Prayers of gratitude and intercession

Elkhart, Indiana – A quest to learn how Mennonite Church USA congregations and agencies find resources for their ministries brought Macaire Kilambo Kabanga and Roussel Kimakamba, lay leaders in Communauté Mennonite au Congo (Mennonite Church of Congo – CMCO) on a recent month-long tour of the United States.

“Our church is growing,” said Kumakamba, who is a national director of Congo’s social security network. “How will we find the resources to support this growth?” CMCO, a member of Mennonite World Conference, currently has close to 800 churches and 110,000 members.

In their exploratory trip that took them to Indiana, Kansas and Washington, the two Congolese leaders said they were impressed with how individuals give generously and voluntarily to church infrastructure and ministries.

“This sets a beautiful example for our congregations,” Kumakamba said. “However, so many of our members live in poverty that what they give is only sufficient to maintain the most basic infrastructure.”

Kilambo, who owns a trucking business based in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo, said that if resources were available, CMCO would have more influence to transform lives within the country and in surrounding nations. “We would have grown beyond Congo into neighbouring countries, because Congolese Mennonites have a strong missionary spirit,” he said.

The two men brainstormed about areas of development that could benefit their church: agricultural projects, animal husbandry, fish ponds, public transportation, building construction and the manufacture of furniture from Congo’s bountiful forests. “I’m convinced that if we bring together the innovations of North America and those of Congo, we will end up with good results,” Kilambo said.

Kilambo and Kumakamba paid for their travel expenses to the United States from personal funds. Their visit was hosted by Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission with help from Mennonite Church USA congregations and agencies.

From a Mennonite Mission Network news release by Lynda Hollinger-Janzen

Goshen Indiana, USA – In 2013, Mennonite Women USA’s International Women’s Fund (IWF) awarded scholarships totaling $10,500 to 21 women in India, Africa and Latin America. Scholarships are used by recipients in pursuit of theological training for church leadership.

Prospective students are referred to Mennonite Women USA by church leaders in their countries, or by North Americans who work with the churches in other countries.

Over the past 13 years, 75 women have been awarded scholarships, totaling more than $98,274. Women in 18 different countries have been assisted in their education through the efforts of the IWF.

Former IWF recipients Rebecca Osiro (Kenya) and Alix Lozano (Colombia) serve on the Faith and Life Commission of Mennonite World Conference. Another recipient, Sandra Campos, currently serves on the MWC Executive Committee.

Elizabeth Soto Albrecht, moderator of Mennonite Church USA, received IWF funds to study theology in Colombia, where she was ordained to Christian ministry.  

In September five women will be ordained by the Communauté Mennonite au Congo in Democratic Republic of Congo including Sidonie Swana Tangiza Tenda, who is an IWF recipient. Rachel Bagh teaches seminary in India and has participated in the formation of the Asian Women Theologians group. Other former IWF recipients are currently pastoring churches, teaching in colleges and seminaries, and actively participating in Christian education and community activities. 

The training provided by the scholarships is intended to help women across generations and cultures nurture their life in Christ, use their gifts, express their prophetic voice, minister to their local congregations and contribute to the leadership of the broader church.

The International Women’s Fund has its origins with the Women in Mission of the former General Conference Mennonite Church. For 20 years before the General Conference church merged with the (Old) Mennonite Church in 2002, Women in Mission funded many women with scholarships for theological education. 

– Ruth Lapp Guengerich

Basel, Switzerland – More than 1,000 people saw the movie “Peacemakers” at the Theodorskirch during the first Festival of the Night of Faith that took place in Basel on 17 May 2013.

During seven screenings between 5:00 pm and 12:30 am, the 25 minute movie created and produced by Max Wiedmer and his team attracted many visitors in a contemplative atmosphere.

The movie tells the story of a young boy in search of peace and security. The silent story, performed by three main actors, alternates with biblical readings about creation, Noah, Moses, Jesus the peacemaker, and Jesus the Saviour. Each reading is set to a modern-day sequence that illustrates its message.

Musical snippets from children’s choirs, as well as from a men’s choir from the Mennonite church of Geisberg and from the multi-artistic show from the Lightclubberz (a group of Mennonite youth) resonated with the chosen themes which were highlighted with light-painting. Most of the sequences were shot in the region of Basel and its surroundings.

The technical particularity of the movie is that it was shot with a camera tilted at 90 degrees and shown on a vertical format screen 11 metres (36 feet) high which filled the whole heart of the church. The current and animated pictures contrasted with the location, an old gothic church, while perfectly occupying the vertical central space.

The movie project started in August 2012 and mobilized more than 30 people, mostly from Mennonite churches in Switzerland, in collaboration with members of other churches. “Peacemakers” brought a touch of peace theology to the Night of Faith event. An upcoming project is to eventually create a 90 to 120 minute film.

This first Night of Faith was planned by the Association for the Promotion of Culture in Basel and supported by Protestant, Catholic and Evangelical Churches. The goal of this festival was to link the arts to the church. More than 70 events spread out on almost 40 locations (public plazas, churches, theatres, cafés) were offered at no cost to the public: concerts, mime, dance, poetry, drama, literature, sound and light, miniature art. There was something for every taste.

Several thousand spectators walked or took the tramway from one place to the other and the atmosphere was friendly. Included among the 300 artists were the singer Nina Hagen, the mime Carlos Martinez and the American pop-rock group, Jars of Clay.

Just before Pentecost, this festival blew a wind of faith on Basel. For further information, see www.friedeinhochformat.ch or www.nachtdesglaubens.ch.

Article by Michael Sommer, editor Christ Seul, the French Mennonite monthly publication.

Tshikapa, DR Congo – “We who were hidden in the shadows have just come out into the light!” exclaimed a young woman preparing for the ministry in the Communauté Mennonite au Congo (CMCo – Congo Mennonite Church) in a recent interview. “May this light last forever in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!”

Charlie Kasha Kamba, 21, from Nyanga, is one of four female first-year students, ages 21–62, enrolled at the Kalonda Bible Institute, located near the CMCo headquarters in Tshikapa. The Institute was founded by Mennonite missionaries in 1951 and has trained numerous church leaders.

On the brink of its centennial celebration in July 2012, the central committee of the church, led by Adolphe Komuesa Kalunga, approved the ordination of women. Inspired by this decision, a number of Mennonite women are seeking support to pursue theological studies.

Charlie says, “With the decision to ordain women, I decided to serve God in the ministry to contribute to the expansion of the Lord’s work in general as well as to the unity of Mennonites in particular.”

A cloth market in the exhibit hall of the Mennonite Church USA convention, 1–5 July in Phoenix, Arizona will fund scholarships for women preparing for ministry in the CMCO.

The Congo Cloth Connection, a project of Michiana Friends of Congo, conducts African fabric markets to promote relationships between Mennonites in the United States and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The project will give scholarship priority to women like the Kalonda students, who come from regions far from the capital city of Kinshasa.

“A silent voice has always convinced me to serve the Lord,” says another student, Thérèse Tudiakuile, 41, of Kananga. The mother of five is currently president of the Mennonite women of her province but says she decided to answer the call of God more specifically by studying for the ministry.

“Approval of women’s ordination is a great miracle for us,” Thérèse says. “It affirms our value as women in the church, especially in a culture that has treated women as objects.”

Générose Ngombe, 24, from Katanga province, is married and the mother of a son. Like the other women she has a missionary spirit.

“I answered the call of God like Samuel,” she says. “I would like the church to send me as a missionary to plant Mennonite churches where there are none. I am ready to serve my God everywhere. And my husband has decided to go with me wherever the Lord calls me to serve.”

Marie-Louise Tumba Yama says she will go “even to the remotest village to establish a Mennonite church.” Marie-Louise is 62. Her husband, Pastor Léonard Yama, is one of seven professors at the Kalonda Bible Institute, which currently has 35 students.

The Institute’s only female professor, Bercy Mundedi, will be among the first women ordained in the CMCO this fall. This conference is the last of the country’s three Mennonite conferences to approve women’s ordination. The Communauté des Églises de Frères Mennonites au Congo (Mennonite Brethren Church of Congo) has been ordaining women since 2000, and the Communauté Évangélique Mennonite (Evangelical Mennonite Church of Congo) followed suit last year.

“Support us in your prayers,” says Thérèse Tudiakuile, “so that we can complete our three years of theological studies.”

Article by Charlie Malembe and Nancy Myers. Contributions to the Congo Cloth Connection come through cloth markets held at church or may be sent to: Florence Church, 17975 Centreville-Constantine Road, Constantine, Michigan 49704.

A quilt top that will be quilted and auctioned at the Congo Cloth Connection booth in Phoenix. Photo by Jeanne Heyerly

Guatemala City, Guatemala – In a context of widespread poverty, violence, and competing religious currents, where do Anabaptist-Mennonite churches in Latin America find hope?

On 10-14 February, 137 Mennonite church leaders from 19 different countries gathered at a Catholic retreat center in Guatemala City for conversations around the theme “Toward a Ministry of Hope: social reality, faith, word and pastoral action.”

In addition to energetic singing, lively worship, a wide range of plenary sessions, and intense group discussions, the “Seventh Consultation of Anabaptists in Latin America” (VII Consulta Anabautista Latinoamericana) marked a significant step forward in forging a stronger regional identity for Anabaptist-Mennonite groups in Latin America.

According to several participants who were present at the very first consultation of Latin American church leaders in 1986, much has changed in the intervening years. “I was very impressed by the fact that all of the presenters were Spanish speakers, deeply rooted in a Latin American context, and by the depth of theological teaching,” said Tomás Orjuela Gutierrez, president of the Iglesia Cristiana Menonita de Colombia.

Sandra Campos, president of the Asociación Iglesias Cristianas Menonitas de Costa Rica celebrated the active presence of women at the consultation. About half of the participants were women. A significant number of youth also attended.

Plenary addresses challenged participants to a renewed commitment to a Christ-centred view of the church as a movement responding to human needs rather than a theological abstraction, an institution or a personal project of a charismatic pastor.

“The church,” insisted Gilberto Flores Campos in the opening session, “is a pilgrim people living in relationships – with Christ, with each other, and the society around them…. This means that its theology must always improvisational and dynamic.” Flores, from Guatemala, is associate conference minister in the Western District of Mennonite Church USA.

“The church engages the world not as its owner,” he continued, invoking an image that would recur throughout the consultation, “but as its guest. The church is a witness to the Good News, but we do not possess it.”

Jenny Neme, director of the Justapaz in Colombia, noted that only a small portion of the violence in Colombia – as in most countries in Latin America – is directly linked to armed combatants. The majority of violent deaths are associated with domestic disputes, street crime, and narco-trafficking that often reflects the structural realities of poverty, unemployment, and despair. In the midst of this suffering, hope emerges in the wholistic Christian witness of shalom.

“We are a people with gifts, talents and ministries, gathered in the name of Christ to share a message of nonviolence and hope,” she said. Neme spoke of the challenge of helping young men in Colombia find ways of resisting mandatory conscription into the army. She also called on Mennonites to integrate peace into every aspect of their daily lives, and to be open to forming alliances with other peace-minded Christians.

Daniel Schipani reminded participants that “God has hope in humanity,” and is “always inviting humans to a life of transformation into the image of Christ.”  He also challenged Mennonites to think of discipleship as citizenship in the world, attentive to the ways that God is at work outside the formal structures of the church. Originally from Argentina, Schipani teaches at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana.

Ofelia García, who works with Mennonite Central Committee in Mexico, highlighted the liberating gift of giving and receiving forgiveness as an expression of the Spirit’s presence. Fernando Pérez, a pastor in Mexico, called on congregations to challenge the divisive forces of culture by becoming truly integrated communities.

César García, general secretary of Mennonite World Conference, spoke largely out of his context in Colombia. But participants from many other regions expressed deep appreciation for his analysis of contemporary religious currents feeding into Anabaptist-Mennonite identity in Latin America.

García highlighted ecclesial models focused on reason (fundamentalist emphasis on doctrine), justice (liberationalist emphasis on social transformation), and experience (neo-Pentecostal emphasis on personal health, wealth and success), before describing an Anabaptist-Mennonite alternative understanding of the church rooted in scripture, discipleship, worship, and peacemaking.

The goal, García emphasized, is not to defend a distinctive identity out of arrogance or as an end in itself, but out of faithfulness to the Gospel in ways that seek to break down boundaries. 

One expression of unity among the various groups represented at the consultation was a growing sense of enthusiasm for the work of Mennonite World Conference. 

In the first of two sessions devoted to the organization, César García reviewed the history and vision of MWC, introduced the work of the four MWC commissions, and called on the churches of Latin America to take a stronger initiative in sharing their voice in a global context.

In a second session, García described preparations for the upcoming MWC Assembly in July 2015. An impromptu gathering of leaders whose groups are members of MWC following García’s presentation, took a significant step toward the reorganization of the Latin American regional caucus.

Several participants described the event as a landmark moment in an emerging Latin American Mennonite identity. César Montenegro, pastor of Casa Horeb, a Mennonite church in Guatemala, expressed appreciation for “the sheer fact of the gathering, and that so many groups were represented with a desire to share freely with each other.”

“Gatherings like this,” said Egdy Zambrano, pastor in the Iglesia Evangélica Menonita Ecuatoriana, “remind us that we are not alone.” 

Edgardo Garcia, a Baptist professor of church history who attended the first consultation in 1986 and has affiliated with Mennonites in Guatemala ever since then, echoed a similar sentiment. “We are not a perfect church, and all of us still have much to learn,” he said. “But the fact that leaders from so many different contexts can come together for conversations about faith and life, eager to put into practice what they have learned, is a reason for hope.”

The consultation was sponsored by Mennonite Mission Network, Mennonite Central Committee, Mennonite World Conference, and the Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Guatemala, with the primary organization leadership coming from the Seminario Anabautista Latinoamericano (SEMILLA).

Article by John D. Roth, who teaches at Goshen College in Indiana, directs the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism, and is secretary of the Mennonite World Conference Faith and Life Commission.

Grounded in hope, we are learning from our diversity

We convened [at the consultation] with the hope that moves us – the hope we have lived in our contexts and the hope we want to proclaim in Latin America. The lectures, the small group discussions, the sessions, as well as informal conversations, guided brothers and sisters in the challenges of thinking together on how to build committed faith communities in the different realities we live in our continent.

We are communities of diverse faith, in different contexts, so our concerns and pastoral practices range from working in urban to rural areas. Some are in solidarity with the struggle of indigenous people and others with the issue of undocumented immigrants. Violence as a product of youth gangs and armed conflict is the topic that concerns many. The pastoral response to, and inclusion of, sexual minorities and the full recognition of women and their gifts on an equal basis with men are also topics of interest to other brothers and sisters.

Yet, despite the different concerns, practices and emphases, we were able to celebrate and learn from this diversity during the week of the consultation. Could it be that above all these issues, our priority is our identity as an historic peace church?

Reflection by Luis Ma. Alman Bornes, a member of the Pastoral Council of the Anabaptist Mennonite Church of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He and Daniela Boyajián are in charge of the online AMLAC (Agencia Menonita Latinoamericana de Comunicaciones) Newsletter (www.amlac.org.ar). Bornes indicated that AMLAC will share the full text of the presentations at the consultation to make them available “to all brothers and sisters for communal discernment.” At the close of the consultation, Carlos Martínez of Mexico City shared a summary of Anabaptist affirmations emerging out of the gathering (click here). The affirmations were approved by those present.

Concerns about the situation of migrants in the USA was brought to the consultation, as there is a large Latino population in that country. Haroldo Nunes, from Brazil, but currently living in the USA, leads us in a prayer. Photo by Luis Ma. Alman Bornes

After each presentation participants divided into small groups to discern about the topic that was presented, and then share what they had talked about with the plenary group. People in the photo (from left): Daniel Schipani (with hand lifted; USA/Argentina), Tomás Orjuela (Colombia), Carlos Moreno (Colombia), Jamie Pitts (USA), Martha Gomez (Colombia) and Karen Flores (Honduras). Photo by Luis Ma. Alman Bornes

Chuncheon, South Korea – U.K. Anabaptist leader Stuart Murray explored the basics of Anabaptist theology, history and ministry with Mennonites in South Korea during a country-wide speaking tour 20 April-3 May.

During his visit Murray – author of the popular book The Naked Anabaptist (Herald Press, 2010) – engaged in conversation with Anabaptist leaders about ministry in a postmodern age.

“Stuart’s lessons had a great impact,” said Kyong-Jung Kim, director of the Korea Anabaptist Center and the Mennonite World Conference General Council member from Jesus Village Church, an MWC associate member-church. “Everyone walked away with something of value.”

For Kim, lessons about how the church can approach a post-Christendom era were important. “Even though Korea was never influenced by Christendom,” he said, “it was Christendom-influenced Christianity that western missionaries brought to Korea about 200 years ago.”  The theologies of both the Catholic and Protestant churches in Korea were developed under the auspices of Christendom, which differs from the Anabaptist free, peace church tradition, he said.

“No wonder it has been so difficult for Korean churches to adapt a different understanding of theology and practices from an Anabaptist perspective,” Kim noted. “Stuart Murray’s insights and teachings helped us to find different approaches to understand what it means to be a church and how to live out accordingly.”

Mennonite Church Canada – an MWC member-church – cooperated in bringing Murray to South Korea for the speaking tour.

Adapted from a Mennonite Church Canada news release by Deborah Froese

Bogotá, Colombia – This year, 210 leaders will complete Anabaptist education courses at seminaries in Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. Although the seminaries teach by “the book,” their students are far from traditional.

Most are church members with full-time jobs and families. One Saturday a month, they gather for a daylong intensive class, only breaking for lunch.

Each curriculum has a different structure, but they all meet the same need in each context: to raise Anabaptist leaders for a new and growing church.

The vision for this network of unique seminary programs began with the Seminario Biblico Menonita de Colombia (SBMC, or Colombia Mennonite Biblical Seminary). For more than 20 years, SBMC has educated and sent leaders for ministry throughout the world.

The fruits of SBMC’s labor started seminaries in Ecuador and Venezuela. In 2012, for example, SBMC alumni and Mennonite church-planting pastors César Moya and Patricia Urueña launched ProPaz (ProPeace), a seminary in Quito, Ecuador. Years earlier, SBMC adminstrators Alix Lozano and Zarai Gonzalia laid the groundwork for what is today Seminario Biblico Menonita de Venezuela (Mennonite Biblical Seminary of Venezuela).

Today, SBMC enrolls more than 100 students in at least one course per year in Colombia alone, and serves others through its network of satellite campuses. Enrollment is high, too, at the institutions in Ecuador and Venezuela, yet all three schools face challenges.

Nevertheless, leaders of the three seminaries report the great impact that biblical study makes in communities. “It’s worth the time and energy to develop pastors and lay leaders,” Urueña said, “because they are committed to serving their neighbors.”

From a news release by Mennonite Mission Network

La Laguna, Canary Islands – The green garage doors are unmarked, and there are no windows. The only hints of a church on the other side are the Sunday sounds of charismatic prayers and songs of praise.

Well, that, and also the lives changed by the many ministries taking place the rest of the week, spreading word of a new kind of church up and down neighborhood streets.

Iglesia Evangelica Manantial de Vida (Spring of Life Evangelical Church) is the first Anabaptist congregation in the Canary Islands, a chain of Spanish islands home to more than 2 million people off the coast of southern Morocco.

Just around the corner outside the church, the city of Santa Cruz spills down a steep slope to the island of Tenerife’s coast. The church’s impoverished La Cuesta neighborhood in La Laguna is next to a deep ravine, home to a few stacked shacks and dozens of dogs, their howls echoing from caves up and down the canyon.

Pastor Juan Ferreira had previously run a construction company behind the big green doors. Poor in funds but rich in passion, the church began when Ferreira and his wife, Lucy, felt God’s call to build a heavenly kingdom instead of earthly structures.

“God told me to close my company, and this is the garage for that company,” he said. “We began here with eight people and two mice.”

A stage with a pulpit and musical instruments replaced his office. Eight rows of benches sit in place of a truck. The building is owned by Lucy’s parents.

“Two years ago we prayed to the Lord, [asking] if this is the place,” Ferreira said. “My father- and mother-in-law hated the gospel. They live next door. The mother died. Today we see God has a purpose for this place.”

The church continued to pay the father rent, which he lived on, while the Ferreiras and the church worked to show God’s love.

“God has a purpose here,” Ferreira said. The father “was baptized a month ago. The testimony, God’s presence, is what made the change.”

Friendship connection

Through Ferreira’s work with The Gideons International, he became friends with Constain Carrillo, a fellow Gideon in Miami who has decades of experience as a pastor with the Brethren in Christ.

“Being my friend and knowing the legitimacy of his calling, I decided to introduce him to my Bishop Eduardo Llanes who, after one year of monitoring his ministry, decided to invite him to become part of the family,” said Carrillo, who this spring was appointed BIC World Missions regional coordinator for the Caribbean. “Juan enthusiastically accepted the invitation since he learned who we were and agreed to our Anabaptist view of Scripture.”

At that point, Ferreira put his own resources to work.

“They had no money to help, but I had a construction company,” he said.

Manantial de Vida, in addition to a sister congregation started six months later about 10 miles south in Añaza, are part of the U.S. BIC’s Southeast Regional Conference. In place of financial support to get started, the conference offered prayer. Ferreira was ordained and keeps in contact with a Southeast bishop.

The BIC?then commended the congregation to Anabautistas, Menonitas y Hermanos en Cristo – España (Anabaptists, Mennonites and Brethren in Christ – Spain) said secretary Dionisio Byler, who with his wife, Connie, are Mennonite Mission Network workers.

The fellowship of 12 churches and almost 500 baptized members is a Mennonite World Conference member and has connections to MMN, BIC?World Missions, Rosedale Mennonite Missions and Amor Viviente in Honduras.

Madrid-based BIC missionaries Bruce and Merly Bundy visited the church early last year.

“The rest of us got acquainted with the Ferreiras at our biennial convention held in October 2012,” Byler said. “In our yearly leadership retreat and leadership conference in February, the Manantial de Vidachurch joined our conference.”

Different kind of church

Tenerife has 900,000 residents squeezed into 785 square miles, and like mainland Spain, the population is overwhelmingly Catholic. However, Ferreira said his neighborhood has more Protestant churches than any other part of the island.

“Most people in this church are Spanish and Canarian,” he said. “In the other [Protestant] churches, it is only people from other countries. This is 90 percent Spanish.”

Locals, many of them unemployed, are drawn to how the congregation of about 70 expresses God’s love. Ferreira thinks of his pastoral role less as a teacher and more like a psychologist who emphasizes listening.

“The people see that I am closer. I understand them and I can help them,” he said. “We are together. The pastor is not up there [in the pulpit], far away. I am down here together.”

And word gets around.

“People come here from the testimony of others,” he said. “They hear what happened… . A woman came here with a cane; her knee was hurt for nine months, and we prayed for her. The next day she walked in on her own.”

Acts of God are complemented by acts of man. The church distributes items from a local food bank to people in the church and the surrounding community. On Saturdays, Ferreira picks up nearly spoiled produce to also distribute.

Anyone can come for free music lessons offered by members of the praise team. Lucy Ferreira – who also serves a pastoral role – gives reading and writing lessons to women from Romani “gypsy” families, many of whom were not allowed to learn such concepts growing up.

“I?have a conviction that the presence of God is what makes everything,” Juan Ferreira said. “If the presence of God is not in a place, things won’t work. The reason the church works here in this place is the presence of God. The people trust one another.”

Article by Tim Huber, Mennonite World Review. Distributed by permission

Quito, Ecuador and Bogota, Colombia – A reunion of the “Ecuador Partnership” brought together Mennonites from Ecuador, Colombia and the United States for March 2013 visits in both Ecuador and Colombia.

The partnership includes from Iglesia Christiana Menonita de Colombia (Colombian Mennonite Church), Central Plains Conference of Mennonite Church USA, and Mennonite Mission Network.

For four days partner representatives visited with congregations in Quito and Riobamba, Ecuador. Then, along with representatives of the Ecuador churches, they flew to Bogotá for a week of fellowship, learning and partnership meetings.

Leadership for Iglesia Cristiana Anabautista Menonita in Ecuador is being provided by César Moya and Patricia Urueña, MMN workers originally from Colombia. They have served in Ecuador since 2000. The conference in Ecuador has 3 congregations and 70 members. They have initiated the process of becoming associate members of Mennonite World Conference.

From a Mennonite Mission Network release by Holly Blosser Yoder

Cachipay, Colombia – Forty-nine women pastors and leaders met here 7-10 August 2013 to receive training on the theme of “Caring for ourselves and each other among women” – also known as “Sister Care.”

The event was part of the Anabaptist Women Theologians Movement of Latin America (MTAL) and brought together women of the Andean region: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, along with some from Argentina and the USA. The training was facilitated by Carolyn Holderread Heggen and Elizabeth Soto Albrecht of the USA. Sister Care is a ministry of Mennonite Women USA.

Soto Albrecht shared that many leaders give and give, but often do not stop and care for themselves. This workshop “became a time in which we pastored each other, walked with each other, and modeled what confidentiality and trust looks like in cultures where it is very hard to trust.”

The workshop began with an analysis of the Colombian context and its implications for the Andean region, and participants shared about the toll that 60 years of war has had on their country, their community, and their families. Time was given each day for personal reflection and profound internal work, and for sharing in community and supporting each other in sorrows and joys. Soto Albrecht described it by saying, “we held each other in our tears, and we held each other in our happiness.”

Many women were able to journey towards healing in this community. “God was there very much, present and tangible, through the love of these sisters and the openness of our spirits,” stated Soto Albrecht. “It was a privilege to be able to see and hear from sisters, with tears and profound conviction, that they were able to claim profound healing in those areas of their lives.”

This diverse group, with differing theological positions, was also able to dialogue over controversial issues the church currently faces. Daniela Velásquez of Peru, one of the youngest participants at the event, was greatly impacted by the way they were able to learn in the midst of these differences. “We were able to hear the opinions and ideas of each person, and learn to live with these views that differ from our own, in an atmosphere of respect and without imposing on others. In this way this gathering was a small step of joining forces, to listen to and respect each other in regards to our faith,” shared Velásquez.

Decisions were also made regarding the future of the Anabaptist women theologians’ movement in this region. A new facilitation team for the Andean Zone was elected, with a new model of shared coordination between two women, Martha Lucía Gómez, a pastor, and Zaraí Gonzalía, the executive administrator of the Seminario Bíblico Menonita de Colombia, the Mennonite Biblical Seminary of Colombia. They will be accompanied for the first year by outgoing coordinator Alix Lozano.

At this gathering the women also agreed to a fee for membership or participation in the movement, and to encourage the conferences to also contribute to the movement, as it currently has no ongoing financial support. A seed offering was initiated, with the plan of starting a fund which will serve in the future to sustain or support women’s incoming generating projects.

In Lozano’s report of the event, she expressed the deep gratitude of the participants for the support from the variety of people and organizations that made this gathering possible: Latin America Committee of the Council of International Anabaptist Ministries (CIMLAC), Anabaptist Women Theologians Movement of Latin America (MTAL), Mennonite Central Committee, Mennonite Mission Network, Justapaz, Schowalter Foundation, and the Mennonite Biblical Seminary of Colombia. Thanks were also expressed to the Anabaptist churches of the Andean region for their prayer support, and encouragement and support for the women participants.

News Release by Kristina Toews, MWC Web Communications Worker

Martha Gomez (left) and Zarai Gonzalia were elected to be the new facilitation team for the Andean Zone of the Anabaptist Women Theologians Movement of Latin America. Photo by Mennonite Women USA