Bief and the Montbéliarde Cows

We almost did not stop in Bief because there is not a biological connection to Janice's family, but there is a family connection, and we were intrigued by the small village which was on our way to Neuvier.  In 1801, Jacob Frey was born in Bief.  When he married Mary Graber and farmed in Voujeaucourt (now a suburb of Montbéliard), he took Mary's daughter (Verena Graber) into his family.  This Verena was Janice's great-great grandmother Aeschliman.  They all migrated to the U.S. in 1835 when Verena was 11 years old.

The rural village of Bief (named after the local river) is in the département of Doubs, in the région Franche-Comté.  A 2006 census recorded 116 people living within the village's 4 sq. km, which is an improvement from the 94 counted about a decade earlier.  There are several prominent outcroppings of limestone in the local foothills, reminding us that the soil is often stony, but still suitable for grazing. 

Quoting from the informative sign:

Nestled in the confluence of the Bief--which gave its name to the village--and the Doubs, Bief was recognized as far back as the Middle Ages for its mills powered by water, via a ribe (a type of mill), and an ordinary furnace, for the subjects of the Châtillon-Sous-Maîche domain.

The stone roadside cross dates from the 16th century and the chapel was founded in 1669 by the inhabitants of Bief who had survived the plague.

The 16th-c. cross (of which this is but the very top) has survived the weather over the centuries remarkably well.  The primitive figure is a stylized depiction of the crucified Christ, emphasizing agony through the position of the figure's head and rib cage.

I enjoyed this fisherman patiently waiting for something for dinner.  The spring months had been unusually dry, so this mountain stream was quite shallow.

The vine climbing the south side of this extended dwelling must produce enough grapes for many a bottle of fine local wine.

At least twice daily, a herd of montbéliardes (cows) deliberately marches through the village.  In this late afternoon photo, they were heading home.  Nobody needs to lead them because they know the way, and know to walk in line, without being unduly distracted by two Canadian tourists with cameras.  All village traffic stops of course, as it has for years.  The cows want to be milked and fed before settling in for the evening.

These red-on-white montbéliardes are the cows bred by the Swiss Mennonites who fled Bern (or Berne, in nearby Switzerland) because of religious intolerance.  The Franco-Swiss Mennonites apparently bred their Swiss mountain cattle with certain of the local cattle and finally produced the "montbéliarde" cows (first named by Joseph Graber in 1872). This breed was finally officially recognized (complete with a genealogy and stud records) in 1889, and is now found in 50 countries throughout the world.  The montbéliardes are not only known for their excellent meat, but are they also the third most productive producers of milk in France.  About 2/3 of this rich milk is turned into cheese, both the famed Comté and my favourite, Emmantal.  This French Emmantal cheese is closely related to the Swiss cheese of a similar appellation.  One surmises that the yeasts and cheese-making techniques were brought from Bern, across the border and into eastern France by Swiss Mennonite immigrants in the 17th and 18th centuries.  Knowing this story made the 'cow event' all the more memorable.

One recent set of photos on the web showing the same woman on this road with her herd is entitled, "Quand les vaches de m. Belot traversent le village" (When the cows of Madame Belot go through the village").  I presume that this is her herd of montbéliardes.

Library, Centre Mennonite de Paris (Mennonite Center in Paris)

The main reading and conference room:

Neal presenting a public talk at a conference on slavery:

Janie teaching one of her English classes:

The periodical room:

The atrium leading into the Library:

Yves and Janice discussing cataloguing options:

Neal and Janice pondering how to classify new acquisitions:

Although there are perhaps no more than about 2,500 Mennonites in France in some 32 congregations, they, along with other European Mennonites and the Mennonite Board of Missions (United States and Canada), established a Student Centre in St Maurice just outside Paris in the 1976. The program evolved and in the late 1980's the Centre mennonite de Paris was born. This Centre houses an excellent library in three rooms on the main floor. There is a periodical room with comfortable reading chairs for visiting scholars, and a main reading room which houses most of the books. This room also has a large central table which enables people to spread out while working and accommodates discussion groups. The library office has substantial book shelves and a desktop computer which gives access to the library's online catalogue (about 2,800 books are listed). Wireless access is available to visitors interested in working on subjects such as Christian faith, the community of faith, peace and nonviolence, reconciliation, the church and peace, the radical reformation, inter-denominational dialogues, Anabaptist Studies, Mennonites in France, racism, etc. (for another list of subjects, see: Patchwork.)

Neal and Janie Blough work together as the directors of the Mennonite Centre in Paris. Neal received his doctorate from the University of Strasbourg, where he specialized on Pilgram Marpeck, an early Anabaptist thinker and writer who died in 1556. Neal lectures on church history at the Faculté Libre de Théologie Evangélique, Vaux sur Seine and is sought as a speaker at public events and occasionally also by the French media when it is interested in learning about evangelicals' thinking on societal and political concerns. In addition to her assignments at the Centre, Janie Blough (once described as "the soul" of the Centre) is undertaking doctoral studies at the Robert Webber Institute for Worship Studies in Florida. She has also served the local community by offering English classes which can engage adults in topics of interest to the Centre.

Neal has been overseeing the library for the past twenty years. Under his guidance, the Mennonite Centre and its library have been instrumental in issuing or in assisting publications on Anabaptist history and theology of interest to Mennonite evangelical readers. Yves Garet, a retired theology teacher and chaplain, is now helping to catalogue the holdings, and Janice Kreider (retired Canadian librarian) also assisted for one month this past spring. She started cataloguing the library's holdings during the 1988-89 academic year. Plans are afoot to integrate the Centre's catalogue with those of seven other institutions with collections of interest to Protestant theologians and scholars in France. The French national library has recently expressed interest in incorporating these catalogues into the Catalogue collectif de France which would make the Centre's Library known to many more scholars interested in aspects of Mennonite thinking and writing.

Anyone interested in using the Mennonite Centre's library in Paris should visit its website and make an appointment.

French Mennonite Conference, May 17-18, 2008, Villeneuve le Comte and Hautefeuille

I was privileged to observe this weekend's meeting of delegates to the Association des Eglises Evangeliques Mennonites de France. Many of the conference's 31 churches are in or near the Alsace, but this meeting was unusual in that it was hosted by the three congregations located in the greater Parisian area. The delegates met both at a new church in Villeneuve le Comte and at Domaine Emmanuel in the tiny village of Hautefeuille, about 40 minutes east of Paris. Domaine Emmanuel was an ambitious project begun jointly by the North American Mennonite Board of Missions and French Mennonites about 40 years ago in order to offer suitable assistance and dignified living conditions to adults with mental difficulties. This establishment is now fully supported by public funds, but still seeks to maintain an unofficial relationship to the French Mennonites.

Although there were similarities with Mennonite conference sessions in Canada, there seemed to be a number of interesting differences. For example, since delegates gather twice a year in France, the budget can be fully considered by them in two distinct stages (the proposed budget is presented to the delegates in November and in May they verify the previous year's accounts). Delegates are expected to take proposed budgets back to their congregations, which will discuss how much they can contribute. Congregations (or their councils) instruct their delegates how to vote, and delegates are expected to honour those instructions. Last year, when the conference wished to reach a truly major decision, it took the additional step of asking each congregation to discuss the issue fully and have all members vote (which recalled a somewhat similar recent debate on a different issue within the Conference of Mennonites in Canada). I also noticed that although the business sessions were populated primarily by Mennonites of French origin, Sunday's worship was more interracial. My sense is that immigrants to France are expected to learn French (or they have come from former French colonies), can more easily integrate with the French-speaking congregations, and are not seeking to create their own congregations for linguistic reasons.

Sessions also provided opportunities to hear brief but interesting reports on conference-related projects, recent publications and on summer retreat opportunities (e.g., Bienenberg, a Mennonite/Anabaptist centre in Switzerland which offers courses and retreats). If time permits, some semiannual gatherings feature the activities of one congregation. The Eglise Evangelique Mennonite de Chatenay Malabry was highlighted this time. This type of reporting helps to inform people what other churches are doing, facing, or hoping to accomplish. There were also times set aside for reflection, testimony on faith and life, and prayer, and a concert was presented Saturday evening. It was fun watching friends greet each other, and gratifying to be accepted by people, in spite of my linguistic limitations.

Unlike some conferences I have attended in North America, meals here were not rushed, for food and conversations are to be enjoyed in France. This conference definitely receives my highest commendation for understanding the importance of food being accompanied by wine. It was a pleasure to see how the Syrah rose (this software does not enable accents) and Cotes du Rhone mingled with the flavours of the various dishes. Indeed, if you want good food at a church conference, skip North America altogether and head straight for continental Europe.

Sunday morning was open to the public and devoted entirely to worship (about 250 participants; out of respect for the act of worship, I did not take any photographs). This included a very thoughtful communion service (excellent fresh bread and wine from the Luberon), congregational singing, lots of scripture reading, a sermon, and music provided by a joint choir and instrumentalists from the three 'Parisian' churches. Since those congregations are inter-racial (one has people from 9 different countries), one of the morning's themes appropriately stressed the oneness Christians should experience in practice and faith, regardless of their ancestry--a timely theme for all of France, and indeed, for the world.

Quite a few delegates from Alsace came together by bus, and reports indicated that they certainly enjoyed their time together. I found that all of the sessions exhibited a delightful combination of purposefulness and home-spun joviality. Since there are only about 2,500 Mennonites in France, it is conceivable that some of the faithful attendees may learn to know a high percentage of the country's Mennonites by attending these semi-annual meetings.

I was pleased to learn of the interests French Mennonites have in donating money to relief work and helping others in various ways. From a Canadian's perspective, they appear to devote a higher portion of their charitable giving to projects which benefit others than to those which would primarily benefit themselves. (This is a model I hope North American Evangelical Christians will examine more closely. ) They accomplish this, in part, by (1) not having enormous complexes of church buildings which require substantial mortgages or donations, (2) by being lay-led and (3) by many members donating countless hours of volunteer work to the local congregations rather than leaving those tasks to paid pastors and staff. In keeping with this, the conference's executive is comprised entirely of volunteers (none are pastors, this year's moderator is a full-time farmer), though a secretary is hired part-time to keep the office going. Only 12/31 congregations have any paid leadership whatsoever (of those, merely 5 are full-time) and several congregations share a pastor. Consequently, some of their young people elect to attend seminary for a year or two, not because they expect to become paid pastors but because they hope to assist their congregation as trained laity. Since the last time I attended this conference (1989), the leadership seems to have shifted to those in their 50s to early 60s (with exceptions on both ends of the spectrum), women are now more visibly involved (several have been ordained as either elders, deacons or preachers--French Mennonites distinguish between these three categories) and people generally seemed to be well-informed and interested.