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CMU's Xplore: Weaving faith and life through lifelong learning
Learning is an ageless pursuit. Whether young or old, infant or elder, we always take in new experiences, stitching them into the patchwork of our lives. We don't always get to choose which scraps or fabric make up our pastiche collage, but when looking back, we can always know the value and significance of those lessons.
If we placed Canadian Mennonite University's (CMU) Xplore program into the quilt, the threads would unite our experiences of faith and life.
CMU administers the six-week program twice a year, with courses offered on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings.
Beginning February 20, Xplore will be offered in person and online, making it widely available to anyone across Canada and beyond. All in-person classes will be held on the CMU campus on Wednesdays.
"Xplore, a life-long learning program under the umbrella of the Centre for Faith and Life, is one of the many ways CMU serves the broader constituency," says Abram Bergen, Development Associate and lead of the Xplore program.
"[Xplore] connects individuals, congregations, and the broader community to opportunities and resources focused on strengthening ministry capacity, theological reflection, and faith-filled living."
All courses Xplore offers are taught by CMU faculty, Emeriti faculty, and alumni and have deep roots and relations with CMU.
This current six-week block of courses features classes wrestling with contemporary issues that seem far away and all too familiar.
In the online and in-person hybrid class How Did We Get from the Bible to the War in Gaza, Dan Epp-Tiessen, recently retired CMU Associate Professor Emeritus of the Bible, will guide the discussions around how the Bible played a role in generating the war in Gaza.
Through a historical analysis of how Christian antisemitism sparked the Jewish Zionist movement, which led to the migration, settlement, and subsequent occupation of Palestine.
"The popular media often states that Hamas started the war in Gaza on October 7 with its horrific attack on Israel," says Epp-Tiessen. "I look forward to challenging this simplistic narrative by tracing the long backstory of the war that ultimately has its roots in biblical texts."
The retired professor says that as Christians, we must also acknowledge and confess our historical antisemitism that made Europe unsafe for Jewish people who felt compelled to immigrate to Palestine in the 20th century and establish the state of Israel.
Epp-Tiessen highlights that "tragically, the formation of the state of Israel has led to ongoing dislocation and oppression of the Indigenous Palestinian population, who continue to resist Israeli settler-colonialism in both non-violent and violent ways."
LGBTQ in Church: A Conversation is intended to bring our diverse Anabaptist community–and all the varying perspectives that come with that–into a deeper conversation centred around connection and radical listening.
As the queer experience in church continues to shift, so too does the need for adaptive discourse. John Unger, who served as president of Concord College during the transition and has pastored several Mennonite Brethren churches, will join David Wiebe, who served the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches as Christian Education and then Executive Director, will lead the talks.
To Wiebe, this course, and more broadly Xplore, offers a "framework and path for people with different convictions to remain in dialogue and love within the body of Christ."
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