We’re reworking the apprenticeship curriculum at the Mennonite Worker. “Apprenticeship” is the learning portion that new residents go through when they come to our community. We’re developing a week-long learning intensive (that will also be open to folks from outside the community) as well as some required reading.
Below is our tentative reading list. We’d love to hear any suggestions for materials you think we should add or remove from the list:
Hospitality/Jubilee
Hospitality (welcoming the stranger) is not only a relational posture, but also an economic practice. For the Mennonite Worker, hospitality leads to jubilee (redistribution that leads to a gift economy). Any act of hospitality that doesn’t hold the potential for jubilee isn’t hospitality. Likewise, any practice of jubilee that is closed to outsiders rejects Jesus’ call to love neighbor and enemy.
- Dorothy Day. Loaves and Fishes
- Jean Vanier. Becoming Human
- Ched Myers. The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics
Resistance
We are called to be a prophetic people, naming and challenging oppression wherever we find it as we seek to embody an alternative.
- Van Steenwyk, Mark. The unKingdom of God
- Guzder, Deena. Divine Rebels: American Christian Activists for Social Justice
- Thurman, Howard. Jesus and the Disinherited
- Waziyatawin. What Does Justice Look Like
Simplicity/Sustainability
We want to embrace joyful abundance as we respect creation. Simplicity and sustainability require radical contentment and attentiveness as we honor the land and all God’s creatures rather that treat them as resources.
- Melissa Nelson, Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future
- Doris Janzen-Longacre. Living More with Less
- Jose Hobday. Simple Living
Prayer
We want to be a community that is rooted in God’s presence. By nurturing spiritual rhythms, we want to be animated by the Spirit of God rather than be energized by the frenetic anxiety of modern civilization.
- Daniel Wolpert. Creating a Life with God
- Christine Sine. Return to Our Senses
-
Thomas Keating.
Open Mind, Open Heart
Peacemaking
Blessed are the peacemakers. We want to be a people who pursue reconciliation and love in all relationships.
- Walter Wink. Jesus and Nonviolence
- Martin Luther King Jr. Strength to Love
- Mark Kurlansky. Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea
- Thich Nhat Hanh. Creating True Peace
