The next in a series of programs connected with Kauffman Museum’s current special exhibition will look at how immigration affects churches.
The exhibit is “Unlocking the Past: Immigrant Artifacts & the Stories They Tell,” now at the museum on the Bethel College campus in North Newton.
March 30 at 3 p.m. in the museum auditorium, Michelle E. Armster, Wichita, and Heidi Regier Kreider, North Newton, will present “The Impact of Immigration on Mennonite Churches Today.”
This Sunday-Afternoon-at-the-Museum program is free and open to the public.
Armster and Regier Kreider will offer a theological and biblical context for considering immigration. They will explore the ways their faith-based organizations have been shaped by immigration and are responding to immigration-related concerns.
Armster is the executive director of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Central States, based in North Newton.
She is also a Doctor of Ministry student at Berkeley (Calif.) School of Theology.
Before taking her current role, Armster worked in the Urban Peacemaking area of the MCC U.S. Peace and Justice program, as director of Conciliation Services, and as co-director for the Office on Justice and Peacebuilding.
She has an M.Div. from Lancaster (Pa.) Theological Seminary and is ordained in the Mennonite tradition.
Armster is a trainer, teacher and practitioner in conflict transformation, mediation, antiracism and anti-oppression, offender-victim ministry, restorative and transformative justice/practices, and crimes of severe violence.
Regier Kreider is conference minister for Western District Conference of Mennonite Church USA, also based in North Newton.
Before that, she served as a pastor at Bethel College Mennonite Church and at Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Gainesville, Fla.
Regier Kreider is a graduate of Bethel College and of Yale Divinity School with a Master of Divinity.
She lives in North Newton with her husband David, the museum technician at Kauffman Museum.
Upcoming programs associated with the special exhibit are John Thiesen, Bethel College, on Mennonite migration to the Great Plains in 1870, April 13, and Valerie Mendoza, Washburn University, on Mexican migration to Kansas, May 11.
Regular Kauffman Museum hours are Tues.-Fri. 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Sat.-Sun. 1:30-4:30 p.m., closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission to the special exhibit, “Unlocking the Past: Immigrant Artifacts & the Stories They Tell,” and permanent exhibits – “Of Land and People,” “Mirror of the Martyrs” and “Mennonite Immigrant Furniture” – is $5 for adults, $3 for children ages 6-16, and free to Kauffman Museum members and children under 6. The museum store is open during regular museum hours. See kauffmanmuseum.org or the museum Facebook page for more information.
