Isaac S. Villegas and Melissa Florer-Bixler | Oct. 21, 2020
Channel: Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary
Date: 2020-10-29

Isaac S. Villegas serves as the pastor of Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship and is the president-elect of the NC Council of Churches. He is a columnist for The Christian Century magazine and Anabaptist World magazine. The Associated Church Press presented him with their first place Award of Excellence for theological writing in 2018 and an Award of Merit in 2019.

Topic: The witness of Jesus has inspired Mennonite Christians to develop an ethics of nonviolence, which has been a tradition that has sustained the spiritual life of congregational members who have resisted conscription into violence on behalf of the state. While this tradition has focused on what churches allow or disallow within their membership, Isaac will explore how a commitment to peace should involve a politics of anti-violence in society as our devotion to love neighbors as ourselves.

Melissa Florer-Bixler is the pastor of Raleigh Mennonite Church. She serves as the chair of L'Arche North Carolina and on the steering committee for Women in Leadership for Mennonite Church USA, and she writes for Sojourners magazine, Christian Century, The Bias, Anabaptist World, and Geez Magazine. Her book Fire By Night: Finding God in the Pages of the Old Testament was published in 2019. Her new book about how to have enemies will be available in July 2021.

Topic: For pacifist Christians, the terrain of enmity is complex. We hold a commitment to love our enemies alongside the promise of God to send the rich away empty and to save us from the hands of those who hate us. How are individuals both participants in and victims of systemic oppression? We'll explore the importance of identifying enemies for our participation in the reign of God.