Andrea Dalton's story

In Central Pennsylvania, the Yellow Breeches Creek runs from Messiah College, my alma mater, past Green Lane Manor, the suburban development where I grew up, and finally spills in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg. In elementary school, my friends and I had an after-school club that met on its banks. When I turned 16, I drove my first car, a gray Taurus station-wagon, across it to school each day. In college, I spent long hours sitting on the edge of a suspension bridge over it, imploring God as to what in the world I ought to do with my life. “Home,” for me, isn’t a city or a town, but somewhere along this creek.

The most important part of the Yellow Breeches Creek to me is the process of centering and formation that occurs when I come to this holy place. When I stand along it, I have greater awareness of who I am, from where I’ve come, where I’m going, and—most of all—the constant presence, sustenance, and corrective prodding of God. My sense when I visited AMBS was that this would be a place where a similar centering process could occur. I came here to be formed as a disciple of Christ, yes; and certainly formed as a scholar. But I came here to be formed as a particular type of disciple-scholar—as an Anabaptist-Mennonite. Partially, my desire to be formed in this tradition follows some denominational nomadism. Having been raised in the United Methodist Church, I spent a few years church-hopping before settling into a Brethren in Christ congregation. When I came to AMBS, I was tired of church-hopping and ready to settle down and find my place in more than a congregation, but a tradition.

Even more than the desire to settle down, my understanding of the nature of theology led me to want to be formed in a particular community-tradition. Theology is not speech removed from the practices of real communities, but rather part of the worship-ethics of the church. I knew that if I were to do theology, I would have to do so as a particular type of person, even as a particular type of Christian-person. I came to AMBS because I hoped that here I would learn how to be an Anabaptist-Mennonite theologian.

For me, being formed as an Anabaptist-Mennonite scholar has meant devoting particular attention to the study of sixteenth century Anabaptism, which will continue to in-form my theological reflection in the years to come. Being formed as an Anabaptist-Mennonite has meant growing in simplicity and learning how to live in community. It has also meant enjoying the library of Mennonite song and recipe collections, working in the community garden, reading the Mennonite confession of faith, sharing in Mennonite-Catholic dialogue, praying the Anabaptist Prayer Book, riding a bicycle to class and celebrating the Lord’s Supper and the sacrament of foot-washing.

Of course, at AMBS, we are not only Mennonite, but Methodist, Baptist, Quaker, Lutheran. Those of us who are Mennonite or heirs of Anabaptism do not have uniform ideas of what that means. For this diversity, I give thanks to God, because I know that it helps us see more clearly who God has made each of us already, and who God is calling us to be. Thanks be to the One who continues to shape us in different traditions, as we, with the entire body of Christ, the universal church, offer our gifts for the service and glory of the Triune God.