Prayers of gratitude and intercession

In collaboration with Mennonite World Conference, the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism at Goshen (Indiana, USA) College is launching a two-part research initiative.

Combining data and personal stories, organizers hope to develop a more accurate understanding of the MWC constituency specifically and global Anabaptism generally.

“We’re trying to provide a sort of X-ray of our body in a way that could help local church leaders have a better perspective of their own groups as they set priorities,” said John D. Roth, the research leader and professor of history at Goshen College.

Both parts — the Global Anabaptist Profile and the Bearing Witness Stories Project — will require years of research. Both are independently funded. Conrad Kanagy is serving as associate director.

At the MWC General Council gathering May 20-26 in Basel, Switzerland, the MWC Faith and Life Commission agreed to serve as a reference group for the Global Anabaptist Profile.

Roth plans to invite 25 MWC-related groups to participate in the survey of topics such as demographics, beliefs and practices.

The profile could also help MWC discern how best to serve its members.

North Americans often conduct their own surveys, he said, “but we haven’t really pursued them in the global context.”

The Global Anabaptist Profile will be based partly on a survey led by Conrad Kanagy and Richard Showalter among churches that relate to Eastern Mennonite Missions.

At an MWC Executive Committee meeting in May 2011, a proposal for the profile was approved — provided that it not be dominated by theological and cultural questions that come only from the Global North. Roth is sensitive to this concern.

The original project proposal suggested randomly selecting 25 church groups to participate. After consultation with MWC, Roth is now opening up participation to any interested group and will likely coordinate the project with Mennonite mission agencies.

MWC member groups can contact Roth and express interest.

Rather than just extracting information, Roth said he hopes the profile can invite diverse groups into shared conversation.

“At its best, the profile can deepen a sense of shared identity and fuller recognition of our diversity,” he said.

Coinciding with this mostly quantitative research is the Bearing Witness Stories Project, a gathering of personal accounts of costly discipleship and suffering.

Anabaptists have a long tradition of remembering events by telling stories, evidenced in part by the book Martyrs Mirror.

This new project will collect “accounts of Christian faithfulness in the face of adversity among Anabaptist-Mennonite groups since 1685 and among groups around the world today,” Roth said.

To give further clarity on how the stories will be used and to address challenges of the project, Roth and Gerald Mast, professor of communication at Bluffton (Ohio) University, are convening a consultation. “Bearing Witness: A New Martyrs Mirror for the 21st Century” will be held Aug. 5-8 at Goshen College.

By Sheldon C. Good, assistant editor, Mennonite World Review

Distributed by permission of Mennonite World Review

 

 

Sumiswald, Switzerland – Every six years, Mennonites in Europe gather for their regional assembly known as the Mennonite European Regional Conference (MERK). This year’s meeting, held from May 17 to 20, preceded the meetings of the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) General Council at the Chrischona Centre near Basel.

MERK drew a total of 855 people to a recreational complex in Sumiswald, Switzerland, in the heart of the Emmental region where Anabaptists have had a long and durable history. Most participants were from the Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Spain, but the group included delegates from smaller European conferences and visitors from the MWC General Council and Commissions, some 36 countries were represented.

“Borders—they are everywhere around us and in us,” observed Louise Nussbaumer, president of the French association of MWC (Association française Conférence Mennonite Mondiale) and former MWC Executive Committee member. “It is argued that they protect us; in fact, they isolate us and leave us alone and poor. Social, political, ethnic or cultural boundaries block relationships.” The gathering included plenary addresses by European leaders Lukas Amstutz and Ruth Raab-Zerger of Germany, and Philippe Gonzalez of France.

The participants were often reminded that to reach out is an act. Many personal stories from Europe and beyond punctuated the plenary meetings. Some were spectacular, but all bore witness to the faithfulness of God when people were ready to reach out their hands. The morning Bible studies by Anne-Cathy Gerber of France and Jeanet van Woerden of Germany explored the subthemes “Because God Provides an opening” (on the Samaritan woman at the well, John 4) and “Because God gives a chance to each one” (the woman caught in adultery, John 8) respectively.

Afternoon workshops related to the theme were well attended. Activities were also offered for children, youth and young adults. More than 250 volunteers helped at every level and contributed to the conference’s organization.

Esther Braun of Langnau, who provided crucial administrative support in the months leading up to the conference summed up the theme well: “More and more I am aware, personally, that in order to reach hands across borders, one has to let go. One has to be detached from one’s expectations, prejudices, and fears. One has to avoid jumping to interpretation or being rigid in one’s beliefs that one’s own way has to be right. When—with God’s help—we are free in this way, other barriers (religious, cultural or linguistic) will not seem so impenetrable and scary.”

During the gathering one could experience firsthand the opportunity to reach out to the other—to the one who was there for the first time, the one whose language one did not understand and whose story one had to discover. And one could also reach out to receive a word of encouragement or exhortation, a story of forgiveness or of new beginnings.

In order for hands to be truly extended, the Mennonite Mission Services of the Swiss Mennonite church sponsored an aid project for the marginalized Roma people of Serbia and Albania. It was on opportunity to learn to cross borders of prejudice with regard to the Romas, and to help break the cycle of poverty. Each participant at MERK had been asked to bring knitted socks, underwear, school kits, and emergency health supplies. And they responded; they brought 190 school kits, filled 54 pails with emergency health supplies and knit more than 500 pairs of socks. A truck was hired to deliver the items to Christian organizations that will take care of the distribution.

For Mari Friesen, each pail was like a seed that can bring forth fruit. Mathias Hofer remembers how one elderly woman came, bright-eyed, with 20 pairs of socks that she had knit. “Finally,” she said, “there is something I can do with my hands, and I do it with all my heart.”

As Louise Nussbaumer said, “Hands reaching across borders [is also] to recognize invisible, never-named borders in our lives, and find the courage to cross them.”

From reports by Elisabeth Baecher and others, compiled by Sylvie Gudin Koehn.

Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo – Rukimba Furaha fled her home and fields in the village of Kabuya in North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), out of fear for the safety of her eight children.

Her husband had left home several days earlier to avoid being forcibly recruited into the rebel army. Because of the haste of their flight they were unable to bring with them any food or other possessions.

They fled as an outbreak of armed conflict and population displacement once again is bringing widespread human suffering to the eastern provinces of DRC.

Since April of this year, more than 200,000 people have fled their villages and fields in the region, bringing the total number of internally displaced people in DRC to more than 2 million.

Between 30,000-40,000 of the displaced have become refugees in neighboring Rwanda and Uganda, but the vast majority, including Furaha’s family, has joined other people either in overcrowded camps in North or South Kivu, or with nearby host families. Many are hesitant to go far from their home villages, because harvest time is approaching and they fear their crops will be lost.

Furaha’s eldest child, Mbatse Dorika, is only 10 years old. Together with her younger siblings she walked more than 37 miles from Kabuya to Kibati, near the provincial capital of Goma, where the family found refuge in a local primary school.

The school has no water, sanitary facilities are severely overtaxed, and as of mid-July, no emergency assistance had arrived. Seven or eight families sleep in each small classroom of the school, with only rearranged student desks providing privacy between them.

On July 15, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) staff and emergency services staff of the Church of Christ of Congo (ECC), an MCC partner for more than 15 years, visited Kibati. In addition to Furaha’s family, several hundred others – many of them small children – had arrived the week before after walking for three days from their villages in the middle of the current conflict.

“I was deeply affected by the lack of resources to meet basic human needs, such as food and water,” Ruth Keidel Clemens, program director for MCC U.S., reported after the visit. “Many of the children appeared to have medical needs with no means to address them. We observed traumatized and exhausted families. These are some of the visible signs of a forgotten war that continues to uproot and kill thousands of people in eastern Congo.”

The ECC emergency evaluation team identified more than 5,500 households in Kibati and three other locations within the conflict zone in need of emergency assistance with shelter, food, water, sanitation and household items. Their report will serve as the basis for an emergency response from MCC.

In other camps for people displaced by violence, MCC provided tarps for 400 families and paid school fees for 300 children earlier this year. MCC is currently preparing a large emergency food assistance project in both South and North Kivu, which will provide assistance for 1,000 families.

MCC U.S. Washington Office has also issued an action alert, asking constituents to email or call President Barak Obama, urging him to take action that would address root causes of ongoing violence in Eastern Congo. Visit the MCC Action Alert to learn more.

Since 1994, when several million Rwandans fled their country in the wake of the Rwandan genocide, eastern Congo has suffered from recurrent conflict involving national armies from DRC and neighboring countries as well as a wide variety of local and regional rebel groups. The latest fighting began in April 2012, when a group of Congolese army officers mutinied and rallied a rebel army, known as M23, which has since engaged the Congolese army and attacked civilian villages.

The causes of the conflicts in eastern Congo are a complex mixture of local, regional and national concerns involving land, minerals, ethnicity and politics. Refugees and internally displaced people are the most vulnerable victims of the clashes, though the entire population of the region suffers greatly from the insecurity and trauma of continuing warfare.

By now, Furaha fears that her fields, which were nearly ready for harvest when she fled, have been stripped bare by rebel soldiers and that her livestock have been taken and her house looted.

International distribution of a Mennonite Central Committee release

Tim Lind is an MCC representative in Democratic Republic of Congo with his spouse, Suzanne Lind. They are from Three Rivers, Mich.

Nyanga, Democratic Republic of Congo – When a Belgian school inspector needed to recruit singers for the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels, he entrusted the task to two missionary women, one of whom was Lodema Short. Short served from 1947–1981with Congo Inland Mission, now Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission – a partner agency with Mennonite Mission Network. Her musical abilities, her organizational skills and her relationships with hundreds of students enabled her to choose, and then chaperone, the nine young men who performed as the Happy Singers in Belgium.

A nephew, Dwight Short of Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, Florida joined the AIMM delegation that traveled to Congo July 12–29, primarily because he wanted to learn more about his famous aunt.

Dwight Short was able to video-tape 27 interviews, four with Happy Singer members, in addition to having conversation with many of Lodema Short’s students, many of whom are pastors.

“She would love to know that so many of her students have ended up in the ministry,” Dwight Short said.

The current principal of Lycée Miodi, Bernadette Manya Kikungo, was one of Lodema Short’s students.

“Mama Kanamu [Lodema Short’s African name meaning, “Trustworthy”] worked very hard here at the school to train church leaders. Even the president of our church [Komuesa] was one of her students.”

Short hopes to write a book to share his aunt’s story beyond the family circle.

Dwight Short has another passion – evangelism through sports. Although the equipment he packed was bogged down by slow shipping throughout his entire stay in Congo, the four (soccer) footballs brought by other delegation members attracted about 400 kids for a football clinic in Tshikapa. He worked with Robert Irundu Mutundu, the National President of Mennonite Youth in Congo who shares Short’s burning desire “to see kids come to know Christ and grow the church”.

In 2013, Irundu hopes to organize two football events for Mennonite youth in the interior of the country and a basketball clinic in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital city.

Written for Mennonite World Conference by Lynda Hollinger-Janzen, a writer for Mennonite Mission Network of Mennonite Church USA.

“Like an infectious laugh that spreads throughout a room full of people, one after another, theological networks have been formed by Anabaptist women in Africa, South America, Asia and Europe,” reports Ruth Guengerich, co-director of Mennonite Women USA (MW USA).

Guengerich, who attended the Mennonite World Conference General Council gathering near Basel, Switzerland, 20-25 May, met women from around the globe, many of whom are current or past recipients of MW USA International Women’s Fund scholarships for church leadership training.

Guengerich met with women from the African Anabaptist Women Theologians, the Latin American Women Theologians, the Asian Women Theologians, and the director of the Dutch Mennonite Women’s Organization, which has created the Anne Zernike Fund. All of these groups had one thing in common: they saw women in the church networking in other places around the globe and began to organize themselves.

Inspired by the presentations from African women theologians at the 2003 MWC Assembly in Zimbabwe, MW USA and the African women in church leadership began to explore ways of encouraging women in the church to use their gifts.

In 2004, a unique Sister-Link (a program of MW USA) began between MW USA and a group of African women in church leadership, known as “the African Anabaptist Women Theologians” (AAWT). These organizations were linked together with the assistance of Mennonite World Conference. This special five-year partnership was formed in order to pursue a goal to increase the number of African Mennonite and Brethren in Christ women trained in theology by the next Mennonite World Conference Assembly in 2009, when the Sister-Link formally concluded.

In 2006, Latin American women saw that the AAWT had organized and were empowering women in church leadership. The Latin American women met for the first time for biblical and theological reflection. This meeting provided a forum to explore women’s roles in the church. The following winter, Latin American Women Theologians began intentional Bible teaching about using women’s gifts in the church.

In 2007, MW USA helped to sponsor three women’s theological gatherings on three continents in which women met to support theological training for more women in their contexts. Throughout these years, MW USA’s International Women’s Fund, begun in 1997, has continued to provide scholarships to women in Africa, Latin America, and Asia for training in church leadership. All of the women come from MWC member and associate member churches.

In hopes of empowering more women, the Latin American Women Theologians hosted a gathering of women theologians just prior to the 2009 MWC Assembly in Paraguay. This gathering inspired women in attendance from Netherlands to establish the Anne Zernike Fund in honor of the first Mennonite female pastor in the Netherlands and the first female pastor ordained in any church in the Netherlands. To mark the centenary of Zernike’s ordination (5 November 1911), the fund was established 6 November 2011, to encourage the ordination of women in churches throughout the world.

In October 2012, Asian Women Theologians will meet with representatives from Japan, India, and Indonesia. Their meeting stems from what they have observed in the other women theologians’ organizations.

Each of these groups—the African Anabaptist Women Theologians, Latin American Women Theologians, Anne Zernike Fund, and the Asian Women Theologians—has their own unique goals and objectives, but each has been inspired by the other groups to empower women in their contexts, in part, by encouraging leadership training for women in the church.

International distribution of release from Mennonite Women USA

Additional photo available: Emelia Amexo (left), Ghana, and Manjula Roul, India, walking to worship services Sunday morning in Basel, Switzerland. Photo by Ruth Guengerich

Lancaster, PA—Both the welcome anticipation and the challenges of hosting the next Mennonite World Conference Assembly were evident in the meeting of the National Advisory Council held here March 22-23.

Council members, who represent the four inviting denominations, spoke of the “honour” and “privilege” of hosting members of the MWC global communion for the 16^th Assembly to be held July 21-26, 2015 in Harrisburg, Pa. They shared stories of the life-changing impact of relationships with Anabaptists from other parts of the world.

Council members agreed to help increase awareness and ownership of the upcoming assembly within their respective denominations. They will appoint members to a prayer network, a Finance Task Force and a Visa Task Force.

The Council approved a unified fundraising goal of $850,000. While most of the income in an assembly break-even budget of $2.8 million would come from registration fees, $400,000 will be required from fundraising. The overall goal also includes $150,000 for the Global Youth Summit and $300,000 for the travel fund for the pre-assembly General Council and the Executive Committee meetings.

An initial draft of the fundraising proposal included specific fundraising targets for each continental region within MWC. The Council raised concerns, however, about asking for specific amounts from less wealthy parts of the global communion for an event to be held in one of the wealthiest countries with MWC membership.

At the same time, the Council emphasized the importance of having each continental region take ownership—including in a financial way—of the assemblies. Representatives of each continental region will be asked how much money they can raise—over and above their fair share contributions for ongoing MWC operations—as the beginning of a pattern that will be used for future assemblies.

In response to concerns raised by the Young Anabaptist Network (YABs), the Council reaffirmed its commitment to do everything it can to make it possible for young adults from outside the U.S. to get visitor visas for the assembly. With this commitment, the YABs will not pursue the possibility of an alternate location outside of the U.S. for the 2015 Global Youth Summit.

MWC staff met with David Myers, Director of one of the U.S. Centers for Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, on March 26 to explore ways to best approach the visa challenge, especially as related to young people. Myers directs the center within the Department of Homeland Security; similar centers are located in numerous other government departments.

Council members include: Richard Thomas (chair), Elizabeth Soto Albrecht and Sheldon Good from Mennonite Church USA; Dennis Becker (officer), Lynn Jost and Ed Boschman from the U.S. Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches; Warren Hoffman, Don McNiven (secretary) and Chris Sharp from the Brethren in Christ General Conference; Lowell Bender and David Kochsmeier (officer) from the Conservative Mennonite Conference.

SIDEBAR

Howard Good appointed as National Coordinator

At meetings in Lancaster, the National Advisory Council appointed Howard Good of Lancaster, Pa. as National Coordinator for the 2015 MWC Assembly. In this position he will be responsible to lead the Assembly Logistic Planning Group, which will arrange things such as food services, transportation, lodging, local tours and others. For his MWC involvement, Good will be seconded for some of his time from his ongoing work as vice president for Association Engagement with Mennonite Economic Development Associates.

He will work as part of an assembly planning team directed by Liesa Unger, Chief International Events Officer, from Regensburg, Germany. She will lead the Assembly Program Planning Group responsible for the overall program, worship, workshops, assembly scattered and other areas. Also on the team is Bert Lobe, North American Representative, from St. Jacobs, Ont. He will coordinate the Visa Task Force, the Prayer Team and communication for the event. He will also provide leadership, along with Merle and Phyllis Good of Lancaster, Pa., in assembly fundraising.

MWC release

Photos available for Howard Good (save image above), Liesa Unger, Bert Lobe

Bettingen, Switzerland—Swiss Mennonite historian Hanspeter Jecker stood on the bank of the Limmat River in Zurich, Switzerland, near the site where Anabaptist martyr Felix Manz was drowned. He was speaking passionately to a group of international church leaders about the 16th century drowning.

Suddenly from the group came an outburst from Joly Birakara Ilowa from the Democratic Republic of Congo: ” I’m very happy to be here. If I were not already baptized, I would want to be baptized right here and now.” In Congo, he had learned and taught about his Anabaptist “ancestors”—but now that he was on the same soil as they, it meant so much more to him.

Ilowa, vice president of the Communauté Mennonite au Congo, was on one of three busloads of delegates who took a day during this year’s gathering of Mennonite World Conference’s General Council to tour landmarks of Anabaptist beginnings in the 16th century.

A grounding in historical and theological roots was a strong undercurrent for the triennial gathering, held May 20-26, at the St. Chrischona Conference Centre in Bettingen, near Basel, a Swiss city on the borders of both Germany and France.

The symbolism of the venue loomed large. Basel was an important crossroads for persecuted and migrating early Anabaptists, and for a century and a half, Mennonites and other theological heirs of the Anabaptists have come here for training in ministry.

St. Chrischona was also the site of the first and the fifth MWC assemblies in 1925 and 1952—in eras where the faces were almost exclusively white. This year’s General Council, by contrast, counted 105 delegates from 48 of the 54 countries of MWC membership. About 80% of these were from the Global South—along with 45 commission members and as many volunteers and guests.

Fittingly, “Revisiting our Vision,” was the banner for three reflection papers presented by members of the Council’s Faith and Life Commission and approved as resources for MWC member churches in exploring holistic ministry, the Anabaptist tradition, and the meaning of the biblical term koinonia (communion or fellowship).

Resourcing leadership and ministry

Far from nostalgic throw-backs to earlier patterns of church, the discussion papers and the decisions at this year’s gathering were about new ways that global Anabaptists can be the church together in a rapidly changing world.

With the appointment last year of César García of Colombia has come energy to adjust staff structures and working styles to anticipate even more networking among churches, especially between the international Assemblies that occur every six years.

In his opening address to the delegates on Sunday evening, García lamented the prevalence of “caudillismo”—the authoritarian, above-the-law style of leadership that prevails in his country, often feeding Colombia’s violent reputation.

“What kind of leadership does God want to see in society and in the church?” García asked. From the apocalyptic vision of the “lamb on the throne” in Revelation 7:9-17, García committed himself and called upon delegates to exercise leadership whose power is marked by vulnerability, love and hospitality. “Jesus invites the multitudes, creates space in his glory to receive them, focuses his attention on them, he suffers with them, and offers his wounds to heal them.”

In the ensuing days, many of the points discussed in regional caucuses and passed in MWC’s consensus style of decision-making, addressed structures to help its 101 member and associate member churches to work together at common issues and identity in an ongoing way.

García introduced a revised staffing structure appropriate to the shift of the head office from Strasbourg, France, to Bogotá, Colombia—a move to be completed in August. In order to develop administrative capacity, García said, there are plans to have a staff representative in each of the five continental regions. These will work with an Operations Team of “chief officers” that share the administrative load and multiply opportunities for MWC networking globally.

The Council’s four commissions appointed three years ago in Paraguay were given new support and clearer mandates. In addition to the teaching papers of The Faith and Life Commission, the delegates heard reporting and took action on a wide range of commission work.

Perhaps most dramatically, the Mission Commission took under its oversight the newly formed Global Anabaptist Service Network—a group of indigenous service agencies from all of MWC’s five continental regions—whose representatives had met a week earlier. The existing network already relating to the commission is the Global Mission Fellowship.

The Faith and Life Commission agreed to serve as a reference group for a “Global Anabaptist Profile” research project, to be headed up by the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism at Goshen College, in Goshen, Indiana. The institute is directed by John Roth, who is also the secretary for the MWC Faith and Life Commission.

The commission will also help facilitate and promote inter-church dialogue, such as recent conversations with the Seventh Day Adventists on common history; and dialogue with Lutherans and Catholics on baptism.

The Deacons Commission received approval of a protocol that will guide its engagement with member churches and their agencies facing critical needs. The purpose of the protocol is to ensure prompt communication and effective cooperation in addressing those needs.

The Peace Commission has been doing a “peace audit” to ascertain member churches’ involvements and desire in promoting the peace position. Also, the General Council supported a protocol developed by the Peace Commission to guide its possible involvement in internal conflicts of member churches.

It’s all about communication

To do all this work requires a growing investment in communication. That topic came up at many points—from pleas on the floor to make sure all documents are available well in advance in all three of MWC’s official languages (English, Spanish, and French), to calls for more storytelling.

Ron Rempel, Chief Communications Officer, presented a strategic communication proposal that included the updating of electronic communication for faster and nimbler dissemination that majors on stories. The MWC web site is currently being updated so that it can not only share information and stories, but also link with social media and serve as an interactive work station for the four commissions.

But the plan also acknowledges that large swaths of the MWC constituency—particularly in rural Africa, Asia, and Latin America—do not yet have easy access to the Internet, or are not connected at all. Key print resources such as the quarterly Courier-Courrier-Correo magazine, will continue to be needed.

Assembly 16 and beyond in view, President-elect named

Face-to-face gatherings will continue to be a mainstay of MWC life. General Council also heard endorsed plans for Assembly 16 in 2015. Dick Thomas, chair of the Assembly 16 National Advisory Council, and Assembly 16 National Coordinator Howard Good presented slides and plans for the assembly slated for July 21-26, 2015 at the Pennsylvania State Farm Show complex in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

The delegates pledged support for the plan, but urged the five US host churches to do all they can to facilitate the obtaining of visas, especially for youth delegates. Liesa Unger, MWC Chief International Events Officer, confirmed that a special committee will be devoted to help with visas, but also emphasized that each national church must work diligently and in advance to provide authorizations for their members to attend.

Subject to a feasibility study, the Council also accepted an invitation from the three Mennonite synods of Indonesia to host the 17th Assembly in 2021.

Finances in a global economy

Chief Operations Officer, Len Rempel, reported that MWC finances are in relatively strong shape, given the challenges of the global economy and the extra expenses of MWC’s leadership transition in the last triennium.

And yet, especially as expenses rise sharply in the two years before Assembly 16, delegates from almost all regions also acknowledged that the “fair share” formula for supporting MWC is a struggle. The formula, based on World Bank figures of average incomes, gives each member church a dollar amount that it is expected to contribute.

Even delegates from affluent countries expressed the challenge. The European economy has been in flux, and North American churches vary in their level of commitment to MWC as they deal with declining support for their own programs.

According to MWC Treasurer, Ernst Bergen of Paraguay, “Mennonites have a great gift in making money; there are many in our family who are very rich. The news that is not so good is that the money that is in their account is not making its way into our account. I would like you to help us in collaborating and talking to people who could be donating money for the work of the Lord.”

Len Rempel added: “If MWC is ours, let’s make it happen. If we can’t meet the challenge, let’s negotiate.”

In other significant actions, the General Council:

Ratified the Executive Council decision to accept into MWC membership the Mennonite Church of Chile, and into associate membership the International Brethren in Christ Association.

Celebrated the progress of the Global History Project, which has published four of five books on the continental regions, with the fifth to be completed this year. Among the titles, nine translations have already been completed, with more in process.

Recognized Pakisa Tshimika of DR Congo, for his longstanding service with MWC in several responsibilities—recently for his vision for the Global Anabaptist Service Network and his involvement in forming it.

Applauded the work of the Young Anabaptists (YABs) whose six-member committee had met the previous week to carry forward efforts at international networking and to plan the next Global Youth Summit, to be held in conjunction with Assembly 16 in the U.S. in 2015.

Gave permission to the Asia caucus to merge with the Asia Mennonite Conference, which has met for more than 20 years and has shared overlapping mandates with the caucus.

Conferred on Larry Miller the title of MWC General Secretary Emeritus in recognition of his 22 years of service before César García assumed the role in January 2012. Miller, who is now General Secretary for the Global Christian Forum, was feted in a special dinner and program Wednesday evening, along with his wife, Eleanor.

Byron Rempel-Burkholder
MWC News Service

 

Kinshasa, DR Congo—Two separate meetings of Mennonite World Conference (MWC) Africa representatives occurred on successive weekends at the end of October and early November 2011 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Together they marked the “end of the beginning” of a five year long process to put into place a new structure for fellowship and collaboration among MWC member churches in Africa.

The first gathering was a workshop of Central African MWC General Council delegates, while the second was the annual meeting of the Africa Caucus Executive Committee.

The new caucus process began In March of 2006 at the MWC General Council meetings in Pasadena, California, where delegates of African Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches agreed that the MWC Africa Caucus would serve as the continental conference for Anabaptist churches in Africa. An implementation plan was developed by MWC staff and approved by the caucus in July 2009 at the Paraguay assembly. Key elements of the plan were regional training workshops for African General Council delegates, and the creation of a caucus executive committee.

Regional workshops were subsequently held in Addis Ababa Ethiopia for Eastern African churches (August of 2010), in Accra, Ghana for West African churches (February 2011), and in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (March 2011) for Southern African churches. The Kinshasa, DR Congo gathering in October 2011 for Central African churches completed the regional trainings.

A combined total of 65 people participated in the workshops, including 35 of the 37 Africa Caucus members. During the workshops caucus members learned about MWC history and mission and the expectations of General Council delegates. Workshop participants also debated the newly developed statutes for the Africa caucus item by item, with each region making proposals for modifications.

Another key activity of the workshops was sharing the gifts and challenges of each church and each region. Many expressed the need for more exchanges among the Anabaptist-related churches of a given region. “Even though we’re not far from Kinshasa, we feel very isolated from other Mennonites,” explained Garcia Pedro Domingos, president of the Igreja da Comunidade Menonita em Angola (Community Mennonite Church of Angola). “It is only when we go to MWC assemblies that we meet our Mennonite brothers and sisters next-door.”

This sense of isolation and desire for more regional fellowship was expressed in every region. Theophilus Tetteh Akoso of the Ghana Mennonite Church gave voice to many when he stressed that “as a caucus we must find ways to strengthen our connections and sharing at every level.”

Africa Caucus Executive Committee members were glad to be able to meet in DR Congo, home to one of the largest bodies of Mennonites in the world. For most of the committee members, including MWC President Danisa Ndlovu, it was their first time in Kinshasa. Other committee members present were Thuma Hamukang’andu (Zambia), Mawangu Francisca Ibanda (Congo), Rebecca Osiro (Kenya), Emelia Amexo (Ghana), and Timothy Lind (Congo). Tigist Gelagle (Ethiopia), the Young Anabaptist network (YAB) representative for Africa, was also present as an observer, as was Toss Mukwa (Congo), consultant.

The primary agenda of the committee was to review the feedback coming from the four regional training workshops, and to prepare an agenda for the Africa Caucus meeting in May 2012 in Switzerland. After studying the proposed changes to the caucus structure coming from each regional group, the committee edited a revised constitution to be presented to the full caucus in May. They also heard reports from each of the four regions, as well as a challenge to incorporate the perspectives of youth in a report from Tigist on the YAB network.

On Sunday 6 November a special inter-Mennonite service was planned at the Mopulu congregation of the Communauté Mennonite au Congo (Congo Mennonite Community—CMCo). Mennonite congregations from throughout the city, and from all three Congo Mennonite conferences, as well as official conference representatives were invited to a joint worship and welcome service. Several choral groups, including the inter-Mennonite women’s choir, performed for the occasion, and MWC president Ndlovu gave a sermon based on Ephesians 4:17 and following, in which he implored Anabaptists to embrace unity and turn away from all manner of falsehood and corruption.

Despite a late start due to torrential downpours and localized flooding just prior to the service, an enthusiastic crowd was eventually on hand for the occasion. Rev. Joly Birakara, Vice-President of CMCo, gave an official welcome to the committee and also invited MWC to return in 2012 to participate in the events planned to celebrate 100 years of relationships between North American Mennonites and Congolese. “We want you to be with us not only when we are experiencing difficulties, but also on occasions of joy and celebration” Birakara said.

– Tim Lind, MWC Congo

After the General Council selected J. Nelson Kraybill (second from left) as MWC President-elect, the MWC officers—President Danisa Ndlovu (left) and Vice-president Janet Plenert (right), along with representatives from North American MWC churches such as Ervin Stutzman (second from right), offered prayers of blessing. – Photo by Merle Good

Bettingen, Switzerland—On May 25, delegates to the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) General Council selected J. Nelson Kraybill of Elkhart, Indiana, USA as President-elect.

He will begin his six-year term as MWC President in July 2015, at the next global Assembly to be held in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. As President-elect, he will participate in the annual meetings of the Executive Committee and in meetings of the MWC Officers—President Danisa Ndlovu, Vice-president Janet Plenert and Treasurer Ernst Bergen.

Kraybill is currently one of three pastors at Prairie Street Mennonite Church in Elkhart. He was President of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary from 1996 to 2008 and Program Director of the London Mennonite Center in London, England from 1991 to 1996.

He participated in the process of creating a statement of Shared Convictions, which were adopted by the MWC General Council in March 2006.

Kraybill was one of two nominees for the MWC President-elect position. The other nominee was Markus Rediger of Muensingen, Switzerland, a member of the MWC Executive Committee.

When Kraybill was asked to let his name stand for the role of President-elect, he felt as if his calling was complete. He called together a “clearness committee” of close friends in his congregation who helped him discern that he should indeed say yes if the call came.

After being selected in a close vote, Kraybill commented: “I am excited about learning from and with parts of the world where the church is growing,” he said. “I want to explore the missional energy of Anabaptism. I’ve known for a long time that Anabaptism in its origins pointed back to the vitality of the early church as a Spirit-filled, slightly chaotic and subversive mission movement. There are such winds of the Spirit in the world today. I hope my role can be as an ambassador from one part of the world to another, a conduit of insights, and a bridge-builder.”

After members of the Executive Committee and the North American delegation offered a prayer of support for Kraybill and thanks for two strong candidates, Rediger came to the stage to embrace Kraybill.

MWC release

Photo 1: MWC President Danisa Ndlovu of Zimbabwe and President-elect J. Nelson Kraybill of the United States participating in a prayer of blessing after Kraybill was chosen for his position by the General Council. – Photo by Merle Good

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Mennonite World Conference is a communion (Koinonia) of Anabaptist-related churches linked to one another in a worldwide community of faith for fellowship, worship, service, and witness.