History work

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I’m currently in beautiful British Columbia, to be of assistance before and after (depending on the day of arrival) a new grandbaby’s birth, and to attend the annual meetings of the Mennonite Brethren Historical Commission. The meetings were this weekend in Victoria, where member Ben Stobbe lives, and where he and Linda and the Saanich Community Church showed us wonderful hospitality. All of B.C. is in a particularly good mood, of course, with their Vancouver Canucks leading the NHL Stanley Cup finals, 2 games to 0. This was my first full meeting on the Historical Commission and I enjoyed it. Hanging out with archivists and historians is more fun than it sounds, honestly! Each of the four archival centers (Winnipeg, Man.; Abbotsford, B.C.; Fresno, Cal.; Hillsboro, Kan.) are represented, and there are 6 additional members from Canada and the U.S.; it’s a bi-national board. It’s not my job to report on our decisions, but in general, our mandate is to foster the study of our church history in order to serve the contemporary church, and how best to do that is always an interesting challenge.

Now I’m back in our children’s home, on the mainland, and slipping into the rhythm of life of a young, busy family. In the next weeks, D.V., another name will be added to the family genealogy, and there will be a variety of interactions with our grandchildren. (For example, the grandson and I are reading some of the stories in Peter Dyck’s A Leap of Faith.) All this also a kind of history work!

Deciding about Billy Graham in 1962

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I was recently alerted to a Newsweek article on family squabbles around the legacy of Billy Graham. I have no particular comment on that, but it did remind me of how my denomination got on board the Billy Graham train.

In 1962, in the MB Herald – the then-brand-new English language magazine of Canadian Mennonite Brethren – there were no less than three articles on the rising evangelical star and an appearance on the cover, as well as other “notes” throughout the year. I gather from this coverage that there must have been some questions about how MBs might respond to the Graham phenomenon; certainly public opinion about him varied.

The emphases of these articles can probably tell us something about MB concerns and values of the time. Three matters seemed especially important: his finances, his humility, and his relationship to theological liberals. Continue reading →

A few observations about the near end of the world, yesterday

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1. It was an effective campaign. People everywhere noticed the billboards, the ads, and seemed to be talking about the rapture/end of the world happening at 6 p.m. yesterday. And I don’t mean just the talkers on Facebook and Twitter, the ordinaries on the street, like you and me. This got itself an article on the editorial page of our city newspaper, for example, and a news report in… well, last time I checked, there were more than 4800 articles that appeared in various media. I wonder why this grabbed so much attention?

2. I have no sense of humor. Of course it was bizarre. Of course I knew it wouldn’t happen. (Didn’t we all, except those poor deluded people who did?) But I just couldn’t get into a ha-ha or mockery mode over this. I wasn’t surprised by the jokes from the secular folks, but I was surprised, I have to say, by all the jokes from Christians. I don’t know why I’m feeling just a little cranky about that, but I am. Maybe I just wish we’d laugh as hard over the false prophets behind the ads for cereal, cars, Tim Hortons, you name it, that promise transcendence, the good life, justice through consumption.

3. On May 22, the end is still near. At least for me. Memento mori. (Remember that you must die. Remember your mortality.) Lord, have mercy.

4. A poem by Czeslaw Milosz posted by Debra Dean Murphy at her Facebook page touched me the most in the days leading up to May 21. I don’t pretend to understand what the poet intends here — I find it provocative, really — but it has me reflecting on everything so new and green this Sunday after two days of rain, and the meaning of “End,” and how we might expect yet still overlook it. With thanks to DDM for the link, here’s “A Song on the End of the World” by Czeslaw Milosz, translated by Anthony Milosz. It was written in 1944, that is, in the context of the Second World War.

On the day the world ends
A bee circles a clover,
A fisherman mends a glimmering net.
Happy porpoises jump in the sea,
By the rainspout young sparrows are playing
And the snake is gold-skinned as it should always be.

On the day the world ends
Women walk through the fields under their umbrellas,
A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn,
Vegetable peddlers shout in the street
And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island,
The voice of a violin lasts in the air
And leads into a starry night.

And those who expected lightning and thunder
Are disappointed.
And those who expected signs and archangels’ trumps
Do not believe it is happening now.
As long as the sun and the moon are above,
As long as the bumblebee visits a rose,
As long as rosy infants are born
No one believes it is happening now.

Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet
Yet is not a prophet, for he’s much too busy,
Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:
No other end of the world will there be,
No other end of the world will there be.