Prayers of gratitude and intercession

  • Depuis 2013, Ernest Geiser est intercesseur au Palais fédéral à Berne. Que regroupe cette fonction. Il a répondu aux questions de PERSPECTIVE.

    En quoi consiste le travail d’un intercesseur fédéral ?

    Je suis à Berne durant les quatre sessions du Parlement de trois semaines chacune, soit douze semaines par année. L’intention est de cultiver « sur place » la prière en faveur des personnes élues. J’ai la possibilité de les saluer et d’échanger quelques mots, exprimer de la reconnaissance pour leur engagement, parfois écouter une difficulté ou évoquer la complexité des enjeux. Les choix des autorités politiques ont une influence directe sur les développements d’une nation. Paul écrit à Timothée : « Il faut prier pour les rois et ceux qui détiennent l’autorité, afin que nous puissions mener une vie tranquille, paisible, respectable, dans un parfait attachement à Dieu » (1 Timothée 2/2).

    Durant les sessions, beaucoup de personnes se trouvent au Palais, celles liées aux services de sécurité, des médias et des services parlementaires, sans parler des nombreux visiteurs. Comme je bénéficie d’une accréditation, j’ai l’occasion de me rendre dans la salle des pas perdus et les salles de travail des députés qui sont les endroits privilégiés pour les rencontres spontanées et les échanges informels. J’ai également accès aux tribunes des deux Chambres et aux espaces publics du bâtiment.

    En dehors des sessions je réponds à des invitations pour parler de cet engagement à des Églises, des groupes de jeunes ou d’ainés. C’est l’occasion d’encourager les personnes qui ont une vocation dans le domaine politique et de rappeler l’importance de la prière pour les autorités.

    Ton travail te permet-il de rencontrer des personnes de toutes les confessions ?

    Oui, je rencontre les personnes des différentes confessions, également celles sans confession. Notre présence est à la fois réelle et discrète, il n’est pas indiqué de s’imposer ! Sur le plan formel, nous les trois intercesseurs dépendons d’élus, membres du Groupe parlementaire « Politique chrétienne ». Ce groupe est formé par des personnes appartenant aux différentes formations politiques.

    Certains parlementaires abordent très volontiers des thèmes liés à la foi chrétienne, d’autres tout en appréciant notre présence souhaitent rester plus discrets. Nous prions également pour les personnes qui restent plus distantes par rapport à notre travail, elles sont appelées à exercer des responsabilités comme leurs collègues.

    Comment es-tu arrivé dans ce ministère ? Quel est ton parcours ?

    Trois éléments ont été déterminants pour répondre à cet appel.

    • Le premier remonte à mon enfance. Durant l’époque où mon père assurait un mandat politique sur le plan communal, à sa prière il intégrait des questions sociétales en demandant la sagesse à Dieu.
    • Le second est lié aux réconciliations vécues entre les anabaptistes et les autres Églises, parfois avec les autorités politiques. Ces démarches m’ont rendu attentif à notre héritage qui véhiculait une vision pessimiste du rôle de l’État. Alors que son rôle est nécessaire pour le bien commun, sa mission doit rester contenue. Jésus a évoqué cet enjeu : « Payez à l’empereur ce qui lui appartient, et à Dieu ce qui lui appartient » (Matthieu 22/21).
    • Avant le début de ma collaboration en 2013, j’ai été encouragé par la prophétie de différentes personnes. Leurs paroles orientaient mon attention vers ce service.

    Quelles sont les joies et les satisfactions ?

    Les échanges personnels sont passionnants. Les conversations traduisent souvent la recherche de meilleures solutions, avec des approches très variées ! Sur les tribunes j’apprécie assister aux débats qui s’orientent vers la recherche de consensus. Régulièrement je reçois des encouragements de personnes qui me remercient d’être intercesseur à Berne, souvent elles m’assurent de leur prière.

    Quels sont les difficultés et les défis ?

    Je ne connais pas de difficultés particulières. Parfois je dois rappeler aux chrétiens déçus par les choix politiques que le Parlement n’est pas une Église. Mais c’est bien le lieu où des hommes et des femmes de foi peuvent s’engager !

    —Ernest Geiser, intercesseur au Palais fédéral, ancien à l’Église évangélique mennonite de Tavannes
    Cet article vient de Suisse et s’inscrit dans le cadre des articles du Réseau francophone. Trois par an, les journaux mennonites PERSPECTIVE (Suisse), Christ Seul (France), Le Lien (Canada) et le site de la Conférence mennonite mondiale proposent un article commun.

  • “Renewal 2027” is the name that Mennonite World Conference has chosen to mark the decade of regional events that will be held to commemorate the five centuries our faith community has existed. We would like to approach these 10 years of commemorative acts by focussing on the global, ecumenical and transcultural perspectives on our history.

    During this decade of regional events, we remember the past in order to look to the future. As noted by the Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, “What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.” We want to bring our roots to the fore so that we may thank God for the faith inheritance that we have received.

    At the same time, we wish to approach our Lord in a spirit of repentance and renewal, learning from the past in order to grow in our relationship with God here and now as well as in the years to come. At the first event, “Transformed by the Word: Reading Scripture in Anabaptist Perspectives,” we explored how Martin Luther’s maxim of sola Scriptura together with the monastic ideals of imitating Christ played a role in our own tradition, and how the sacred Scriptures continue to be relevant in our global faith community today.

    During that day in Augsburg, Germany, I kept in mind an art installation I saw in one of our Mennonite churches in Amsterdam (see cover). On the pulpit at the centre of the sanctuary, there is a Bible that is opened and moving. Pages are leaving or entering the Bible, blowing about the room.

    This installation depicts Scripture as a living text that inserts our own histories within it through the work of the Holy Spirit. In this way, the story of the first disciples in Acts is carried forward. Our Anabaptist emphasis on imitating Christ invites us to see Scripture as a script for our own lives, a play that requires us to live it out, to put it into practice on a daily basis.

    Even so, the Bible has not always been seen in this light during our Anabaptist history.

    More often than not, we have used the sacred text as a tool for measuring the doctrinal orthodoxy of others, thus causing division and fragmentation within the body of Christ. This has happened too frequently in our churches when we have found that our perspectives on Scripture do not coincide.

    We have often put aside the passages that invite us to live out the gift of unity in the midst of diversity. We have neglected the gift of communion in spite of and through diversity. Sadly, we have come to believe that our ethical or doctrinal divergences are reason enough to break apart the body of Christ.

    Today, while we thank God for our emphasis on a communal and Christ-centred interpretation and living out of Scripture, we must keep a repentant attitude toward the divisions that exist amongst us due to an inadequate approach to reading the Scriptures. Let us seek the renewal that comes from a contrite heart, able to recognize our sin and how it causes lack of unity in the church.

    It is my prayer that today our understanding of the Bible will be renewed through the living text that speaks to the now; that we can see our division as a sin that needs to be eradicated; and that our desire to live out and apply the Bible today would unite in a spirit of interdependence.

    May we leave transformed by the Word!

    —César García, MWC general secretary, works out of the head office in Bogotá, Colombia.

    This article first appeared in Courier/Correo/Courrier October 2017

  • Christian communities around the world celebrate Christmas together yet each culture has their own traditions. Here, Anabaptist brothers and sisters from different regions share how they celebrate.

    Light

    The Netherlands

    Christmas is my favourite time in the year. I associate it with Christmas music, candlelight and good times with family and friends. Most importantly, Christmas is a time in which I am reminded about the light that Jesus brought into the world.

    In the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Northern France, we celebrate the name day of Saint Nicholas (6 December) by giving gifts. Mostly families with young children celebrate Sinterklaas. We give gifts on another day than Christmas, because Christmas is about celebrating the gift from God: Jesus’ birth. Separating the two leaves time for focussing on the message of Christmas, while sharing presents with family and friends on another evening.

    Jantine Huisman as a child with Christmas decorations. Photo courtesy of Jantine Husiman.

    —Jantine Huisman, YABs Committee member, Europe representative

    Ugahari

    Indonesia

    In Indonesia, Christmas means rainy season, the wettest time throughout the year. But it is hot! Our tradition in Gereja Kristen Muria Indonesia/GKMI (Muria Christian Church of Indonesia), one of the Mennonite church in Indonesia, is to do social activities: we visit orphanages or nursing homes, share some rice wrapped with banana leaves with people who are homeless, and perform wayang kulit (shadow puppets) or wayang orang (theatrical dance) with stories from the Bible.

    Our special tradition is to make Christmas trees from recycled materials like used plastic bottle, CDs, umbrellas, plastic bags, old newspapers, or from fruit and vegetables. These activities are symbols of “ugahari,” which means simplicity, frugality and humility, also the wholeness of creation. In this way, we’re following the footsteps of the Lord in Christmas.

    —Mark Ryan, editor of “berita GKMI” magazine, Central Java

     

    The reason

    Ethiopia

    In Ethiopia, we celebrate Christmas on 6 January. It’s due to the Julian calendar that we use and also the Orthodox church influence on the culture. Christmas is one of the biggest celebrations next to Easter.

    The typical Christmas tradition in most Anabaptist churches in Ethiopia is that children present a play and a song about Christmas and teenagers also present a play that reminded us of the life that we need to live for the very reason that Christ was born. Afterwards, the children and teenagers serve a snack, candy and the like, to the congregation. In my congregation (Gurd Shola Meserete Kristos Church), the program takes place on Sunday a week before the date of Christmas.

    —Tigist Tesfaye Gelagle, YABs staff mentor

     

    Marketplace story

    Canada

    There is a tradition to present a “living nativity” at Christmas, where people costume act as Mary and Joseph to create a life-sized “manger scene.” But some North American church go even bigger. They create a miniature Bethlehem town and invite everyone to come experience a first-century re-enactment. Volunteers in roles from shopkeeper to shepherd share the story of Christ’s birth as visitors walk through “town.”

    “We enjoyed doing ‘A Night in Bethlehem,’ as we called it, for two years,” says pastor Greg Bright of Gateway Community Church, a Mennonite Brethren congregation in Canora, Saskatchewan, Canada. “We received a positive response from the community and extensive coverage in our local paper.”

    —Karla Braun, MWC writer

     

    The Kingdom of God

    Mexico

    What do we do at Christmas in the Anabaptist community Dios con Nosotros (God with Us)? Essentially, we seek to combine the elements of Mexican culture and the Christian tradition in a way that most faithfully reflects the Advent of Jesus on Earth. For example, we use the Advent Wreath as well as the Posada (a Franciscan tradition used to evangelize the Indigenous people. It is this tradition that gave rise to the piñata). During the Posada, we as a church body offer punch and sweets to our neighbors and share our faith. Our Christmas church service ends with a community dinner. This year, we would like to hold a “solidarity gift swap” instead of exchanging gifts with everyone so that our brothers and sisters do not have to spend so much. This is how we all learn together about the meaning of Christmas. The Lord is born, and he has brought us peace! But also, justice, and he continues to announce the Kingdom of God through his church.

    In my family, we sing hymns that celebrate Jesus and his love before eating dinner at midnight on December 24th. Our celebrations end on January 6.

    —Rodrigo Pedroza, pastor, Dios con Nosotros (God with Us) Church

     

    —Mennonite World Conference release

  • Bogotá, Colombia – Mennonite World Conference weaves a web of connections within the Anabaptist Mennonite family around the world through website, emails, social media, publishing and relations with other organizations. Here are some new connecting points.

    • Who is MWC and what do we do? Watch our Year in Review video coming in January. 

    • For special Sundays each year, MWC creates worship resources, which can be found online. Plan your service with the aid of song suggestions, a sermon outline, and testimonies and cultural background. MWC’s African regional representatives contributed to our World Fellowship Sunday 2018 package. Peace Sunday 2017’s “A Renewed Peace Church Builds Bridges” and YABs Fellowship Week 2017’s “Pursue Peace” are also available. Click here to download World Fellowship Sunday 2018 worship resources.

    • Regional Representatives are national church’s first point of contact with MWC. Mariano Ramirez (Dominican Republic), an ordained minister, pastor and a member of the Executive Committee of the Evangelical Mennonite Conference in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, has been appointed Regional Representative for Latin America – Caribbean Region. Mariano has worked as an accountant, an economist, and practices as a lawyer.

    • Réseau Mennonite francophone (RMF) shares stories and news – in French – of particular interest to our French speaking members. Recently, eight schools and six other partners signed an agreement with FATEAC, a Bible school in Ivory Coast, to facilitate Anabaptist theological courses online. Read more here (French only).

    —Mennonite World Conference release 

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  • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada – “Our hearts were left totally destroyed…but thanks to MWC, who have come to visit us and have given us this uplifting and encouraging word, a word of hope and love,” says Antonio García Dominguez, leader of Conferencia Peruana Hermanos Menonitas.

    Mennonite World Conference and Mennonite organizations collaborated to live out faith with unified action in response to disasters that struck members of the global Anabaptist family this year.

    Torrential flooding caused by El Niño in Peru devastated homes and livelihoods of more than a million Peruvians. Together, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), ICOMB (International Community of Mennonite Brethren), MB Mission and MWC facilitated the six-month appointment of Antony Sanchez to assess needs, coordinate response and training and equip the local churches to serve their communities.

    “The brothers and sisters from Peru were very welcoming, open, and eager to learn and to help,” says Sanchez. “I have been able to affirm their dreams and, together with these organizations, respond to their needs, highlighting their capacities and skills, always remembering that we are members of a global family. We are in the hands of God as well as being God’s hands to bring his presence and blessings to others.”

    MWC regional representative and trauma specialist Pablo Stucky visited in April and again with a Deacons Commission delegation (Henk Stenvers, Elisabeth Kunjam) in October.

    In DR Congo, a conflict brewing between tribal and political factions broke out into widespread violence in the past year, compelling more than a million to flee their homes, sometimes after family or neighbours were killed in front of them. Thousands of members of Communauté Mennonite au Congo (one of three Mennonite national churches) are living in the forest or have fled to other parts of the country and across the border to Angola, to refugee camps or the hospitality of local Mennonites.

    MWC is cooperating with MCC; Mennonite Mission Network; MB Mission; Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission; Caisse de Secours; Mennonite Church Canada Witness; Konferenz der Mennoniten der Schweiz (Alttäufer), Conférence mennonite suisse (Anabaptiste); and ICOMB on the delivery of strategic, locally sourced humanitarian assistance through churches and partners in DR Congo to some 200 families. [Click here for a more detailed update from MCC in English.]

    A Deacons Commission delegation is intended to visit Mennonite churches in DRC in December.

    “The Deacons walk with the churches, listening to their stories, praying and showing that the global church is in solidarity with them,” says Deacons Commission secretary Henk Stenvers.

    In August 2017, monsoon floods washed through Nepal and parts of India and Bangladesh, affecting millions and killing hundreds.

    Anabaptist partners MCC and Brethren in Community Welfare Society are helping 323 families recover their livelihoods (fisheries, vegetable farms and kitchen gardens), and providing shelter materials and mosquito nets. In addition, the project will construct 15 boreholes and provide support to repairs to homes of seven local Brethren In Christ staff.

    “These Mennonite organizations working together, unified in response, were a testimony of unity,” says Sanchez. Practically and spiritually, they release “a synergetic power. The Spirit working amid us creates more unity, and increases faith and confidence that God is our provider who takes care of us.”

    —Mennonite World Conference release

  • Renewal 2027 testimony: Anabaptists today

    Renewal 2027 is a 10-year series of events organized by Mennonite World Conference’s Faith and Life Commission to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the beginnings of the Anabaptist movement. This series highlights leaders in the movement from history to the present.

    Nellie Mlotshwa: A commanding teacher

    Nellie is a woman who has achieved many firsts against many odds in the Brethren In Christ Church (BICC) in Zimbabwe. She has been a valued lay preacher right through life, particularly in large gatherings such as conferences.

    After 25 years of marriage to Reverend Peter Mongameli Mlotshwa, Nellie was widowed while her five children were still at school and needing to be cared for.

    After widowhood, she became even more actively involved in the work of the church.

    Nellie was the first BIC indigenous woman in Zimbabwe to lecture at a Bible school, which she did for 22 years altogether. Formerly a school teacher, she first lectured at Ekuphileni Bible Institute in 1969.

    Nellie was the first BIC woman in Zimbabwe to train and successfully complete a Bachelor of Theology at the Theological College of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in 1992.

    Nellie is the only woman to have been asked to be principal of a Bible school on an acting capacity (2002–2005). She headed Ekuphileni Bible Institute at the height of hyperinflation in Zimbabwe, and “did her best to keep the school going despite the numerous difficulties.”

    Nellie was the first BIC woman in Zimbabwe to sit in the national church executive board in the 1980s.

    Nellie was the first president of the Anabaptist Women Theologians in Africa (2003–2010), related to the Mennonite World Conference.

    Nellie has mentored and continues to mentor many church leaders. She is extolled as “one of the best leaders in the BICC Zimbabwe Conference.”

    Nellie contributed a response, “The Place of the Holy Spirit in Local Congregations,” in Life in the Spirit by John Driver, a Global Anabaptist Bookshelf entry.

    Nellie is the kind of leader who makes people stop and listen once she opens her mouth. She still participates actively in church matters, though she is over 80 years of age.

    —A Mennonite World Conference release by Barbara Nkala. Barbara is the MWC regional representative for Southern Africa. She presented on Contemporary BICC Women preachers (1960s–2010s) at Crossing the Line: Women of Anabaptist Traditions Encounter Borders and Boundaries, a conference at Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisburg, Virginia, USA.

    Read more Renewal 2027 testimonies here

  • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada – Eighty-nine-year-old John Penner still goes to work three times a week in the business he co-owns with his sons in Calgary. Travelling days are over – he walks with cane and his wife Katie relies on a walker – but “we are trying to keep ourselves busy and also to help other people.”

    With the help of Abundance Canada (formerly Mennonite Foundation of Canada), they created the Penner Family Foundation Fund to disburse money to some 17 organizations, one of which is Mennonite World Conference.

    A refugee from the Soviet Union who arrived in Canada in 1948 after five years of displacement in Europe, John long ago traded hardship for hard work. “We are blessed with what we have [including two sons who both have two children]…so we started to distribute,” he says.

    “We didn’t start out to give big amounts,” says John, “but we found out there is a blessing in giving.” 

    It is self-evident to John and Katie that practicing good stewardship means showing generosity. They donate to their local church, Foothills Mennonite, Calgary, and organizations like Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite World Conference.

    “We think if we give funds…we are part of the blessing that flows.”

    Fifteen years ago, John and Katie set up a long-term giving plan for MWC.

    It was former general secretary Larry Miller who inspired the Penners’ sustained giving to Mennonite World Conference. Churches contribute robustly when MWC holds an Assembly, Miller told John; however, for the five years in between, it is difficult to raise enough funds to cover the expenses for strengthening relationships within the global Mennonite family.

    John and Katie decided to help by putting aside $200,000 so MWC could collect interest to provide steady income over the lean years.

    “We are delighted to work with anyone to make long-term giving plans to help MWC develop a stable funding base to sustain our work in creating spaces for relationships and mutual support among Anabaptist churches around the world,” says Chief Development Officer Arli Klassen. MWC has policies to guide investment and spending of bequests and endowments to provide a perpetual source of financial support.

    “I’m glad that I can give,” says John. The foundation fosters a culture of giving within the family, among Katie, their sons, and someday, he hopes, their grandchildren. “We find it is nice to give together.”

    —Mennonite World Conference release 

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  • Performing before hundreds of Mennonites and passersby at a park in downtown Buenos Aires 16 September 2017, a drama troupe from the Mennonite church in Villa Adelina, Argentina, mimed challenges and struggles facing youth: violence, drugs, promiscuity, greed, and death itself. Representing Argentinian youth, actor Laura Burgos sometimes seemed mesmerized as actors impersonated threats, but she also sought to escape their grasp. A Christ figure in white, played by Diego Gonzalez, rescued her from malice, and came alongside to teach elegant dance steps.

    The drama was part of a festive three-hour event in Buenos Aires at Puerto Madero, where the first North American Mennonite missionaries arrived in 1917. The gathering featured large-screen videos, children’s programing, special music, poetry, preaching and greetings from other denominations. Mennonites of Argentina were celebrating the centennial of the arrival of J.W. and Erma Shank and T.K. and Mae Hershey from Mennonite Board of Missions in the United States. John Lapp and Linda Shelly of Mennonite Mission Network in the United States and Nelson Kraybill of Mennonite World Conference brought greetings from their respective organizations.

    J. Nelson Kraybill.

    Repeatedly Argentinian church leaders underscored three distinctives of Anabaptist witness: Christ is the centre of our faith, community is the centre of our lives, reconciliation is the centre of our work. Also evident were twin themes of empowerment by the Holy Spirit and commitment to mission. A charismatic movement that swept through Argentina in the 1970s and ’80s still energizes Mennonites of all ages.

    Mennonites of Argentina honour the early missionaries who sacrificed much to come to their country. 

    But the focus of today’s church is on current and future mission. Mennonites have divided the country into four regions, with mission strategies and church planting for each area, and the church is growing.

    As the weekend of centennial festivities came to an end, several hundred church members from across the country sang toward the future God has for them: “Muévase potente, la iglesia de Dios…” (Move with strength, O church of God.)

    —a Mennonite World Conference release by president J. Nelson Kraybill

     

  •  

    Like the chambers of a heart, the four MWC commissions serve the global community of Anabaptist-related churches, in the areas of deacons, faith and life, peace, mission. Commissions prepare materials for consideration by the General Council, give guidance and propose resources to member churches, and facilitate MWC-related networks or fellowships working together on matters of common interest and focus. In the following, one of the commissions shares a message from their ministry focus.

    In recent years, Anabaptists have been identified by such distinctives as peacemaking, voluntary choice, simple living, community and discipleship. We believe, however, that a key defining characteristic of the early Anabaptist movement was its fervent embrace of mission.

    Even while we continue to accent discipleship, we have muted the passionate, even sacrificial, commitment to evangelism that distinguished the early Anabaptists. For the last half-century, particularly in the north, there has been a troubling relinquishment of the missionary calling of the church.

    In this context, the Mission Commission (MC) of MWC birthed a vision for a book: God’s People in Mission: An Anabaptist Perspective.

    The core of theological/missiological convictions, informally shared among the members of the Mission Commission, first led to an interest in developing a catalogue of those convictions that undergird and influence our foundations and approaches in mission. On 24 March 2014, after several years of yearning for a comprehensive statement of shared mission convictions, the MC adopted a statement, God’s People in Mission, at Dopersduin, Schoorl, Holland. This is a compilation of 10 missional convictions that articulate what we believe together about mission in the global Anabaptist community.

    We believe that further exploration of these convictions in a book-length form can help us think soberly about our essential identity as the missionary people of God. This is an urgent need.

    We hope that the reflections in each chapter will stimulate needed conversations and help us to align ourselves with God’s purposes for the reconciliation of all humanity and the restoration of the created order. In addition, we yearn that through these exchanges we will be revitalized by God’s Spirit for the mission that brought Jesus to our world.

    The desire of the MC is that God’s People in Mission: An Anabaptist Perspective might bring together diverse voices and experiences from within the varied contexts of our MWC global family. A number of the manuscripts were written in the different languages spoken by members of MWC. In the interest of ensuring wide accessibility, we hope eventually to have the text available in the three official languages of the MWC (English, Spanish and French).

    A further goal is to make the book available in several other languages spoken by members of the MWC. We are working hard to finish this book before our next meeting in Kenya 2018.

    Though the primary audience for the book is the MWC global family, we believe the book’s basic biblical-theological foundations and its contextual reflections can serve a wider audience. We hope it can serve diverse groups as a resource for study and reference for workshops, training, Sunday school classes and seminaries by creating and promoting spaces for dialogue, reflection and commitments.

    We believe that every part of the MWC communion needs to recover the understanding that the church by its very nature is missionary. We understand from the biblical text that God’s purposes find their essence and meaning in the mission of Jesus, and the work Holy Spirit is to advance this mission through the church. Since God’s yearning is that all people experience salvation, the church is called to be in mission on every continent until Jesus returns. Our prayer is that every member church in the MWC will be transformed for the missionary purposes of God.

    —A Mennonite World Conference release by Stanley W. Green and Rafael Zaracho, Mennonite World Conference Mission Commission chair and secretary

     

    In the interest of fostering unity within the global Anabaptist family during recent decades, the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Shelf of Literature addresses identity, peace, stewardship and more. This volume will be the eighth volume in the series. 

  • When Mennonites of Argentina planned a mission conference to mark the 100th anniversary of Anabaptist witness in their country, they received an unexpected gift: free use of the Palacio Municipal (municipal building) in Malvinas Argentinas, a suburb of greater Buenos Aires.

    That generosity came due to a tragedy that grabbed the nation’s attention a year earlier when a 24 year-old award-winning scientist named David Varlotta was killed in a carjacking.

    What made this young Mennonite’s death national news was not only Varlotta’s extraordinary ability as a scientist, but the reconciling response of his parents. Their forgiveness and love prompted the mayor of Malvinas Argentinas to open a government building for the Mennonites’ 17 September 2017 centennial gathering.

    David Varlotta first garnered international attention when he helped to develop a low-cost solar-powered water purifying system for use in rural Argentina. NASA, the American space program, named an asteroid in Varlotta’s honour.

    Young adults visit during lunch break in front of the Palacio Municipal of Malvinas Argentinas where the Mennonite church held a mission conference 17 September 2017. Photo: J. Nelson Kraybill.

    A national youth leader in the Argentinian Mennonite church, Varlotta was also taking theology classes.

    Although Varlotta gave no resistance when youths tried to take the car in front of his parents’ home, a 17-year-old assailant shot anyway. Varlotta’s mother, Mirta Soto Varlotta, who with her husband Jorge Varlotta serves as a Mennonite pastor, witnessed the crime. When the accused stood trial months later, the parents testified.

    It is common for survivors in such circumstances to speak vindictive, hateful words to the press and the court, but Varlotta’s parents offered forgiveness. They expressed overwhelming grief, but also concern for the well-being of the accused. The love they showed was evident, and became a witness to the nation.

    Mennonites are a fraction among Argentinian evangelicals (some 5,000 among 3,700,00) – who themselves are a minority in the Catholic country. Small but vibrant Mennonite congregations throughout Argentina combine concern for social issues of poverty and drug abuse with fervour for mission.

    When several hundred Mennonite delegates gathered at Malvinas Argentinas, there were many reports of mission outreach in the cities, towns and indigenous communities of the nation.

    Before the mission conference, Mennonites held an outdoor celebration in central Buenos Aires, at a park adjacent to Puerto Madero. That is where the first Mennonite missionaries from North America, J. W. and Erma Shank and T. K. and Mae Hershey, got off a ship in 1917.

    God continues to work healing in the wake of tragedy. David Varlotta’s mother Mirta now is taking chaplaincy training to equip her for prison ministry with young people accused or convicted of crimes.

    —a Mennonite World Conference release by president J. Nelson Kraybill

  • Third meeting of the Catholic, Lutheran and Mennonite Trilateral Dialogue Commission on baptism

    Elspeet, Netherlands – Representatives of the Catholic Church (Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity), the Lutheran World Federation, and Mennonite World Conference met in Elspeet, the Netherlands, 9–13 February 2015, for the third meeting of the Trilateral Dialogue Commission on Baptism.

    The Commission developed the general topic of the dialogue “Baptism and Incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church” through papers on “Baptism: Communicating Grace and Faith.” Professors John Rempel and Fernando Enns (Mennonite), Rev Prof. William Henn (Catholic), and Bishop Emeritus Dr Musawenkosi Biyela (Lutheran) made major presentations.

    The Commission continued also to study baptismal practices of the three Christian traditions, with special attention this year to Mennonites in a paper by Prof. Rempel and Dr Jonathan Seiling.

    Each day began and ended in common prayer; morning prayers included joint reflection on biblical texts relating to baptism.

    Hosted by the Mennonite World Conference, the meeting took place at Mennorode Conference Centre (Elspeet).

    One evening, commission members met with leaders of the national Mennonite community to learn about the life of the Dutch Mennonite church today, including their practice of baptism in a highly secularized society. The final day, participants visited historic Mennonite sites in Amsterdam and Friesland where Menno Simons was born and first ministered.

    —Mennonite World Conference release courtesy of Lutheran World Federation

     

    Participants:

    Roman Catholic
    • Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga, IMC (co-chair, Colombia);
    • Revd. Prof. William Henn, OFM Cap (USA/Italy);
    • Revd. Prof. Luis Melo, SM (Canada);
    • Sister Prof. Dr. Marie-Hélène Robert, NDA (France);
    Lutheran
    • Prof. Dr. Friederike Nüssel (co-chair, Germany);
    • Bishop Emeritus Dr. Musawenkosi Biyela (South Africa);
    • Prof. Dr. Theodor Dieter (France);
    • Revd Dr KS Peter Li (Hong Kong, China);
    • Revd. Dr. Kaisamari Hintikka (co-secretary, Finland/Switzerland).
    Mennonite
    • Prof. Dr. Alfred Neufeld (co-chair, Paraguay);
    • Prof. Dr. Fernando Enns (Germany);
    • Revd. Rebecca Osiro (Mennonite)
    • Prof. Dr. John Rempel (Canada);
    • Revd. Dr. Larry Miller (co-secretary, France);
    • Dr Jonathan Seiling(Canada/Germany) as a guest researcher.

  • Bogotá, Colombia – “The gospel connects us all no matter where we are,” says Laurey Segura. She lived out this realization as a teacher and youth worker with the help of Young Anabaptist Mennonite Exchange Network (YAMEN), a joint Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and Mennonite World Conference (MWC) program which allowed the Costa Rican Mennonite to serve in Cambodia for a year over 2016–2017.

    “I was hoping to help a lot but instead, I feel that they helped me the most,” says Segura. Instead of being like an extended vacation with moments of fulfilling service, YAMEN “was also mostly a process of changes, for which I am grateful,” she says. “It was not easy but I learned a lot about myself and my perspective of life changed – in a good way.”

    “I learned to love my neighbours, to serve the Lord Jesus, to serve the community without thinking about a reward in monetary terms,” says Felizarda Atanásia Filimone from Mozambique who served as a youth worker with Creciendo Juntos at Monte Horeb Mennonite Church, Soacha, Colombia.

    Life’s difficulties can lead to despair, but serving in the YAMEN program with Podcasts for Peace in Managua, Nicaragua gave Colombia Mennonite Brethren Jhon Alex Martinez Lozano hope “that there is a church that is at the service of people regardless of race, colour or stratum.” He learned about hospitality in a deeper way, and that “there is no distinction between people; we are all treated well.”

    Before she entered the program, Filimone felt as though she had lost faith. Through YAMEN, “I was expecting a change in my life; I envisioned inner peace and spiritual growth.”

    The challenging moments in Segura’s cross-cultural year of service taught her to “have [faith in God] as your hope in difficult times. Despite the good or bad things, we are being formed and these experiences will become good memories, future stories and good lessons.”

    Through her service with Youth Equipped with Skill of Internship Center, Develop Our Village Economy in Phnom Penh, “I learned how important it is to make disciples and to stand by them before, during and after as a mentor and brother or sister in the faith,” says Segura.

    Advice for those considering YAMEN service?

    “Smile always, speak of God’s love…and talk about your country,” says Filimone. She urges people not to be ashamed of what they don’t know, but to respect and learn from others, especially those from other cultures. Future YAMENers should “share with family, friends and participate in youth meetings in the church. Seek God whenever you feel distressed, look for a friend to trust and talk about your concerns, so you do not feel alone.”

    “Trust the direction of the Spirit of God in a way that reflects the life and teaching of Jesus, the unity of peace and reconciliation,” says Filimone.

    —Article by Danielle Gonzales and Karla Braun

    A Mennonite World Conference and Mennonite Central Committee joint release.

     

    Pray for these participants embarking on YAMEN in 2017–2018:

    Name (home country):

    Serving in:

    Jesika Gomez (Bangladesh)

    Zimbabwe

    Saray Reuk (Cambodia)

    Zimbabwe

    Sina Long (Cambodia)

    Bolivia

    Sokuntheary Samreth (Cambodia)

    India

    Soleab Loun (Cambodia)

    Mexico

    Cyriaque Djenaissem (Chad)

    Burkina Faso

    Damaris Guaza (Colombia)

    Honduras
    Diana Martinez (Colombia)

    Nicaragua

    Jhon Fredy Chocue Parra (Colombia)

    Bolivia

    Diksha Masih (India)

    Honduras

    Easter Masih (India)

    Colombia

    Victor Manova (India)

    Zambia

    Blasius (Bobby) Himawan (Indonesia)

    Cambodia

    Daniel (Dante) Tobing (Indonesia)

    South Korea 

    LohChu (Julian) Peng (Indonesia)

    Colombia

    Bill Odeny (Kenya)

    Cambodia

    Diana Onyango (Kenya)

    Ukraine

    Phoebe Omuhinda (Kenya)

    Cambodia

    MinYeong Jung (South Korea)

    Kenya

    Duangmala Chonealoun (Laos)

    Cambodia

    Bohlokoa Lesesa (Lesotho)

    Indonesia

    Joyce Beaton (Malawi)

    Indonesia

    Salome Sawatzky (Mexico)

    El Salvador

    Sarahi Gonzales (Mexico)

    Ecuador

    Santos Martins (Mozambique)

    Colombia

    Keila Morales (Nicaragua)

    Bolivia

    Benard Eriau (Uganda)

    Nigeria

    Mainza Hanzukule (Zambia)

    India