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Prayers of gratitude and intercession

  • “Their commitment to passing down the message of peace and the gospel inspires me to live a sacrificial life for peace.” Stories of the early Anabaptist martyrs have shaped and inspired Mennonites around the world for 500 years. They continue to do so for suffering pastors in Myanmar, like the one quoted above.  

    From 25-29 November 2024, five MWC leaders, one MC Canada staff member and 17 pastors from Bible Missionary Church, Mennonite in Myanmar met in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a solidarity visit.  

    Myanmar’s years-long civil war has meant fear, violence, displacement and lost loved ones.  

    “The purpose of the visit was to learn how the global church can support the church in Myanmar during this time of suffering and oppression,” says Deacons Commission secretary Tigist Tesfaye. “And to foster mutual learning about peace and Anabaptism.”

    The solidarity delegates wanted to learn about the situation that the church in Myanmar faces. The challenges of living under military dictatorship have intensified for the church with the recent increased enforcement of mandatory military service.  

    The pastors shared about the burden of possibly being conscripted or having their young adults sons compelled – even kidnapped – into military service. They spoke about fasting from their one meal a day. They said they are sometimes regarded with suspicion by government forces and local religious leaders (Buddhist) for following what is perceived as a Western religion.  

    4 men and 1 woman stand in front of a tropical house
    The MWC delegation: Andrew Suderman, Andres Pacheco Lozano, Agus Mayanto, César García, Tigist Tesfaye.

    The visit was also a response to an invitation for learning about the Anabaptist movement. The schedule included sessions on What We Believe Together (Shared Convictions) led by César García, MWC general secretary. Peace Commission secretary and chair Andrew Suderman and Andres Pacheco Lozano led sessions that explored what it means to be a church dedicated to the ways of Jesus Christ’s peace. 

    There were teaching sessions and pastoral sessions with prayer times, time for discussion and mutual learning. And the pastors from Myanmar shared their experiences and what was on their hearts.  

    Agus Mayanto, MWC’s regional representative for Southeastern Asia, and Norm Dyck of MC Canada Witness led evening prayers.  

    Many of the pastors commented that the lessons on Anabaptist history and being a peace church were entirely new and opened a way to personal change and social change. 

    “They encourage me to view life and faith through a fresh lens,” said one pastor.  

    “I was inspired to learn more about peace – especially active peace as a way of living and responding to challenges,” said another.  

    “Understanding the history of the Anabaptist movement was a significant highlight,” said another. “I am committed to sharing the story of Anabaptism and its history with others.” 

    “When faced with conflict, we often feel limited to two options: seeking revenge or remaining silent. However, studying the Beatitudes taught me a third way: responding with peaceful action,” said another pastor. “This revelation was transformative for me.” 

    The solidarity visit concluded with the pastors from Myanmar highlighting particular ways forward for them to respond to their context. The group identified several ways to grow in the knowledge and practice of building peace as Jesus followers. Discussions groups, task forces and conferences – especially for the youth – were some of the suggestions.  

    How can you pray for Myanmar? 

    The pastors requested prayer  

    • For courage and skill to preach the gospel of peace. 
    • For the pastors to be faithful servants despite the persecution. 
    • For the soldiers who are also suffering. 

  • What do music star Shakira and biblical prophet Deborah have in common? In a special service on 6 September 2024, Riki Neufeld explored revenge songs through a peace lens with the Mennonite congregation in Hamburg-Altona, Germany. The Center for Peace Theology at University of Hamburg, Germany, and the congregation awarded the Menno Simons Sermon Prize to Riki Neufeld, pastor of the Schänzli Mennonite congregation in Muttenz, Switzerland. 

    Riki Neufeld was studying Deborah’s Song in Judges 5 around the same time when ‘I can buy myself flowers’ by Miley Cyrus and ‘Última’ by Shakira became hit songs. In these songs, the women process their heartbreak not by complaining about their suffering, but rather by settling the score through catchy lyrics such as “I can love me better than you can” or ‘you traded a Rolex for a Casio’.  

    Another catchy tune 

    Judges 5 is not a song of heartbreak, rather about settling score in a bloodier way. If anyone wanted to find a Biblical text to legitimize military support to fight tyranny, Judges 5 would be it, Riki Neufeld said.  

    However, it is not superior weaponry that wins, but God and the forces of creation that stand against the attackers. In verses 19-21 Deborah sings of the water, stars and brook of Kishon sweeping the enemies away.  

    And then, in verses 24-27, Deborah sings of Jael who killed the enemy Sisera. She does not hold back. She sings of how Jael “struck…, crushed…, shattered…. and pierced” Sisera. The mighty tyrant “sank…, fell… lay still between her feet, …dead.”  

    “I can imagine this would have been a catchy tune,” said Riki Neufeld. “Something difficult for us, as a peace church, to chew.” 

    A second look 

    “There is something satisfying about the story,” said Riki Neufeld. “We sympathize the people who were being unjustifiably attacked, rejoice when the tyrant was killed and the people liberated. But Deborah’s song does not end there.  

    In verse 28 of her victory song, she sings of Sisera’s mother’s grief over the killing of her son. 

    Deborah takes a second look and sees a common humanity: “Every soldier, whether Israelite or Canaanite, Ukrainian or Russian, Israeli or Hamas fighter, has a mother who fears for him,” said Riki Neufeld. “It is a task for the church to continuously sharpen this second look amid the conflicts of this world” – military, geopolitical or interpersonal. 

    “This mission that Jesus calls us to do has an element of impossibility about it… Seeking humanity in the enemy again and again – taking that second look – is not achievable through sheer willpower,” he said.  

    We can only live this mission through the power of the Holy Spirit within us that gives us purpose and the resilience to do this each day of our lives, he said. 

    The full version of this sermon was first delivered on 26 February 2023, one year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to the Mennonite congregation in Schaänzli, Switzerland. 

    Member of the judging panel Fernando Enns called it brave for a peace church member to face such a violent text. “It takes courage to preach when you don’t shrink away from the ambivalences of the text as well as our own experience …. It doesn’t calm you down but invites you to honest discussion – and in this way it provides a new perspective on God’s calling.” 

    “Our standpoint as Mennonites is clear: we are a peace church who love our enemies, but also hate injustices,” said Riki Neufeld. “Some people still struggle with how to reconcile the two and live this teaching on a day-to-day basis. This motivated me to send the text to Fernando Enns to be considered for the prize.” 

    Read more about the International Menno Simons Preaching Award here 

    The Center for Peace Church Theology at the University of Hamburg invites you to send your very special sermons by 1 December 2024 to participate in the international Menno Simons Sermon Award. You can find information about the awarding of the prize on the homepage in 4 languages: https://www.theologie.uni-hamburg.de/einrichtungen/arbeitsstellen/friedenskirche/menno-simons-predigtpreis.html

    and find out more about the Center in English on the homepage

    https://www.theologie.uni-hamburg.de/en/einrichtungen/arbeitsstellen/friedenskirche.html

     

    Riki Neufeld receives the Menno Simons Sermon Prize from a representative of the award committee.

     
    Riki Neufeld (third from left) with his mother Wilma Neufeld Kaethler (second from left).

     

  • A pastoral letter on October 7, 2024 

    Beloved brothers and sisters of the global Anabaptist/Mennonite communion: 

    With heavy hearts, we mark the one-year anniversary of terrible events that signalled the beginning of a new cycle of violence in the Middle East. We are heartbroken at the number of lives taken a year ago and since. We grieve the repression, the disregard for human rights, and the dispossession over decades that led up to the current crisis. 

    A year ago, Hamas fighters breached the militarized boundaries of the Gaza Strip and committed heinous acts in Israel. This attack left 1 200 Israelis dead, including nearly 400 soldiers. Some 250 Israeli civilians and security personnel were taken to Gaza as hostages. Israel responded with a horrifying year-long campaign of collective punishment on Gaza, targeting hospitals, schools, places of worship and journalists. The death count in Gaza is more than 40 000 and rising, with thousands missing or unaccounted for. Israel has prevented food and medical aid from entering the strip. Most recently, Israel has unleashed a ferocious military assault on neighbouring Lebanon.  

    As Christians dedicated to Christ’s way of peace, we reject war as a way to resolve differences. We stand with all who suffer today, whether Jewish, Muslim or Christian. At times, we feel helpless – even complicit – as trauma and prejudice accumulated over generations spill out in waves of hatred and destruction.  

    Jesus, the Prince of Peace, teaches us that war does not lead to human flourishing. Courageous love of enemies and nonviolent pursuit of justice for all is how we aspire to follow Jesus. Love trains our hearts to see God in the human “other.” Love gives us the courage to seek justice and to live rightly with one another. As followers of Jesus, we pray for that courage to love with transformative power. For it is love that offers a fundamentally different reality and future than the cycles of violence that oppress, suppress and kill fuelled by lust for power and mechanisms of death.  

    The global Anabaptist/Mennonite communion reiterates our call of October 2023 for all parties in this conflict to lay down weapons and begin the hard work of peacemaking. We call for the release of captives – both the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the Palestinian prisoners held illegally in “administrative detention” by the Israeli state. Where possible, we resolve to speak to our own governments and fellow citizens who may be giving uncritical support that perpetuates the ongoing conflict. 

    Justice must accompany peace, and all parties in this conflict have grievances. We confess our failure to listen well and to seek justice, to acknowledge the inadequacy of our wisdom. So, we call on the Holy Spirit to teach and equip us to act with humility and courage as we speak and act. 

    We pray not only for violence to cease, but for lands of the Bible to become a place of human harmony and diversity, where neighbours “sit under their own vines and their own fig trees” with no one to make them afraid (Micah 4:4). We reaffirm our conviction that

    “The Spirit of Jesus empowers us to trust God in all areas of life so we become peacemakers who renounce violence, love our enemies, seek justice, and share our possessions with those in need.”

    (Mennonite World Conference “Shared Convictions” #5)