CMU Faculty

Irma was born and grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has been a university chaplain and a pastor before beginning her teaching career at CMBC (a predecessor college of CMU) in 1991. She received her Doctorate of Theology from Victoria University at the University of Toronto, a Masters of Divinity from the University of Winnipeg, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Waterloo.

Irma's teaching and research interests frequently lead her to themes connected to the practices of the church and the theology purveyed/conveyed by those practices. In the past few years she has given more sustained focus on the rituals of the church such as worship and baptism and on themes related to power. More recently Irma's commitment to peacemaking has led her to participate in a number of reconciliation endeavours including Muslim-Christian dialogue (sponsored by Mennonite Central Committee); she also continues to be involved with Mennonite-Catholic dialogue groups around Winnipeg.

Areas of Teaching

Practical Theology, Liturgical studies, Pastoral Care & Counselling, Gender Studies, Ministry Formation, Research & Methodology, Ecclesiology, Theology

Education

ThD, University of Toronto, 2006; MDiv, University of Winnipeg, 1992; BA, University of Winnipeg, 1983

Work in Detail

Teaching

Courses Taught (both Undergraduate and Graduate levels):

• Introduction to Christianity
• Introduction to Ministry
• The Art of Worship
• Principles of Christian Education
• Women and Men (with Dan Epp-Tiessen)
• Ministry Seminar
• Practicing Theology
• Theologies of Power
• Christian Worship
• Worship as the People's Work (with John Bell, Scotland)
• Prophets, Poets & the Music of Social Justice (with John Bell, Scotland)
• Pastoral Care and Counselling
• Arts Approaches to Spirituality, Peace & Justice (with Babu Ayindo, Kenya)
• Mission, Ministry & the Body of Christ
• Practices, Rituals & Christian Imagination
• Research and Methodology in Theology
• Deep Down on the Edge:  Christianity on the Margins (Study tour to the United Kingdom)

Research

Selected Publications:

Editor, "Upside-Down Church," Vision: A Journal for Church & Theology, Vol. 14, No. 1, (Spring, 2013).

"Getting all Wet:  Baptism & Church Membership," Vision:  A Journal for Church & Theology, Vol. 14, No 1 (Spring, 2013):  38-45.

"To Live in the Unknowing" in Purpose:  Stories of Faith & Promise, Vol., No.  (December, 2012): 10-11.

"It's Only Water:  the Ritual of Baptism and Formation of Christian Identity" in Vision:  A Journal for Church & Theology, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Fall, 2011):  21-27.

"Worship Made Strange" in The Church Made Strange for the Nations: Essays in Ecclesiology and Political Theology, Paul Doerksen & Karl Koop, editors,   (Wipf & Stock,2011).

"Spirituality, Ritual & Ethics in the Anabaptist-Mennonite Tradition," in On Spirituality: Essays from the third Shi'i Muslim Mennonite Christian Dialogue (Waterloo, ON:  Pandora Press, 2010).

"Re-Learning to Swim in Baptismal Waters:  Contemporary Challenges in the Believers Church Tradition," in New Perspective in Believers Church Ecclesiology, Abe Dueck, Helmut Harder, & Karl Koop, editors (Winnipeg, MB:  CMU Press, 2010).

"Why Rituals:  Performing our Faith in Community," Leader, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Spring, 2010): 1-4.

"The Performance of Worship and the Ordering of our Lives:  Liturgy & Ethics in the Mennonite Tradition," Mennonite Quarterly Review, Vol. LXXIX, No. 1 (January 2005): 51- 67.

Applied

Irma is frequently on the road speaking and leading workshops in churches, retreats, schools and conferences.

Community

Irma is actively involved with the saints at Bethel Mennonite Church.