A Tribute To A Mentor, Role Model And Friend

Eugene Kraybill Souder 
October 12, 1927-June 3, 2023

I had the privilege of sharing the following message at my friend Eugene Souder's memorial service at the Zion Mennonite Church today:

It’s December, 1946. A 19 year old Pennsylvania farm boy finds himself in the Neapolis Harbor in Greece, having for the second time accompanied one of numerous cargo ships to locations across Europe in desperate need of help after the Second World War. This one carried nearly 1000 draft animals he helped take care of on the long ocean journey. 

Eugene Souder, having been brought up in a preacher’s home and gone to Eastern Mennonite School, recognized this as the very place the apostle Paul landed after responding to a vision he received in Asia Minor of someone just across the Aegean Sea, in Greece, calling, “Come to Macedonia and help us.”

Here he was at the very spot his admired apostle Paul had been, and Eugene and others walked the ten mile Roman Road to Philippi, and saw what he was told was the jail where Paul and Silas had been held. In the Acts 16 story they sang as  a duet until midnight, when there was an earthquake so violent that it demolished the jail and freed those held captive, and that night Paul baptized the traumatized jailer and members of his family.

Later Paul writes a letter from a prison in Rome to encourage the house church at Philippi, writing,"I thank my God whenever I think of you, and when I pray for you, my prayers are always joyful, because of the part you have taken in the work of the gospel from the first day until now.” 

Eugene is inspired, feels a renewed sense of calling to follow Paul as Paul followed Christ. So these two images come to my mind as I reflect on Eugene’s life—apostle and prophet. 

As an apostle, a "sent one," he and Alice followed the call to go to wherever they saw people in need of God’s good news. As a young adult he traveled all over the eastern part of the country as a member of a quartet involved with evangelist B. Charles Hostetter, speaker for the new Mennonite Broadcasts, where he later worked for many years. Then for most of his adult life he carried out God’s call as a dedicated pastor to the emerging Mount Vernon Mennonite Church and to serve with Alice as a beloved shepherd to so many in the surrounding Grottoes community.

He was not unlike Paul the first century apostle, who when writing to the church at Thessalonica, said, “As you know, we dealt with each of you like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.” Eugene was laser focused on fulfilling this kind of life calling as a good father to his children and grandchildren, here today as a witness to what he and Alice were able to give birth and life and direction to as a remarkable and blessed family. But he was also as an apostle to God’s larger family, like Jesus, anointed, commissioned, sent to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to announce the Jubilee Year of the Lord.

I know Eugene wanted Jesus, not himself, to be the primary focus here in today’s service, but Jesus’ plan has always been to live on in and through his chosen followers, his disciples, his sent ones. Paul the apostle taught that our Lord, head of the church, gave some to be apostles, and some prophets. I know he  would be “appalled” at being compared to the apostle Paul, but he was certainly a committed follower of that pioneer church planter, and he named his firstborn Paul, maybe partly because he had two brothers-in-law by that name. Most of the scriptures he chose for his service were by the apostle Paul, and like Paul he was a singer (remember the jail story?) and a writer, reaching thousands through the printed page, through free papers he launched and edited like TOGETHER and LIVING magazines and OUR FAITH DIGEST.

That brings me to the prophet side of his life mission. Eugene spoke out against public school segregation in our community when it was extremely unpopular to do so, working with a group called the Rockingham Council on Human Relations to encourage integration of not only local schools but of Rockingham Memorial Hospital and work places. Even some of his fellow ministers felt he was going too far too fast, and his barber no longer welcomed him to his shop. 

What made him even less popular in the eyes of many was his vocal opposition to the Vietnam War, and his part in organizing Christians for Peace, producing bumper stickers like Peace is Patriotic and Blessed are the Peacemakers. and circulating thousands of copies of "Letters to the President," an appeal from our missionaries in Vietnam to end the awful bloodshed and destruction in that part of the world. 

Later he was co-chair of Rockingham Concerned Citizens, a local group opposing Coors Brewery locating in the the Valley, in spite of actual threats he received for his stand. Even in his retirement was writing frequent letters to the editor and when his health was in decline he had me read a number of them and suggest editing changes. He was also one of the only pastors in the area to speak out against VMRC demolishing a row of Park Village along Park Road valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to make room for upscale retirement units for the privileged.

In the last two months of his life, I made weekly visits to Eugene as a way of showing my gratitude for the kind of mentor and role model he was. On the last visit in which we were able to communicate with each other, just days before his passing, I felt led to sing to him, "Come and go with me to my Father’s house... where there's joy, joy, joy." That's the kind of song he would want us to hear from him today.

Here on the platform you see a ceramic pitcher and basin given him when he was named Alumnus of the Year at Eastern Mennonite High School. Today we honor him by recognizing him as Alumnus of a Lifetime. 

Eugene Kraybill Souder, apostle and prophet, you have fought the good fight. You have finished the course. You have kept the faith--and passed it on. Enter into the joy of the Lord! 

Amen.

Have We Become A Nation Of Narcissists?

World Inequality Update 2022

According to the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual (DSM-5), individuals with a Narcissistic Personality Disorder exhibit many or all of the following traits: a sense of self-importance, a preoccupation with power, beauty, or success, a sense of entitlement, a need to be around people who are important or special, and a need to be admired. They are typically arrogant, lack empathy, and are exploitative for their own gain.

Applying that description to US citizens like ourselves may seem harsh, but are we becoming a nation of narcissists?

Imagine all of the world’s people around one table, over 7 billion of us, with some 27,000 children dying every day from hunger related causes. Yet we, like the rich man in Jesus’ story in Luke 16, “feast sumptuously every day.” 

     

Here are just a few of the benefits many of us at the American end of the table feel entitled to:

• an unheard of level of personal wealth. Those of us with an annual income of $50,000 or more are in the top 1% of the richest people on earth, according to Richard Stearn, president of World Vision and author of The Hole in Our Gospel.

• the availability of state of the art healthcare unheard of in all of human history.

• exotic foods shipped to our supermarkets, restaurants and convenience stores from all over the world, often harvested, packaged and transported by exploited and underpaid workers, and of which, according to some estimates, 40% is wasted.

• clothes closets packed with apparel manufactured in sweatshops in some of the poorest nations on earth.

 

• a national “defense” budget that exceeds that of the combined total spending on war, and preparation for war, of the next highest nine countries' expenditures in the world. 

• a criminal justice system that, in the interest of “public safety,” incarcerates multiple times more people per capita than any other developed nation on earth.

• access to comfortable and efficient means of transportation, with more licensed vehicles in the US than there are licensed drivers.

• climate controlled comfort and a multitude of other energy driven amenities in our homes, schools and workplaces, with little regard for how our excessive use of fossil fuels is having disastrous effects on the climate.

• state of the art places of worship with an excess of pew space typically utilized only several hours a week.

• more firearms per capita than any country on earth, with correspondingly shocking rates of suicides and mass murders.

• expansive homes with well manicured lawns, beautifully furnished interiors, unused bedrooms and other under utilized space.

All of these marks of privilege are well in excess of what even royalty would have dreamed of throughout history, but which we have come to claim as our inherent right. And along with this level of entitlement we demonstrate a distressing lack of empathy, as evidenced by the fact that according to Stearn, the average US congregation designates only 2% of its budget to needs beyond our borders.  

     

May it be said of us as of Job in the Bible, “I assisted the poor in their need and the orphans who required help. I helped those without hope, and they blessed me. And I caused the widows’ hearts to sing for joy."            Job 29:12-13 (NLB)

Celebrating Some Of Our Next Door Neighbors

On the official Mennonite World Conference website,
Jamaica, an English speaking former British colony,
is listed with Central and South American churches
rather than with their nearby North American neighbors.

We were blessed having two delegates from the Jamaica Mennonite Church speak to our 12-member house church at VMRC's Village Hall Sunday. 

Sister Yvonne McDonald, treasurer of the Jamaica Mennonite Conference (JMC), and Sister Regina Taylor, their Training and Education Ministry Director, shared how Virginia Mennonite Missions was a vital part of their founding in 1955, and how they have since grown to over 700 members in 11 congregations across the island. They described JMC as a mission driven church recognized for its outreach to people in need, its educational and children's ministries and for promoting peace and reconciliation in communities rife with local conflicts.

 Since our house church is small, we invited others to join us, made an announcement at the Park Village Coffee Hour, put up posters around VMRC, and had a bulletin announcement go to local Mennonite churches. 

We had a wonderful meeting, raised over $200 for our sister church (one with a fraction of the financial resources we take for granted) and experienced some great fellowship. But I keep wondering how we can get more of people interested in our worldwide neighbors, given the fact that there were only ten persons present at Sunday's meeting who were not a part of our house church. 

Any ideas?

Refreshing Our Mennonite Confessions of Faith

Should our 1995 Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective be considered definitive and normative for all time? 

In 1927, the Schleitheim, Dordrecht and numerous other Anabaptist statements of faith were superseded by the Christian Fundamentals confession adopted by the Mennonite General Assembly in Garden City, Missouri. This statement was then updated a generation later with the adoption of the 1963 Mennonite Confession of Faith, which was in turn replaced 32 years later with our most recent Confession. 

Should it come as a surprise that a generation later (28 years), some members of an ever evolving church may question whether another revision is called for?

Or did we finally get everything exactly right in 1995? 

To be clear, I deeply appreciate the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective, and largely endorse it without reservation. But to be honest many of our congregations haven't had a foot washing service in decades (a practice affirmed in that 1995 statement), many no longer promote women wearing veilings (1963 statement), and few practice the repeated scriptural mandate to greet one another with a holy kiss (1921 confession). And some pastors, after considerable soul searching, have officiated at weddings in which one or both have had a divorced partner who was still living.

Regarding the latter issue, I agree that a definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman for life may be far more fundamental than many of the issues some members may judge as peripheral today. Yet in their time, and in my own memory, they were seen as anything but "disputable matters." Some were as hotly debated then as the issue of whether a faithful, covenanted same sex relationship should be blessed is today. And the underlying concern raised has always whether we are in danger of no longer considering scripture as authoritative.

Many of us will continue to encourage celibacy for our differently oriented sisters and brothers, and perhaps even promote celibacy as a viable Christian option for believers in general (see I Corinthians 6), even though most of us would be unwilling to consider that option for ourselves. But I regret that  in all of the conversations we've had on this issue in the past, I don't recall a single example of leaders in our Virginia Mennonite conference leaders ever inviting their own gay or lesbian sons and daughters, sisters and brothers to be a part of the discernment process. This in spite of the fact that many such believers have been hidden in plain sight in our midst for decades, with most simply leaving our communities, turning their backs on the church or finding welcoming congregations elsewhere. 

So in light of the differences that divide us today what if we were to prayerfully consider producing an updated "2025 Confession of Faith in a  Mennonite Perspective" together in which all members would be invited to the table? In the meantime we could and should affirm anew the "fundamentals" outlined by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, teachings he himself stated were foundational for all who "hear these sayings of mine and practice them." 

The first century church in fact did create something like that in their Didache, a second generation document they referred to as "The Teachings of the Twelve Apostles." It was used for the instruction of new believers and was largely based on Jesus's inaugural sermon, the "all things I have commanded you" reiterated in the Great Commission given by Jesus on that same Mount of the Beatitudes.

I know creating another confessional statement would be a hard and potentially long process, but in the spirit of Jesus's prayer in John 17, we need to be committed to staying together while we take on this kind of ongoing task prayerfully and carefully, and for as long as it takes, knowing that future generations of faithful believers will surely amend whatever we come up with, as they certainly should. 

We have successfully done something very similar with the periodic adoption of new hymnals, which it could be argued have far greater impacts on the faith and theology of our people than do our confessions. Mennonite congregations were blessed by the first edition of the Church Hymnal published in 1927, followed by the 1969 Mennonite Hymnal, then the 1992 Hymnal, a Worship Book, and finally the latest, the new Voices Together. In each case, newer hymnals tend to first be viewed with suspicion by some but mostly embraced over time, and the process of creating them has been life-giving. 

We might ask, which is a sign of greater spiritual life and health, a church that forever preserves and elevates one particular statement of faith for all time, or one in which members are constantly searching the scriptures for ways of becoming ever more faithful to the way of Jesus?

May all of God's people who are committed to the confession "Jesus is Lord" work together as one, for as long as it takes, meanwhile practicing the kind of congregational discipling of individual members in the manner taught by Jesus in Matthew 18:15-20--but without separating ourselves from whole communities of believers we believe to be in error.

A Persistent Voice For Peace

This woman, like the widow in one
of Jesus's parables, is not about to 
give up.

Katherine Temple, a local mother and grandmother, is not only passionate about promoting peace and condemning war, but is willing to actually do something about it. Every day.

Every day she posts a "Peace Bit" on her blog and sends emails to an international group of folks who have signed up for them. And each day she contacts her legislators with another message of appeal and warning, and urges others to do the same. 

Here's an example of one of her recent "Peace Bits," edited for brevity and posted with her permission:

Hello lovers of peace, justice, and hope,

When Donald Trump was president, it was  hard to get through when we called our legislators’ offices. The lines were constantly busy. Lots of us were that alarmed about what would happen, and knew our legislators were often corrupt, weak, and ineffectual, but we never let up; we were that concerned. 

Now, I usually get through on the first try. I’m hardly ever even put on hold. So I know very few people ever contact legislators. Why?

It can't be that people don’t know that humanity is in an emergency situation. Everyone here in North America at least is breathing wildfire smoke, for one thing. And people know the Doomsday Clock is ticking with only a few seconds to nuclear “midnight”.

Why is it so difficult to get some of our friends and loved ones —maybe ourselves as well— to “lobby" those individuals who could possibly significantly alleviate the dangers? Why are our legislators not inundated?

We can email or hard-copy-mail those legislators Just go to their websites for the info you need. They DO have power to gum up the systems that press toward Armageddon. Use this or any peace message to tell them what you want:

“[Legislator],

You may not hear from many of your constituents about the extreme peril our world is in due to climate catastrophe and impending nuclear Armageddon. 

But you do hear from me and I’m sure at least a few others, so you cannot be unaware that our world is not going to survive unless people everywhere come TOGETHER to work for peace and healing. And you know that our current use of fossil fuel as well as our war making must end post haste. 

I implore you to speak out. I urge you to call for peace, global cooperation and negotiation, and healing for our planet. Take assertive leadership to condemn war, domination, competition, and exploitation. Please do not let "warists" and exploiters silence your voice.

Your constituent,

[Name]”

Please ask your friends whether they would be willing to tell legislators how worried we are. If they need prompts, please invite them to receive my Peace Bits. There are over 140 of us around the WORLD who use them in one form or another every day:

1. Sign up on the Experiential Peace site: www.epaxoc.org/stay-updated

2. Email KathleenTempleTailor@gmail.com 

3. Subscribe to my blog: KathleenTemple.wordpress.com 

For survival, peace, and healing,

❤️  - Kathleen

*****************************************

   (But) Love compels us to respectfully and humbly show all high officials what the Word of God commands them, how they should rightfully execute their office to the glory and praise of God... to punish the transgressors and protect the good; to judge rightly between a man and his fellows; to do justice to the widows and orphans and to the poor, to rule cities and countries justly by a good policy and administration, not contrary to God’s Word but to the benefit of the common people.

The regenerated do not go to war, or engage in strife. They are the children of peace, who have beaten their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and they know no war. Since we are conformed to the image of Christ, how then can we kill our enemies with the sword? Spears and swords made of iron we leave to those, alas, who consider human blood and swine’s blood as having well nigh equal value.

- Menno Simons, 16th century reformer

Vision Statements By Gemeinschaft Residents

As a part time counselor at the Gemeinschaft Women's 
House, I recently suggested they each write a vision
statement for themselves. .

The following statements are by some of the current residents of the Women's House, posted with their permission:

My personal vision includes staying completely devoted to my sobriety, building a relationship with God, maintaining trust with my mother and family, and having strong, healthy relationships with them and my children. Most important to me, after my sobriety, is having joint custody of all three of my children, with their father sharing custody. I want to be the best version of myself, so I can be the mother my children deserve and need. I see myself and my children having a happy, healthy life in a loving and stable home. I also desire to have a stable job that allows me to provide for my children and myself without financial worries. 

     It would be awesome to have a significant other who shares the same values and would treat my children as he would his own, but that is not negotiable because my children will have a happy, loving and healthy home with or without my being married or in a relationship. I am not going to be pressed into finding someone, and I will not have just any man or men in and out of my children's lives.   

 - Autumn Shifflett

     My vision to have a more fulfilling life and becoming more powerful than my addiction is as follows: I will take more time each day to be humble and grateful. I'll make sure to appreciate small things I  would normally overlook and realize how blessed I actually am. When I become overwhelmed I will take time to see how far I've come compared to what I've been.      

- Emily Bartley

     My vision for myself is creating a life that I am satisfied with and that my children can look up to and be proud of. I don't want to just go through the motions; I want to be mindful of what I am presenting to the world. I will be kind, helpful, generous, thoughtful and caring. I will incorporate this not only into my personal life but in my professional life as well.  

 - Gina Brigante

     My vision is to lead a simple life and be grateful for all the things being in recovery has given me, and to learn new things to better myself.
     I will show love rather than expect love. I will support my children at every stage of life and accept them for who they are and will become. I will have pride and dignity as a person and a mother, and practice rigorous honesty and teach my children to be authentically themselves. I will teach them to make tough and unpopular decisions based on their own best interests, to teach them to properly manage their emotions in a healthy way, and that all emotions big or small are valid, along with their opinions and thoughts. I will teach my children to be independent and to solve problems in a healthy way, but also protect them when they are struggling. 
     Before I can do any of this I must learn to be the best version of myself, to build trust with my family and my children, to continue with my recovery and work as hard as I can for a better and good life for my kids. I must continue to take care of myself and weed out or remove people who no longer serve a valid purpose for my life or in any way bring me down.
     Most of all my main vision is just to succeed in life and recovery with my children.   

- Dana Silvious

     I will continue to work hard to grow and become a better woman and a better mother, and to stand strong during difficult times and lead my children in the right direction. 

     My personal vision is to be the person for my children that I needed when I was growing up, to show unconditional love, understanding and guidance no matter how hard things may get, and to create a life for my children that they don't need to heal from.           

- Kirstynn Grimes