Last Friday I was inquisitive enough to go to the Sermon on the Mount Chapel of the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary to hear the testimony of Greg Boyd. I met seminary students, faculty and friends.
Ann Jacobs
Last Sunday My Joy went alone to the College Mennonite Church, and I went with Rachel and Eldon to South Bend to attend the ordination of Ann Jacobs, an African American employee of the Mennonite Mission Network. Ann has two positions at the network: Work in Progress ensemble coordinator for Church Relations and Office Services coordinator in Human Resources. She is a student in the Master of Divinity in Christian Formation program at Anabaptist Biblical Seminary. Ann’s family roles are wife, mother, sister and grandmother. She is a busy woman.
New Life Fellowship
The ordination took place at the New Life Fellowship Ministry in South Bend, Indiana. The event brought together the church’s members led by co-pastors, Apostle Charles E. Harris Sr. and his wife Prophetess Betty Harris and representative leaders of Mennonite institutions: Stanley Green, executive director of Mennonite Mission Network, Sarah Wenger Shank, President of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and Dan Miller, Conference Minister of the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference. The floor shook beneath my feet as we praised.
Stanlee Green giving words of blessing
Obviously, we were of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, different colors, and different persuasions. But we were one in those moments of affirmation and empowerment of our sister Ann Jacobs.
On the way to South Bend, the people in our car listened by radio to the service at College Mennonite Church. It seemed that we were never far from home.
Tomorrow night, My Joy and I plan to go with the family to hear the Steel Wheels at Umble Auditorium at Goshen College. We are attracted in part because Trent Wagler, the lead vocalist, is a first cousin to Angela Stoltzfus. More diversity.
