 I wanna welcome everyone who's joined us by Zoom today. I'm Janine Birchie-Johnson and one of my roles at Anabaptist Menai Biblical Seminary is alumni director. Today we're gathering to recognize three of our graduates who've been selected as the 2023 Alumni Ministry and Service Recognition recipients. This annual award honors alumni who've made outstanding contributions in congregational ministry, teaching, mission or peace work, spiritual direction or other ministries. Please join me in prayer. Empowering God with your people throughout the ages, you have called leaders for the church and empowered them with your Holy Spirit. As we gather here to celebrate the leadership of Martha Smith Good, Peter Stuckey and Jay Denny Weaver, we acknowledge your presence with them and with us. Thank you for the many gifts you have bestowed on them to be shared with your church and the world. Thank you for filling them with wisdom, patience and hope for their callings. Bless this time of celebration and continue to call each of us to serve you and your people. Amen. I'm now going to turn it over to President David Busher to will recognize the three recipients. Well, good evening, everyone. I add my welcome to all of you who have joined us today to honor three of our alumni who have made outstanding contributions through their ministry and service. If you haven't already read the story about them, I encourage you to do that to get a fuller picture of their lives. I'm delighted to present the 2023 AMBS alumni ministry and service recognition to Martha Smith Good, Peter Stuckey and Jay Denny Weaver. If you have received the certificate that AMBS mailed to you, could you please hold it up now or let us know if you didn't get it? Well, wonderful, you've all got it, great. I think we weren't quite sure how long it would take to get them everywhere. It's actually still on the way to Columbia, but he printed it on his own. Okay, I wondered about that. Thank you, Peter, for printing it out so you have the artifact there. Congratulations to you all and invite you to hold up your certificate at the end of each recognition. I'll read a short summary of each one's contributions and then each one of you will share for a few minutes. Martha Smith Good received a Master of Divinity degree from Goshen Biblical Seminary in 1977. In 1982, she became the first woman to be ordained as a pastor at Mennonite Conference of Ontario and Quebec, now Mennonite Church Eastern Canada. She went on to earn a Doctor of Ministry from the University of Toronto in 1988. In her more than 30 years of pastoral ministry, Martha served in campus ministry at Goshen College in Chaplaincy and Congregational Ministry in Ohio, Indiana, Colorado, Illinois, and Ontario. She documented her journey into ministry in her self-published autobiography, Breaking Ground, One Woman's Journey into Pastoral Ministry, published in 2012. Martha and her husband, Gerald, are members of Wilmot Mennonite Church in New Hamburg, Ontario. Congratulations, Martha, on being named one of this year's AMBS Alumni Ministry and Service Recognition Recipients. And I invite you to share a few minutes with us now. Congratulations, Martha. Oops, I think you're still on mute, Martha. Martha Smith Can you hear me now? Is this what I'm supposed to give a longer or just a few minutes? Martha Smith Oh no, you can share seven, eight minutes or whatever you'd like. Martha Smith Okay. I really appreciate getting this award. It's very honoring to me. And what I'm going to do tonight is just give a brief history of how I got into seminary and what the seminary did to me personally as a person in terms of finding my outlook on life. I was hoping to be a doctor when I was a child. That was my dream, but that dream did not come to fruition because the church I was a part of was quite conservative and did not permit high school after grade eight. So my teen years were quite turbulent and I sought meaning in life. I did take a short nursing course and I enjoyed nursing but I always felt there was something much more. So I went to Goshen College as a mature student after successfully completing GED tests. And it was there that I began to find myself and find some purpose in life. But I was continuing to struggle with faith. I didn't know was I a Christian, was my faith real? Was there a God? And Norman Krause, my academic advisor was really helping me to find my own answers. He didn't give me answers. I had to find my own answers. And then when Millard Lynn came one year because one of our professors was on sabbatical, he was the one that encouraged me to go on to seminary. He said, you really need to go to seminary. Well, because I hadn't had high school, I always found academics quite difficult and I didn't think that I could handle postgraduate work but I did, I went to seminary. And I came there in 71. And when I first got there, it really felt that I had come home. It was such a wonderful feeling. I felt so, felt like I belonged and there were a lot of single students there and we mingled with each other in the dining hall over meal times and other times. We, some of our conversations were very spirited. And there was always some controversy but many good relationships were formed. And there were very few women students at the time. I think there were four or maybe five full-time women students. So we were really in the minority. And it was during some of my classes that I just kept wondering, you know, is God with me? How do I, how can I know that? And it was one day when I was reading the Old Testament and I was really disgusted with Israel because they kept falling away and God kept bringing them back, falling away. And I remember speaking out loud in my apartment saying, what's wrong with you? And it was like I heard a voice that said to me, I have been with you all your life and you haven't recognized me either. And it was at that point that I could, there was a real shift in my thinking and that's when my real journey began. I think into beginning to accept myself and to know that my faith was indeed real. So I continued with my studies but I was always kind of wondering, should I go into ministry? Hospital chaplaincy appealed to me because I was comfortable in a hospital setting and I wanted to, I could continue with that. I knew the Mennonite Church was not into ordaining women at that time. That was in the early 70s. And one of the faculty members suggested to me that I go into a summer internship in a congregation and I protested. And because I didn't think I could do that, face the opposition and he said to me, well, he said, you women have been talking all year about how women are supposed to get involved. Now is your opportunity, you can go improve yourself. And my comment to him was, I don't think I need to prove anything. I just want to make sure it's God's call. And it was also during my second year at seminary where the women began, about seven women I think began to meet in my apartment once a month for lunches. And we would begin to discuss some of the articles that were appearing in some of the papers about women in theological education. And that was really, really helpful for me because I began to find, began to discover that I was really feeling oppressed in a Mennonite church that had only male leadership and never seemed to understand what the woman's journey was like. And the seminary administration got a little curious and a little distressed because we were meeting. And so I was called into the president's office to explain what was happening. And I said, well, if you really want the community here we'd be happy to speak to the larger community, which we did. And what came out of that was, of course was developed for women in leadership at the seminary. But I think the most important thing that happened to me was just the interaction with the professors. Gertrude wrote who was a wonderful mentor. She always said to us, if God calls God also provides a place for you to minister. And Millard Linde, he just kept believing in me and believing in me and kept encouraging me. And it was such a positive feeling. I remember the last week of seminary just before graduation, he was Junot Millard. How he kind of shumbled down the hall. He came up behind me and put his arm around me and said, Martha of all the students who are graduating this year, I would choose you to be my pastor. And that was very important. So after that, I went into the congregational minister most of the, for quite a few years. But I would have to say it was, it was a seminary community that brought my life to more of a holistic approach in terms of physical, spiritual and emotional. And I give the seminary a lot of credit for that because I am who I became today because of what happened to me personally at the seminary. And I think at this point in my life, I can affirm that the journey had its struggles, but I think the positive experience is far away the struggles. And so again, I thank you for recognizing my ministry with this honor. And I pray that the seminary will continue to prepare students for ongoing ministry in the church and beyond. Thank you. And here is. Thank you, Martha for your sharing and your rich story, your journey in calling to ministerial leadership. We're grateful for you. Our second recipient this evening is Peter Woodstucky. Peter received a master of divinity degree from Mennonite biblical seminary in 1971. In 1973, he returned to his home in Columbia to join in Mennonite ministry efforts there. And for 28 years, Peter has served as the pastor of Teosiccio Mennonite Church, a church that his parents founded in Bogota. In the past, he lent his skills to the Mennonite Church of Columbia serving as executive secretary and president. He's been involved with other Mennonite related ministries in the country, including Seminario Bibico Menonita de Colombia, Mencolnes, a social service agency, Use the Paws, the Center for Justice, Peace and Nonviolent Action, Clara, the Latin American Center for Anabaptist Resources and various ecumenical peace-building efforts. Peter has also served with international organizations as a member of the executive committee of Mennonite World Conference and at the International Steering Group of the Decade to Overcome Violence of the World Council of Churches. Peter participated in writing the declaration and ecumenical call to just peace, which was adopted by Mennonite World Conference, sorry, the World Council of Church members in 2011 and recommended as a document for reflection, collaboration, and action for the worldwide Christian community. Peter and his wife, Leticia Rodriguez, are members of Teosiccio Mennonite Church in Bogota. Congratulations, Peter, on being named one of this year's AMBS Alumni Ministry and Service Recognition Recipients. And I invite you now to share for a few minutes with us. Okay, thanks a lot. Like Martha says, I'm very honored by this, but also I think unfortunately for the seminar you're very limited by only choosing three because I'm sure there are other folks that are just as deserving and more so than I am. So just bear that in mind. We do what we can in life and so far God has given me the privilege of serving in the church and serving God. Janine suggested that we share a little about what the seminary meant, our seminary formation. And I'd like to talk a little about the professors. I think one of the lasting impressions I have about the seminary are the professors that were there. These professors were not only highly, highly skilled and highly educated and well-formed, but they were also friendly. They were also almost like a family. They kept us in mind and I remember being in Erlen Waltner's home and with them we not only learned the seminary curriculum, but I can mention I think almost all of them from Gertrude Rote and Screak Class and Leland Harder and the Church and Ministry and J.C. Wenger and the Theology and John Howard Yoder and the Preface to Theology and Jake Enns and the Old Testament and Clarence Bauman and so many others, Bill Klassen and they were, I spent quite a bit of time at Bill Klassen's house and I think he died recently or a few years ago, but all these folks were so important in not only what they taught, but they were also mentors and they were people who were approachable and who shared their knowledge, C.J. Dick and well, all of them. So I think they were also examples to us and so that was a very important part, maybe as important as the academic part was just the personal relationships we had. We would share over the bag lunches down in the basement and they were also very tolerant. I was a little out of, what should I say, out of orthodoxy in my way of my style of life and so forth, but that always accepted me. I would come to, especially in the summertime, come to the seminary with shorts and no shirt and maybe a cat on my shoulders and stuff and nobody worried very much about that. So that was very good. I also appreciate the anabaptist focus of the courses. Obviously something like Hebrew with Miller Lynn, you can't give up, I don't think you can give up very much of an anabaptist focus but I didn't do so well in Hebrew actually, I didn't get such a good grade. But other courses like Preface to Theology was taught from a Christocentric point of view, theology from a Christocentric point of view and of course J.C. Wangers and C.J. Dick's history and all those kind of courses were focused in, well and as much as the course can be I guess with an anabaptist kind of twist or view or perspective. And so that has stayed with me. And then the other thing I wanted to say is that the professors also supported like extracurricular activities that had to do with ministry. So for example, I was licensed as a pastor at Hively for a couple of years, as a two-year licensing to work with the young people. And then C.J. Dick particularly was helping promote church community services as it was starting. And I became the coordinator for church community services. This was about in 60, 68 I think. And in fact, C.J. Dick had an old Studebaker lark that he donated. So I drove that around, that must have been one of the ugliest cars made but it worked. And so that was sort of the church community service car. And then Leland Harder was quite involved with getting partly Dave started. There was a coffee house for street kids and for sort of having dialogue between the church people and street kids or yeah, basically that. And so Lauren Friesen was, I think he was maybe the first manager and John Campan then and then I was. And Leland was helped get that going. There's the Presbyterian church and the Methodist church and the Hively Avenue church were sort of behind that and people would come in to sit with folks and chat with them if they wanted to and listen to their stories. And so, and I mentioned in the article that Jenny wrote up was we also, it was during the Vietnam War and I had come from Indiana University with that kind of concern. And so we organized a silent vigil that we were gonna do in front of the post office. I had participated in a small silent vigil in Bloomington on Saturdays from 12 to one with Quakers. And so we decided to do one in Elkhart. Well, Elkhart isn't your most liberal town. And so that caused quite a hubbub that we were gonna do this and so forth and like we couldn't get permission and stuff. But I don't remember if we finally got permission or not but we went to the US post office there on Main Street and we would line up like a yard apart, right? And just stand there and we had a sign that said what we were up to and why we were there. And, you know, down in Bloomington maybe it was maybe five or six of us that were there. And here in Elkhart, I mean, we just got a multitude to come out and so it was all in front of the post office and around the corner and way down the block. And so people on Elkhart, I guess they didn't like very much that the town officials were trying to prohibit it and trying to keep us from doing it and so forth. So they joined in and then of course there were sort of people taking pictures and all that, but that was supported by, I think it was Lee Harder also who sort of backed us up in doing that and helped plan it. So that was very significant too, how the seminary not only academically taught us but enabled us to enable this to do different things. So after I finished seminary then I was at, because church community services was during my seminary and then after I finished seminary, I was at the coffee house and then I also went up to afterwards I went up to Clarence and Alice Baumann's Hermitage up in, well, it's around Yale, British Columbia and the camp there, the Vennonite camp and then you go up into the woods and that was more or less where I felt the calling to come back to Columbia, which made me very happy because I was missing Columbia actually. There was sort of an empty spot in my heart for Columbia and Latin America. So I did come back and that's not the end of my story but that's the end of my intervention. Thank you, Peter, for your sharing. It's always a joy to connect with you and thankful for the times we've had over the years to be in the same place and share together. Thank you for your sharing, for your ministry, for your life and work. We celebrate you tonight. Thank you. Our third recipient of this year is Jay Denny Weaver. Denny received a Master of Divinity degree from Goshen Biblical Seminary in 1970. Denny interrupted his seminary studies to serve with Mennonite Central Committee in Algeria. After getting his Master of Divinity, he earned a PhD from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina in 1975. He had teaching assignments in several Mennonite schools of higher education and his professor emeritus of religion at Bluffton, Ohio University where he taught theology, religion and ethics for 31 years. Jay Denny served on peace and justice committees for both Mennonite and ecumenical organizations. He led workshops for Christian peacemaker teams, now community peacemaker teams and participated in three CPT delegations to Haiti. Jay Denny has written or edited more than two dozen books and numerous scholarly articles on topics such as peace theology, Christology, the Atonement and Anabaptist theology. His autobiography, New Moves of Theological Odyssey is being released by Cascadia Publishing House this fall. Jay Denny and his wife, Mary, attend Madison Mennonite Church in Wisconsin. Congratulations Jay Denny on being named one of this year's AMBS Alumni Ministry and Service Recognition Recipients. And we now invite you to share for a few minutes with us. Oh, thank you. That's my certificate, excuse me. As Peter and Martha said, I am grateful to AMBS for recognizing my work in this public ceremony. Thanks to Jeanine Bertie Johnson for making this day happen and to President David Beauxart for his gracious words. This award is actually better than being named a saint. Saints are dead and I'm still here to be able to say thank you. AMBS has been with me throughout my career but not always in the way that I had originally thought. I went to AMBS with the goal of pursuing an academic career and I graduated with two major academic complexes in mind. One was the Old Testament material that I learned from Millard Lindt. Here was where it became clear that the Bible starting with the Old Testament had a plot line that began with Abraham and continued through Jesus. That learning served me well throughout my career. The second idea complex that I graduated with was Anabaptist history and thought which I learned from CJ Dick and JC Wenger. My years at AMBS was an epoch when Anabaptist studies were very popular and I went to graduate school intending to be a professor and specialist of Anabaptist history or theology. Another impact of AMBS came when I began to teach as is true at small colleges. I had to teach courses that were not in my area of specialty. I had to teach theology for which I had no graduate school training but I did have one resource from AMBS, the informally published edition of John Howard Yoder's preface to theology lectures. I had taken the course at AMBS and the printed version became by initial source for teaching theology. It was and still is my primary learning from Yoder. Over the years from teaching theology, theology became the primary focus of my academic interests and writing. From preface to theology, I learned that all theology is relative. That theology always reflects a context and as context change, theology is always subject to revisioning and rethinking as a woman as theology once told me, God never wrote any theology. All theology is written by people and until recently by men. Since it's written by people, of course it can be revised, she said. The focus of my career became developing a theology specifically for the peace church in contrast to standard theology that came from the established church of Christendom. Of course, in Black church, co-taught by CJ Dick and the local pastor had a profound impact some years later. As I developed theology for the peace church, I was looking at that project as an in-house discussion for Mennonites and other peace churches as marginal to mainstream churches. Out of curiosity, I wondered how other marginal groups might look at the same issues. From that course in the Black church, taught nearly two decades earlier, I knew that Black theology existed and I knew one name, that of James Cohn. Reading a book by James Cohn changed my worldview. From reading Cohn, I realized that my approach to theology was actually dealing with issues of concern to all Christians. I realized that I was writing theology for all Christians and I hoped that my Mennonite colleagues would understand that they were included. In a sense, all these impulses came together when I recently read J. Cameron Carter's race, a theological account. He wrote that the seeds of racism entered the theological tradition when the early church fathers separated Jesus from his Jewishness. He advocated a theology that built on the narrative of Jesus that continued the story of Abraham, but extended it to all people. With my learning about the Bible's plot line beginning with Abraham, about the relativity of theology and the existence of Black theology, when I imbibed James Cameron Carter, I was still drawing on my AMBS learning. Beyond the academic preparation of AMBS, for my years there, I gained lifelong friends. Some like me went on to graduate school and academic careers and we frequently conversed about the state of theology for Mennonites. Other friends from seminary became pastors. I've always assumed that writing theology was not an isolated activity. Theology is written for the church and it is done in conversation with the church. Having friends as pastors was an important element of doing theology in conversation with the church and was a long running benefit of studying at AMBS. As I hope these brief comments display the learning I received from AMBS and a lifelong impact on my career. Since I do cherish this award, thanks again to all who made it happen. Thanks Jay Denney. So good to hear from you in reflection on your journey as a scholar and church leader. Thank you. Congratulations to all three of our recipients and thanks to all of you for joining us tonight.