Commissions Archives - Page 11 of 19 - Mennonite World Conference

21 October 2023

Peace (English) – Paix (French) – Amani (Swahili) – Mirembe (Luganda): children at a Uganda Mennonite church wrote “Peace” in multiple languages. (See photo below.)

Each year, the Peace Commission prepares a worship resource for Peace Sunday. Organized around a new theme each year, the package includes a Scripture focus, prayers, an activity and a teaching resource.

Congregations around the world select useful portions of these resources to adapt for their own worship.

CEM congregations from the Mbujimayi district gathered at Sangilayi parish for a joint service of reconciliation. “Our joy was all the greater because CEM members have been happily living in the peace of the Lord after a long period of leadership conflicts,” says Jean Felix Cimbalanga, president of CEM (Communauté Évangélique Mennonite).

In small groups, members of Iglesias Hermanos Menonitas in Soacha, Colombia, interceded for each of the prayer points found in the worship resource package.

(Pictured, l-r) Reverend Pastor Jean-Pierre Muya, general secretary and legal representative of the Communauté Mennonite au Congo (CMCo); Robert Irundu, administrative and financial secretary of the CMCo (blue suit); and Mozart Muzembe, church cantor; planted a mango tree on the church grounds. “It’s a symbol of peace and unity, because we’re all part of God’s family.” says Simon Kashal Tshiey. “This tree will soon unite everyone through its fruit and shade.”

“Through the celebration of Peace Sunday, we got encouragement to become a witness of God’s peace in our daily life,” says Ashish Milap, pastor of Bethel Mennonite Church, Balogdogan, India.

International Mennonite volunteers Elizabeth Joy Nalliyah from the USA (SALT) and Luyando Munangobe of Zambia (YAMEN) were special guests at Bethel’s service. “This has surely united and encouraged us to know that we are one large family,” says Ashish Milap.

Mr. Amos Ganjboir along with Rajendra Masih, Shoshanna and some church youths worked on a tree poster for the worship service. Attaching their leaves to the branches helps the congregation understand that “everyone in this family is important and connected to each other. And their family is bigger than they may think,” says Ashish Milap.

Wincy Wan of Hong Kong Mennonite shared stories from the Global Mennonite Peacebuilding Conference of “how our righteous father is using MWC to transform injustices”. A member of the Peace Commission, she challenged the congregation: “How do we share peace and love to our neighbours? Can we be alert to trauma around us? Can we walk in companionship with suffering people”?

On Peace Day 2023, Rev. Maira Benjamin Migire, a pastor from Kanisa la Mennonite Tanzania, joined a dialogue with Christian and Muslim leaders about peace in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

BIC congregations in Nepal celebrated Peace Sunday with their usual worship service on Saturday. They took a special offering and prayed for peace in family, church, neighbourhood, the wider community, the nation, and the global Anabaptist community, especially for Ukraine and Myanmar.

Peace – Paix – Amani – Mirembe: children at a Uganda Mennonite church wrote “Peace” in multiple languages.

At Maytalang Mennonite Bible Church in the Philippines, “Nanay” (mother) Juana, the oldest participant (83 years old) and Aya, the youngest participant (1 year old), pasted a golden leaf on the peace tree of family connections.

Creator God, Brother Jesus, reconciling Spirit, teach us to build peace each day. Help us to see your image in every person we meet – including our enemies. Help us to recognize our interconnectedness. Give us courage to stand up for others by recognizing our interconnectedness.

Page edited 8 November 2023
20 September 2023
Mennonite World Conference is one of 14 Christian organizations joining hands with World Vision International in prayer and action against world hunger. The third annual Weekend of Prayer and Action Against Hunger (#WoPA2023) is observed 14-16 October 2023, coinciding with World Food Day which falls on Monday, 16 October 2023.

“We believe famine has no place in the 21st century and is entirely preventable,” says Tigist Tesfaye, secretary of MWC Deacons Commission. “Yet the world faces an unprecedented hunger crisis today. Wars and violence, rising costs, weather extremes and uneven recovery from the pandemic’s economic impact are putting 258 million people at risk. The United Nations’ World Food Program says 58 countries are in acute food insecurity as of end of 2022.”

Action-oriented resources for Sunday service liturgy, biblical reflection on food and sharing of resources, videos and photos and children’s resources are available in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. Download action against hunger resources here.

“We call all Anabaptist-Mennonite churches to teach their congregations about the 10 Commandments of Food. This includes giving thanks for food and the people that grow and prepare it, eating in moderation, not wasting food, eating locally and sharing the gift of food with those who don’t have enough nutrition,” says Tigist Tesfaye.

“We also call churches to take the week starting 16 October 2023 to support the MWC Global Church Sharing Fund, which supports local churches in addressing immediate needs in their church community, including food security,” says Tigist Tesfaye.

Mennonite World Conference would love to hear how you and your church are taking action against world hunger! Post on social media with the hashtags #WoPA2023 and #mwcmm

How can you take action against hunger

At the individual level
- Commit to eating locally
- Do not waste food
- Eat in moderation
- Build relationships with farmers, farm workers and food workers – learn the triumphs and challenges in growing and delivering food to your table
- Support a local food bank or free meal programs
At the congregation level
- Teach the 10 Commandments of Food
- Start or support initiatives that address food inequality in your community
- Promote sustainable farming practices
- Share the gift of food to others who don’t have enough nutrition
20 July 2023

“There’s something in the water among Mennonite theologians and peace building scholars and practitioners…around the decolonial project that people are drinking from now that is interesting and quite good,” says Andrew Suderman.

The Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) professor and secretary of Mennonite World Conference’s Peace Commission organized the third Global Mennonite Peacebuilding Conference and Festival (GMP III) in Virginia, USA. “Coming Together: The Journey of Faith and Peace” was the theme of the 15-18 June 2023 event organized by EMU and endorsed by MWC.

The four plenary speakers included Tigist Tesfaye, MWC Deacons Commission secretary, and César García, MWC general secretary. Some 160 participants from 20 countries participated in 10 presentations of papers, 15 workshops, a panel discussion, an art installation and four theatre and music performances. Difficulties obtaining travel permission prevented some international guests from attending.

Scholarship and worship came together at the conference. “We unabashedly housed the conference within worship,” says Andrew Suderman. Each plenary session opened and closed with a time of prayer and singing.

César García urged participants bring together church and peace work despite the former’s past mistakes: “Creating structures that are completely independent and separated from the church is an unnecessary detour that affects the impact of our peace witness…. The need of peace work that is theologically and biblically grounded is an ongoing reality in many of our churches and institutions.”

César García. Photo: Henk Stenvers

Art and performance also came together with theology and theory. “The idea for this GMP was to bring together academics, practitioners, pastors and artists to share with one another what they’re working on, how they are working toward embodying peace,” says Andrew Suderman. “Musicians and a theatre group help give expression to these values, to this journey…to connect head, hands and heart.”

Music and peace also come together says Juan Moya, member of La Repvblica, a band from Colombia that performed. “[Music] depends on vibrations, rhythms and poetry to convey a message. It is a universal language.” The barrier-crossing, peacebuilding capacity of music was demonstrated as MWC president Henk Stenvers from the Netherlands joined the Colombia band on the drums.

As a global conference, the event also brought together voices from around the world. “I appreciated the emphasis on listening to and involving people from the Global South, who shared how peace is not only taught as a concept but also suffered, demanded and – for some – becomes a call to action in order to survive,” says Juan Moya.

A compilation of papers from the previous GMP in the Netherlands in 2019 were recently published as A Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace: Global Mennonite Perspectives on Peacebuilding and Nonviolence.
19 June 2023
Bethel Mennonite Church in Balodgahan, India celebrates Peace Sunday 2022. Photo: Ashish Milap

Community Mapping

Creating a social “family” tree

Purpose: to highlight the many and broad social connections that we as communities of faith have.
- In advance: create, out of construction paper, a tree trunk with a few branches. Tape or attach the tree trunk on to a wall.
  
  Create larger branches that can symbolize members of the faith community.
  
  Create smaller branches for communities church members are connected to (e.g., school, another congregation or church structure, other church ministries, workplaces, etc.)
  
  Out of paper, form leaves of many colours
- Invite members to add their name to a branch.
  
  From those branches, each member can then begin to highlight the different social connections that they may have.
- Use leaves to highlight specific people to whom one is connected through the different “branches”. Take the time to validate the things that have or can cause chaos.
Hopefully this result in a beautiful, wide, vibrant and colourful tree that expands across the wall, highlighting the many connections the church community has.

With permission, send your story and photo to photo@mwc-cmm.org to share with the global Anabaptist family.

Lacao Mennonite Bible Church in Lumban, Laguna (IMC – Philippines) celebrates Peace Sunday in 2022 by singing international songs and creating the peace garden (suggested activity from the worship resource) where members write on the fruits and vegetables about “how we can make an impact in the community.” Photo: Regina Mondez
26 May 2023
One city, one decade, two movements, 500 years. Today, representatives of Mennonite World Conference (MWC) have embarked on dialogues with representatives of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), a movement that also arose in Zurich in the 1500s.

Four MWC representatives and three WCRC representatives began dialogues at Camp Squeah, B.C., Canada, for several days in March alongside the Executive Committee meetings.

Efforts, like the trilateral dialogues on baptism with Catholics and Lutherans, and the current dialogue with WCRC, are “a critically important part of Mennonite World Conference’s work,” says MWC’s policy on “reconciling our perspective.”

“Relating to other Christian world communions” is part of MWC’s mission. MWC seeks to encourage greater unity within the global church through participating in dialogues that prioritize healing memories and restoring relationships.

Historically the Reformed movement had “lethal hostility toward Anabaptists over baptism, the nature of the church and the use of the state to further and enforce the Reformation,” says Thomas Yoder Neufeld (MWC Faith and Life Commission chair and member of the dialogue group).

However, there are many ways “in which our paths of commitment have converged,” he says. “Our dialogue becomes not a re-litigating of the past,… but a shared sense of the need to live into the unity Christ has created among often still estranged and even hostile members of the body of Christ.”

The dialogue group will work together on a statement that includes remembering our past together, confession and commitment to living into unity in Christ. The upcoming 500th anniversary in Zurich, Switzerland, forms the immediate focus of these efforts.

“We are grateful to see sharp disagreements of the past make way for mutual learning and encouragement in living out a gospel witness in our complementary traditions today,” says César García, MWC general secretary. “It will be a blessing to mark this 500th anniversary in Zurich amid this reconciling spirit of dialogue with the Reformed church.”

There is a potential for dialogue to continue beyond 2025 with a focus on how the Mennonite commitments to peace and Reformed commitment to justice can find expression in shared work and witness.

MWC dialogue team
- Thomas R Yoder Neufeld, co-chair (Canada)
- John D. Roth, secretary (USA)
- Anne-Cathy Graber (France)
- Rafael Zaracho (Paraguay)
- Tigist Tesfaye (Ethiopia)
WCRC dialogue team
- Gerardo Obermann, co-chair (Argentina)
- Hanns Lessing, secretary (Germany)
- Philip Peacock (India)
- Sandra Beardsall (Canada)
- Meehyun Chung (South Korea)
27 January 2023
“I believe in the unlimited power of prayer,” writes the leader of a Mennonite World Conference member church in Myanmar. He was announced as a special guest for Online Prayer Hour in January 2023. However, he was unable to share about the situation of his church due to a countrywide internet outage. His name is withheld for security reasons.

The church leader asks for prayer for Myanmar.

“People are suffering hunger and even death due to the war. Youth are embittered; they become avid to take up arms.

“Yet, thanks to God’s grace, our church is living out the gospel. The Body of Christ is growing.”

Online Prayer Hour is a bimonthly, one-hour prayer meeting on Zoom open to all Anabaptist-Mennonites to intercede together. After a brief focus on Scripture and prayer points, participants join small groups by language (English, Spanish, French, Hindi, Indonesian). At the end, group leaders share items raised in their rooms.

Click here to find your local time

At January’s meeting, group leaders called for prayer…
- That the church would walk with those who are marginalized and seek justice; for reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in Canada and the USA, and for churches in Mexico who are asked to provide refuge for migrants;
- For de-escalation of political polarization, income inequality, homelessness and food security;
- For de-escalation of political violence in Bolivia, Peru, Brazil and Colombia; for those affected by war, particularly in Ukraine, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia; for churches to act wisely in the spirit of peace in violent times;
- For Indonesia’s general election in 2024;
- For Indian Christians: those attacked by mobs in Chhattisgarh, India, those at Emmanuel Hospital Association in Fatehpur which was vandalized, and for organizations struggling to operate without FCRA documentation;
- For the loved ones and students of Christian leaders killed in a Nepali plane crash;
- For sanitation measures and health care in Malawi where a cholera epidemic is rising;
- For resources to show God’s love; and for the missionary efforts of Kenya Mennonite Church in Somalia;
- For unity amid diversity, especially for those who are a minority.
The prayer hour ends with joyful pandemonium as friends from around the world call out greetings from screen to screen in many languages.
16 December 2022
“You have been with us even though you were far from us. You helped us with your messages and calls,” says Kyendrébéogo Wendyam Natacha.

The young woman who recently completed a YAMEN assignment with MWC presented an update in the November online prayer hour to attendees from three dozen countries.

“My country [Burkina Faso] underwent two coups d’etat in the year 2022,” she said.

At press time, close to 2 million people were reported displaced and hundreds of thousands of students had schooling disrupted.

“Like the other churches in Burkina Faso, the Mennonite church is not forgotten because they have helped other people with many kinds of help and with prayer for the country,” said Kyendrébéogo Wendyam Natacha. “Aways we thank God for his marvellous work and for his protection.”

After her report, attendees divided into groups in English, Spanish, French, Hindi and Indonesian to pray.

Leaders led their groups through the points provided in the Prayer Network email and reported on additional concerns raised in their rooms.

Amos Chin

People prayed….
- about climate change and for year-end fundraising efforts.
- about the stresses of anti-conversion laws in India.
- for the struggles of young people to find employment and form their identities, and for the three Anabaptist-Mennonite synods in Indonesia who are opening up conversations about sexuality.
- for the new government in Brazil and for unity among churches and passion to preach the gospel. They also prayed about corruption and violence in Latin America, especially in Bolivia and Venezuela. They prayed for new churches taking root and for suffering people around the world who remain faithful in witnessing to the gospel of peace. They prayed for Justice and Peace, a Latin American movement advocating for disappeared people and more peaceful political systems.
- with gratitude for 35 young people baptized and seven pastors ordained (including one woman) recently in India. They prayed for a gathering of leaders in Uganda, for the upcoming weekend’s elections in Nepal and about the political situation in Hong Kong. They lifted up people experiencing food insecurity.
“And gratitude for what God is doing,” adds Spanish breakout room leader Pablo Stucky.

“It is such a blessing to be able to come together in prayer across all our languages, miles and everything in between,” says Arli Klassen, regional representatives coordinator. “I hope the participants take the prayer requests home to their churches to continue to remember them and lift up urgent needs from around the world.”

In January, Amos Chin, pastor and church leader of Bible Missionary Church in Myanmar, will share about the difficult situation in his country, followed by prayer in breakout rooms.

“The Mennonite family is a wonderful family of God and I thank God that I met you, to know this family that – crossing barriers – is a united family; a family that prays for each other,” says Kyendrébéogo Wendyam Natacha.

View Natacha’s video (in French with English subtitles) here.

Submit your thanksgiving or intercession about and for the church to prayers@mwc-cmm.org or comment below.

MWC Online Prayer Hour 20 January 2023: please register
19 November 2022

Indonesia 2022: Workshop

Presentation of the work of the MWC Corona Task Force in 2020. What did we do? What were results? What did we learn?

Presenter: Henk Stenvers (Decons Commission Secretary), is a Dutch Mennonite, from 2002 until his retirement in 2020 he was general secretary of the Dutch Mennonite Conference (Algemene Doopsgezinde Sociteit). From 2012 until this Assembly he is Deacons Commission secretary.

Deacons Commission

MWC responds to COVID-19

The Coronavirus task force
03 November 2022
Resource highlight: Shared Convictions

“The Spirit of Jesus empowers us to trust God in all areas of life so we become peacemakers who renounce violence, love our enemies, seek justice, and share our possessions with those in need.”
—Shared Conviction #5

As Christ’s followers who are called to embody his life, death, and resurrection in our daily lives, we must understand why we do what we do and what our calling is to practice what Christ taught and did during his earthly ministry. MWC’s Shared Convictions express some of our values and identity as Anabaptist-Mennonite followers of Christ.

What does this imply for our current situation?

As I pondered this question, my thoughts returned to the recent trips. It was an honour for me to travel to Australia and South Korea to visit partners and friends.

On my visit with the Anabaptist Association in Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ), I was amazed by the story of our brothers and sisters in Sydney who welcomed a family of refugees from Ukraine into their home.

On this trip, I also attended a Public Theology Conference hosted by the Cooperative Hub Brisbane. Many presentations were about decolonizing theology, mission, and practices as Christians who bear the legacy of colonizing Aboriginal people in Australia.

How do we live as Christian in our modern society when we carry such baggage?

They also shared challenges and concerns about the church in a post-Christian era.
- How can Christian values be embodied in all areas of life when people are less interested in religious activity than they were previously?
- How do we be peacemakers who seek justice, especially when dealing with past trauma and colonization of Indigenous peoples?
After Australia, I visited peacebuilders in South Korea: Northeast Asian Regional Peacebuilding Institute (NARPI), Korean Peacebuilding Institute (KOPI), Mennonite Central Committee Northeast Asia, Korean Anabaptist Center (KAC), Mennonite Church in South Korea (MCSK).

With members of the South Korean Mennonite church, Andi Santoso, Deacons Commission chair, and Andrew Suderman, Peace Commission secretary, learned about the DMZ (demilitarized zone) between North and South Korea.

From the top of the mountain in Chuncheon, one can see the valley that became the battlefield during the Korean war in 1950-1953. As I reflected on the history of the conflict between North Korea and South Korea, my heart was deeply sad.
- How can we become peacemakers in this situation?
- How can we follow Christ while bearing the wounds of war, separation from family?
- How do we talk about peace, justice, reconciliation or even forgiving our enemies?
- Who is our enemy?
My encounters with Anabaptist-Mennonite brothers and sisters in South Korea shaped me. They demonstrate what it means to be a Christ follower. These believers transform their own trauma into a Christ-like life. They bear passion, peace, love and a heart to welcome strangers in their home. Alongside delicious Korean food, they share the stories of their difficult past without showing any anger, revenge or hatred. Kamsahamnida!

I am truly grateful to have met true peacemakers who embody Christ’s love and compassion, living out the way of peace. I am encouraged by a family who opens their home for a refugee family refugee; they have shown what Christ love is.

As a Deacons Commission chair, I can see the hope of the global community of Anabaptist-Mennonite continuing to walk together in this way of life – as expressed in our Shared Convictions – here and now!

— Andi Santoso is the chair of the Deacons Commission (2022-2028). An ordained pastor with GKMI (Gereja Kristen Muria Indonesia, an MWC member church), he currently serves with Mennonite Mission Network as regional administrator for Asia and the Middle East.

Like the chambers of a heart, the four commissions of Mennonite World Conference serve the global community of Anabaptist-related churches, in the areas of deacons, faith and life, peace, mission. Commissions prepare materials for consideration by the General Council, give guidance and propose resources to member churches, and facilitate MWC-related networks or fellowships working together on matters of common interest and focus. In the following, one of the commissions shares a message from their ministry focus.
23 October 2022
“Thank you for carrying us in your hearts,” says Siaka Traore, MWC regional representative for Central and West Africa. Mennonite World Conference members are invited to gather together Online Prayer Hour, 18 November 2022.

Natacha W Kyendrebeogo

This event will briefly feature sharing about Burkina Faso from Natacha Wendyam Kyendrebeogo. A member of the Église Évangélique Mennonite du Burkina Faso congregation in Ouagadougou, she recently completed a YAMEN term as French language specialist with the MWC Assembly registration team.

At the end of September, Burkina Faso underwent a second coup in less than a year. Violence from political ideologies has been growing in the region. Anti-colonizer sentiment is on the rise. And the United Nations has raised alarm about food shortages and hunger.

In the midst of this stressful time, the people of MWC member church Église Évangélique Mennonite du Burkina Faso minister and witness to the good news of Jesus Christ.

“Hearing the cries from brothers and sisters in other places puts our own cries into perspective,” says Arli Klassen, regional representatives coordinator and online prayer hour co-organizer.

“We invite praying people to join us at this online meeting – you don’t need to be a church leader to listen, intercede and share the burdens of the global family,” says Tigist Tesfaye, Deacons Commission secretary and online prayer hour co-organizer.

Click here to register for Online Prayer Hour 18 November 2022

Click here to find dates of upcoming online prayer hour events

Upcoming MWC online prayer hour events:
- Friday 18 November 2022 (Standard time)
- Friday 20 January 2023 (Standard time)
- Friday 17 March 2023
- Friday 19 May 2023 (Daylight saving time)
15 October 2022
Resource highlight: Anabaptism and mission: an online bibliography

“The relationship of Anabaptism and mission is a hot topic, and the field continues to expand to include a number of disciplines and sub-disciplines emerging which attempt to integrate a vision that is both missional and faithful to the Anabaptist message – and to wrestling with what precisely that means!”

Our principal preoccupation as a Mission Commission is exploring and implementing ways to strengthen Anabaptist communities in their witness and service to God’s mission.

What are the best ways to do that?
- Through printed and on-line resources?
- In-person gatherings?
- Virtual conversations?
- Storytelling?
- Preaching?
- Bible studies?
- Seminars?
- Testimonies?
We want to hear from the global community which of these is most helpful!

In the meantime, however, we need to remind ourselves that we are not the first to carry out this task. From the earliest days of the “radical reformation” nearly 500 years ago, Anabaptists were impassioned with the desire to share their faith and model what the church should look like in serving others.

Many of these efforts exist only in oral form and currently remain out of reach to the broader faith community. Others have been recorded in written form and are scattered around the world in archives, church libraries, and personal collections.

In 1984, a first attempt was made to compile a published list of some of these written materials by and about Anabaptists in mission. Later editions in 2002 and 2012 updated the list. It now includes several thousand entries in multiple languages of journal articles, books, book reviews, unpublished documents, dissertations and conference papers.

This is an incredibly important resource to God’s Anabaptist-people-in-mission. And it is available to the global community in digitized form on the MWC Mission Commission webpage: mwc-cmm.org/resources/anabaptism-and-mission-online-bibliography-1859-2011.

I refer to this bibliography on a regular basis in my research.

But I am also aware that we need to update it once again to make the list searchable and inclusive of more diverse voices from the MWC family around the world.

We will work on this as a Mission Commission over the next few years. In the meantime, enjoy this valuable resource and stay tuned for updates!

To offer your feedback to the mission commission, please comment below or write to info@mwc-cmm.org.

—James R. Krabill, Mission Commission chair

Like the chambers of a heart, the four commissions of Mennonite World Conference serve the global community of Anabaptist-related churches, in the areas of deacons, faith and life, peace, mission. Commissions prepare materials for consideration by the General Council, give guidance and propose resources to member churches, and facilitate MWC-related networks or fellowships working together on matters of common interest and focus.
29 August 2022

Resource highlight: Statement of solidarity with Indigenous Peoples

We exhort the Church at all levels – ecumenically, denominationally, and globally – to reject erroneous interpretations of the Bible that justify the mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples. We renew our commitment to embody the spirit of Jesus as indicated in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9).

“Indigenous solidarity hits the heart of what we do in the Philippines with Coffee for Peace,” says Joji Pantoja, chair of the Peace Commission (2015-2022). The Peace Commission drafted a Statement of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples that was accepted by the Mennonite World Conference General Council in 2018.

“The statement is there now, but the hard work is to use it: to admit that unless we are Indigenous, we are likely the colonizer; to amplify the voice of people whose voice we didn’t hear at the time; and to accept the truth when it hurts,” Joji Pantoja says.

The statement was formulated after 2015 when MWC leaders visited La Iglesia Evangélica Unida Hermanos Menonitas de Panamá, an MWC member church comprised of Wounaan and Emberra peoples.

“When I was invited to join the delegation in Panama, I said yes. I wanted to see if the plight of Indigenous people [in Panama] would be the same as Indigenous peoples here,” says Joji Pantoja.

Joji Pantoja

“It’s so sad when you hear of a community getting their resources stuck because they are controlled by government. This was visible in Panama. Even some leaders in tribal communities were the ones selling the cocobolo trees to [commercial interests] and allowing to cut more.”

While in Kenya for General Council meetings in 2018, Joji Pantoja was also able to meet with Indigenous peoples. “They don’t have a say or they don’t know what to say. As long as the government allows them to use the land, they keep quiet.

“When I was living in Vancouver, Canada, in 1986, my husband and I saw First Nations [Indigenous] people living outside. How can this be possible that I’m in the developed world while in their backyard there’s this kind of living? That’s when my heart got pinched in terms of marginalized First Nations.

“Observing that in other countries made me thankful how the Philippines are well advanced in educating Indigenous people in the right to self determination as written in the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).”

UNDRIP “isn’t perfect,” she says, “but there are systems.”

Joji Pantoja hopes the MWC statement will help member churches advocate for and stand with Indigenous peoples who are oppressed.

“Where we are part of settler communities, our churches should be asking for forgiveness.”

“This is all related to the doctrine of discovery. Even though we (our ecclesiological ancestors) were not the ones who persecuted Indigenous peoples through the Doctrine of Discovery, we should respect them because they are human beings created by God.

“I hope we come to that level wherein the churches recognize that our ancestors did these things. We are now trying to rectify this. The MWC solidarity document has passed in the General Council but it hasn’t sunk in in the minds of the colonized and the colonizers.”

“With the world issues happening right now, this document is useful for people in our churches to start dialogue so we can really reconcile and correct the page.”

Through dialogue, churches can learn to see from the perspective of Indigenous people. “How can we help them without creating another conflict? How can they voice out what they are feeling, what they could not say before? That takes wisdom too,” says Joji Pantoja.

“Read the document, become aware. See how God talks to you. Then be ready to use it to amplify the voices of marginalized people when they need help… So they have something to fall back on and say, ‘oh, thank God, the Mennonites are behind me!’”

“Realization is a journey. Acceptance is a journey. Once it hits you in the head or the heart… you need to act.”

MWC Deacons and Peace Commission delegates visit Panamanian church leaders in 2015

Like the chambers of a heart, the four commissions of Mennonite World Conference serve the global community of Anabaptist-related churches, in the areas of deacons, faith and life, peace, mission. Commissions prepare materials for consideration by the General Council, give guidance and propose resources to member churches, and facilitate MWC-related networks or fellowships working together on matters of common interest and focus. In the following, one of the commissions shares a message from their ministry focus.