\u201cOur duty is to bring peace and love.\u201d These words, relayed from Indonesian by a translator at the closing worship service of Mennonite World Conference\u2019s Assembly 17 in Indonesia, came not from one of the featured speakers but from the governor of Central Java. \u201cOur founding fathers gave us this mission of peace,\u201d said Ganjar Pranowo. \u201cThe truthfulness [of peace] has been embedded in every soul\u2026. The choice depends on us.\u201d<\/p>\n
His message fit seamlessly into the event\u2019s theme: \u201cfollowing Jesus together across barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly a thousand participants \u2013 seated one chair apart in careful adherence to local health pandemic guidelines \u2013 attended the closing ceremony. Some 600 participants took part in the full event with some 400 locals attending one or more day.<\/p>\n
Four groups of MWC leaders including a Global Youth Summit delegate spent four of the days with a local congregation. Each community \u2013 GITJ Jepara, GKMI Solo, GITJ Margokerto and JKI Ungaran \u2013 hosted one plenary speaker along with a dozen other MWC guests. The host congregations shared their life and ministry with their guests. Evening plenary worship was broadcast from these four congregations while the rest of participants gathered at STT Sangkakala in Salatiga and untold numbers watched online \u2013 live or later.<\/p>\n
There were plenty of barriers to cross.<\/p>\n
Wi-Fi internet was consistently unreliable; the web-based translation app was difficult to use for on-site French- and Spanish-language participants.<\/p>\n
Disruptions and distortions in the video feed, especially the first night, discouraged some online participants from tuning in again.<\/p>\n
Logistical challenges frustrated guests as did a scourge of lost luggage and delayed or cancelled flights.<\/p>\n
COVID-19 cases sent some participants into isolation. \u201cShowing regard for each other\u2019s health is an act of loving one\u2019s neighbour, Jesus called us to do,\u201d says Cynthia D\u00fcck, MWC regional representative and trained nurse, who supervised care. \u201cWe are grateful for our participants who sacrificially cared for each other whether through service or quarantining.\u201d<\/p>\n
The General Council meetings were truncated to prevent further spread and the registration process included a COVID test.<\/p>\n
Members of the choir and the interpreter team were affected, requiring flexibility and grace from all the remaining volunteers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly by God\u2019s grace, we could finish from one service to another while clinging our hands to each other,\u201d says Debra Prabu, international ensemble director. It was a masterclass in trust. \u201cI learned to be more humble, to respect my worship partners, to set aside some of my time praying for them and to forgive more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Incoming guests were tested upon arrival. Some, to their surprise, tested positive and had to be quarantined, missing the bulk of the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learned to have changed plans and hope and pray something good would come out of it,\u201d said newly invested president Henk Stenvers (2022-2028) at the closing worship. \u201cWe will work hard to make MWC a stronger communion\u2026that works together for shalom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thankfully \u2013 together \u2013 many barriers were crossed: from 58 countries around the world, Anabaptist-Mennonites came to worship and fellowship. Despite continued reverberations of the COVID-19 pandemic, friends \u2013 old and new \u2013 met face to face in Indonesia while many more joined online.<\/p>\n
Participants cared for each other. They cheerfully complied with required mask wearing, although face coverings usually came off for photos.<\/p>\n
Some volunteers became very familiar with the halls of the hotels, walking back and forth to deliver food to quarantined guests. \u201cThis service allowed me to share the love of Christ with people from different cultures, different languages and different ages,\u201d says Gracia Felo from DR Congo.<\/p>\n
A highlight of the plenaries for many was the 8-minute contemplative dance by Sufi dervishes to music by local church members at GITJ Jepara. The congregation works hard to build interfaith relationships that cultivate peace. \u201cRelating to another faith or religion is not just a church method to make peace; it is a part of the very identity of the church, without which the church will not fulfill its own mission,\u201d says pastor Danang Kristiawan.<\/p>\n
Plenary speakers courageously named challenges for the church on mission.<\/p>\n
Salome Haldemann reprised Ron Sider\u2019s call to train \u2013 and practice \u2013 for active peace work and nonviolence (page 7).<\/p>\n
Tigist Tesfaye Gelagle named the pain of racism and inequality (page 17).<\/p>\n
Nindyo Sasongko challenged Anabaptists to address injustices in the world like colonial, racism, misogyny, climate change, sexual abuse (page 20).<\/p>\n
In this majority Muslim country, both hosts and guests shared stories and teaching in plenary sessions, workshops and conversations about interfaith friendships.<\/p>\n
The hospitality of Indonesian hosts covered over the logistical blips with smiles, good food \u2013 and a lot of dancing. Numerous performances of traditional and collaborative styles of Indonesian music and dance demonstrated that Anabaptist-Mennonites not only know how to sing but also how to move.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am amazed at how things just fell into place in spite of everything and how our Indonesian brothers and sisters took care of everything, even going the extra mile to make sure things work out the way they should,\u201d says Jessica Mondal, coordinator of the Global Church Village (page 32-33).<\/p>\n
On half-day tours, participants encountered Indonesian history and culture (page 28-29). Learning continued in workshops on Bible study, creation care and interfaith dialogue (page 26-27).<\/p>\n
For the first time, an MWC Assembly was fully hybrid. Participants could register for an online experience that included not only exclusive access to the full plenary sessions, but also a chance to join workshops on Zoom, view vlogs from the Global Church Village and satellite sites and chat spaces to interact with other participants.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this type of \u201chybrid\u201d connectedness has great potential for strengthening the communion of Mennonite-related churches around the world,\u201d says Ray Brubacher. The former MWC event planner organized daily inter-Mennonite watch parties in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. A different church served as host for each event, sharing worship singing from their own community and streaming the plenary sessions on a large screen.<\/p>\n
The closing service highlighted all aspects of the Assembly program, including the children\u2019s & youth programs (page 30-31). The morning\u2019s emcee pastor Lydia Adi called up \u201cThe most important people in MWC\u201d to share songs they had learned in the children\u2019s program.<\/p>\n
John D. Roth of the Faith and Life Commission and Christen Kong, Mennonite Church Canada delegate from the Global Youth Summit (GYS) spoke on Renewal 2022 (marking 500 years of Anabaptism).<\/p>\n
\u201cI invite persistently people into God\u2019s Spirit. Jesus calls us to suffer together, to carry burdens, to journey together in a return to Jesus,\u201d said Christen Kong.<\/p>\n
And all too soon, it was at an end. Host pastor at Holy Stadium, Tina Agung continued the challenge in her closing prayer for MWC to \u201cBe a messenger of truth to all nation sand a bearer of truth to all the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amen.<\/p>\n