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2008-01-08 issue:

Erick Sawatzky, seminary professor, dies

by Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary

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ELKHART, Ind.—Erick Sawatzky, 63, associate professor emeritus of pastoral ministry at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, died Dec. 6, 2007, in Winnipeg. Sawatzky joined the AMBS faculty in 1986, directing the field education program and teaching in the area of pastoral ministry. During this time, he also was a member of the Commission on Education of the General Conference Mennonite Church for 12 years and chaired it for several years. He also was a member of the General Conference Committee on the Ministry from 1988 to 1997.

In 2004, Sawatzky realized a dream of editing essays on ministry written by AMBS faculty, The Heart of the Matter: Pastoral Ministry in Anabaptist Perspective (Cascadia and Herald Press). In the preface, Sawatzky wrote: “During my years of teaching at AMBS I held that practical experience in ministry and formal thought need each other in education for ministry. Without careful reflection, the church loses its vision, its focus. Without experiences of life in the church, formal theological thought loses its context, its locus.”

Sawatzky taught at AMBS for 16 years. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple System Atrophy, he retired early in 2004. He and Beverley, his wife, moved to Winnipeg in 2006.

Sawatzky was born in Rosetown, Sask., on Nov. 15, 1944, and grew up in the Herschel Mennonite Church. He pursued a master’s degree at AMBS, then pastored in Hillsboro, Kan., and Regina, Sask. Later he was involved in prison ministry.

Sawatzky is survived by Beverly (Boldt), his wife of 39 years; son Tyler and his wife, Angela Plank; and daughter Tamara Sawatzky, her husband, Reynold Friesen, and their son, Caleb. Sawatzky was the youngest child of Peter P. and Katharina Sawatzky (both deceased). Brothers and sisters are Peter G. (Margaret), Jacob (Lena), Elsie Neufeldt (Bruno), Henry (Evelyn), William (Ruby), Werner (Louise), Edna Peters (John), sister-in-law Judy Bergen (Philip), along with many nieces and nephews across Canada and the United States and cousins in Germany.