based violence,” Morehouse said.

She and co-hosts Cox and Grosse were “impressed and heartened by the way that members engaged with the material and each other in a sensitive and impassioned way, recognizing the need for change at the individual, institutional, and cultural levels.”

Graduate student Helen Momoh went into the book club with measured expectations. However, “words cannot express the profound experience during the times we met,” Momoh said. “It was empowering, refreshing, and healing for me to be able to share within this space. I guess the space was such that it gave me comfort. Everyone was ready to listen, even when some of us just met for the first time.”

The interfaith group read , by angel Kyodo Rev. Williams, Lama Rod Owens, and Jasmine Syedullah; , by Saher Selod, and , by Felipe Hinojosa. 

In addition to personal engagement with Selod, a colloquium speaker this semester, the group also learned from guest speaker Dr. Cathy Campbell, associate professor in the nursing department and chair of acute and speciality care at University of Virginia. Campbel is an ordained Buddhist chaplain, according to group participant Trina Trotter Nussbaum, associate director at CIE. “Dr. Campbell spoke with us from these vantage points while we were reading the Radical Dharma book and it was a huge privilege,” she said. (On a side note, Hinojosa visited campus in 2018).

More than 20 faculty members and students have been meeting over Zoom to discuss How to Be an Antiracist.��The group is a long-term project linked to EMU’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. The size of the group can be challenging for Evans and co-facilitator Prioleau.

“That said, I experience the group as open to new ideas and interested in growth,” Evans said. “We’ve wrestled with the strength of Kendi’s argument that one cannot take a neutral stance on racism, you are either acting in racist or antiracist ways. We’ve also wrestled with some concerns we have over Kendi’s analysis of power that seems to equate anti-blackness with anti-whiteness. These are crucial conversations for our learning community.”

After Whiteness has also sparked critical questions for the 10 faculty and staff studying it. Jennings explores how theological formation, when rooted in values of white, self-sufficient masculinity, shapes people for possession, control, and mastery; rather than connection with God, self, and others.

“We are digging deep to analyze how we educate theologically, interact as a community, and operate as an institution,” said Bixler, a co-facilitator. “We are imagining new ways of being and doing that move us toward holistic and life-giving formation that subverts the distorted formation Jennings describes.”

Evans acknowledged that book studies alone cannot heal communities, or ensure everyone feels seen and heard within them. But perhaps they can plant a seed. 

“These book studies are making visible normative structures in our community that limit our capacity to experience one another in all of our complexities. That is good work,” he said. “We cannot correct that which we cannot, or refuse, to see. I think we are awakening to realities of the ways anti-blackness functions on our campus. We are also growing in our awareness of the ways we are seduced into valuing whiteness in our assessments of students and our presentation of ourselves.”

Faculty, staff, students and members of the broader community joined Sarah Bixler, instructor at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, for her Oct. 20 service of ministerial ordination in Virginia Mennonite Conference. The service took place in Martin Chapel and was also livestreamed through the .

Bixler teaches formation and practical theology, and offers leadership to the formation curriculum that is central to all seminary programs. She is finishing a doctorate in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, with an emphasis on Christian education and formation. 

The Rev. Dr. Clyde Kratz and Dr. Nancy Heisey, associate dean of the seminary, officiated with a meditation offered by the Rev. Dr. Darrell Guder, professor of missional and ecumenical theology emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary.

“Sarah’s ministering and leadership gifts have been visible for many years,” Heisey said. “Her ordination solidifies her roles as mentor and model for our students. Ordination also sustains EMS as a ministry hub for Mennonite Church USA and strengthens our accreditation by the Association of Theological Schools.”

Kratz has known Bixler for some time and observed “firsthand her gifting for leadership ministry when she served as youth minister at Zion Mennonite Church, and in her Virginia Conference role as Youth Minister and Conference Coordinator.”

“Sarah brings a refreshing enthusiasm to relationships, a grounded commitment to the faith community’s values, and intellectual curiosity in the pursuit of knowledge,” Kratz said. “Her seminary education has prepared her not only to be a high quality faculty member at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, but also a faith leader that will provide inspiration for the next generation of pastors and leaders in Mennonite Church USA and beyond.”

Bixler said that her ordination, particularly by VMC, “is a beautiful culmination of my past ministry experiences and ongoing sense of vocation.”

She spent a decade in ministry in the Shenandoah Valley, including working on VMC’s staff, before beginning studies at Princeton Theological Seminary to prepare to teach in theological education. 

“I am grateful to all those persons and communities who affirmed and helped clarify my vocation along the way, and I’m grateful that many could be present to mark this milestone with me through our on-campus and virtual formats for the ordination service,” she said. “Being ordained in the context of EMS and VMC affirms my conviction that seminary education is in the service of the church, as local expressions of the body of Christ participate in God’s reconciling mission in the world.”

The Rev. Glen Guyton, executive director of Mennonite Church USA, read from John 15:12-17. He and Bixler have known each other since both served in youth ministry in VMC, Bixler said.

“I’m so thankful for the gifts that she brings to the church,” Guyton said, before offering the final blessing.

Pastors often serve as an emotional anchor for their flock: providing a listening ear, advice, and social cohesion for their congregation members. And we’ve all needed more of those supports as we face the COVID-19 pandemic. Pastors, in turn, need additional support themselves as they offer that vital emotional labor to their communities. 

This summer, Eastern Mennonite Seminary hosted the “Navigating Ministry During COVID-19” online forum series for pastors. Recordings of each seminar are available for for viewing online here.

Topics included pastoral care and spiritual formation for pastoral resilience, trauma-informed ministry, theological questions during anxious times, biblical resources, ethical issues of medical care, and revisioning church after COVID-19.

“We are inviting you this afternoon to a time of spiritual rejuvenation, communal learning, and self reflection,” said Professor Sarah Bixler as she opened the webinar on spiritual formation for resilience, in which ministry leaders talked about the signs of pastoral fatigue and spiritual practices to sustain themselves in the face of burnout.

Bixler said afterwards that the forums “turned out to be so much more than we had initially envisioned.” 

After the forum, she and co-facilitator Hyacinth Stevens, the program coordinator for MCC East Coast in New York City, heard from “ministry leaders who expressed a deep need for renewal during this trying time – and who are using the tangible tools we offered to find their way. It was also remarkable to see attendees offer encouragement and creativity to one another during the forums.”

Over 150 people registered for the forums: mostly pastors, joined by others like chaplains, denominational and church staff, lay leaders, and theological faculty. They represented nine different denominations, 23 states, and five countries outside the U.S.

The pastors “who came together from across the country and around the world to share and participate in this learning community reinforced the resiliency of our pastors and church workers,” said church relations director and co-organizer Veva Mumaw.

“This series has impressed me with how the strongest leaders across the church find ways to lead together even during a time of felt isolation. God’s Spirit has brought courage and hope through this expression of Christian community,” Bixler said.

This was neither the end of the semester we anticipated nor the graduation we expected, but it is the semester we have completed and the graduation we celebrate, said Dean David Brubaker this past weekend to a virtual celebration for graduates from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

Those words encapsulate the whirlwind experience of the last nine weeks, as our semester was completely disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This was not the semester we anticipated, but it was the semester we completed.

And what choice did we have but to persevere, adapt, be flexible and patient, flatten one curve as we were being slung faster on an accompanying learning curve of what exactly to do with ourselves, our bodies and minds in this strange new world.

The following collection of photos and text is a snapshot of the semester, collected in real time and revisited now, for those of you who are more peripheral to EMU. It might help to give a sense of how faculty, staff and students responded in and out of classroom — in true EMU fashion, with resilience, empathy and commitment.

Here we go (online)!

Some of the first on campus to sense an impending switch were employees in Information Systems. They began thinking about remote learning during EMU’s spring break the first week in March, and in anticipation, beefed up their HelpZone articles on a variety of relevant topics.

By March 12, when EMU announced a move to online learning, IS had reviewed and increased capacity of all systems and equipment (including webcams, laptops and Chromebooks) necessary for online teaching and campus operations. Needless to say, they were busy.

Two graphs from Jenni Piper, director of User Services, tell the story:

First Helpdesk Tickets. The green line shows last year’s demand and the blue line this year’s.

And second, the number of daily Zoom meetings hosted through the campus account, beginning in early March.

After hosting a training for faculty March 13 and the shift to online the classes the next week, IS handled 64 tickets on March 16, something of a watermark that shows when faculty and staff began to engage with the reality of a move to remote work.

Pedagogues thinking positively

About 10 days into the online shift, I asked a few professors how things were going. Some of their answers are included below. I was particularly struck by the positive perspective of veteran educator Carolyn Stauffer, professor of applied social sciences:

In reality, what we’re experiencing now is the presence of hybrid education. We’ve had the chance to meet in-person for the first part of the semester and now I get to know each participant’s online presence as well. It’s wonderful to be able to build on the assets of both sides of that equation!

Solo field trips

Professor Doug Graber Neufeld‘s “Natural History of the Shenandoah Valley” course syllabus was packed full of fantastic field trips to local natural wonders and lab experiences (like taxidermy practice below).

With his students scattered in mid-March, the field trips turned into independent explorations, such as Katelyn Dean‘s below. Here she holds morel mushrooms she and her dad found in the George Washington National Forest, just one find shared during class time.

“It’s the highlight of my day to hear students who daily recount the joy they find in now recognizing the animals, plants and rocks around them,” Neufeld said. “In such unusual times, experiencing the beauty and complexity of the natural world together has been a unique source of hope for us.” Read more about this class.

Conversations continue

In Professor Marti Eads’ class “Ways of War and Peace,” students met virtually with Reverend Masayuki Sawa, the pastor of a Reformed (Calvinist) congregation in Japan.��He spoke of his perception of contemporary Japanese attitudes toward World War II and Japanese perceptions of the US and our own military actions, then and now, among other topics.

The class was slated to visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. Instead, guest speaker Gillian Steinberg, an educator at the Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy in the Bronx, and her students from the Modern Orthodox Jewish tradition met online with EMU students.

This conversation and the de-brief afterwards held richness and nuance, Eads said, with several classmates opening up about their own religious experiences, choices and identities. Recognizing the common humanity, despite labels — “just the idea of all of us sitting together talking and all of us from different groups” was a moving experience, said one of her students. []

Creating community with virtual high fives

Engineering professor Esther Tian (pictured above at top right) continued teaching synchronous classes, preferring the structure and the presence of students. “It is also good for students to see each other and talk to each other before class as they would in a classroom.

We do high fives, thumb-ups (and downs) during class, we find out new features of Zoom and use them right away. It has been fun. I also found that one-on-one and small group Zoom sessions were working really well in answering students’ questions as well as advising..”

Senior Collin Longenecker, visible below Tian in the photo above and also at right, was an embedded tutor with a first-year engineering course. Though initially he wasn’t sure how Zoom sessions would work, he adapted well: “The students pop in and out and they can share their screen with me. It is almost like I am in the engineering lab looking over their shoulder trying to help them troubleshoot the problem. I have been helping a few students that I had not helped before we went to online school which is cool.”

Read more about EMU tutors at work during online classes.

The power of community to enhance learning was the top tip in a blog post titled ” by Dean (and chem prof) Tara Kishbaugh for fellow organic chemistry teachers using the same texbook. “Community Matters,” she began. Use the relationships that have already been built to help students continue asking questions and learning in small peer groups. And she reminded readers, you can still greet each student individually when they enter your Zoom classroom.

Tech fails/wins: ‘chipmunky’-ness and new relationships

Professor Mark Sawin teaches U.S. History 103, from World War I to the present, with a focus on “power and paradox.” Sawin tried to do a synchronous class on Zoom and “it rather hilariously and spectularly failed,” he reported.

“So, since then, I’ve been pre-recording all my lectures on Panopto so students can watch them asynchronously, and with that program, you can adjust my speed. At 1.5 speed, I start to get rather chipmunky… at .5 speed I sound like the television show ‘Drunk History.’ I’m not sure if that amuses students, but it certainly amuses me.”

With the lectures available at any time, he began using normal class time as an open forum where students could drop in and ask questions.

“I’ve had some wonderful 1-on-1 conversations with students that I would never have had in our normal class setting. In this sense, our ‘social distancing’ has actually provided some closeness that wasn’t there before, and for that I’m grateful,” Sawin said. “I’ve also been pleased and touched by the grace that students have extended to us as we struggle to move our classes online. And I believe we, too, are showing that grace, focusing on the learning objectives and the big important ideas, and allowing a lot of latitude when it comes to the many wifi issues, isolation stresses, and general quarantine chaos we’re all learning to live with.”

Grace and connection

That grace is something education professor Paul Yoder has also experienced. Students in his classes are pre-service teachers and as a pedagogical specialist himself, the shift to online classes provided ample room for discussions around topics related to the digital classroom.

He wrote: “The key word in my planning for weekly class sessions via Zoom has been connection. We have taken time for each of the 18 students to rate how they are doing on a scale of 1-10 and then share with the group. Last week I sent individual emails as a follow up to the few students who placed themselves on the low end of the scale. I have also been excited to hear from some of my advisees who have shared their affirmations of how professors are providing flexibility as needed.  Particularly as we recognize that not all of us have the same level of internet access, I know that living into an ethic of care is essential.”

Nancy Heisey, seminary dean, also used check-ins with her classes, which often included adult students who juggled many responsibiliities, including pastors working in ministry settings.

“We take time every period to share ‘how it’s going’ and encourage one another. Some students are struggling with a household where everyone is working on line in a crowded space—spouse tele-working, children trying to do homework, and seminary student worrying about class work and how to get a video service up for their congregation’s Sunday service.

“I’ve been amazed, though, at the depth of engagement—this morning, my New Testament students each did a creative rendering of a parable of Jesus. They were funny, sobering, and encouraging!”

Hearing some of those needs led seminary professor Sarah Bixler to host an April 1 online gathering that drew 32 pastors, including 22 alumni, from four denominations and eight states. This has led to a free online series for pastors. Check it out here.

A wider global market for CJP

Innovation happened quickly during the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding’s facilitation class, co-taught by Professor Catherine Barnes and Amy Knorr. Students usually practice skills they’ve learned in person by helping clients with a planned discussion, strategic visioning or group dialogue. With face-to-face options limited and practice still required, students moved online.

Above, one group produced an online strategic planning for Shenandoah Green, a local environmental group, including a circle process, a historical reflection using a digital timeline that folks could fill in, and a card sort, a way of getting ideas out into the open and then grouping them together. “Board members at Shenandoah Green were delighted,” said Knorr, who helps coordinate practice settings for CJP students.

In the midst of the pandemic, CJP also hosted several online gatherings for alumni to connect and share resources.

And significantly, center staff moved quickly to adapt the Summer Peacebuilding Institute to online classes, expedite a new hybrid graduate degree program in transformational leadership, and prepare upcoming semester classes for online delivery.

The massive disruption and accompanying move towards online learning and programs have created new opportunities, said Executive Director Jayne Docherty, especially in a previously untapped market of prospective participants who could not have afforded to travel or would not have been issued a visa in the current environment.

“In the face of the pandemic, many people are waking up to the fact that our societies have become more unequal and unjust and that we are teetering on the edge of violent confrontations between social subgroups. Some of those people are saying, ‘This can’t continue. This is just wrong. What can I do? I want to be part of the solution.’ By moving our programs online quickly, we have helped channel their energy and impulse to help others in ways that prevent violence and address injustices.”

’12 hours ahead of our students’

As daily reports arrived into faculty in-boxes about the closure of practicum and internship placements to students, the nursing department focused on making sure their seniors could graduate on time and join the fight against covid-19.

For one cohort, that meant three 12-hour shifts at a local hospital. For others, they logged clinical hours (and their supervising professor also took calls) at a special covid-19 public health hotline.

“The faculty were meeting hour to hour, staying 12 hours ahead of the students as we were making decisions,” said Professor Melody Cash.

Eventually, a waiver allowed faculty to substitute simulation hours for live clinicals and all 16 seniors finished out the semester in good standing, ready to join the workforce.

It’s the small things…

Marci Frederick (above), director of Sadie Hartzler Library, and Professor Kevin Seidel dressed in academic regalia in honor of their senior seminar students for their last Zoom class meeting.

Congratulations, EMU family, on the end of the semester we did not anticipate.

We celebrate.

Register here.

The series is an outgrowth of an April 1 online gathering that drew 32 pastors, including 22 alumni, representing Mennonite Church USA, the Church of the Brethren, Presbyterian Church USA and United Methodist Church. 

The first session on April 15 focused on pastoral care and included a facilitated discussion on grief/loss without physical presence, caring for others from a distance, and caring for ourselves

April 29: Spiritual formation for pastoral resilience

• Signs of pastoral fatigue, spiritual practices to sustain the pastor

May 13: Understanding trauma and secondary trauma

• Supporting front-line responders and recognizing secondary trauma

May 27: Theological questions during anxious times

• Support for navigating theological issues associated with the pandemic

June 10: Ethical issues of medical care

• Issues of access, justice and understanding the medical system during the pandemic

June 24: Biblical resources for despair and hope

• Biblical literature that gives voice to human despair and theologically responsible use of scripture for hope in life and death

Facilitators are drawn from seminary professors, clinical pastoral education staff and the seminary’s large group of alumni working in ministry.

As the social restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic caused increasing challenges to those in the ministry, Eastern Mennonite Seminary instructor Sarah Bixler began to sense a need for connection among her pastor friends and current students serving as pastors.

The result was an April 1 online gathering that drew 32 pastors, including 22 alumni, representing Mennonite Church USA, the Church of the Brethren, Presbyterian Church USA and United Methodist Church. 

Participants in the 90-minute session brought not only ecumenical diversity but geographic diversity — pastors were working in ministry contexts in California, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia.

“I’m glad I connected with the forum on Zoom because hearing personal stories was even more helpful than ‘best practices’ from folks who are positioning themselves as experts… even though no one has ever lived through this before,” said Jon Carlson, pastor of Forest Hills Mennonite Church in Pennsylvania.

Carlson is a member of MC USA’s executive board. Sue Park-Hur, denominational minister for transformative leadership, also attended.

Veva Mumaw, the seminary’s admissions director who also works in church relations, hosted the event and Bixler provided facilitation.

In her welcome and introduction to the group, Bixler stressed the need for resisting isolation during this time of personal transition and pastoral stress, “as you scrambled to take worship services online and care for your congregants.”

“Now more than ever, we need networks of support and spaces for innovation. We need to ‘lead together,’ which is EMU’s new tagline – to recognize that we are not alone, that we need not be isolated in our ministry, that we together can participate in God’s dynamic mission as it unfolds in surprising ways amid our changing world.”: 

Bixler then offered space to converse around three questions: 

• What has been your biggest challenge in the past few weeks of pastoral leadership?
• What grace has surprised you?
• What innovative pastoral response have you offered that you’re most proud of?

“During the forum, as pastors responded to my three questions, they reported good attendance at a variety of congregational online worship formats. Many acknowledged the challenges of meeting new pastoral care needs, drawing on theological and biblical resources during the crisis, responding to grief and loss and tending to their own spiritual well-being,’” Bixler said.

Forum series in the works

One result of the gathering is a plan to offer a free Online Pastors Forum Series for Navigating COVID-19, beginning April 15, throughout the spring of 2020 for pastoral leaders occurring every other week. These facilitated conversation spaces would cover interdisciplinary topics and feature EMU & EMS professors and current pastors in the format of online webinars, forums and panel discussions. 

The first event is Wednesday, April 15, 2020, 3:00 – 4:30 pm EDT. The topic is “Pastoral Care in the Time of Covid-19 and Beyond” and will include a facilitated discussion on grief/loss without physical presence, caring for others from a distance, caring for ourselves, etc.

Register here for the first forum.

Facilitators include Penny Dreidiger, ACPE Clinical Educator, Eastern Mennonite Seminary, and Sentara RMH Staff Chaplain; Eric Martin, Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community Supportive Living Chaplain; and Lonnie Yoder, Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling, Eastern Mennonite Seminary.

Please let us know what you’re interested in sharing and learning more about in the comment box below.

The following appointments are announced by Fred Kniss, provost; David Brubaker, dean of the School of Social Sciences and Professions; Sue Cockley, dean of the School of Theology, Humanities, and Performing Arts; and Tara Kishbaugh, dean of the School of Sciences, Engineering, Art, and Nursing. 

Benjamin Bergey, assistant professor of music

Bergey earned his Doctor of Music Arts and Master of Music degrees from James Madison University with a concentration in orchestral conducting, literature and pedagogy. He is a graduate of EMU with a degree in church music and vocal performance. Bergey is currently music director of the Rapidan Community Orchestra and director of music at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church. He was assistant conductor of orchestras at James Madison University from 2013-18 and has performed with several orchestras. He brings experience in arts administration and marketing as well, including roles as founder and director of Harrisonburg Sacred Arts and as the music editor of the forthcoming bi-national hymnal Voices Together, for Mennonite Church USA.

Sarah Bixler, instructor, Eastern Mennonite Seminary 

Bixler is completing her PhD in practical theology with an emphasis on Christian education and formation at Princeton Theological Seminary, with an anticipated graduation date of May 2021. At the seminary, where she also earned a Master of Divinity degree, she has worked in administrative roles with Princeton’s Center for Church Planting and Revitalization and Iron Sharpening Iron: Leadership Education for Women Clergy project. She has more than a decade of ministry and teaching experience at Eastern Mennonite Middle School, Zion Mennonite Church (Broadway, VA) and Virginia Mennonite Conference.

Bixler earned her MDiv at Princeton Theological Seminary and her BA in English (secondary education) at EMU.

Bethany Detamore, instructor of nursing 

Detamore has worked as an RN and case manager in outpatient surgery and in medical-surgical nursing. She has a BSN from West Virginia Wesleyan University and an MSN from Western Governors University.  

Penny Driediger, assistant professor of practice, Eastern Mennonite Seminary

Driedeger has taught clinical pastoral education and served as director of mentored ministry. She has a B.A. in Social Work from ��ݮ���� and an M. Div. from Eastern Mennonite Seminary with a concentration in Pastoral Care. She is ordained for ministry with Virginia Mennonite Conference and most recently she has received Supervisor status through the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. She has also been a staff chaplain at  Sentara RMH and served for 20 years in urban ministry in Hamilton, Ontario.

Beth Good, assistant professor and director of intercultural programs

Good will teach in and also provide leadership to EMU’s intercultural programs, including the undergraduate crosscultural program and off-campus cross-cultural curricular components.  She’ll also teach undergraduate cross-cultural courses. She most recently served as Kenya Country Representative for Mennonite Central Committee, with her husband. Previous professional experiences include living and working in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya, serving as MCC’s global health coordinator, working as director of clinical services of Hope within Community Health Center, serving as the HIV program coordinator for Eastern Mennonite Missions, and teaching classes for EMU’s RN-BS in program. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees in nursing from Widener University. Her BSN is from EMU.

Wendell Shank, instructor, language and literature

Shank holds a MEd from James Madison University and a master’s degree in teaching Spanish as a foreign language from the University of Salamanca. He earned his BA in English literature and Spanish at EMU. He has taught at JMU and Eastern Mennonite High School and worked in support services and as a home school liaison for Harrisonburg City Schools. Shank also has experience with interpretation in the medical and social services fields, as well as in mediation.

Angela Spotts, instructor, health and physical education

Spotts earned an MS in cardiac rehabilitation and exercise science from East Stroudsburg University and a BS in health science from Bridgewater College. In addition to teaching experience, she was worked as an exercise physiologist in cardiac rehabilitation and clinical settings. 

Matt Tibbles, instructor, applied social sciences

Tibbles brings a broad background in juvenile justice, youth and family services to his teaching role. He earned a BA in youth and family ministry from Harding University and an MA in conflict transformation from EMU. He has worked as a minister, auditor, juvenile justice transition officer and as a nonviolence trainer in Washington state, Texas and Alaska. Tibbles co-taught several courses as a graduate assistant while studying in EMU’s MA program.

Lela Faye Yoder, instructor, nursing

Yoder has more than 20 years experience in the nursing profession. She has an MSN degree from the University of Toledo and a BNS from EMU. Yoder has worked in a variety of hospital settings, including as a staff and charge nurse in cardiac care, orthopedic-surgical and peri-operative departments. She has also worked in family practice.

President Susan Schultz Huxman was among several administrators, faculty and staff to travel to Kansas City, Missouri, for the multi-day event. Huxman arrived early for meetings and listening sessions with Mennonite Higher Education Association, Mennonite Education Association and Mennonite Schools Council. During the conference, she provided a university update at a evening alumni reception.

The biennial conference, which is often preceded by other meetings of Mennonite organizations, gathers church representatives and members for worship, fellowship and learning, as well as for more formal discernment and decisionmaking.

EMU student’s advocacy leads to youth delegate vote

One such decision ⁠— delegates voted on a bylaw change allowing youth participants to serve in future conferences as official voting delegates ⁠— was from the group Step Up, founded by EMU senior and Student Government Association Co-President Leah Wenger.

“The program is designed to educate young people about church business, encourage them to listen and learn from those around them, provide them places and people to network with, prepare them to become future leaders, and to promote participation in the larger church delegate body,” Wenger said. In additional to serving as a delegate from Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, Wenger worked with three others, including Lorren Oesch ’19 to organize orientation for the youth participants and additional programming throughout the week.

The conference is also a meeting place for youth and young adult groups. EMU admissions staff, including Director of Admissions Matt Ruth ’06, represented the university at the Mennonite Higher Education Association’s booth, which highlighted the academic offerings of the five Mennonite colleges and universities.

Faculty, joined by alumni, engage and teach

Sarah Bixler ‘02, Eastern Mennonite Seminary faculty member, was the convention’s prayer coordinator and co-led, with Hendy Stevan Matahelemual MA ’19 (leadership), a daily evening prayer session focused on the church. She also was involved in four workshop sessions, including two that she co-led with her husband Ben Bixler ’03, MA ‘13 (religion) that explored “R-rated” scripture texts in the youth ministry context and Bible study in the congregation.

Eastern Mennonite Seminary dean Nancy Heisey MDiv ’94 led her workshop participants in new ways of presenting biblical stories and broader biblical themes to audiences who bring no previous familiarity to their learning.

Emeritus Professor Dorothy Jean Weaver ’72 hosted three New Testament study workshops engaging with perspectives on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, stories of resilience, and the theme of power in the Gospel of Matthew. Read more about Weaver’s scholarly work on this topic.

With growing interest in the new Voices Together hymnal, music editor and new music professor Benjamin Bergey ’11 co-led three sessions with general editor Bradley Kauffman in anticipation of the 2020 release. He also joined a co-presenter to discuss how the 20 songs from the contemplative Taize community that are included in the hymnal might be integrated into regular and Taize-style worship.

The came prepared to engage and share its vision. The center co-hosted a networking event for young adults with Mennonite Creation Care Network, joining current college students with recent graduates to explore issues and encourage active engagement through their churches.

Executive director Doug Graber Neufeld, a biology professor at EMU, also hosted a general interest meeting, with a special invitation for those wanting to explore ways that congregations can engage with climate issues.

Climate Future Fellows Michaela Mast, Harrison Horst and Sarah Longenecker, all 2018 EMU graduates, shared about their experiences producing two seasons of the “Shifting Climates” podcast. Read more here.

One workshop presenter didn’t have to travel far. Annette Lantz Simmons, a graduate of the and its 2018 Peacebuilder of the Year, led a workshop on trauma, resilience and leadership. Simmons, a certified STAR (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience) trainer, is executive director of the Center for Conflict Resolution in Kansas City (which also employs three other CJP graduates).

A number of EMU alumni, too many to list in this article, contributed to activities and/or were delegates or participants at the conference. The information in this article was compiled from the MennoCon program book.��