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Prayers of gratitude and intercession

  • Introduction to the Updated, Online Edition (2011)

    The following online electronic resource represents my efforts over the last few years, as a student at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), with the sponsorship and partnership of the AMBS Mission Studies Center, directed by Walter W. Sawatsky, to update the first print edition of this work: Anabaptism and Mission: A Bibliography, 1859-2000 (Elkhart, IN: Mennonite Mission Network, 2002), compiled and edited through the tremendous and tireless efforts of Chad M. Bauman and James R. Krabill.

    Throughout the ongoing project thus far, the researching and compiling of sources was a humbling task, as the body of bibliographic materials on this subject never remains static. Not only has the project entailed updating entries of authors and sources listed in the first edition, as well new authors and scholars that have come on the scene in the first decade of the 21st century, but several more sources even from the 20th century were found and added, as the development of electronic communication and information technology has made a great deal more information and data available, even since the time of the first publication. Furthermore, the author has continued the trend of conceiving of Anabaptist as inherently broader than the mainline Mennonite denominations.

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  • A teaching resource from the Faith & Life commission

    What does it mean for member churches of Mennonite World Conference to share an Anabaptist identity? What is the value of Anabaptist “tradition” – and what does that word mean in a global context? What are our Anabaptist understandings of mission and fellowship?

    In 2009, the newly appointed Faith and Life Commission was asked to produce three papers that could be used in helping MWC communities reflect on such questions:

    • “A Holistic Understanding of Fellowship, Worship, Service, and Witness from an Anabaptist Perspective” by Alfred Neufeld Friesen of Paraguay;
    • “The ‘Anabaptist Tradition’ – Reclaiming its Gifts, Heeding its Weaknesses” by Hanspeter Jecker of Switzerland; and
    • “Koinonia – The Gift We Hold Together” by Tom Yoder Neufeld of Canada.

    All three papers were approved as a teaching resource by the MWC General Council in May 2012.

    Some weeks ago, I received a request from Bert Lobe to consider describing and reflecting on how the sixteenth century Anabaptists understood diaconal service, and how that understanding and practice developed historically. The idea was that this kind of study might provide a basis for discussion and discernment for the MWC Deacons Commission…

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    Deacons Commission

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  • Mennonite World Conference

    Declaration of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples

    In the Christian Scriptures, we encounter God who hears the cries of the dispossessed and suffering, feels deep concern for their welfare, and moves to save. In the Gospels, Jesus Christ, the living example for the church, embodies God’s preferred presence with the neighbor who is excluded, oppressed, ignored, rejected or treated as alien. Jesus associated with people on the margins, listened to and respected their experiences, and collaboratively sought justice.

    Mennonite World Conference desires to follow Jesus’ example to respond to the cries of Indigenous Peoples worldwide. This response is not concerned only with caring for people suffering within unjust structures. It also includes efforts to disarm (Colossians2:15) the structures of oppression themselves, in order that all of God’s People and Creation might experience the Psalmist’s hope that truth and mercy will meet, and justice and peace will kiss each other (Psalm 85:10).

    Date Approved: April 2018

    Approved By: MWC General Council

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  • Young Anabaptists (YABs) Network Terms of Reference

    PURPOSE

    On the foundation of our Anabaptist identity, through global and local networking, we as young people want to walk together, empower and support each other in fellowship, decision-making, and peace-making initiatives.

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  • Report of the International Dialogue between the Catholic Church and Mennonite World Conference 1998 – 2003

    Called Together to be PeacemakersDownload