The Chicana theorist Gloria E. Anzaldúa tells us that to create the basis for solidarity across difference, we must learn our own and each other's histories. 

We must do so in all the complicated realness of those histories, without flinching. In the presentation, "Münster, Mennonite Innocence, & the Siege of Palestine," Cass Diaz will discuss a complex episode in Mennonite history--the militant Anabaptist takeover of the city of Münster--in relation to the current violence in Gaza. In these two disparate events, we will ask what it means to reach a hand out to our estranged ancestors and how doing so can help us see more clearly in our present moment. 

Presenter Cass Diaz (they/any) writes in the subjects/genres of poetry, media criticism, history, and philosophy. They ground their work in community and action at Seattle Mennonite Church and other groups in Seattle. Cass was raised in the Reformed Church and has attended SMC for just over a year, where they have developed an interest in the Anabaptist tradition's engagements with questions of justice, peace, and social transformation.

​When this series was taught at PMC, we were in the midst of two significant periods: the transition to a new lead pastor over the next year or so with Pastor Rod’s recent retirement and the broader celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Anabaptist movement in 2025. With these things in mind, we believe this series of gatherings was particularly timely.

The Anabaptist movement can look very different depending on the context, but the movement has a few core values that tie it together. In recent years, this framework – Jesus is the center of our faith, community is the center of our life, and reconciliation is the center of our work – has been a good way to capture these values. During the fall, we want to ask ourselves this question:
 
As a part of the global Anabaptist movement 
and as a local faith community that is engaged with the broader culture, 
how are we to live in a way that centers 
Jesus, Community, and Reconciliation?
 
So, there will be some history, some looking back at our roots. But the focus will be on who we are now at PMC and how best to move into the future in our particular Pacific Northwest context. Much of our discussion will be based on two writings of Parker Becker: this pamphlet from 2008 and this book from 2017.
 
Below are resources from our 8 weeks of discussion:
 
Slides and Other Resources
Week 1 slides – Introduction
Week 1 video clip
Week 2 slides – Jesus part 1
Week 3 slides – Jesus part 2
Week 3 – link to article by John Roth (referenced by Luis)
Week 4 slides – Community part 1
Week 5 slides – Community part 2
Week 6 slides – Reconciliation part 1
Week 7 slides – Reconciliation part 2
Week 8 slides – Wrap-up
 
Videos
We have videos for Weeks 1 and 3-7 but not for weeks 2 and 8. These videos can be found here.
 
Discussion Questions
Week 1 responses - summary
Week 2 small group questions
Week 3 small group questions
Week 4 small group questions
Week 5 small group questions
Week 6 small group questions
Week 7 small group questions

Have you noticed how many times Jesus is eating in the gospel stories, especially in Luke’s Gospel? It’s a lot! (Okay, maybe not as often as Brad Pitt eats in movies, but still, a lot.)
These meal stories point to a key theme in Luke’s portrait of Jesus: the welcome of God, both God extending welcome and God being welcomed. Think about the parable of the prodigal son. Which son ends up at the party thrown by the loving parent, and which one ends up on the outside, bitterly looking in? If you are like me, you might find yourself more comfortable with that dutiful child who remains out than with the rebellious one welcomed in. Why is this?
As we read Luke, where do we find ourselves in the story? How are we drawn to Jesus’s welcome? When are we offended? What does all of this have to do with status? How might these stories of hospitality shape PMC’s service of welcome in ministries such as Family Promise? How does our work at PMC for peace and justice align with God’s welcome? Where do we find tension? How can our own hearts be broken open to receive God’s Spirit?

LEADER: Jay Beaman,
In connection with the exhibit at Lewis & Clark College, this class explored the histories of those who were conscientious objectors to participation in the military.

Mission of this Class:
Encourage Portland Mennonite Church to become a community of alternative practices, grounded in our Anabaptist commitments to simplicity and peacemaking, that responds practically and prophetically to the alarming realities of global climate change
​
This is a six-week class discussion on how food, transportation, consumerism, and housing choices affect climate change. How does the Mennonite commitment to simplicity and peacemaking inform our responses to this crisis and how are we as a PMC community responding to caring for the environment? 

​​LEADER: Cody Bivins-Starr
Experiencing disability opens various possibilities for new understandings of what it means to be human. This class explores the Christian tradition and its core theological ideas through the lens of disability, addressing areas of tension, areas of promise, and seeking new ways of participating in God’s community of belonging.