“Anniversaries are a time to stop and reflect: we remember where we have come from, consider who we are today and anticipate where God is calling us to be,” says César García, MWC general secretary.
“The courage to love” is the theme for Mennonite World Conference’s anniversary year in 2025.
For more information on MWC’s one-day commemoration event in Switzerland or information on other commemoration events throughout the year, visit mwc-cmm.org/anabaptism500.
The day’s activities will include choral performances, a panel discussion, historical walking tours in Zurich’s historic city centre, workshops and an interactive “find the secret church” game. A mass worship service with global and ecumenical guests in the Grossmünster church will close the day.
You can travel to Zurich to participate in the day as part of a tour or on your own. The closing worship service will be livestreamed in English, French, Spanish and German.
Throughout the year, events will be held around the world to celebrate and reflect on the Anabaptist movement and what it has become today.
“We are inspired how The Courage to Love moves us to Christ-like actions today just as much as 500 years ago. National churches or local congregations may wish to use this theme for their own events in 2025,” says Liesa Unger, MWC chief international events officer.
A collection of gatherings
Before the event, Mennonite World Conference’s General Council (made up of leaders from each national member church around the world) will gather for decision making and learning. After the event, young people will gather for a Global Youth Summit – the first time the event occurs outside of an Assembly year.
Two anniversaries
2025 marks two anniversaries for MWC. It is 500 years since Conrad Grebel, Georg Blaurock and Felix Manz took the courageous act of “re-baptizing” each other in Zurich, Switzerland, as an expression of their understanding of faith. This act is taken as the symbolic beginning of the Anabaptist movement, which has grown to around 2.13 million believers in more than 80 countries around the world.
It is also 100 years since Mennonite World Conference began. Its first event was a conference: a gathering of Mennonite church leaders from Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the USA. These leaders asked: “How can we improve the spiritual life of our congregations?”