Mennonite in a little black dress!

I'm a sucker for personal memoirs; I'm sure that's why I enjoy the blogosphere so much. I just love reading about people's life stories, even more so than their political views. As I continue to work on my family[s] genealogy I am drawn ever closer to my roots, which is probably why I purchased this book last Friday at B&N. My heritage, at least on my father's side begins way back in Switzerland among those first peoples called Anabaptist, Mennonite's in particular. In her book Rhoda suffers a devastating divorce from a husband who trades her for a gay friend, and shortly after that is involved in a serious life-threatening accident. During her recoupperation she goes to stay with her mom/dad in a Mennonite community. She tells he story of what it means to go back home, to see her somewhat estranged brothers and their families, and the joy of being with her close sister and her family. She also talks about the memories that are rekindled and how some things never change. She even talks about, well not directly, how being back home has a tremendous influence on the softening of her philosophy of life and faith. It's not coincidental, or ironic, that when needing to find a safe place to recover she seeks out her roots, I think that's a natural search in most of our lives. As I mentioned earlier I'm finding myself, every day it seems, being drawn closer to my roots. As stories of my father's lineage come to light I can see a link between what I believe and how those beliefs have been in my heritage for ages: my hatred of war, any war, no matter how just we may try to rationalize it, my distaste and disapproval of capital punishment, my sincere conviction that we have done great harm to the physical planet our Creator called us to steward by our greed. I'll get off the bandwagon now. This book does contain some rather explicit, foul language, but overlooking that I enjoyed it. The author does include an appendix updating modern Mennonite culture, and there is an appendix with questions.

A week before Easter a good pastoral friend of mine called me, and in the course of the conversation mentioned an Endowment that gives pastors up to three months expenses for both him and the congregation for a sabbatical. Now the concept is almost beyond my ability to imagine, but the more I thought about it the more I thought 'why not go for it?' .. the worst is that I get refused, the blessing would be that I get accepted. My first impulse was to plan small, then I thought that's foolish if this is my one/only stab at it, go for the gold. So I'm thinking a journey of faith .... first, a short visit to Switzerland, the land of my roots, then a visit to England, there to visit sites associated with the brothers John and Charles Wesley, to Oxford and explore places where C.S. Lewis and Tolkien were, then back home to New England and explore places where puritans and Quakers inhabited. I'll take a side trip to Ohio and Mennonite/Amish country,and in the meantime also gathering information that will inform my congregation on our denominational roots. The advise I've read says that the Endowment is especially interested in my carving out 'huge' blocks of time for silence - that is going to be somewhat complicated. But just the motivation to continue cultivating my roots is enough. Have a great day, check on some roots.
Jansen, Rhoda. Mennonite in a LIttle Black Dress. New York, NY. Holt & Company PUblishers, 2009