Canadian Mennonite
Volume 5, number 11
June 4, 2001

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Photo: Two Hutterite choirs and the Southern Manitoba Choral Society formed a mass choir for two performances in Manitoba in May. Here conductor Henry Peters (right) recognizes the three Hutterite conductors, from left: Michelle Waldner, Kenny Wollmann and Ryan Hofer. Photo by Harry Siemens

Altona, Man.-The choirs from the Silverwinds and Glenway Hutterite Colonies joined the Southern Manitoba Choral Society for concerts in Altona and Winkler on May 5 and 6. The mass choir was conducted by Henry Peters. Loren Hiebert accompanied on the piano, and Tamara Franz Martin on the flute.

Several years ago, the Silverwinds Colony asked its music teacher, Julianna Enns, to conduct the adult choir. She recommended Henry Peters of the Altona Bergthaler Mennonite Church. Peters now conducts the choir and coaches its on-colony conductor, Kenny Wollmann.

"Kenny has very high ideals and goals for the Hutterite community in general, but the choir specifically," said Peters.

Wollmann longed to have his choir sing in a concert off the colony so that others "could know what Hutterites are. We need to reach out to other people." The spirit of togetherness in rehearsals and fellowship meals, and singing in a joint public concert were wonderful experiences for the choir.

"It will inspire us to reach new heights as we continue to practise and sing together," said Wollmann.

The Glenway choir has two conductors: Michelle Waldner and Ryan Hofer.

When Peters participated in the Hutterite Choral Music workshop in 2000, a couple from the Glenway Colony invited him to work with their choir, too. Last fall, he added the Glenway and Ridgeville Colony choirs to his workload.

These concerts provided the Hutterite choirs with a venue and the Southern Manitoba Choral Society with a new experience. Some compromises were necessary. The Choral Society sang only sacred music and the colony choirs sang a selection with instrumental accompaniment.

Audience response was "just super," said Peters. "They enjoyed the full, four-part sound of the Hutterite choirs." These choirs have been singing four-part harmony by ear for a long time. "My goal is to teach them to read by note, and to sing from the written page," said Peters. "They still need to listen to each other."

According to Peters, the Hutterite people are very gracious. They love to give of themselves, and to feed people. There was an abundant reception following each concert. The young people are very receptive to learning new music and refining their singing skills.

"Our relationship has been a very warm one," said Peters. "For me personally, it has meant a great deal to see 86 people, three choirs, sing the Christian message together.... I look at it as a foretaste of the diversity and commonality that we'll experience in heaven."

-Harry Siemens

Calvin Redekop, ed. Creation and the Environment: An Anabaptist Perspective on a Sustainable World. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.

Hopefully, this timely book will set the stage for the Mennonite community to pay more attention to the created order.

The editor claims that "the Judeo-Christian record regarding the tending of God's creation is dismal" and that "the Anabaptist/Mennonite tradition has developed a unique, though not totally consistent, philosophical position regarding the creation."

I am not sure that the book bears this out. What it does show is that there is a sufficient theological base in Anabaptist thought to work out a position.

The articles are under four categories: 1) Human activities and their alteration of the creation; 2) Anabaptist/Mennonite life and the environment; 3) Anabaptists' theological and historical orientation, and 4) the challenge to take care of the earth.

James and Karen Harder offer an excellent analysis of how the current economic system works to the detriment of the environment. They repudiate the myths that growth equals development, that there is no limit to growth, and that growth resolves poverty. The authors are also critical of the new global economy that allows the rich to outbid the poor for the bounties of the earth, and that allows corporations to pass on the costs of development to those who have no power and to succeeding generations. This article alone is worth the price of the book!

Kenton Brubaker assesses the effects of nuclear energy, genetic engineering, microelectronics and communications, and nanotechnology. The danger of a "technically saturated society" is that we attempt to locate technical solutions for nontechnological problems.

Redekop and Karl Keener suggest that "Limiting the number of persons on earth is the most effective means to achieve the goal of preserving (salvaging?) a sustainable, equitable, and 'high-quality' natural environment" (56).

David Kline, Michael L. Yoder, and Mel Schmidt give ample evidence that the Mennonites did not inherit a theology of creation. Taking good care of the fields was economically motivated, and even then Mennonites often acted to the detriment of the environment. Mennonites have not been strong advocates for the environment. Heather Ann Ackley Bean suggests that Anabaptist theology has been impeded by understanding the created world as the realm of Satan.

Theodore Hiebert gives a strong reading of the creation accounts over against the Pauline view of creation. Walter Klaassen laments the "trick of the mind" devised by western philosophy which sees human beings set against the world in which they live. He advocates giving thanks for the "peaceful reign of God" that is with us in Christ, and making this visible in our everyday lives. We cannot bring in the kingdom through our own efforts.

And what could be more appropriate than Lawrence Hart's affirmation that "the earth is a song made visible!"

This volume is must reading at this juncture of our history. I do not fault the Anabaptists for not having a detailed theology of the environment, but I would fault the present generation if we did not work out such a theology for the Christian community and for the whole world.

-David Schroeder

The reviewer is a New Testament scholar who taught at Canadian Mennonite Bible College in Winnipeg.

Mother's Day began as anti-war protest

Drawing by Kathe Kollwitz.

Mother's Day has its roots in women's protests against war, we were reminded in a recent Mennonite Central Committee mailing. As mothers reacted to the carnage of the American Civil War, which claimed so many of their sons, they proposed a Mother's Day for Peace.

It began with Julia Ward Howe's "Mother's Day Proclamation" in Boston in 1870. "Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!" she proclaimed. "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.

"We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, 'Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.'"

Howe, ironically, is mainly remembered as the author of the famous Civil War rallying cry, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." But the effects of the war appalled her and she became an activist for peace and equality. Her proclamation called for a general congress of women "without limit of nationality" to promote alliance of nations, amicable settlement of international questions, and "the great and general interests of peace."

In 1907, Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia launched a campaign to set aside the second Sunday of May for Mother's Day. (Jarvis's mother, of the same name, had earlier initiated Mothers' Work Days to improve sanitation in the country.) In 1914, the United States declared Mother's Day a national holiday.

-Margaret Loewen Reimer

Separate and Peculiar: Old Order Mennonite Life in Ontario is Isaac R. Horst's second book published with Herald Press in a year. The first was A Separate People: An Insider's View of Old Order Mennonite Customs and Traditions. This 136-page volume, written in English and Pennsylvania German, explains customs of Old Order families through the eyes of a typical boy growing up in that community. It traces Menno Martin's life through courtship, the lot at church and daily life on the farm. Horst is a prolific Old Order writer, the author of many articles and 24 books.-From Herald Press release

A new book by Donald B. Kraybill and Carl F. Bowman compares Old Order groups and how they cope within North American Society. On the Backroad to Heaven (Johns Hopkins University Press) compiles the results of a 10-year study of Amish, Hutterites, strict Brethren and Old Order Mennonites and why they are flourishing. These four groups make up a fifth of the 550,000 adults in Anabaptist-related churches in the United States. Each group has its own complex mixture of restrictions and compromises on such things as dress and the use of technology. This is the first study to compare these communities. Kraybill is a sociologist based at Messiah College in Pennsylvania; Bowman teaches at Bridgewater College in Virginia.-From releases