Prayers of gratitude and intercession

Report on Bearing Fruit, the Lutheran World Federation Task Force to follow up the “Mennonite Action” at the LWF Eleventh Assembly in 2010.

Bogotá, Colombia – The reconciliation process between the Lutheran World Federation and Mennonite World Conference has created fertile ground for collaboration. A report summarizing the LWF-MWC action of reconciling with Mennonites over the condemnations in the Augsburg Confession aims to help LWF churches, pastors, seminaries and congregations to “implement the LWF commitment to teach differently about Anabaptists, especially to how they are described in the Augsburg Confession.”

“The seeds of reconciliation sown more than 30 years ago, which flowered at the service of reconciliation in Stuttgart in 2010, are now truly bearing fruit,” says John D. Roth, MWC representative on the LWF Task Force and contributor to the document. “Mennonite and Lutheran pastors and church leaders will find lots of ideas for how they might engage each other at the local level.”

The process is rooted in the dialogues started to celebrate the Augsburg’s Confession’s 450th anniversary. Recognizing that “ongoing theological differences could not be constructively examined until the wounds of the past were directly confronted,” LWF began a formal reconciliation process in 2003. The principal work of the study commission was to “write a common history of the painful relations during the sixteenth century.” This process was “itself an ecumenical act and thus already a contribution to reconciliation.”

Both communions recognized “the need for communities as well as individuals to recognize when they are in need of genuine repentance and forgiveness.”

“The work of this Task Force has been to respond to the commitments [on teaching Lutheran confessions, exploring unresolved issues, deepening relationship through common prayer and study and work for peace]….in the conviction that this work of the Spirit has not finished with our churches,” the report says.

One “fruit” of this work is the dialogues on baptism; invited to participate by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity), MWC suggested LWF join as well.

Bearing Fruit explores another point of on-going difference – civil authority and Christian participation in war – through an honest, respectful dialogue between Mennonite and Lutheran representatives.

“Hard, even painful, work of re-evaluating the past has opened the way for new relationships,” the report declares. “Trees of hope have been planted. Now is the time to take care that the fruits continue to be nurtured and harvested.”

Five hundred years ago, Anabaptists and Lutherans dealt differently with pressure from governing political powers and condemnations rose against each other, says Alfred Neufeld, Faith and Life Commission chair. “But that all is history. Today, the global church of Christ (Mennonites as well as Lutherans) realizes that the church is called to speak truth to the powers. That new global and transnational awareness frees us to stick closer together.”

Addressing the process at an LWF event in Indiana, USA, MWC president Nelson Kraybill said: “Now it falls on us – pastors like you and me, leaders in all levels of our churches and regional bodies – to resolve that we will love and respect each other and find ways to collaborate for peacemaking and proclamation of the gospel.”

Click here to see the entire Bearing Fruit report by LWF

—Mennonite World Conference release

Like the chambers of a heart, the four MWC commissions 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.

When a red blood cell first met a nerve cell, it exclaimed, “Ah, an alien!” “No,” replied the nerve cell, “I am your brother.”

Participating in the Menno Simons 500th anniversary seminar in the Netherlands in the spring of 1997 was my first time partaking in an international Mennonite gathering. My emotional reaction was to an extent the same as that of the red blood cell: Are these people all Mennonites? Why does their way of thinking differ so much from mine? At the Pennsylvania 2015 MWC Assembly, I experienced this sense even more powerfully!

Whether it be 2000-year-old Christianity or the 500-year-old Anabaptist church, we were born from the same theological tradition. Due to the passing of time and differences in cultural backgrounds and social environments, we grew to take on different faces. In the face of the numerous delicate issues of today, we also have different views and stances.

This makes me think of Paul’s metaphor of the body: we really are like a body with parts that have different shapes and functions. The church must be divergent and diverse – this is the DNA placed into the church when God first created her.

The church must accept differences, because this is the church’s vital lifeline. Through my brothers and sisters from Africa, Europe, Asia, and South America, my horizons and perspectives are broadened. I see a different picture of faith. Yet these cultural “others” come from the same theological DNA; these spiritual blood relations have become an indispensable part of the “me” or “us” of faith. The sisters and brothers from the global family comprise our co-humanity in Christ.

At the same time, however, this differentiation at the “cellular” level is for a greater unity at a higher level: there is only one body. We as members were integrated into the divine body. What we share in common is that we all commit ourselves to Jesus Christ, to radically following him. We also have the Shared Convictions in common. Therefore, we are made one in our diversity, while remaining diverse in unity.

The church is full of light and order at times, and disarray at other times. Nevertheless, from this mosaic of the church emerges a face of the transcendent one: Jesus Christ. He reveals himself through the church’s overall life. The church is the holy image of Christ; its mission is to faithfully demonstrate Christ, so that the world can see the face of the one who transcends.

The image of the face depends on how we connect together. Each of us – as a cell of the ear, eye or nose – will bring beauty to the face if we connect properly. Therefore, we must make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit. The Lord’s Supper is an excellent reminder of this. Each time we remember the cross of Jesus together, we “re-member” the body of Christ. May God’s will be done.

—Paulus Chiou-Lang Pan, Mennonite World Conference Faith and Life Commission member

 From this mosaic of the body of Christ emerges a face of the transcendent One: Jesus. Photo by Faith Lin courtesy of Paulus Chiou-Lang Pan.

 Click on the photo to see the high resolution version.

Like the chambers of a heart, the four MWC commissions 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.

When a red blood cell first met a nerve cell, it exclaimed, “Ah, an alien!” “No,” replied the nerve cell, “I am your brother.”

Participating in the Menno Simons 500th anniversary seminar in the Netherlands in the spring of 1997 was my first time partaking in an international Mennonite gathering. My emotional reaction was to an extent the same as that of the red blood cell: Are these people all Mennonites? Why does their way of thinking differ so much from mine? At the Pennsylvania 2015 MWC Assembly, I experienced this sense even more powerfully!

Whether it be 2000-year-old Christianity or the 500-year-old Anabaptist church, we were born from the same theological tradition. Due to the passing of time and differences in cultural backgrounds and social environments, we grew to take on different faces. In the face of the numerous delicate issues of today, we also have different views and stances.

This makes me think of Paul’s metaphor of the body: we really are like a body with parts that have different shapes and functions. The church must be divergent and diverse – this is the DNA placed into the church when God first created her.

The church must accept differences, because this is the church’s vital lifeline. Through my brothers and sisters from Africa, Europe, Asia, and South America, my horizons and perspectives are broadened. I see a different picture of faith. Yet these cultural “others” come from the same theological DNA; these spiritual blood relations have become an indispensable part of the “me” or “us” of faith. The sisters and brothers from the global family comprise our co-humanity in Christ.

At the same time, however, this differentiation at the “cellular” level is for a greater unity at a higher level: there is only one body. We as members were integrated into the divine body. What we share in common is that we all commit ourselves to Jesus Christ, to radically following him. We also have the Shared Convictions in common. Therefore, we are made one in our diversity, while remaining diverse in unity.

The church is full of light and order at times, and disarray at other times. Nevertheless, from this mosaic of the church emerges a face of the transcendent one: Jesus Christ. He reveals himself through the church’s overall life. The church is the holy image of Christ; its mission is to faithfully demonstrate Christ, so that the world can see the face of the one who transcends.

The image of the face depends on how we connect together. Each of us – as a cell of the ear, eye or nose – will bring beauty to the face if we connect properly. Therefore, we must make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit. The Lord’s Supper is an excellent reminder of this. Each time we remember the cross of Jesus together, we “re-member” the body of Christ. May God’s will be done.

—Paulus Chiou-Lang Pan, Mennonite World Conference Faith and Life Commission member

 From this mosaic of the body of Christ emerges a face of the transcendent One: Jesus. Photo by Faith Lin courtesy of Paulus Chiou-Lang Pan.

 Click on the photo to see the high resolution version.

In 2012, MWC partnered with the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism (ISGA) at Goshen College (Goshen, Indiana, USA) to launch a multi-year, multi-part research initiative. The goal? To develop a more nuanced picture of the MWC constituency specifically, and the global Anabaptist church generally.

The project has two components. The first, the Global Anabaptist Profile (GAP), is a survey structured around MWC’s “Shared Convictions” that aims to collect demographic data as well as information on beliefs and practices. The second component, the Bearing Witness Stories (BWS) Project, will seek to gather personal stories of discipleship and suffering, in the spirit of the Martyrs Mirror.

Recently, Courier/Correo/Courrier connected with project personnel to discuss the initiative, its impetus and its progress thus far.

What was the impetus for this research initiative on global Anabaptism?

John D. Roth (JR): The global Anabaptist church has been undergoing a dramatic transformation in the past 30 years or so, growing from approximately 600,000 members in 1980 to nearly 1.7 million today. Although MWC has worked hard to facilitate exchanges among its member groups, we are still very much in a process of learning to know each other better. The project is one step in helping to clarify a better sense of the basic demographical information, while also gathering much more detailed information about the beliefs and practices, hopes and dreams of MWC member churches.

Have there been other such efforts to study the beliefs and practices of the international Anabaptist-Mennonite community?

Conrad Kanagy (CK): Not many. Several years ago, Richard Showalter – then-president of Eastern Mennonite Missions and chair of the MWC Missions Commission – and I inaugurated the Multi- Nation Anabaptist (MNA) Profile. Ours was an effort to learn more about the beliefs and practices of the international Anabaptist community, and specifically those national churches connected to EMM. The results of that study were recently published in the book Winds of the Spirit (Herald Press, 2012).

Alfred Neufeld (AN): Winds of the Spirit is excellent proof of how a profile study can stimulate theological work and contribute to renewal of identity. We expect that the GAP will similarly help our Commission in its efforts.

CK: The GAP will be broader in scope than the MNA, and we hope it will yield even greater insights.

How do you plan to gather stories for the “Bearing Witness” project?

JR: One aspect of the project will focus on pulling together stories in a more intentional fashion from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries (i.e., from the completion of the Martyrs Mirror in 1685 to the present). But we also want to gather stories from the contemporary church, and especially from Anabaptist-Mennonite churches in the Global South.

In August 2012, some 40 people from nine countries (and representing at least six different Anabaptist groups) met at Goshen College to develop a framework for the BWS. The consultation made it clear that gathering stories is never a simple process. We hope that a combination of active personal solicitation, the Internet, public appeals and the use of existing networks (like MWC) will slowly generate interest.

What progress has been made thus far on the project?

JR: Following nearly a year of conversations with MWC leadership, mission agency executives, representatives from Mennonite Central Committee and a host of interested individuals, the ISGA received preliminary approval for the project by the MWC Executive Committee at its May 2011 meeting, with final approval confirmed at the meeting of the General Council in May 2012.

In August 2012, a sub-group of the MWC Faith and Life Commission met to review the logistics of the GAP. Also in August, Conrad organized a consultation with several other Mennonite sociologists, each with extensive experience in crosscultural surveys, for counsel regarding methodological questions. In late October we finalized our sample, and in November the MWC office in Bogotá sent out official letters to a representative sample of 25 member-churches, inviting them to participate. Right now we are responding to questions and confirming which groups wish to take part in the project. We hope to complete the survey in 2013-2014.

It’s common these days to find North American researchers going to the Global South to conduct these kinds of studies. I’m sure that you’re sensitive to this perception with the current project. What steps have you taken to address this perception?

JR: Yes, some might have the perception that this is a purely North American academic project that is “extracting” information from the global church. That is a false impression, though I do understand the concern. Clearly, the ISGA – which is located in the USA – is a catalyst for the project, and all of the funding comes from North America. But we see this as a project owned jointly by all the member-churches in the MWC family. The survey itself is based on the MWC Shared Convictions that resulted from a long process of discernment that included input from groups around the world. Each participating group will have a chance to add to the GAP questions that are specific to its setting. And the results of each participating group’s survey will be made available in an accessible form to the leadership of each church.

Gathering information is not an end in itself; the information is clearly intended to help the church – both locally and in its global/MWC expression – to be more faithful followers of Jesus.

How do you think the data gathered in this project will help MWC in its work of linking the global Anabaptist community?

AN: In the 16th century there was a “multigenesis” of Anabaptist beginnings: the Dutch-North German group, led by Menno Simons, was quite different in culture, history, spirituality and political setting to the Swiss-South German group that began 1525 in Zurich. And both groups had considerable differences from the movement led by Hans Hut and Thomas Müntzer, and from the later “Heavenly Kingdom” at the city of Münster.

Today, young Anabaptist churches – those within an Islamic context in Indonesia or Nigeria, within a Spanish Conquistarooted Catholic context in Latin America, or within the “underground church” movement in China – have quite different spiritual lives and day-to-day struggles than our Mennonite church members in Holland or Switzerland, in the USA or Canada. But we need each other and we need to understand each other.

CK: In the Book of Revelation, Jesus Christ has a message or word for the seven churches of Asia. I like to imagine that the work of MWC in this project will be one more way of hearing – partially, of course – Christ’s word to us in these early years of the 21st century.

Fourth meeting of the Catholic, Lutheran and Mennonite Trilateral Dialogue Commission on baptism 

Bogotá, Colombia – Representatives of the Catholic Church (Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity), The Lutheran World Federation, and Mennonite World Conference met in Bogotá, Colombia, 29 February–4 March 2016, for the fourth meeting of the International Trilateral Dialogue Commission.

The Commission developed the general topic of the dialogue “Baptism and Incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church” through papers on “Living out our Baptism,” the theme of the fourth meeting.

Marie-Hélène Robert (Catholic), Alfred Neufeld (Mennonite) and Raj Patta (Lutheran), made major presentations reflecting on discipleship, participation in Christ and public witness. In anticipation of the conclusion of the trilateral dialogue, members reviewed the work of the previous years and further developed the document prepared by the drafting group. Each day began and ended in common prayer with morning prayers including joint reflections on biblical texts relating to baptism.

The meeting, hosted jointly by the Lutheran, Mennonite and Catholic churches in Colombia took place at the premises of the Catholic Bishops Conference (CEC) of Colombia where the members of the commission enjoyed the warm hospitability of the staff of the CEC. One evening commission members met with Alberto Franco CSsR, representative of the Interchurch Dialogue for Peace – DiPaz and heard about the ways the local churches participate in and promote the peace and reconciliation process in Colombia. The participants visited also the Cathedral of Bogotá and the Basílica del Señor de Monserrate.

The fifth and final meeting of the Trilateral Commission is scheduled to take place 8–14 February 2017 in Germany where the commission is expected to finalize its report for submission to The Lutheran World Federation, Mennonite World Conference and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

—Mennonite World Conference release courtesy of Lutheran World Federation

Reflections from Mennonite participants in dialogue:

Meeting in the Colombian context of wide scale violence and focusing on this meeting’s topic “Living out our Baptism,” I had expected this gathering to become “a moment of glory” for our Mennonite interpretations of adult baptism. Yet, I was humbled by the rich insight of the Lutheran presentation by a Dalit theologian from India on Dietrich Bonhoeffer´s witness on costly discipleship. And I was surprised by the accentuation of the call to evangelism as a fruit of our baptism by a Roman Catholic sister from France. In most societal contexts we find ourselves in today (so different from the European setting of the 16th century, where our traditions went different ways), it seems so appropriate to acknowledge each other’s baptism as authentic commitments to witness to the peace of Christ, together.

—Fernando Enns, chair, (Peace-) Theology and Ethics, Faculty of Theology, Free University, Amsterdam

From “Baptism and Discipleship: Holding together ‘sola fide’ and ‘imitatio Christi,’” a presentation on Mennonite understanding of baptism:

It seems clear that for the three traditions that in Christian initiation the primary actor is God, his grace and his justification….

Christian life must have a beginning, it must be positively affirmed and embraced by each one living in a discipleship relation to Jesus and his body, the church. And it needs continued nurture, instruction, forgiveness and encouragement. From the self-understanding of the Mennonite tradition, this best can be achieved and comes closest to Scripture evidence through conscious believer’s baptism and discipleship within the committed community of the church.

—Alfred Neufeld, chair, MWC Faith and Life Commission

Participants

Roman Catholic

• Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga, IMC (co-chair, Colombia);
• Revd. Prof. William Henn, OFM Cap (USA/Italy);
• Revd. Prof. Luis Melo, SM (Canada);
• Sister Prof. Dr. Marie-Hélène Robert, NDA (France);
• Revd. Avelino Gonzalez (co-secretary, USA/Vatican).

Lutheran

• Prof. Dr. Friederike Nüssel (co-chair, Germany);
• Bishop Emeritus Dr. Musawenkosi Biyela (South Africa);
• Prof. Dr. Theodor Dieter (France);
• Revd. Raj Bharath Patta (India/UK);
• Revd. Dr. Kaisamari Hintikka (co-secretary, Finland/Switzerland).

Mennonite

• Prof. Dr. Alfred Neufeld (co-chair, Paraguay);
• Prof. Dr. Fernando Enns (Germany);
• Prof. Dr. John Rempel (Canada);
• Revd. Dr. Larry Miller (co-secretary, France).

Regrets

• Revd. Prof. Peter Li (Lutheran)
• Revd. Rebecca Osiro (Mennonite).