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Difficult circumstances and fortuitous happenings sometimes converge. Such was the case with the origin of this series. The earliest of these stories (Memoirs, Volume 1) were designed as a way for the founding members of ACRS to develop an appreciation for each other’s particular backgrounds and experiences, and to help this group of academics, too frequently living inside their own worlds, to hear each other. From the success of those first self-depicting narratives has emerged the series of “ACRS Monday Morning Breakfast Stories,” in which elderly leaders share their stories of the past with an empathetic, engaging audience. As does the first Memoirs volume, Volume 2 focuses on EMU—specifically on former faculty and administrators. However, the stories have direct appeal not merely to the EMU family, but to all engaged in transmitting the heritage of faith and the cultural wisdom of the past into our present setting, a setting that continues to include fragments of the intimacy of the village that once was. Now, as the stories show, this village community is less sheltered, and its life is played out on a global screen. Each set of these memoirs documents an era and a people. That is, the accounts offer insight into leading personalities that were molded out of a particular “believers church” past. In their narrations, the contributors choose events they perceive as significant, not only for them but also for their continuing church, as well as their civic community. They thus selectively resurrect the history impinging on their lives as Mennonites and also transform it as they respond to present cultural forms. In reaching from the past to the present, these stories reflect like a shimmering mirror the geography of tomorrow’s faith. The narrative form of these memoirs means, of course, that we readers are given no sacred answers. We are simply presented with the stuff out of which to construct our own responses to today’s encounters. Narration provides no dogma; instead, it offers insight, even wisdom for the journey. The focus of future ACRS memoirs will shift, but the overarching purposes will remain constant as the authors seek to make sense of the journey by revisiting the geography of their faith. To all who have participated in making these narratives
available to a larger community we are deeply indebted. We express our
gratitude to the founders of ACRS for bringing the series to birth, to
the editor of the current collection for nurturing this set of stories
into a companion volume, and to our ever-encouraging publisher. Not to
be forgotten are the many who carried out the myriad of necessary but
unnoticed tasks and have gone unnamed. Most of all, our gratitude
extends to each of the storytellers! Composing and sharing one’s story
takes courage and makes one vulnerable. In strange and revealing ways
it lets our Ray C. Gingerich |
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