Krista Ehst, a young Mennonite from Pennsylvania, recently spent some months in the UK as an intern. On her return to the USA we invited her to write down her reflections.

I am deeply tied to my Mennonite heritage. I love going to four-part hymn sings; I cherish memories of learning to bake shoo-fly pie1 with my grandmother; I love walking across the acres that have been farmed by my Mennonite ancestors for ten generations. I return from the UK, however, wondering if these Mennonite traditions are connected to the Anabaptist faith I also claim.

I bumped into Jeff (not his real name) on my way to the weekly communion service in the grounds of the mental health care centre where he is living these days.

'Hi, Jeff! How are you? Are you coming to the service today?'

'Well, no, I don’t think so. I've got a cough and sore throat, and I'm a bit bothered about all the stuff in the Bible about war …'

'I'm sorry you've got a sore throat. I do hope it will be better soon. Maybe I'll see you at the service another day …'

In this extract from their new book, Jo and Nigel Pimlott take a close look at where youth work has come from and where it might be going in the future ….

by Alan Kreider

by Alison Phelps

As unseasonably warm sunlight streams encouragingly (or should that be alarmingly?) through the window I reflect again on the hidden challenges of being serious about some of the Anabaptist Network's core convictions. I hadn't foreseen some of the stark dilemmas involved in balancing the simple sounding ‘good news to the poor' with ‘caring for creation', in juggling friendship and justice, mission and economics, family bonds and global warming.