Stories

Deacons Commission secretary and Mennonite World Conference (MWC) president-elect Henk Stenvers and a Mennonite World Conference delegation consisting of Hanna Soren and Vikal Rao (Deacons Commission), Paul Phinehas (Executive Committee, Asia representative) and Cynthia Peacock (Regional Representative, South Asia) made church visits in India in December 2018. In Raipur, India, they participated in the dedication…

I was born as the third daughter at a Buddhist Zen temple in 1934. My father trained at Eiheiji Temple, the headquarters of the Sotoshu a sect of Zen. He always instructed his children to strive after virtue and be an example to others. My father taught me that a temple is a place of…

The International Community of Mennonite Brethren (ICOMB) is made up of 21 national churches in 19 countries with approximately 450,000 members. ICOMB exists to facilitate relationships and ministries to enhance the witness and discipleship of its member national churches – connecting, strengthening and expanding. CEFMC mourns The ICOMB family joins brothers and sisters of the…

“The church must do its job, offering people charity and spiritual teaching, so that a person may be transformed,” says Safari Mutabesha Bahati. Mennonite Association for Peace and Development (MAPD) in Malawi, a member of the global Anabaptist Service Network, supports both through a women’s sewing ministry that includes trauma healing for residents of Dzaleka…

For the first time in more than a decade, Anabaptist church leaders from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela gathered together, 9–12 November 2018, in La Cumbre, Valle, Colombia. They studied the Bible, sang in community, and listened to each other around the theme “The Church as an Agent of Hope in the Socio-Political Context of…

The International Brethren in Christ Association (IBICA) is the common network for all national conferences of the Brethren in Christ church with the aim to facilitate communication, build trust and cooperation within our global community, and to establish common and mutual understanding through our set of core values. An associate member of MWC, IBICA has…

At Renewal 2027 – The Holy Spirit Transforming Us in Kisumu, Kenya, 21 April 2018, several people shared a testimony of experiencing the Spirit’s work changing people in the church. The columns in this section have been adapted from their presentations. I remember the moment when my family arrived at the Mennonite church in Ibagué…

Mennonite pastor Jürg Bräker stopped at Messenger Fountain [Läuferbrunnen] in his home city of Bern, Switzerland. He wet his hands in the flowing spout, and declared, “This water turned blood-red on the day Hans Haslibacher was beheaded in 1571.” Today, Amish still sing from the Ausbund [hymnal] about Haslibacher, the last Anabaptist executed in Bern.…

Strengthened by emergency food, 700 families displaced by violence in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) are preparing to plant crops and to raise pigs to support themselves. In partnership with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and other partners, three Mennonite World Conference member churches in DR Congo (Communauté des…

Text: Lukas 4:18-21 (Neue Zürcher) L: Der Geist des Herrn ruht auf mir, weil ermich gesalbt hat, Armen Gute Nachricht zu verkündigen. Alle: Vergib uns, Herr, wenn unsere Taten nicht dem entsprachen, was Gute Nachricht für die Verletzlichsten ist. L: Er hat mich gesandt, Gefangenen Freiheit Alle: Vergib uns, Herr, wenn wir uns nicht um…