Jim Bishop: When Life is Laced With Touches of Grace

Jim Bishop

Column by Jim Bishop The five o’clock traffic jam whistle has sounded – yabba dabba doooooo! – time to shut down the computer, turn off lights, lock up the office and welcome the weekend. Suddenly, I noticed the white ring around the fourth finger of my left hand where my wedding band should be. What…

Shepherd Bliss: Slow Food Nation attracts 50,000 … beneath the surface

Contributors

Column by Shepherd Bliss “Come to the table,” Slow Food Nation invited. And come to San Francisco over Labor Day weekend they did — around 50,000 people attending perhaps the largest food celebration in American history. Tables and straw bales appeared in the heart of the city’s Civic Center around a victory garden on about…

Creation, Christ and the classroom focus of EMU conference

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Story by Chris Edwards At the fourth annual conference of Mennonite higher-education faculty – held this year for the first time at Eastern Mennonite University – two keynote speakers approached the theme, “Creation, Christ and the Classroom,” from opposite perspectives, theological and temporal. They spoke Aug. 8-9 to about 45 faculty, plus several graduate students,…

The purveyor of second chances

Chris Graham

Story by Edward Tutwiler “I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.” – George Eliot Looking backwards on missed opportunities…

No thanks, PAC man

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Poll: Should candidates for public office take money from PACs and lobbyists representing special-interest groups? Presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Barack Obama has ruffled some feathers with his ban on campaign contributions from PACs and lobbyists. Sixth District Democratic Party congressional nominee Sam Rasoul has done something of…

Bach Festival to fill the air beginning this weekend

Jim Bishop

Item by Jim Bishop The 16th annual Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival will offer another musical feast for the senses, June 8-15 at Eastern Mennonite University. “This year’s theme, ‘Bach and String Things,’ will feature music that displays the incredible range of sounds possible with string instruments,” noted Mary Kay Adams, the festival’s executive director.