Our Commitment to Engagement

We are persons and institutions of different religions and traditions. Each being faithful to his/her own tradition, we feel a duty to engage each other. We commit to

• tell you our understandings without reserve.
• listen to your understandings with respect and vulnerability.
• struggle with what seems incompatible, remaining committed to this struggle with you.
• discover our common ground and act on it.
• strengthen our hospitality, comfort and enjoyment while remaining in tension of our differences.
• model a community whose strength is the interaction of people having different understandings.
• develop language and stories that describe and value this kind of community.

Why the name “Abraham’s Tent”?

Abraham’s Tent was open to the four winds, a place of hospitality towards strangers and engagement with them.

• Abraham’s Tent at Eastern Mennonite University is where we Anabaptists engage with those wholly outside our tradition, including people of all religions and those who profess no religion at all.
• Abraham’s Tent is a place where we Anabaptists engage those whose traditions overlap with ours as children of Abraham, with whom our relations have often been more problematic than with strangers. Under this rubric we include all Christians, Jews and Muslims.

More questions? See our frequently asked questions (FAQ) page for discussion of why, how, and other issues.

We welcome your participation.

Contact Us

Gerald Shenk, director
(540) 432-4287

Gretchen Maust, associate director
(540) 432-4674