Installation service for new president

Gerald Gerbrandt was installed as Canadian Mennonite University’s first president on September 28.

About 500 people attended the Sunday afternoon service at Portage Avenue MB Church to witness the installation of a single CMU president – one of the final steps toward full integration of the three founding colleges.

CMU president Gerald Gerbrandt (right) is congratulated by University of Manitoba president Emġke Szathmáry after the installation service September 28. Photo: Kevin Heinrichs

Gerbrandt explained his vision of CMU as being a “university of the church for the world.” He described it as a place for “careful systematic thinking about all aspects of life,” adding that CMU’s mission as a university is “exciting and scary” but also “fruitful and life-giving.” Gerbrandt said he envisions “hundreds of CMU grads each year leaving the school knowing who they are and what they believe . . . dedicated to making a difference in the world around them.”

Stanley Hauerwas, professor at Duke University Divinity School in North Carolina, brought the message, “On Milk and Jesus.” He stated that “Milk” was inscribed on the lintel of a building at the University of Iowa, but that Jesus should be central at CMU. University should answer students’ questions but also teach them which questions to ask, he continued.

“You’ll be tempted to be just another university with a Mennonite difference,” said Hauerwas. But he encouraged CMU to seize the unique opportunity to build a radically different institution in which Jesus “infuses the core” of every aspect of the university.

College Board chairs Herta Janzen of Concord College, Jack Loepp of Menno Simons College and Jake Harms of Canadian Mennonite Bible College gave the official “charge to the President” outlining the board’s expectation of Gerbrandt as president, as well as offering him their blessing.

A variety of people, each representing a different facet of the university, spoke words of blessing to Gerbrandt during a community blessing. They symbolically placed rocks – each etched with a symbol (wisdom, hospitality, courage, joy, vision, peace and love) – around a candle.

Don Petker (MB Churches of Manitoba), Dan Nighswander (Mennonite Church Canada) and Arden Thiessen (Evangelical Mennonite Church) brought prayers of blessing on behalf of their denomination.

—CMU news release