On Monday, March 23, Anabaptist and Jewish scholars and religious leaders gathered in the Strite Conference Room of ���ѱ�’s Campus Center for a consultation on Judaism, the Bible, and Anabaptism. The invite-only event was planned by Peter Dula, professor of religion and culture at 91����Ƶ, and Trina Trotter Nussbaum, director of the Center for Interfaith Engagement (CIE), and included all-day discussions centering around the work of Matthew Thiessen and Daniel Weiss.

According to Dula, Thiessen, a Mennonite New Testament professor at McMaster University, is “one of the most influential voices in the ‘Paul within Judaism’ school of New Testament studies.” The discussion of Thiessen’s work at the consultation centered around four articles of his.

Weiss, according to Dula, is a Jewish professor of Jewish studies and the philosophy of religion at the University of Cambridge, “whose work at the intersection of early rabbinic literature and early Christian literature has significant resonances with traditional Anabaptist understandings of violence and the state and critiques of Constantinianism.” Weiss also had four articles discussed.

The morning began with a presentation by Thiessen titled, “What Mennonites Need to Know 91����Ƶ Judaism,” which introduced the work of Weiss. Weiss then responded, and there was time for some questions from the audience. Following a break, a panel engaged with some of Weiss’s research, including articles on Christians and Levites, and the possibility that early Christians did not baptize their children, instead letting them be born into salvation.

After a lunch break, Weiss took a turn introducing Thiessen’s work in a section called, “Reading the New Testament within Judaism.” Thiessen then responded. A panel then engaged in Thiessen’s work, including reflections on how to read Paul with an awareness of Judaism, and whether Jesus meant to start a new religion.

Dula was the guiding force in bringing the two scholars together to have the event. “You’ve got a Jewish scholar writing really perceptively about Anabaptist themes, and you have this Mennonite scholar writing really perceptively about Judaism,” Dula said. “So, I thought we should get them together.”

Nussbaum reflected on the efficacy of the dialogue, and how it was in large part also due to the highlighted speakers. “It worked because the two scholars we were highlighting shared the spotlight so well,” she said. “How many times did we hear, ‘and now I want to open it up to you all?’”

Miranda Beidler, an 91����Ƶ senior who helped coordinate the event in her role as a student chaplain with the CIE, praised the event and guests for creating “inherent dialogue.” She said, “[The speakers] were so willing and open to talk about their beliefs, their theology, in ways that were open and curious about the others’ theology and beliefs, but without imposing their beliefs on somebody else.”

Sara Kennel, another senior student chaplain at 91����Ƶ, was struck by the openness and intellectualism of the event participants, saying, “It felt like a gathering of a lot of people that care about understanding differences, but also are deeply intellectual. … I don’t think that I’ve encountered that many spaces at 91����Ƶ that are that level of scholarship.”

Nussbaum was struck by the impact of cross-religious dialogue, saying, “It’s something pretty amazing that we can see ourselves in another faith. … It was a spiritual love-fest.” Beidler, similarly, connected the event to CIE’s—and ���ѱ�’s—goals of interfaith work, saying, “It’s us putting into action when we say we care about learning from other people and from other cultures.”

The new faculty, announced by provost Fred Kniss, are:

Amy Gillespie, EdD, assistant professor of the practice of nursing

Gillespie earned a BS in nursing from Duke University and an MSN from the University of Virginia. She holds an EdD from the University of Phoenix and has over 30 years of floor and administrative nursing experience. Gillespie also brings collegiate adjunct faculty experience in teaching acute care medical-surgical nursing.

Jennifer Holsinger, PhD, associate professor of sociology

Holsinger earned a BA in sociology at Seattle Pacific University. She holds an MA and a PhD from the University of Washington. Holsinger has collegiate experience teaching as an associate professor at Whitworth University and served as interim director of the U.S. cultural studies minor in 2012-13. Her areas of scholarly interest are race and ethnic relations, urban sociology, environmental sociology, demography, applied sociology and African and Middle Eastern studies.

Daniel King, PhD, assistant professor of physics

King earned a BA in physics and music at Goshen College. He holds an MA and a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. King served as a teaching assistant providing laboratory instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include ultrasound, microbubble dynamics, acoustics, biomechanics and fluid mechanics.

Kristen Kirwan, assistant professor of the practice of nursing

Kirwan earned a BS in nursing at the University of Virginia and an MSN from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. Kirwan brings a variety of nursing experience both in hospitals and family nurse practitioner settings. Her most recent professional experience has been at James Madison University as a family nurse practitioner.

Nate Koser, PhD, assistant professor of counseling

Koser earned a BS in psychology and an MA in counseling from 91����Ƶ. He completed his PhD at Saybrook University in summer 2013. Koser has collegiate experience as an instructor in the MA in counseling program at 91����Ƶ. His interests are in assisting and accompanying individuals to move towards an authentic life.

Jessica Kraybill, PhD, assistant professor of psychology

Kraybill earned a BA in psychology at Earlham College. She holds an MS and PhD from Virginia Tech. Kraybill has collegiate teaching experience as an instructor at Virginia Tech. Her specialty is in developmental and biological psychology and shares that teaching is her passion.

Justin Poole, PhD, assistant professor of theater

Poole earned a BA in communications with a theater emphasis at Eastern University. He holds an MA from Villanova University and a PhD from the University of Maryland. Poole spent two years studying with the Austrian Academic Exchange Program, one year in Vienna and one year in Salzburg, Austria. His research interests are devised theater/ensemble play development, contemporary European experimental performance, and contemporary performances of classical texts.

Andrea Dalton Saner, assistant professor of Old Testament and Hebrew Language

Dalton Saner earned a BA in Bible at Messiah College and an MA at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. She completed her PhD at Durham University in the United Kingdom in 2013. Dalton Saner’s faculty appointment will be a joint one with Eastern Mennonite Seminary and the undergraduate Bible and religion department. She has previous collegiate teaching experience at Goshen College. Her areas of interest include Old Testament theological interpretation.

Maria Esther Showalter, lecturer in the language and literature department

Showalter earned a BA in foreign languages from Gabriel R. Morena University in Bolivia and an MA from George Mason University. She has prior collegiate experience at 91����Ƶ, having taught as an instructor in both the Intensive English Program and the language and literature department.

Debora Snarr, assistant professor of the practice of nursing

Snarr earned a BS in nursing and an MSN at the University of Maryland. She is a certified adult nurse practitioner and brings years of nursing experience in a variety of settings. Her nursing experience has focused on diverse populations in different settings. Snarr is passionate about the voice of the nurse and evidence-based practice.

Jianghong (Esther) Tian, PhD, assistant professor of engineering

Tian earned a BS in mechanical engineering and a MS at Changsha Institute of Technology. She holds a PhD from the University of Virginia. Tian recently taught statistics and calculus at The Miller School of Albemarle in Charlottesville, Va. Her research interests include robotics.

Anne Waltner, DMA, assistant professor of music

Waltner earned a BA in piano performance and biology at Goshen College. She holds an MM from the Chicago College of Performing Arts and a DMA from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Waltner has collegiate teaching experience at West Virginia State University, where she directed keyboard studies. She maintains an active solo and collaborative performing schedule.

Spicher Kasdorf is an associate professor of English and women’s studies at Penn State University. She will address “Water: Mother of Many Names,” at the 3:30 p.m. session and “Mightier than the Sword: Martyrs Mirror in the New World” at the 7 p.m. session.

Kirsten Beachy, assistant professor English, will be the respondent for the first session and Mary Sprunger, professor of history, will be the respondent for the second session.

The event is free and open to the public. The forum is sponsored by the department of Bible and religion and the department of language and literature at 91����Ƶ and the Center for Interfaith Engagement.

“There are more options out there for today’s students,” says Dula. “Rather than joining a traditional church structure, they sometimes choose to search for something even more Anabaptist.”

The emerging church movement and New Monasticism have created alternatives to traditional church that draw from and can inform an Anabaptist perspective, says Dula, a 1992 graduate.

“New Monasticism focuses on prayer, communal life and reaching out to the poor… Ideas that are rooted in the Christian tradition, but in a way Anabaptists can recognize as their own. It is an interesting time to teach and think about Anabaptism.”

Embracing the change

Instead of resisting alternatives to traditional worship, Dula and , a 1981 91����Ƶ graduate and Bible and religion instructor, see an opportunity to embrace alternatives and use them to engage and inform students.

“Our goal is to equip students to engage in shaping the future of the church,” said Schrock-Hurst, who also serves as co-pastor at Immanuel Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, Va. “All these ideas are available to this generation and we can create space for them to explore and figure out what works in their faith journeys.”

���ѱ�’s Bible and religion department tries to continually learn from students, says Dula. “Many of them are way out ahead of us as teachers.” We want to be a “meeting place,” he notes, where Mennonite and students from diverse backgrounds can share ideas on faith and God’s calling in their lives.

“Some of our best students enter 91����Ƶ without a background in Anabaptism or the Mennonite church,” said Dula. “They find here, however, a space to own, appropriate and transform what they learn in our classrooms in ways that manage to be thoroughly Anabaptist.”

, professor of Bible and religion added, “I find that sometimes the students who are not from Mennonite backgrounds add a kind of new-discovery freshness when they embrace the peace position. Other times, we get challenges to pacifist assumptions born out of different ways of thinking about the Bible and Christianity.”

More than a classroom

���ѱ�’s provides an alternative classroom for many Bible and religion students with profound results. The experience, led by , professor of culture and mission and his wife, , showcases the history of the Bible while exploring current conflicts. Students are immersed in language and cultural studies while living in Palestine and Jerusalem.

After spending a semester in the Middle East, senior Jamie Hiner, from Culpeper, Va., observed, “I can connect to the stories [of the Bible] on a completely different level. I understand who Jesus was on a human level, and I have a connection to the land, people and cultures.”

In addition to the Middle East cross-cultural program, 91����Ƶ is the only higher-education institution offering a major in . , associate professor of , says that while Catholics and Protestants have a long academic tradition in philosophy, Anabaptists are important contributors “because our own history of having been marginalized, our understanding of concrete embodied community, and our commitment to peace and reconciliation.”

Senior Ben Bailey, from Simsbury, Conn., found his knowledge of the Bible to be “limited compared to my peers at 91����Ƶ.” A double-major in and , Bailey says his studies have provided him with a “comprehensive base knowledge to build upon.

“I continually feel the need to understand and question the Bible and theology on a deeper level.”

Hiner, a major with a minor in , added, “I’ve learned so much from personal relationships with my professors. I love having real conversations with them outside the classroom.”

Looking ahead

Bible and religion department faculty envision their department’s influence expanding across campus and in the community through dialogue with campus ministries and local churches. Interest in the department’s is growing as opportunities to explore internships outside of “traditional” pastoring arise. The very definition of “pastor” and “church” is changing; students are interested in how they intersect with these concepts.

“Students have an advantage with on campus, in addition to and numerous Mennonite churches nearby to integrate and connect with pastors, leaders and teachers,” Schrock-Hurst says.

Dula agrees, adding, “The goal is to make the discussion and debates that occur in our classrooms become the heart and soul of campus. This will encourage growth not only in the department and across campus, but in the broader church.”

Young Anabaptist scholars will gather at (EMS) April 13-14 to discuss this at a conference titled, “#Occupy Empire: Anabaptism in God’s mission.”

Brian Gumm and Aaron Kauffman, both in their final year at EMS, are organizing the conference.

“We hope to create some bridges between older and younger scholars, the church and the academy and those interested in evangelical witness and rigorous social engagement,” Kauffman said.

Emerging scholars featured

The conference will feature Isaac Villegas, Chris Haw, Nekeisha Alexis-Baker, and Janna Hunter-Bowman as primary presenters. Respondents will be 91����Ƶ (91����Ƶ) faculty, including Peter Dula, chair of Bible and religion department; Mark Thiessen Nation, professor of theology at EMS; and Carl Stauffer, assistant professor at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at 91����Ƶ.

Kauffman and Gumm wanted to play on and challenge the “occupy” language made popular in the last year by protesters around the country.

“We wanted to reinterpret that word,” said Gumm. “We were thinking about it theologically as part of the incarnation. How can we faithfully inhabit the empire as Christians?”

“We also wanted to turn it [occupy] on its head,” Kauffman added. “We are asking how God’s kingdom occupies us.”

Conference part of MDiv capstone project

Gumm and Kauffman planned this conference as part of their at EMS. Both are master of divinity students in the academic track. Gumm is a dual degree student with the at 91����Ƶ.

“Planning this conference is part of our continued discernment about the ministerial vocation of education,” said Gumm. “We thought an academic conference like this could help us continue to tease out this call.”

The conference is sponsored by the Anabaptist Missional Project and the John Coffman Center at EMS.  Online registration is available at . Registration will remain open until the conference is full. Cost of the conference is $15 for students and $25 for non-students.

Gumm and Kauffman received a grant from the Orie Miller Global Village Center at 91����Ƶ to support the conference.

91����Ƶ grad Nick Detweiler-Stoddard, a biblical studies major who is now entering the M.Div. program at Eastern Mennonite Seminary.

As a recipient of a 2009 FTE Congregational Fellowship, Detweiler-Stoddard will receive a $2,000 to $5,000 award from FTE, which matches support from his nominating congregation for seminary tuition and living expenses. He will also attend the 2009 FTE Conference on Excellence in Ministry, “Becoming Rich toward God: Pastoral Leadership and Economic Justice,” June 17-21 at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Va.

FTE Congregational Fellows are selected competitively from a pool of applicants from across the U.S. and Canada. They must be nominated by a congregation, be preparing for congregational or parish ministry, have a minimum grade point average of 3.0 and have intellectual and interpersonal gifts for pastoral leadership. Detweiler-Stoddard was nominated for the fellowship by Community Mennonite Church of Harrisonburg, where he is a member.

The Wellman, Iowa, native is a 2008 biblical studies graduate of 91����Ƶ. He is a behavior support specialist at Crossroads Counseling Center in Harrisonburg, working with clients to help them function better in school.

In 2007, Detweiler-Stoddard won the grand prize at the bi-national level in the C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest with his speech, “Connect the Dots.” Read the speech (PDF)

He and his wife, Erika Detweiler-Stoddard, are youth sponsors at Community Mennonite Church.

More about FTE fellowships

FTE awards the fellowships, which are funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., to increase the number of highly capable young people exploring or preparing for ordained ministry as a profession. Fewer than seven percent of clergy in most denominations today are under age 35, and interest among seminary students in congregational ministry has declined over the past five years.

“In today’s economy, the need to support young people who aspire to serve the church and the common good is an essential investment,” said the Rev. Ellen Echols Purdum, director of FTE Ministry Fellowships. “Congregations and entire communities need the intellect, leadership gifts and compassion that these candidates will bring to local challenges, spiritual, social and economic.”

The Fund for Theological Education is a leading ecumenical advocate for excellence and diversity in pastoral ministry and theological scholarship. It supports the next generation of leaders among pastors and scholars, annually providing $1.5 million in fellowships and support to gifted young people from all denominations and racial/ethnic backgrounds.

For more information about FTE fellowships, visit .

Steven Mosley, a writer, filmmaker and biblical storyteller from Orange County, Calif., will be primary resource person for spring spiritual life week Monday through Friday, Feb. 9-12, on the theme, “God’s Word in Our Lives.”

Activities will open 9 p.m. Monday with a campfire worship service with reflections from scripture on Thomas Plaza of the Campus Center.

A panel of instructors, pastors and students will present “Thoughts on the Bible: Relic or Relevant?” 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Common Grounds Coffeehouse.

Mosely () will give his first major presentation in an extended university chapel service 9:55-10:40 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, in Lehman Auditorium. He will give a “The Chosen Garment,” a one-man, 42-minute trek through the gospel story in one act.

A second performance by Mosley, “Likely Suspects,” will be given 9 p.m. Wednesday in Martin Chapel of the seminary building. This dramatic presentation takes people through the Bible story looking back from the “scene of the crime,” the cross of Christ. It’s a mystery story focusing on why Jesus had to die.

Mosley will speak 9:30 a.m. Thursday in Martin Chapel of the seminary building, followed by another performance, “Where’s The Plan?” at 7 p.m. in Martin Chapel.

In this presentation, Mosley takes a trip through the Bible that illuminates his own journey from the anger and confusion and rebellion of the post-divorce world to a redemptive discovery that God does indeed have a plan for our lives. It’s a search for home again, a way back to Eden.

A talk-back session with Mosley will follow at 8 p.m. in the Common Grounds Coffeehouse. Another campfire worship with scripture reflection will be held at 9 p.m. on Thomas Plaza of the Campus Center, with a hymn sing at 10 p.m. in the recital hall on ground floor of Lehman Auditorium.

Earl Martin of Harrisonburg will do biblical storytelling 10 a.m. Friday in Lehman Auditorium. Martin, a carpenter, honed his narrative craft as a service worker in Vietnam, the Philippines and in Washington, D.C., and currently as a passionate grandfather.

Following university chapel, hot chocolate and conversation will take place in the Campus Center Greeting Hall.

Mosley Award-Winning Producer and Writer

With over 200 telecasts to his credit, Mosley is a Telly and Angel award-winning producer and scriptwriter who has been making the Bible come alive for contemporary audiences since 1984. Some of his major projects include a seven-part series on Christian martyrs, “Unshakable Faith,” and a seven-part series, “Empires in Collision,” taped in Paris, Rome, and New Delhi.

He has served in the Saddleback Community Church drama ministry and as the director of drama for Coast Hills Community Church in Southern California.

Mosley is the author of 12 books, including “Secrets of the Mustard Seed”, “Secrets of Jesus’ Touch” and “Great Stories and How to Tell Them.” His book, “Glimpses of God,” was a featured selection in the “Guideposts” Book Club.

“We’re working on increasing biblical literacy in creative ways,” said Brian Martin Burkholder, 91����Ƶ campus pastor. “In addition to the worship gatherings and dynamic dramatizations, students, faculty and staff will read through the New Testament at a Bible reading station in the Campus Center. Students and others will be invited to join or form Bible reading circles and a biblical storytelling group in the weeks ahead,” he added.

All programs of Spiritual Life Week are open to the public free of charge. Donations will be accepted for the Steven Mosley performances.

For more information contact information, contact 91����Ƶ campus ministries, 540-432-4115.

Keith Graber Miller, professor of Bible, religion and philosophy at Goshen (Ind.) College, will speak Wednesday and Thursday, Jan. 28-29, on the theme, “Embodying Sexual Wholeness in a Broken World.”

Miller will open the series 10 a.m. Wednesday with a university chapel presentation “On Loving Sexuality and Living Faithfully.”

At 6 p.m. that day, he will focus on “Negotiating the Young Adult Sexual Landscape” in Martin Chapel of the seminary building.

A “talk back” will follow at 9 p.m. in the Common Grounds Coffeehouse of the University Commons. Miller will recap his evening talk and speak briefly on pornographic seductions with opportunity for questions and responses.

Miller will continue the series 9:30 a.m. Thursday in Martin Chapel with the topic, “Sexuality in the Ministering Person.” He will conclude with a luncheon talk at noon Thursday in the west dining room of the university cafeteria (Northlawn ground floor) on “Emerging Sexuality Themes: Listening to the 91����Ƶ Campus Community.”

Miller’s specialty areas at Goshen College include contemporary Christian ethics, religion and politics, religion and sexuality and adoption and childhood issues. He has written four books and speaks frequently in congregations and at conferences on these and other topics. He has co-led Goshen’s SST (Study-Travel Term) semesters with his spouse Ann in Cambodia, Cuba and Costa Rica, China and the Dominican Republic.

He has a BA degree from Franklin (Ind.) College, an MDiv from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, and a PhD from Emory University.

“Keith Graber Miller is uniquely gifted and prepared to guide our campus-wide conversations on sexuality,” said Brian Martin Burkholder, 91����Ƶ campus pastor. “He brings a wealth of experience engaging the themes and dynamics of sexuality with young adults both in the classroom and as a faculty mentor.”

The series is sponsored by 91����Ƶ Campus Ministries and is open to the public free of charge.

For more information, call 540-432-4115.

And so, early on Easter Sunday, 2008, the 91����Ƶ junior biblical studies and philosophy major from Lansdale, Pa., was baptized in the Jordan River into the community of faith.

91����Ƶ student John Tyson during his baptism in the Jordan River on Easter Sunday.

What made the experience even more special: Tyson was baptized by Linford L. Stutzman, associate professor of culture and mission at 91����Ƶ and witnessed by 29 fellow students in his Middle East study group. Dr. Stutzman and his wife, Janet M. Stutzman, are leading the cross-cultural seminar during the university’s second (spring) semester.

‘Sharing Something Special’

“The community I’ve experienced in this cross-cultural group and the journey we are sharing is something special,” Tyson said afterwards. “I’ve been active in the Mennonite church for several years, but traveling with this group has been the place where I’ve been most at home with God and the world.

“John had asked about the possibility of being baptized several weeks before Easter, when our group was still in Jerusalem,” said Stutzman. “I mentioned that the Jordan River runs through the back of Kibbutz Afikim, and that we would be there over Easter. Perhaps that would be a good opportunity.”

The 91����Ƶ group arrived at Kibbutz Afikim on Mar. 17 for two weeks of work, study and field trips. Kibbutz Afikim is a secular Jewish agricultural commune established around 1925. In the fields behind the kibbutz is their graveyard on a bluff overlooking the Jordan River.

Easter Sunday morning the entire group, got up early and assembled at 5:30 for the 20-minute hike to the graveyard. They walked through the kibbutz quietly to keep the dogs from barking, toward the Jordan. In the graveyard, the students led songs and read scriptures as the sun rose over the Golan Heights. It was a beautiful, peaceful morning.

Then they hiked for about another 10 minutes down toward the Jordan through the fields of freshly-cut barley singing, “As I went down to the river to pray.” Earlier, Stutzman had found an ideal baptismal spot with a break in the reeds that grow along the banks that allowed the group to stand on the bank and see the water flowing.

“I recounted the journey of learning and faith that everyone is traveling on this cross-cultural, paralleling the journeys of faith in Scripture, how wilderness and water are so much a part of it, and how baptism connects to these stories – Moses and the Hebrew children crossing the Red Sea, the Hebrews wandering through the wilderness then crossing the Jordan to the promise, John baptizing in the Jordan, Jesus being baptized in the Jordan. All of these places and events have been part of the group’s travels, and all relate to the meaning of baptism,” Stutzman recalled.

‘God at Work in the World’

Tyson and 91����Ƶ Professor Linford Stutzman, leader of the Middle East crosscultural, embrace after Tyson’s baptism.

Tyson then recounted his own journey of faith and why he chose to be baptized at this point in his life.

“I decided that taking this step [to be baptized] was appropriate and the time and place and people only confirmed that,” he said. “For me, water baptism symbolized the life of God at work in the world through things we often take for granted but that create new life.”

The men waded into the middle of the Jordan, and Stutzman poured water over head. (The Jordan is fairly shallow, so immersion wasn’t a good option). Then they waded back to shore, and the students gave their encouragement and blessing, sang several songs and hiked back to the kibbutz in time for breakfast.

Tyson has been attending Souderton (PA) Mennonite Church since age 17. More recently, he’s attended Park View Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg.

It is the fifth time for Linford and wife Janet, a former director of alumni/parent relations at 91����Ƶ, to lead a cross-cultural program in the Middle East. The group is scheduled to return to campus Apr. 22.

An 91����Ƶ student has received first prize in the bi-national C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest.

Nicholas L. (Nick) Stoddard, a senior biblical studies major from Wellman, Iowa, won a cash gift and a scholarship to attend a peace-related conference for his speech, “Connect the Dots.”

His oration focused on developing a mindset that sees how one’s actions have a direct effect on other people, even those at great geographic distance.

The winning speech can be viewed at http://www.emu.edu/news/nicholas_stoddard.pdf

Stoddard is co-leader of 91����Ƶ Peace Fellowship with Katrina Alger and Michelle Kennel. He is married to Erika Detweiler Stoddard, a 2007 91����Ƶ graduate, and is a member of Kalona (Iowa) Mennonite Church.

“This contest is a great opportunity for 91����Ƶ students to speak in their own words to how they apply the Christian peace witness to specific issues they care about,” said Nancy R. Heisey, chair of 91����Ƶ’s Bible and religion department. “It’s exciting to see Nicholas’ challenge to us at 91����Ƶ to choose just lifestyle options being recognized as central to the peace witness of Mennonites throughout the U.S. and Canada.”

The contest was established in 1974 by the directors of the C. Henry Smith Trust as a way of honoring the late Mennonite historian who taught at Goshen (Ind.) College and Bluffton (Ohio) University.

It is administered annually by Peace and Justice Ministries of Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Students from every Mennonite and Brethren in Christ college in North America are eligible to participate.

Ted Grimsrud, associate professor of and at 91����Ƶ, was awarded “honorable mention” (third place) for biblical interpretation at the 91st annual awards ceremony of the Associated Church Press.

The award was announced Apr. 24 in Chicago at the annual convention of the ACP, the oldest interdenominational press association in North America.

Headlined “The Lamb

Linden M. Wenger, 92, a veteran pastor/bishop and professor emeritus of philosophy at , died Sunday, Dec. 18, at Oak Lea Nursing Home where he was a resident.

Wenger taught and philosophy courses on the undergraduate level and at the seminary from 1955 until his retirement in 1978. He also carried a full slate of responsibilities in Virginia Mennonite Conference.

During his tenure, Wenger was acting dean of the seminary, 1965-67, assistant to 91����Ƶ President Myron S. Augsburger, 1967-70, director of field education, 1972-78, and seminary registrar, 1974-78.

Wenger was born Dec. 26, 1912 in Edom, Va., and was the son of the late Oscar E. and Bessie P. Heatwole Wenger.

On June 1, 1941, he married the former Esther Huber, who preceded him in death on May 17, 2003.

Surviving are two sons, Harold C. and J. Lowell Wenger; a daughter, Linda Kay Wenger, and their spouses; two sisters, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Wenger was ordained in 1945 as pastor of the Mt. Hermon Mennonite Church, where he served with his wife Esther for 10 years. He was ordained bishop/ overseer of several Mennonite churches in the Highlands area of Virginia and West Virginia in 1959.

He earned A.B. and Th.B. degrees from 91����Ƶ, a B.D. and Th.M. degree from Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Va., and did research on Mennonite church-building in the Miami area while a visiting fellow at Princeton (NJ) Theological Seminary in 1971-72.

He held a number of churchwide offices over the years and had been a member of the board of the Virginia Mennonite Conference Center, chair of the Virginia Conference Visitor Center committee and headed the Older Adults Ministries committee of Virginia Conference.

Wenger wrote "Climbing Down the Ladder," an autobiographical book about retirement, in 1993. In 1997, he released a second book, "Fifty Years in Northern District of Virginia Mennonite Conference," which recounts the effects of change in that geographic area of the church in the mid-20th century, 1945-1995.

Funeral services will be held Dec. 22 at Lindale Mennonite Church where Wenger was a member, with burial in the Lindale cemetery.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Linden M. and Esther H. Wenger Scholarship Fund c/o Virginia Mennonite Conference, 901 Parkwood Drive, Harrisonburg, VA 22802 or to the Linden M. and Esther H. Wenger Seminary Scholarship for students attending EMS from Meserete Kristos Church of Ethiopia.