Mennonite
December 3, 2014
Enrollment In Mennonite Colleges
Goshen College, as an institution, has made some changes over the years to increase student enrollment on campus. This graphic provides enrollment information from other Mennonite colleges in order to provide the opportunity to see where Goshen stands in relation to these other institutions in terms of both enrollment, as well as the overall gender population of these schools. The student enrollment numbers for this graphic were obtained from both enrollment reports and announcements on Goshen College, Hesston College, Eastern Mennonite University and Bluffton College websites. Both current and past enrollment reports are available for each institution. Along with the...
November 19, 2014
Hymn Marathon Raises Money, Spirits For Peace
The hymn marathon held at Goshen College on Nov. 14-16 was not limited to this small region in Indiana—it was a global event. Over 37 countries viewed the live-streamed event—about 5,000 people watching from all over the world. “I heard stories of people who were watching the live-stream and singing along as they cleaned their houses, or were singing along with us from their personal hymnal. There were people in Scotland and Australia hosting their own hymn sings,” Bobby Switzer, a senior who helped plan the event, said. The marathon, which was organized by Goshen College students, involved singing through...
October 30, 2014
12 Gulf State Churches Debate Leaving MC USA
On Saturday, Nov. 1, the Gulf States Mennonite Conference (GSMC) will vote on whether or not to leave Mennonite Church USA. The recent licensure by Mountain States Mennonite Conference of the lesbian pastor Theda Good and the debate surrounding the action is what led GSMC to the decision to vote on continuing their membership. Tensions in MCUSA surrounding homosexuality have been building over the last couple of years. Duane Maust, GSMC minister, stated in an interview in “Mennonite World Review” with Tim Huber, “We had several congregations that were really on the edge of their support for the Mennonite church,...
October 22, 2014
Goshen Students Build House In New Orleans
Over fall break, a group of Goshen College students journeyed to New Orleans to assist the College Mennonite Church with construction on a house. The students spent Oct. 13-17 placing flooring in the house, which will also double as a church for the community. The house was being built for a pastor’s sister and family—the pastor preaches at the church that would share the living space. Eleven students attended this trip: Hannah Yoder, a first-year; Brianna Brubaker, a senior; Tasha Friesen, a senior; Leah Amstutz, a junior; Annie Agutu, a first-year; Etienne Davis, a first-year; Yari Coronado, a first-year; Deeksha Pagar,...
October 8, 2014
‘Heavenly Voices’ Gives Voice To Mennonite Women Of Color
“Heavenly Voices,” a play written by Goshen College professor Pat Lehman, has made an impact on both its audience members and the women involved in its production. “Heavenly Voices” grew out of the Mennonite Woman of Color Oral History Project. From 2000-06, Lehman and her colleague Linda Christophel traveled across the United States interviewing Mennonite women of color about their experiences with racism in their communities, both in and out of church. Lehman and Christophel both come from bi-racial and multicultural families, and their own experiences with racism and discrimination spurred them on to hear the stories of other women....
September 4, 2014
Gallery Showing Mennonite Identity Through Every Day Objects
How do Mennonites use material objects to express identity? Historically, it may have been through plain dress, head coverings, and large potluck dishes. But now, in order to represent the more recent history of the Mennonite church, we look to things like plates, mugs, and t-shirts. A new gallery on Goshen’s campus tracks this history in a creative display curated by Kate Yoder, a senior art and English writing double major. In a press release from August 25, Yoder wrote “This exhibit is devoted to the way Mennonites since World War II have used commercially produced items of material culture...
April 9, 2014
Leaders Entertain Hiring Policy Questions
A crowd of more than 50 students and faculty gathered on campus Wednesday night for a question and answer session about Goshen College’s hiring policy. The event, hosted by Student Senate, brought a panel of administrators, including Carlos Romero, executive director of Mennonite Education Agency; James Brenneman, GC president; Anita Stalter, vice president for academic affairs; and Bill Born, vice president for student life, to field questions. Senate’s goal for the event was to learn more about how students fit into the broader governing system of higher education, as well as how Goshen College and its president’s council relate to...
March 12, 2014
New Website to Chronicle Anabaptist Martyrs
Website by Bearing Witness Stories Project offers new accounts of Anabaptist martyrdom Looking for a story? Martyrstories.org is a new website sponsored by the Bearing Witness Stories Project. A visit to the site would allow readers to read new accounts of faith in the midst of suffering from all over the world. The Bearing Witness Stories Project began as an effort to revitalize the classic Martyrs’ Mirror, a collection of stories of “bearing witness through suffering” in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. Martyrs’ Mirror documents church history from Jesus’ time until 1660 AD. Originally, the Bearing Witness Stories Project would have produced...
March 12, 2014
New Master’s Program, Majors and Minors to Come
As the snow (sort of) melts away, and spring is in the air, Goshen College is bringing the promise of both new majors and minors to its students for the fall of 2014. Additionally, the business departments of Eastern Mennonite University, Bluffton University and Goshen College are collaborating to create a joint MBA program, in hopes of creating “transformative leaders.” According to Michelle Horning, professor of accounting and business department chair, “Leadership for the common good” is what makes this MBA program unique from other schools, teaching that business is much more than just making money. The program values, such...
February 19, 2014
Mennonite Leaders Discuss LGBTQ Issues, Immigration
The executive board of Mennonite Church USA met last weekend in a regularly scheduled meeting. The Church's approach to LGBTQ issues and immigration were both on the agenda. The LGBTQ discussion occurred partly in response to pressure from various concerns of pastors and church members. These concerns stemmed from the licensing of Theda Good, pastor at First Mennonite Church in Denver, Colo., by the Mountain States Mennonite Conference. The EB’s discussion also resulted from Eastern Mennonite University’s decision to enter a listening process regarding its hiring policy, which bars people in committed same-sex relationships from being hired. “The purpose of...
February 13, 2014
Board discusses hiring policy
When the Goshen College Board of Directors met this past Friday and Saturday, the hiring policy was part of their discussions. They did not make any changes and chose to continue the conversation at their next meeting. However, channels of conversation are in full swing in a much larger context - the Mennonite Church itself. Jim Brenneman, GC president, addressed faculty and staff members Monday afternoon to provide a recap and welcome conversation about the Board of Directors' meeting. In regards to the hiring policy, the Board "determined that it was premature to make a specific decision at this time," said Brenneman....
January 22, 2014
When Goshen College Learned to Dance
Before the time of Goshen College Kick Offs at which students could see the GC President and his council galloping around on stage to the sounds of “Gangnam Style,” Goshen College was a place that did not welcome dance. Though “expressive movement” was encouraged when performed in association with religious, cultural or otherwise educational purposes, the act of dancing was an unsanctioned and forbidden activity. In the late 1970s, young people across the country were experimenting with a number of progressive ideologies. Goshen College, like many other campuses, called for a move from strict policies to ones that empowered individuals....
December 7, 2013
A sixth-month journey, made on bike wheels alone
In 2010, Neal Friesen spent six months riding a bike. His goal: ride through all of the 48 lower states. Friesen, the resident director for Yoder Hall at Goshen, spent 25 weeks from May to November on his bike. In May of 2010 he left his resident director position at Hesston College and embarked on what he called “the trip of a lifetime.” An avid biker, he had already made one trip from Kansas to Idaho with a friend in 2008. As Friesen’s contract was coming to an end at Hesston, he was trying to figure out what to do...
November 22, 2013
Professors share Anabaptist history through publication
The last two years have been big ones for Goshen College-based publications. GC faculty members Steve Nolt, Duane Stoltzfus, Bob Yoder and Keith Graber-Miller have written or co-written books on Mennonite/Anabaptist history. Yoder, Nolt and Stoltzfus published theirs this year, while Graber-Miller published his in 2012. “The Amish and Mennonites are becoming more interesting to the public,” said Nolt. With a growing audience also comes a growth in the surrounding published work. The Amish is co-written by Steve Nolt, Donald B. Kraybill, professor at Elizabethtown College and Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, linguist and professor at New York State University. The book...
November 4, 2013
Radical Journey
This past April, Anya Kreider found herself packed in with two weeks of luggage and her friend, Abby Cable, in the trunk of an Opel Meriva traveling at 70 miles per hour down a highway in South Africa. The Opel Meriva, a hatchback built to hold five people, carried seven: Kreider, Cable and five others, who were wedged together for 18 hours as they traveled across South Africa, from Pietermaritzburg to Cape Town. Welcome to Radical Journey! Through Radical Journey, a Mennonite Missions Network program, Kreider and three others participated in a ten-month service term. After graduating from Lancaster Mennonite...