Conference News

On April 18, Ken Kolodner, a fiddle and hammered dulcimer virtuoso, and opening act The Boys of County Bucks, playing traditional Celtic music, will perform at the Perkasie Patchwork Coffeehouse in the Perkasie Mennonite Church hall at 4th & Chestnut Streets in Perkasie, PA. Doors open at 7 pm with performances at 7:30. Adults $9, Adults over 65 $7, Students 13 and up $4, 12 & under free. Tasty refreshments for sale. Check out our website www.perkmenno.org for directions or more information, or call 215-723-2010.

Without any formal music background, Ken Kolonder began learning to play the fiddle at age 23 by listening to recordings of bluegrass and American Old-time or Appalachian music. A few years after picking up the fiddle, Ken discovered the hammered dulcimer while in graduate school. Ken’s interest in the two instruments developed into an ever-expanding musical appetite beginning with Celtic music and eventually into music spanning many cultures ranging from South American music to Chinese music.

As a member of the trio Helicon (with Chris Norman and Robin Bullock) and Greenfire (with fiddler Laura Risk) and in solo appearances, Ken has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe and has been featured in nationally broadcast concerts on NPR, German National Radio, The Thistle and Shamrock, the CBC, Performance Today, All Things Considered, and on the Voice of America, as well as countless television and radio broadcasts around the U.S. Ken has been featured at numerous major festivals and performing arts centers in the U.S., was the first American to be featured at the International Hackbrett Festival in Germany and has performed with major symphony orchestras. His appearance as the featured soloist with a combined chorus (The Baltimore Choral Arts) and a chamber orchestra of members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was broadcast in an Emmy-nominated CBS-TV Christmas special.

Opening for Ken will be The Boys of County Bucks. They play traditional Celtic music — from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Canada and the US — on fiddle, guitar, banjo, whistles, bodhrán, as well as songs of the auld sod in tight vocal harmonies.

A portion of the proceeds from this concert will go to Pennridge FISH (Fellowship in Serving Humanity), a local a non-profit food pantry created to serve the needs of the low income families in the Pennridge School District. Patchwork Coffeehouse is a collection point for FISH, at any concert you can drop off non-perishable foods for the food pantry.

Upcoming Perkasie Patchwork Coffeehouse shows:

May 16 – Kim & Reggie Harris + Chip Mergott & Annie Bauerlein,

October 17 – Gordon Bok,

November 21 – Charlie Zahm & Tad Marks + Unsafe At Any Speed

The Board of Trustees of Christopher Dock Mennonite High School announced that Dr. Conrad Swartzentruber has been named the school’s next Principal. Swartzentruber will succeed Principal Elaine A. Moyer, who will join the Mennonite Education Agency as Associate Director at the end of the 2009 school year.

For the past 12 years, Swartzentruber has served as Administrator of Shalom Christian Academy, an Anabaptist pre-K through 12 school serving 540 students in Chambersburg, Pa. Previously, he also taught middle school and served with Mennonite Central Committee for several years in Indonesia and Bangladesh.

“Under the care of Elaine and her team, Dock’s mission, programs and learning centers have grown exponentially over the past years,” said J. Philip Bergstresser, Chairperson of the Dock Board of Trustees. “In Conrad, I am confident that we have found a leader who will work with the Dock team to build on this great tradition of developing the programs and infrastructure needed to cultivate ‘the God-given abilities of our students, in preparation for responsible stewardship of life as members of God’s people in a global society,’ as our mission states.”

Swartzentruber earned a Doctor of Education degree from Duquesne University, and also holds a Master of Science degree from Virginia Tech and a Bachelor of Science degree from Morehead State University. He is an active member of Marion Mennonite Church in Chambersburg, where he recently served as elder chair. Swartzentruber holds a Superintendent Certificate through the Association of Christian Schools International, and was the recipient of the 2007 Henderson Prize for Educational Leaders from Duquesne University.

“I recently had the opportunity to see the mission of Dock in action as part of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation team,” said Swartzentruber. “Anabaptist values define my worldview, and that’s exactly what I saw at Dock. Students, faculty, staff, and administration were truly living out the mission of the school. When I learned of Elaine’s plans to serve the wider church through Mennonite Education Agency, I was excited to inquire about the opportunity to continue the excellent work she and her team have been doing at Dock.”

For more information click here to read a letter from Christopher Dock Mennonite High School Board Chair J. Phillip Bergstresser.

On March 6, about 100 people celebrated the move of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) East Coast regional office to Philadelphia from Akron, Pa.

The new office is in the Oxford Circle area of northeast Philadelphia in a building purchased by Oxford Circle Christian Community Development Association. The building already has several tenants and will eventually house other offices as well as an expanded worship space for Oxford Circle Mennonite Church.

Leonard Dow, Oxford Circle pastor and vice chairperson of the MCC U.S. Board said, “The move of MCC East Coast regional office to Philadelphia is a significant movement from seeing the urban communities as mission destinations or receivers, to seeing urban congregations as assets to the broader church, or mission senders.”

Dow emphasized that placing the office in the midst of urban churches increases their ability to not only minister to their own communities but also to share their gifts of people and resources with the broader church. It also allows urban congregations who have not been a part of the traditional church-wide networks to share in their mission and service opportunities.

East Coast Executive Board Member Darryl Wallace, pastor of Second Mennonite Church in Philadelphia, echoed Dow’s belief that this move will build the capacity of MCC East Coast as urban churches are part of its decision-making process. He said decisions will be influenced by the early Anabaptist values of justice and peace because these issues are immediate and real in the city. He described urban areas as “energy centers.”

Dow said that he hoped the synergy between East Coast and the urban areas will create momentum for risk-taking by the broader church.

MCC East Coast, one of four regional MCC offices in the United States, serves the area from Maine to Florida as well as Puerto Rico. MCC East Coast connects with more than 100,000 constituents in more than 1,000 congregations in the region. In addition to the Philadelphia office, MCC East Coast staff are also present in other parts of Pennsylvania, New York City, Washington, D.C., Florida, Alabama and Puerto Rico.

As Fred Kauffman, MCC East Coast program coordinator at the Philadelphia service unit said, “We can create opportunities for rural, suburban and urban churches to meet together.”

Mennonite Central Committee’s (MCC) Philadelphia office, in partnership with Kingdom Builders Anabaptist Network of Greater Philadelphia, has launched a new renovation and construction project this month for the various Anabaptist churches and ministries in Philadelphia.

Dan Umstead, a Spring City, Pa., resident and recent Eastern University graduate, will serve the Kingdom Builders and MCC Philadelphia office for the next two years as their building project coordinator. Dan is an experienced volunteer construction team leader and jobsite foreman. He has worked in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina and in the Dominican Republic.

J. Fred Kauffman, MCC Philadelphia Program Coordinator, explained that this building project started very quickly beginning with a discussion of the needs of many churches and ministries in Philadelphia and an inquiry on available positions with MCC from Dan. “In a period of about a month we went from nothing to enough work to say let’s go,” said Fred.

Along with immediately taking on the role of building caretaker at Franconia Conference Related Ministry Philadelphia Mennonite High School (PMHS), Dan is also scheduled to work on renovating Philadelphia Praise Center’s basement to add a kitchen, renovating Oxford Circle Mennonite Church’s new building, renovating Vietnamese Mennonite Church’s fourth floor, helping a newly developing Ethiopean church purchase and renovate a building for their congregation and working with several city-based Anabaptist community ministries to assist in renovating the homes of community members in need.

In addition Dan will solicte and coordinate volunteer groups to assist him in the renovation and construction projects. He is making a wide appeal to all local church groups, including youth groups on up to older groups, to come and spend a week or so with him in Philadelphia building and renovating in these projects. In the future Dan will also be holding construction and home improvement workshops open to all insterested and a Friday Elective Service Learning class for PMHS.

The congregations employing Dan have already committed funds toward the project and Fred was very excited to note that Kingdom Builders and MCC Philadelphia has already received more than half of the money needed to fund this initiative. The project’s biggest needs now are tools, a pick-up truck and volunteers.

For more information on contibuting to this project or volunteering contact Dan Umstead at dumstead@mcc.org or 610-574-2959.