When last year’s ministry leaders organized the 24-hour prayer event last spring, they sent a flurry of emails back and forth, generating ideas for possible event names. The group ultimately chose to call the event the Prayer Odyssey, and though the name was fitting, they had no expectations that it would survive them (that is, their roles as ministry leaders). Nevertheless, it has. Prayer Odyssey returns to campus for the second year consecutively, and participation in the event is open to all students and faculty during the coming week, beginning at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 12 and ending at...

By Nina Fox • November 8, 2013 • News

Students come from different backgrounds. Now part of the school’s already diverse culture are four students from the Bruderhof community—Seth Zimmerman, Doreen Arnold, Laura Maendel, and Timothy Keiderling The Bruderhof is a worldwide communal movement of people coming together to live out Jesus’ command “to love God and neighbor.” Founded in 1920 in Germany, there are now Bruderhof communities in the United Kingdom, Paraguay, Australia, and the United States. Although these students came to Goshen College from the same Bruderhof community, Woodcrest, located in New York State, they have had a variety of experiences. Doreen Arnold spent a year in...

By Annabeth Tucker • October 13, 2013 • Features

The Goshen College Conference on Science and Religion has covered a variety of topics over the years, including cosmology, perfection and evolution. The theme this year is "Becoming Human: Weaving Together Genetics and Personhood." Lectures will be given by Gayle E. Woloschak, a professor of radiation oncology, radiology and cell and molecular biology at Northwestern University. Carl Helrich, retired professor of physics, was the instigator of the original conference in 2001, or as he puts it, “guilty for the vision.” Helrich commented that they would love to see more than just scientists in attendance, especially those in fields pertaining to...

By Elizabeth Derstine • April 3, 2013 • News

Simran Sethi, a journalist, strategist and educator, spoke in Reith Recital Hall on Tuesday evening about the intersections of faith, food, science and business as they relate to eating well--both for personal and global health. Sethi came at the request of the Yoder Public Affairs Lecture Committee, which invited Sethi to share on the theme, “Our daily bread: Food, Faith and the Environment.” Sethi’s presentation also came as part of EcoPAX’s Earth Week celebrations, with a special event each day of this week. Other EcoPAX events include a field trip to a landfill today, Dorm Floor Shower Olympics on Friday...

By Logan Miller • March 20, 2013 • News

Simran Sethi, an award-winning journalist and educator, will explore the intersection of food and faith at the Goshen College Yoder Public Affairs Lecture on Tuesday, March 19 at 7:30 p.m. in Rieth Recital Hall. Sethi's lecture, titled “Bridging Divides through Food, Faith and the Environment,” will explain the evolution in farming and look at how transgenic seeds and food relate to Christian tenets of fruitfulness, life-affirmation and distributes. Sethi's reports on sustainability, environmentalism and social media for social change have been featured in such venues as Vanity Fair, NBC Nightly News and “The Oprah Winfrey Show." Her lecture on Tuesday is...

By Ariel Ropp • March 13, 2013 • News

This year, Parables is creating sacred spaces. With the help of Deb Brubaker, professor of music, and Gwen Gustafson-Zook, minister of worship, the Parables worship team developed the theme “Wherever You Are: Creating Sacred Space” for the 2012-2013 season. The group is comprised of Stefan Baumgartner, Rhianna Cockrell, Micah Detweiler, Hillary Harder, Gloria Showalter, Jake Smucker and Seth Yoder, all sophomores; and Ruth Weins, a senior. The theme “was developed out of our song choices,” said Yoder. “The theme explores the journeys we take through life, meeting other people where they are in their journey and making a sacred space...

By Hayley Brooks • November 1, 2012 • Arts

“Three minutes hon!” she warns the last student in the Leaf Raker at 8:57 on a Thursday night. Her keys, 14 on a single key ring, jiggle as she walks around in her Goshen College Security uniform (grey shirt and black pants). Anderson’s lock-up routine begins at 8:45 every night. She starts off at the Leaf Raker and fills up her orange water bottle with diet Pepsi, saddened that the soda machines on campus don’t offer diet Coke, her favorite drink. She then continues to the Science Building, the Administration Building, and the cafeteria. When she is done locking up...

By bonij • April 11, 2012 • Features

Goshen College provides a rich tradition for students and employees alike.  A strong tie to its Mennonite roots is evident through hymn sings, last names and familial connections on campus. Although the Menno-identity is unmistakable, GC is home to students of more than 40 different Christian denominations.  Students, regardless of background, have found homes in local Mennonite churches, while others have found church homes elsewhere. St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church Nereida Jimenez, a first-year, heard about St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church as a prospective student while searching for churches in Goshen with her parents. Although she does not...

By Quinn Brenneke • January 26, 2012 • Features

Kent Palmer is naturally ambidextrous, at least when it comes to using a computer mouse. The four computer monitors in his office flicker numbers and letters foreign to the common eye, yet Palmer navigates them with the fluidity of a skilled painter, his right hand dragging, his left hand clicking. He pauses momentarily to point at the third monitor: “Right now, I’m setting up an iPhone app that will calculate imaginary numbers and complex fractions.” Two of these computers are propped up on stacks of heavy books with titles like “Computer Networks and Internets,” “The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening” and...

By Mary Roth • January 18, 2012 • Features

Peter Illyn is an evangelical pastor, avid hiker, specialist in social media, environmental activist and leader in bringing Christian faith and environmental stewardship together. His success in reaching the church community with a message of environmental stewardship has been featured on CBS Evening News, CNN, Outside Magazine, Charisma and Christianity Today, among others. On Monday, Illyn will present “Why Modern Christianity has Abandoned Kinship with Nature in a Mechanistic World” in convocation. Illyn, who grew up in South Carolina as a Russian Orthodox, graduated from Rhema Bible College as an evangelical minister. He worked in Portland, Ore. and Yakima, Wash....

By Chagan Sanathu • November 9, 2011 • News

The Goshen College board made a decision to drop the Mennonite religious requirement in the faculty hiring policy. Effective immediately, faculty will be hired based on their adherence to the five core values and, as it was before, that they are Christian. The old policy specified that 80 percent of the faculty at Goshen College had to be Mennonite and all faculty had to be Christian. As part of the interview process, job candidates would answer questions about their lives in relation to the core values, write a faith statement and would need to be a member of a Christian...

By Sara Alvarez • November 2, 2011 • News

Three out of five students on campus want to know more about professors’ faith journeys; half of them want more faith-related discussion in the classroom. These were the findings of recent research led by campus pastor Bob Yoder on incorporating faith into classroom settings. “Goshen College can do more in this area,” said Yoder, referring to the presence of faith in and outside the classroom. Currently he is working on establishing a group of five to six faculty members who will help him develop strategies that professors can use to become better faith mentors to their students. Because many of...

By Bojana Jankova • September 7, 2011 • News

Goshen College is having its second ever 24/7 Prayer Week this week, where students, faculty and staff sign up so someone is constantly praying every hour of the week.  The week of prayer began on April 2 and will continue through April 9, in the prayer room of Coffman. Casey Diener, a senior, played a large role in implementing the 24/7 Prayer Week as an effort to get more students spiritually engaged. So far, the prayer week has been well attended, with all the time slots in the Google calendar being full except for five, as of Wednesday evening. Jessi...

By Jennifer Speight • April 7, 2011 • News

Continuing the tradition since 2001, Goshen College will again offer online devotions for the Lenten season. They will be available from March 9, Ash Wednesday, to April 24, Easter. Students, faculty and staff will contribute the daily devotions that are based on the theme “Becoming Human: Called and Shaped by Jesus.” The daily Bible passages and themes come from worship resources developed for Mennonite churches around the nation. The passages come from the common lectionary and are used by several denominations. According to Bob Yoder, campus pastor, the devotions serve both the campus and the larger community. “If a person does...

By Grace Parker • March 10, 2011 • News

Any Goshen College student can testify: hitting the books is an essential part of getting a good grade, though reading about something and experiencing it are entirely different. Just ask Emma Ruth, a first-year sociology major who thought she knew all about Hutterites until she became one for a week. Ruth’s interest in Hutterite culture was sparked as a child when she read a book about a young Hutterite girl. “I was especially intrigued by the homemade ice cream that they made in the story… it looked so good,” said Ruth. She remembers staying home from school sick and evading...

By Maddie Ruth • February 17, 2011 • Features