Courier 2025 / 40.4

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Unity is God’s gift

“So that they may be one, as we are one,” Jesus prayed in John 17:22.

This prayer for those who follow Jesus has been acutely relevant since the moment he spoke it.

The Anabaptist movement whose 500th anniversary we mark this year was a “church split” at the time. The many groups within our movement today evidence further splintering.

And so, it is somewhat of a miracle that Mennonite World Conference – a communion of Anabaptist-related churches – has reached its 100th anniversary this year. This miracle has grown broader and more far-reaching than its originators could have imagined when they countered the splitting impulse to gather as family.

“You start with a mustard seed,” said Nancy Heisey, MWC president from 2003–2009. Alongside several other leaders, she reflected on the global communion past, present and future in this issue (see pages 3-6). In response to Jesus’ prayer, the Anabaptist “tree” has grown up over these 100 years.

God is the one who gathers diversities of race, language, culture, ethnicity, gender, wealth, ethics and theology, and calls it to unity, Thomas R Yoder Neufeld said to the General Council in 2018.

Indeed, the diversities within MWC have grown, as shown on our timeline (pages 6-11). We have grown from European and North American church leaders gathering every half decade or so, to leaders from 61 countries from 5 continental regions in ongoing relationship over the years. We have grown from a few pastors and scholars to a network of interconnected preachers, teachers, missionaries, activists, development workers and more.

Although the cultural differences in how we live out our common faith sometimes surprise us, it is theological diversity that most often challenges our unity.

The apostle Paul uses the metaphor of being “chained” to Christ in Ephesians 4. Thomas R Yoder Neufeld suggested that analogy may be useful for our communion of churches: You need chains for what does not easily hold together.”

For 100 years now, up to 110 national member churches of MWC and the thousands of congregations that make up those entities have chosen to identify with this family. This family is not necessarily in a state of harmony, much less uniformity nor agreement on all things. Instead, “Unity is God’s gift, not our achievement,” said Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld.

May we receive this gift for another 100 years – with all its challenges in the spirit of following Jesus: with humility, patience and forgiveness as we suffer with (and, at times, because of!) each other.

Karla Braun is editor of Courier and writer for Mennonite World Conference. She lives in Winnipeg, Canada.