{"id":5592,"date":"2016-01-26T14:34:01","date_gmt":"2016-01-26T20:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/?p=5592"},"modified":"2016-01-26T16:53:16","modified_gmt":"2016-01-26T22:53:16","slug":"discussion-series-to-explore-cohabitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/2016\/discussion-series-to-explore-cohabitation\/","title":{"rendered":"Discussion series to explore cohabitation"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><em>\u2018How do we minister to couples who are part of our churches and living together?\u2019 prof asks<\/em><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Cohabitation is increasingly a reality in Canadian society. How\u00a0<\/span>ought the church respond? That\u2019s the question behind an upcoming event at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU).<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The community is invited to \u201cCohabitation: The Question of Living Together Before Marriage,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>CMU\u2019s latest Face2Face discussion, on Tuesday, February 9. The event starts at 7:00 PM in Marpeck Commons (2299 Grant Ave.). Admission is\u00a0free, and everyone is welcome to attend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Cohabitation is a difficult topic that many people are hesitant to address, which makes it ideal for the Face2Face series, says David Balzer, <\/span>Assistant Professor of Communications and Media at CMU, who will moderate the discussion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">He adds that a discussion about cohabitation is inevitably a discussion about what commitment and marriage mean in 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWe\u2019re really unpacking the question of what a marriage covenant looks like in society today,\u201d Balzer says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This event will focus on three main questions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">What clarity might we gain on the biblical, theological, sociological\/cultural, and relational dynamics that underlie the reality\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">of cohabitation?<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">What makes this practice challenging to openly discuss within our church communities, as families and with young adults we\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">know and love?<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s1\">How can we best resource and learn from one another?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Face2Face_Feb2016.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-5595\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Face2Face_Feb2016-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"Face2Face_Feb2016\" width=\"300\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Face2Face_Feb2016-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Face2Face_Feb2016-662x1024.jpg 662w, https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Face2Face_Feb2016.jpg 776w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Participants in the discussion include Dr. Irma Fast Dueck, Associate Professor\u00a0<\/span>of Practical Theology; John Neufeld, lead pastor at The Meeting Place; and Rebecca Steiner and Paul Peters, two CMU staff members who will represent the diverse voices of young adults.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Dueck, who has researched cohabitation and presented on the topic to church\u00a0<\/span>leaders throughout Canada and the United States, says the reality today is that the way to marriage for many young people is to live together first.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThere is huge pressure for our young adults to live together before they\u00a0<\/span>get married \u2013 even sometimes from parents,\u201d Dueck says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">She hopes the conversation on February 9 goes deeper than exploring whether\u00a0<\/span>cohabitation is right or wrong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThe question is, how do we minister to couples who are part of our churches\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">and living together?\u201d Dueck says. \u201cWhat does living together do to our theology of marriage? How do we talk positively about marriage amongst people who have seen their parents get divorced? How do we keep valuing it and keep putting it forward as an option\u00a0<\/span>amongst people who are living together?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Steiner believes it is important for the church to be talking about cohabitation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIt\u2019s one of those awkward topics we don\u2019t know how to address in the church,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>she says. \u201cSometimes it feels good to engage those topics that are tricky or taboo. It can be difficult or challenging, but I\u2019m excited for the conversation that will happen at the event.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Balzer says that when he and his fellow organizers discussed the event recently,\u00a0<\/span>no one in the room could think of a time when they heard cohabitation being discussed in a public way in their respective church communities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThere\u2019s a sense with this event that we\u2019re trying to open the conversation,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Balzer says. \u201cIf we accomplish simply starting a conversation, then we\u2019ve hopefully made a contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Started in 2013, Face2Face is a series of conversations organized by CMU,\u00a0<\/span>designed to engage the community on a wide variety of current events and issues at the intersection of faith and life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cCohabitation: The Question of Living Together Before Marriage\u201d is the third of four Face2Face events CMU will host during the 2015-16 school year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"> For details, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/face2face\"><span class=\"s2\">cmu.ca\/face2face<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>About CMU<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>A Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, CMU\u2019s Shaftesbury campus offers undergraduate degrees in arts, business, humanities, music, sciences, and social sciences, as well as\u00a0graduate degrees in theology,\u00a0ministry, peacebuilding and collaborative development, and an MBA. CMU has over 800 full-time equivalent\u00a0students, including those enrolled in degree programs at the Shaftesbury and Menno Simons College campuses and in its Outtatown certificate program.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>For information about CMU visit <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/\"><em>www.cmu.ca<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For additional information, please contact:<br \/>\nKevin Kilbrei, Director of Communications &amp; Marketing<br \/>\nkkilbrei@cmu.ca; 204.487.3300 Ext. 621<br \/>\nCanadian Mennonite University<br \/>\n500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB\u00a0 R3P 2N2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018How do we minister to couples who are part of our churches and living together?\u2019 prof asks Cohabitation is increasingly a reality in Canadian society. How\u00a0ought the church respond? That\u2019s the question behind an upcoming event at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU). The community is invited to \u201cCohabitation: The Question of Living Together Before Marriage,\u201d\u00a0CMU\u2019s latest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,5],"tags":[460,91,540,363,733],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5592"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5600,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592\/revisions\/5600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}