Mennonite
September 21, 2019
Historical Anabaptist fashion on display
Art collections don’t often involve costumes, especially prints of them from 15th century Anabaptists. For Paul and Jean Kraybill, donors of The Kraybill Collection, there’s no art they’d rather keep. The collection, a gathered set of colored engravings and prints depicting Anabaptists in Switzerland, Alsace and the Palatinate, a historical territory under the rule of the German Empire between 1700 and 1900, was donated to the Mennonite Historical Library in 2018. Along with the collection, the current Library Gallery exhibit features photos of Dutch and Russian Mennonite costumes, contemporary Plain apparel and contextual artifacts. The Kraybill Collection found its beginning...
September 21, 2019
Goshen College faces drop in Mennonite enrollment
As Goshen College celebrates its 125th anniversary, many reflect on its long-lasting legacy as a Mennonite-affiliated institution and its changing student body. GC was initially founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, a small privately-owned school by H.A. Mumaw. The Elkhart Institute gave Mennonites and others the opportunity to further their education in ways that represented Mennonite values. Although GC has a historical relationship with the Mennonite Church, it has experienced substantial demographic changes in student enrollment and a decline in self-identified Mennonite students. In the last decade, the percentage of enrolled Mennonites has...
March 28, 2019
A Return To The Known
After a 13-year hiatus, Joanne Gallardo has returned to Goshen College as the interim campus pastor following Gwen Gustafson-Zook’s resignation last semester. Gallardo joins the community after working as a campus pastor at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), a counselor and case manager in Washington D.C. and a pastor of faith formation at Berkey Avenue Mennonite Fellowship. Gallardo grew up in Wauseon, Ohio. She calls the area “very Mennonite,” but she did not grow up as a Mennonite. One of her parents was Baptist and one was Catholic. In her teen years, Gallardo grew distant from both groups. She said she...
March 8, 2019
MCC with a pinch of SALT
Jill Steinmetz, a 2018 Goshen College graduate, is currently serving as a digital media specialist for Mennonite Central Committee as a part of their Service and Learning Together program in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Steinmetz knew from a young age while listening to stories of past volunteers in her Mennonite church in Northwest Ohio that she wanted to work abroad for MCC. She was intrigued by the impact these volunteers had on their communities and the unique experiences they had and she wanted to become a part of that herself. She initially intended on taking a gap...
February 16, 2019
Visiting scholars conduct research in Mennonite Historical Library
A large portion of the Goshen College student body has never dared to step foot into the confines of Goshen College’s Mennonite Historical Library, located on the third floor of the Good Library. But while the archives may only serve a select few students in their time at GC, they are a remarkably important part of the research of two Argentine anthropologists, Agustina Altman and Alejandro López, from the University of Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The pair will be staying at GC from Jan. 28 to March 5. Altman has a Ph.D. in anthropology and currently...
November 2, 2018
Mennonites shift political involvement
Bob Buzzard, 74-year-old resident of Greencroft Communities in Goshen, said his parents were wary of the polls. “When I grew up, we were not allowed to vote,” explained Buzzard, who was raised in a traditional Mennonite household where faith and following the tenets of the church almost always took precedence over political participation. It was not until the 1960 presidential election, when the Democratic candidate, John F. Kennedy, defeated the Republican nominee, Vice President Richard Nixon, that Buzzard’s parents decided to break from tradition. They voted for the first time, in middle age. In the heat of the Vietnam War,...
October 24, 2018
Students spend fall break in Puerto Rico
While many used fall break as a time to relax and rejuvenate, five Goshen College students spent the time off classes a little bit differently, traveling to Puerto Rico as part of a short-term service trip organized through Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS). MDS is a volunteer network of Anabaptist churches which seeks to assist those in need in the wake of natural and man-made disasters. They generally focus their efforts in the United States and Canada, as well as U.S. territories. MDS contacted two pastors from College Mennonite Church, David and Madeline Maldonado, inquiring about interest in the trip. The...
April 5, 2018
History students travel to Mennonite conferences
Recently, two groups of Goshen College history students and faculty attended Mennonite history conferences held at Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas and Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The conferences provoked conversation about two important issues: Mennonite involvement in the Holocaust and the past and future of Mennonite higher education. Katie Yoder and Miguel Rodriguez, junior history majors, accompanied Dr. Jan Bender Shetler, professor of history to North Newton for the conference titled “Mennonites and the Holocaust.” This was the first conference ever to address the history of Mennonite complicity and participation in the violence of Nazi Germany...
November 16, 2017
Students attend MCC UN seminar
In the pursuit of peace, it is easy to become overwhelmed by turmoil. At the 2017 MCC-UN Office Student Seminar this past October, speakers and students alike worked to grapple with such problems in the context of Central American immigration. Taking place October 26-28 in New York City, the conference worked under the title “Migration, Faith, and Action: An Exploration of the Central American Experience.” Six Goshen College students--Jenae Longenecker, Rudi Mucaj, Vanessa Navarro, Bekah Schrag, Sijan Shrestha and Mandira Panta--made the trek to the UN headquarters for the annual seminar, along with Joe Liechty, professor of peace, justice and...
November 9, 2017
Mennonite game played with connections, cards
While plenty of Mennonites have played the “Mennonite game” – the Anabaptist version of six degrees of separation – only a select few have played Mark Eash Hershberger’s version. But that’s about to change. Hershberger, a 2010 Goshen College graduate, has created “The Mennonite Game” card game where players strategically “discover that they are connected in various ways” through drawing cards and using their various ties and experiences, such as realizing that someone is your “brother’s roommate’s sister’s ex-boyfriend’s high school teacher,” according to a Hershberger’s description of the game. While Hershberger originally began creating the card game three years...
October 12, 2017
Three students spend year in Ecuador, return to GC
Three Goshen College students, first-years Josh Schirch and Petra Showalter, and sophomore Seth Kurtz, spent the last ten months in Ecuador serving with Mennonite Mission Network. While all three of these students were ready for a gap year, they each had different perspectives going into the term. high school, Schirch wanted to take a year off where he could do something other than schoolwork. After one year already completed at Goshen College, Kurtz was ready to explore the world beyond Goshen. Showalter had siblings who had all previously taken a gap year and she saw firsthand the benefits that...
April 6, 2017
Remembering Michael J. Sharp
Seventeen years later, the only persuasive speech that Suzanne Ehst remembers from teaching high school English was the one from a student holding a spoon in front of his face, trying to convince his audience he could bend it with his mind. That student was Michael J. Sharp, more commonly known as M.J. Sharp, 34, was a 2001 graduate of Bethany Christian High School and a 2005 graduate of Eastern Mennonite University. On March 27, Sharp’s body was found in a shallow grave in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and later identified through tests on March 28. Sharp was...
April 6, 2017
New Mennonite song collection to drop ‘hymnal’ title
The committee for the new Mennonite song collection had their second meeting in mid-February, and they’ve decided it’s time to let some baggage go by dropping the word “hymnal” from the song collection. Herald Press is projected to publish the collection in 2020 for Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada to replace “Hymnal: A Worship Book” (1992), “Sing the Journey” (2005) and “Sing the Story” (2007). However, in an attempt to include the increasingly diverse Mennonite church, this project will not be called a “hymnal” as has traditionally been the practice. Since hymnals are an integral part of the...
March 23, 2017
Clay Shetler: a good steward
There’s a photograph pinned to the north wall of Clay Shetler’s small office, one that might easily be missed among the many photos and documents taking up the space. Pictured is Shetler himself, beaming and leaning over Kenneth King and Clarence Burkholder, who are both seated. The one unifying fact about these three men, who are decades apart in age, is that they were all at one point directors of the Goshen College physical plant. Burkholder was director for 19 years, followed by King for 16 years, and finally, in 2017, Shetler will join their ranks as a retired director....
March 9, 2017
Hymn sing marathon for CPT
Goshen College Hymn Club loves to sing, and they are inviting everyone to join them as they sing through a hymnal in a hymn marathon. Hymn Club, along with a number of local churches and other groups from the community, will be singing through the entirety of “Hymnal, A Worship Book,” more commonly known as the blue hymnal. Hymn Club is partnering up with area churches and organizations that will provide song leaders, instrumentalists and snacks. “We wanted to do another hymn sing through the whole hymnal because it is important to us that Hymn Club isn’t just a fun...