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Job 42:1-6 in Spanish John 10:14-16 in Portuguese John 10:14-16 in German Ephesians 4:1-6 in Spanish -
Theme
MOSAIC: Becoming a part of God’s bigger picture
Why this theme was chosen
Mennonite World Conference has many members, each one different from the others, and yet together the members create a beautiful picture of the body of Christ.
Biblical texts
- Old Testament: Job 42:1-6
- Psalm: Psalm 8
- Gospel: John 10:14-16
- New Testament: Ephesians 4:1-16
In this package
- Ideas for gathering and benediction
- Sermon content from biblical texts
- Testimonies from Latin America
- Anabaptist historical context
- Children’s activity
- Tithes and offering ideas from Latin America
- Cultural suggestions from Latin America
- Artwork
Additional resources
Multimedia resources online
- Video greetings from Latin American congregations
- Scripture texts read in MWC’s official languages
- Song videos
- Photos
- Celebration map
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Inspiration and reflection
Perspectives
- Living every day is a miracle
- “We are peace-loving Mennonites”
- Hope takes action in despair
- Hope was never lost
- “If we do not give up…”
- Deep faith fills Bowls of Hope
Country Profile
Resources
General Secretary
Word from the editor
Partake in this global communion
What a joy to be together!
This issue of Courier features Renewal 2023.
Three years after it was first planned, this special event took place in British Columbia.
Renewal is a series of events to remember the birth of the Anabaptist movement in 1525 and to look forward to who and what the Anabaptist-Mennonite church is becoming around the world today and for the future.
Mennonite World Conference initiated this series of events in 2017, the year Lutherans were commemorating their church’s 500-year anniversary. Each year, alongside the Executive Committee, MWC and local member church hosts organize a local event where MWC’s international guests from each continental region share inspiring stores of God at work through the church today.
“We sang together, we prayed together and we heard testimonies from sisters and brothers from different places and different contexts on how they experience Jesus Christ, our hope. Testimonies that made us realize that even when we are one, our circumstances are very diverse. And that is the beauty of Mennonite World Conference; although our context is very different, we are one in Christ. We are one in our hope that it is Christ that reaches out to us and says, ‘follow me’! He reaches out: it is on us to grab that hand and live in hope.”
Those were president Henk Stenvers’ words to the Anabaptist-Mennonites who gathered in Abbotsford, B.C., Canada in March 2023. He had just returned from visiting Mennonite and Mennonite Brethren churches in Peru and Colombia and he brought greetings from those brothers and sisters to the ones in Canada.
“Mennonite World Conference is the living witness of that hope, bringing people together in one communion, over borders of nationality, colour, language, economic circumstances and culture. Just like God wants to bring people together, Mennonite World Conference wants to break walls down so that we can be a communion that is a gift from God.
“It is important for churches to know that we are part of a bigger communion: that sisters and brothers around the world know about them; share our triumphs and challenges; and pray for each other. My experience in visiting churches in many parts of the world has taught me that being part of a big, global communion gives hope, especially for churches that are isolated, or that experience conflict and persecution. The felt solidarity, the prayers, the visits, sometimes financial help, that all lifts up the hearts of the people in the churches.
“Mennonite World Conference is us all,” Henk Stenvers says. “And I want to encourage you to be part of the daily life of MWC. To stay informed about what is happening with our sisters and brothers in other parts of the world.”
As you read the stories in this Courier, you are taking part in MWC. You are witnessing how our hope in Jesus Christ transcends barriers, uniting us as one body. Please share these stories with one another, and share your stories of following Jesus Christ with us.
—Karla Braun is editor of Courier and writer for Mennonite World Conference. She lives in Winnipeg, Canada.
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Prepared by the YABs Committee for 18-25 June 2023
*updated* Full resource now available.
Theme
The family I found in my salvation
Why this theme was chosen
This year we want to look back in the story of how we came to know Christ. Every individual has different salvation story. Some came from a different religious tradition and experience a complete transformation after they meet Christ. Some came from a Christian family which means it’s hard to pinpoint a specific turning point in life.Our salvation comes with a community that shapes us, encourages us and makes us who we are. Let’s talk about the family we built from our newfound faith.
Biblical text: Luke 15:4–7
“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
Additional resources in this package
- Refusing to be a victim and an offender
- Teach the gospel and hold the faith
- Prayer requests
- Discord chat. Email yabs@mwc-cmm.org to get an invitation to join
Sunday, 18 June 2023 at 10:00 UTC or 19:00 UTC: Meet the YABs
Thursday, 22 June 2023 at 10:00 UTC or 19:00 UTC: story time and prayers
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Inspiration and reflection
Perspectives
- Is this climate change?
- Equipping our church to care for creation
- Lessons enter through different doors
- Love in a time of climate change
- Cleanliness is next to godliness
Country profile
Resources
- Resources on creation care
- YABs Fellowship Week 2023
- Annual report: 2022
- A prayer for frugal life
- Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday
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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Click the thumbnail below to view PDF.
Inspiration and reflection
Perspectives
Worship through and after the pandemic
- Always trust in God
- Journeying into the unknown, tasting goodness now
- A lunch break in the presence of God
- Reading lessons in creation
Country profile
Resources
General Secretary
From the editor
“When the music fades, all is stripped away,” Those opening words to “Heart of Worship,” a popular 1997 worship song by Matt Redman from the UK resonate with pandemic experiences. We experienced a stripping away of rituals, spaces and/or people who seemed key to worship. Due to restrictions, prudence or incapacity, all of us had to examine what is the heart of our worship. What is integral to our meeting with God as a community?
This was a sort of kairos moment: an unplanned, unforeseen disruption; an opportunity to ask new questions and discover unanticipated answers; a time to examine and shift or reaffirm our values; a moment to equip us with fresh perspectives and new ways for new days.
Despite the challenges, as Anabaptist-Mennonites around the world, we did not stop worshipping. “The strength of our relationships is not found in the order of worship, nor in the time spent. The strength that sustains the life of a church and its relationship comes from the blessed presence of the Spirit of God, which has been poured into our hearts,” writes Jos Rafael Escobar Rosal.
We found ways to meet as a community in worship even without physical presence. We affirmed the prophetic nature of worship, speaking to our moment and reminding us of our solidarity with one another. “The force that gives life and depth to the relationships is indeed the grace and love of the Spirit of God, which produces the communion that transcends time, distance and place,” he writes.
In this issue of Courier, in addition to teaching on the nature of worship from “Brother Rafita” (see page 3-5), we hear stories from Guatemala, Canada, France, DR Congo and South Korea. Our churches share how their communities innovated to meet each other and meet God in spite of and/or because of pandemic challenges.
With the crisis of the pandemic mostly behind us, our rhythms of work and of gathering establish themselves again. Yet we find we are not the same as we were before. Our worship has and continues to change along with a rapidly changing world, even as we continue to follow our ageless Lord Jesus.
This issue also marks a shift in the Courier schedule. In the spirit of new ways for new days, we will publish four issues of Courier this year – two in your mailbox as you are accustomed, with two online only, taking advantage of our newfound comfort with virtual spaces, to meet in text across the barriers of time and geography. Please forward this to members of your church family who may not be signed up for the electronic mailing yet.
Karla Braun is editor of Courier and writer for Mennonite World Conference. She lives in Winnipeg, Canada.
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Click on the thumbnail below to view the PDF
Plenary sermons
- Puppies and goats are welcome at the table
- Learning together to handle diversity
- Learning together to discern the will of God
- Practice before the storm
- We are the hands of God in times of crisis
- Living the good life is good and even necessary
- We do not lose heart
- United in the defence of life: water more precious than gold
- Interethnic and ecumenical work in violent contexts
- Let us mutually care for one another
- Intergenerational solidarity relationships
- How can I celebrate?
- ÒVery goodÓ in troubled times
- God’s love, forgiveness and reconciliation
- Returning home
Assembly overview
Assembly activities
- We speak the same language
- A good kind of infidel
- Assembly tours and service projects
- Assembly satellite locations
- Creative approaches Children’s program
- Youth program
- Global Youth Summit (GYS)
- Global Church Village
Perspectives
MWC leaders
Resources
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If you plan to participate in Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday (AWFS) in 2023, send us a message (info@mwc-cmm.org) so we can put a locator pin for your congregation as we celebrate and pray along with you:
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Theme
Jesus Christ: Our Hope
Why this theme was chosen
Even in the midst of deep troubles, we come together from around the world to follow Jesus, who gives us hope. This is also the theme for Renewal 2023 in Mennonite World Conference.
Biblical texts:
- Old Testament: Isaiah 40: 28-31
- Psalm: Psalm 62:1-6
- Gospel: Luke 18:35-43
- New Testament: 1 Peter 1:3-6
In this package
- Suggested liturgies for gathering and benediction
- Biblical background for sermon content
- Stories and testimonies from Africa for sermon content
- Anabaptist historical context
- Children’s story and activity
- Tithes and offering ideas from Africa
- Cultural suggestions from Africa
- Posters
Additional resources
Multimedia resources online
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Download and print the page to cut out fruits and vegetables for the Peace Sunday activity.
https://mwc-cmm.org/resources/peace-sunday-2022-worship-resource
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Prepared by the YABs Committee for 1-4 July 2022
*This year’s Fellowship Week activities will take place during the Global Youth Summit and Assembly 17 in Indonesia
Theme
“Sealed in the Spirit”
Why this theme was chosen
This theme ties in with the 2022 Global Youth Summit (GYS) theme: “Life in the Spirit.” This topic represents a diversity of experiences within the global body. It gives us the opportunity to learn from each other and to seek the unity of the Spirit together through the bond of peace.
Biblical text
Ephesians 1:13-14
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory. (NRSV)
