• English

Prayers of gratitude and intercession

  • Transmission is the title given to a series of 5 films of 10 minutes which present Anabaptist thought to people around the world to encourage a life of faith created by Affox AG, a multimedia production company. We would like to do this by providing a glimpse at the journeys we experience as disciples of Jesus in different parts of the world. It is our hope however, to strengthen our sense of shared identity and community in the midst of all the diversity present throughout the Anabaptist body. Young people represent one of the important target audiences.

    Find also a study guide for sharing questions about the film in small group or youth groups.

    Transmission 2023 Migration

    Transmission 2023 – English

    “How worldwide migration an displaced persons are being supported by loving and caring people.” This global phenomenon is the subject of 2023’s Transmission video.

    In this video, young Mennonites in Greece, Lebanon, Colombia, USA and DR Congo share about their work of welcoming displaced persons.

    Transmission 2023 Migrations Study Guide ENDownload

    Transmission 2022 Latin America

    Transmission 2022 – English

    The third production in the Transmission series focusing on creation care is ready for viewing. Ophelia, a Swiss woman, after living and working in Costa Rica, wondered what she could learn from her contemporaries in Latin America on the subject. The production includes stories from Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Honduras. This production ends with challenge triggered by an enterprise in the Netherlands as a way of inspiring all viewers, young and old to think and act boldly and with vision when it comes to creation care. 

    transmission_creation_care_2022_study_guide-enDownload

    Transmission 2021 Indonesia

    Transmission 2021 – English

    In Transmission, Hani and Adi share amazing faith journeys while they relate as Mennonites (a small minority) and Muslims (a large majority) in Indonesia. Hani reflects on how she sees the face of God in the people (both Muslim and Christian) she encounters in the remote village of Tempur, high in the mountains of Jepara. Adi introduces us to the power of interfaith dialogue and the resulting transformation of Solo from a city of violence to a city of peace. 

    From Indonesia we jump to the Netherlands where the relationship between Anabaptists and Muslims is impacted by a Muslim minority.  

    Canadians, Europeans, and Indonesians worked together to bring this unique production to life. 

    transmission2021_indonesia_study_guideDownload

    Transmission Ethiopia 2020

    Transmission 2020 – English

    Transmission Ethiopia 2020 introduces its audiences to the Meserete Kristos Church through their experience with persecution (and freedom of religion), spiritual maturity, the place of youth in the church, the importance of music and prayer life. In this case, SalomŽ, a French young adult reflects (after her return to France from her visit to Ethiopia), on what she learned from her peers and elders in the church. 

    We hope to gain a young generation of people who will be involved in making the next in the series and the final 90-minute documentary which we hope to expand to a secular audience in 2025. For the moment, we are targeting the Christian world.

    Video in English, Spanish, French, German, Amharic subtitles

    –release by Affox AG

    Transmission2020-Ethiopia study guideDownload
    Transmission 2020 – Amharic

  • Indonesia 2022: workshop

    Humanity is facing cataclysmic impacts of the climate crisis and enormous effects of the loss of natural ecosystems and biodiversity. What is our calling as partners in the care of God’s good creation? The missional role of the Church in actively restoring a harmonious and future-looking interaction with our environment is absolutely essential. This workshop will highlight the courageous voices of Anabaptist Mennonite communities impacted by environmental challenges and explore possibilities for bold leadership towards a vision rooted in justice and sustainability. The workshop will provide a space for listening and dialoguing together on this crucial peace and justice issue.

    Presenters: Wendy Kroeker (from Fort Garry Mennonite Fellowship, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; GAPN chair), Andres Pacheco-Lozano (from Teusaquillo Mennonite Church, Bogota, Colombia; GAPN acting coordinator).
    This workshop is sponsored by the Global Anabaptist Peace Network (GAPN) and the Mennonite World Conference Peace Commission (PC).

    Creation Care Task Force

    Responding to Climate Crisis as a Missional Responsibility

  • Indonesia 2022: workshop

    Across many continents, Community Peacemaker Teams has supported accompaniment work in communities that suffer from environmentally and socially disruptive extractive industries. This workshop explores stories of individuals who have worked with CPT to oppose logging, extraction, fossil fuels, and land theft. We will draw lessons for Anabaptist peace and environmental work.

    Presenter: David Lapp-Jost from the Mennonite Church of Heidelberg-Bammental will introduce CPT presenters from multiple continents.

    Creation Care Task Force

    Land and water protection: peace work and the environment

  • Indonesia 2022: workshop

    Creation Care and MWC: Responding as a Global Church

    “El cuidado de la creación y el CMM: Respondiendo como iglesia mundial”

    « La protection de la création et la CMM : une réponse de l’église mondiale »

    How should Mennonite World Conference respond to climate and other environmental crises which are impacting communities globally? This workshop presents learnings and stories that come from the recent creation care survey. Creation Care Task Force members will lead a conversation on how MWC should respond to these creation care crises.

    ¿Cómo debe responder el Congreso Mundial Menonita al clima y a otras crisis ambientales que están afectando a las comunidades a nivel mundial? Este taller presenta aprendizajes e historias que surgen de la encuesta reciente sobre el cuidado de la creación. Los miembros del Grupo de Trabajo de Cuidado de la Creación conducirán una conversación sobre cómo el CMM debería responder a estas crisis del cuidado de la creación.

    Comment la Conférence Mennonite Mondiale doit-elle répondre aux crises climatiques et environnementales qui ont un impact sur les communautés du monde entier ? Cet atelier présente les apprentissages et les histoires qui proviennent de notre enquête récente sur la protection de la création. Les membres du Groupe de travail pour la protection de la création animeront une conversation sur la manière dont la CMM devrait répondre aux crises environnementales.

    Doug Graber Neufeld is chair of the Creation Care Task Force for MWC. He is professor of biology at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA, and directs the Center for Sustainable Climate Solutions.

    Creation Care Task Force

    Creation Care and MWC Responding as a Global Church

  • Creation Care Task Force

    Rationale:

    MWC is a global communion of Anabaptist churches that are together facing the climate crisis. Central to our ethos is to respond faithfully to the challenges of our world. What does it mean to follow Jesus into this crisis?

    Member churches Ð along with all humanity Ð are all at the receiving end of the climate crisis. Some, especially in the Global North, are disproportionately at the production end of the crisis. This means that we have within our communion a diversity of experience and a diversity of responsibility.

    MWC provides an opportunity to respond faithfully to the crisis within in diverse ways within one communion, which is itself profoundly fitting in relation to this crisis.

    This task force will formulate a plan for the MWC response.

    1. Mandate:

    a) Explore the diverse ways in which countries of MWC member churches are being impacted by the climate crisis.

    b) Explore and assess practical ways to encourage ecologically faithful living in member churches of MWC.

    c) Assess and encourage the development of biblical and theological capacity relevant to the climate crisis (for example, theology of creation, creation and Christology, discipleship in relation to creation).

    d) Formulate a strategic plan for MWC that includes immediate, mid-range, and longer-term commitments.

    e) Develop specific, practical actions and projects in the short term, even as a long-term strategic plan emerges, in order to communicate urgency and practicality.

    2. Composition

    a) Every effort be made to draw in younger persons who are passionate about climate and are theologically articulate

    b) Every effort be made to have representation from around the globe, so that variety of experiences become part of the discussion from the outset

    c) Task Force to consist of up to 7 members (possibly more, if deemed practical), representing each of the continents, with an appointee by MCC.

    3. Reporting structure

    A coordinator/chair be appointed who would report actively on the work of the taskforce to the commissions (via the commission coordinator), and report to EC.

    4. Modus operandi and funding

    a) Every effort be made to “go green” in how the taskforce does its work (e.g., Zoom/Skype/Facebook/other platforms for interaction; use of websites to share and disseminate information as much as possible)

    b) Identifying (potentially new) funding sources committed to climate concern that have not hitherto been tapped.

     

    Date approved:         9 April 2020

    Approved by:            Executive Committee

    mwc_creation_care_task_force_2020Download

  • Indonesia 2022: Workshop

    Humanity’s impact on the environment demonstrates the need for a change of direction. Yet so often steps toward “creation care” seem overwhelmingly large or too small to make a difference. This workshop will examine ways followers of Jesus as individuals and organizations can live into a more sustainable future.

    Presenter: Tim Wiebe-Neufeld is Executive Minister of Mennonite Church Alberta and chairs Mennonite Church Canada’s Sustainability Leadership Group. His interest in “creation care” spans decades, from exploring environmental theology in his Master of Theological Studies thesis in the early 1990s to completing a Master of Environment and Business degree in 2020.

    Notes:

    • The first minutes of the workshop are not recorded. Here is the missing script:

    “To begin my workshop I would like to share a little bit of my own journey with Creation Care. I have two distinct childhood experiences that deeply impacted my sense of the natural world around me: and those were mountains and steel mills. I always loved trips to the west coast of Canada, where the mountains were so beautiful and awe-inspiring. It was quite the contrast from where I grew up, near the industrial sector of Hamilton. There the landscape was dominated by smokestacks.”

    CSCS is now ACC!
    • To contact the presenter, email CreationCare [at] mwc-cmm.org with the subject line “Creation care that makes a difference” Attn Tim Wiebe-Neufeld  
  • Creation Care Task Force -Anabaptist Climate Collaborative.

    This webinar is jointly organized by the Creation Care Task Force and Anabaptist Climate Collaborative.

    In these webinars, MWC’s Creation Care Task Force members from each region host one hour of storytelling and Q&A. Church members from around the world will share how they are affected by climate change – and responding with resilient action and gospel hope.  

    Africa focus

    Sibonokuhle Ncube

    Building resilience in church members

    Asia focus

    Nindyo Sasongko
    Eco-theology reconciles nature with the church

    Europe focus

    David Nussbaumer
    One new step each year

    Latin America focus

    Juliana Morillo
    • 16 January 2024
    • with Juliana Morillo
    • Presenters: José Antonio Vaca Bello, Julián Guamán, Yomaida Cardona Pájaro, Pablo Stucky
    The Rule of Ayni
    Less rain, less shade, more people

    North America Focus

    Anna Vogt
    Anna Vogt.of Ottawa, Ontario.MCC Canada.Director Ottawa Office .PERSON(S) MAY OR MAY NOT BE CURRENTLY EMPLOYED BY MCC
    Jennifer Schrock
    • February 2024
    • with Anna Vogt and Jennifer Halteman Schrock
    • Presenters: Sue
    Striving for integrity

  • Inspiration and reflection

    Perspectives

    Country profile

    Resources

    General Secretary

    Word from the editor

    In crisis, a community of hope

    More with Less is the title of a Mennonite-famous cookbook. Home economist and former MCC service worker Doris Longacre Janzen crafted this countercultural cookbook in the 1970s. It exemplifies Mennonite ideals of simplicity and takes inspiration from ways of being in parts of the world where time and treasure are valued differently.  

    “More with less” may seem like a promise destined to be broken. It may seem like a burden: asking for greater effort with reduced output. 

    Yet is not “more with less” what Jesus urges toward as he calls us to consider the lilies of the field (Luke 12:27)? 

    When Jesus urges us to love God above all and our neighbours as ourselves (Luke 10:26-28), is that not a call to find more community with less things? And might our neighbours include all living things? 

    After years of warnings, people in all parts of the world are beginning to see the fruition of climate change. We move from one record breaking season to another.  

    United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres says: “our world needs action in all fronts – everything, everywhere, all at once.”

    This issue of Courier shares some stories of how our “more with less” communities are acting. 

    We read about a congregation in Colombia calling members to examine their daily habits and choose ways of less waste. We see their efforts to motivate a community.  

    We read how creativity and beauty can be a motivator for young people in France to choose a simple life of following Jesus.  

    We read of communities affected by weather events in Indonesia and Zimbabwe – where people pull together to support each other. 

    We read how creation care, dignity and hope can be intertwined in Africa for flourishing communities where the gospel is shared in words and actions. 

    In Jesus, we have a model for “more with less.” We also have a framework for both individual and community action. God calls each of us to repentance and change of life – and equips us with the Holy Spirit and with a community of faith to journey together.  

    As we turn away from consuming, the church community can offer accountability in our choices. Together we can seek to find joy in actions that protect God’s creation – human, vegetable, animal and mineral – both near to us and around the world.  

    In our faith, we can find also the language of confession and repentance for this challenge to personal change and systemic revolution. As our faith communities, we can raise a collective voice to transform the systems of greed and consumption that make the better choices so hard. 

    The climate crisis is for many a cause for despair. Living more with less, Jesus Christ shows us a path to walk together with hope and Spirit. 

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

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    Stories include:

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