Stretching for solidarity in global Anabaptist education
In a time when the role of education is being contested, and church bodies are experiencing divisions, something new is coming together.
President Rebecca J. Stoltzfus
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Distinctively Goshen
Reflections from President Stoltzfus
The contemporary, creative work of the Gospel
When Kevin and I set out on a learning tour about Anabaptists in Switzerland and Germany, we were prepared to hear stories of persecution and cruel executions. What has surprised me are the stories of ecumenical reconciliation and active love that continue to spring forth from the Anabaptist movement 500 years later.
‘Translate, understand, convey’
As part of the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism this year, Kevin and I are with Joe Springer (curator emeritus of the Mennonite Historical Library at Goshen College), Jo-Ann Brant, (professor emeritus of Bible and Religion) and several others from College Mennonite Church, learning about Anabaptist history in Switzerland and Germany. Listening to Joe describe the lives of these earliest Anabaptist leaders, I was struck by the ways that passionate learning extends from Zurich 500 years ago to Goshen College today. Young thinkers of that day, including Grebel and Manz, gathered in the mornings to study and translate, and in the afternoons to discuss the emerging meanings of the texts. How exciting that must have been!
Mennonite Church USA vs The Department of Homeland Security
We are writing jointly, as a Mennonite pastor and college president, to explain and support a recent lawsuit filed to protect our religious freedom to practice our faith in the sanctuary on this campus.
My word for 2025
My word for the year is RENEW. Renewal is part and parcel of the God-filled life. It is the stuff of life – we see it in the turning of the earth and the seasons and in death and birth. And it is hard and scary. What if we at Goshen College took this moment to renew our clarity around how we form faith in our campus community?
Subversive ideas that have made us better
It is no secret and no surprise: Goshen College has been in many ways subverted – turned from below – by our inquiring and passionate students and faculty and the transformational changes they have brought about. John D. Roth, professor emeritus of history and a leading Anabaptist-Mennonite scholar, illuminates and honors that history in: "A Mennonite College for Everyone(?): Goshen College and the quest for identity and inclusion, 1960-2020."
Abortion policy: Six commitments for this time
Abortion policy matters to me as a Christian advocate for human dignity and nonviolence, a global health professional, a woman, a close friend of people on both sides of the political divide, and a college president committed to supporting our students and employees through this transition. As I process the new realities, and my own words and actions, several commitments arise for me.
What is our story on climate change?
It seems to me that one of the truly useful things the church – including Goshen College – can do in the face of the climate crisis is lead us into a new story.
Do inclusion and Christ-centeredness go together?
“How can you be inclusive if you are Christ-centered?” This is one of the questions still ringing in my ears from a recent regional gathering. Is it possible that in this time of acute and painful need for us to get along better, our most radical vocation is to go deeper — rather than thinner — on our Anabaptist-Mennonite identity, because to be Christ-centered is true fuel and seed for such a new creation?
Deep differences part 1: A haiku
We have become afraid of deep differences because they too often manifest in words or other expressions that cause pain — wittingly or unwittingly. I submit that it is not our visible differences (race or ethnicity or gender per se) that inflict pain or cause anxiety. It is our viewpoints and how we express them.