-
Ministry partner update: ICOMB – August 2016
The International Community of Mennonite Brethren (ICOMB) is made up of 21 national churches in 19 countries with approximately 450,000 members. ICOMB exists to facilitate relationships and ministries to enhance the witness and discipleship of its member national churches – connecting, strengthening and expanding. Meeting with César García After the Panama Summit, I met Cesar…
-
Ministry partner update: ICOMB – July 2016
The International Community of Mennonite Brethren (ICOMB) is made up of 21 national churches in 19 countries with approximately 450,000 members. ICOMB exists to facilitate relationships and ministries to enhance the witness and discipleship of its member national churches – connecting, strengthening and expanding. Fraternal visit to Platanares, Panama: 6–8 June 2016 After a somewhat rough,…
-
New Young Anabaptists Committee Meets in Indonesia
Less than a year ago, I hadn’t the faintest idea that I would be in Indonesia this February, let alone have four new friends from four different continents. But that’s what happens when you engage in your global faith community: you end up in places you never expected –physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally. The five…
-
Strength in the Gathered
Global Communion and Why It Matters: Exploring our shared commitment to being a worldwide family As Mennonite World Conference, we share a commitment to being a worldwide communion (koinonia) of faith and life. Together, we seek to be a fellowship that transcends boundaries of nationality, race, class, gender and language. Yet because of our…
-
PA 2015 will be green!
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – “PA 2015 will be green,” says Howard Good, National Coordinator of the Mennonite World Conference Assembly, to be held July 21-26 at the massive Farm Show Complex (FSC) in Harrisburg. Good had just received word that expenses for the green endeavour will fit the projected budget for the global event. Owned by…
-
Honduran Anabaptist groups reconcile
La Ceiba, Honduras – After decades of misunderstanding and little collaboration, Organización Cristiana Amor Viviente and Iglesia Evangelica Menonita Hondureña (IEMH), the two largest Anabaptist groups in Honduras, have publicly reconciled with each other and are actively working at improving their relationship. Both are Mennonite World Conference member churches. In August 2013, leaders from both…
-
César García responds to questions overheard in North America about PA 2015
Amid growing anticipation and excitement about the Mennonite World Conference Assembly (PA 2015) to be held in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania July 21-26, 2015, a number of questions keep surfacing within North American churches. MWC General Secretary, César García of Bogotá, Colombia, shares his thoughts and answers to questions being talked about in hallways and over dinner…
-
First Vietnamese Mennonite pastor dies
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA – Quang Xuan Tran, the first Vietnamese Mennonite pastor, died in Philadelphia on 20 September at the age of 84. Quang came to the United States in March 1975 to attend the annual missions meeting of Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM). As South Vietnam was overrun by military forces from the north in…
-
PA 2015 Includes Assembly Gathered and Assembly Scattered
Harrisburg, PA, USA – “Mennonite World Conference Assemblies come with many parts. Two of them are Assembly Gathered and Assembly Scattered,” explains Liesa Unger, Chief International Events Officer for MWC. Unger, of Regensburg, Germany, is overseeing the planning of “Pennsylvania 2015,” the next MWC Assembly to be held in July 2015. “Assembly Gathered will happen…
-
García calls for ‘mission from below’ amidst shifting global realities
Chicago, Illinois, USA – “What would happen if, following the example of monastic orders, there would be a ‘vow of poverty’ in multicultural mission teams for everyone?” This question, posed by César García at the 22 January annual consultation of the Council of International Anabaptist Ministries (CIM), focused one of his proposals for how North…
-
Young Anabaptists prepare for 2015 Global Youth Summit
Akron, Pennsylvania, USA – Preparations for the 2015 Global Youth Summit and transitions within the committee marked the annual meeting of the Young Anabaptists (YABs) Committee held here 23-28 May 2013. The committee welcomed Lani Prunés of the United States as the new North American representative, replacing Kristina Toews of Canada who is now serving…
-
East African Mennonite churches form mission board
Nairobi, Kenya – Mennonite bishops from Kenya and Tanzania formed a mission board during their annual meeting, held in August at the Mennonite Guest House. “We are no longer churches which just receive missionaries, but churches which send missionaries,” the church leaders stated. EMM has a 78-year history of working with churches in East Africa.…
