{"id":8056,"date":"2023-01-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/general-council-learns-about-unity\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T19:08:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T19:08:15","slug":"general-council-learns-about-unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/en\/stories\/general-council-learns-about-unity\/","title":{"rendered":"General Council learns about unity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe unity on the conference was more important than each position,\u201d says Paul Duck, church leader in MWC member church Conven\u00e7\u00e3o das Igrejas Irm\u00e3os Menonitas (COBIM) in Brazil. \u201cWe agreed to create a path or a highway, not too narrow but also not too wide where both groups could live peacefully.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>During online General Council resourcing sessions with former Mennonite World Conference (MWC) general secretary Larry Miller, Paul Duck shared about how the Mennonite Brethren church in Brazil learned to be one.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Each 109 MWC member church has 1-3 representatives on the <a href=\"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/general-council\">General Council <\/a>(based on church size). Their meetings in Indonesia were cut short due to COVID-19 infections among participants. So, General Council delegates gathered on Zoom for equipping and sharing 1-2 December 2022.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur consensus-based decision making is not practical with a large group on a medium such as Zoom,\u201d says C\u00e9sar Garc\u00eda. \u201cHowever, we can use Zoom to learn and pray together, to keep nurturing our worldwide communion.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Larry Miller gave teaching sessions entitled <a href=\"\/node\/4522\"><strong>MWC &amp; Communion<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"\/node\/4521\"><strong>MWC &amp; Leadership<\/strong><\/a>. Both can be viewed on the MWC website.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To illustrate \u201creceptive listening,\u201d Paul Duck told a story from his church\u2019s experience.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Some COBIM congregations were historically Anabaptist and predominantly Germanic. Others were Brazilian with strong influences from Pentecostalism. The sharp differences between the groups seemed to be headed toward a split.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>However, representatives from both groups agreed to talk together. Over several days, they agreed to <a href=\"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/sites\/default\/files\/resource-uploads\/mwc_gc_indonesia_2022_leadership_and_communion_script.pdf\">\u201crecognize Christ in one another\u201d (one of Larry Miller\u2019s points)<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe started with the definitions of what the Bible teaches about the topic. Each group had the opportunity to share about their understanding and the practical living of the explained topics,\u201d says Paul Duck.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>They entered the process Larry Miller called <a href=\"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/sites\/default\/files\/resource-uploads\/mwc_gc_indonesia_2022_leadership_and_communion_script.pdf\">\u201clearning receptively from each other.\u201d&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As a result of the conversations, \u201cthose in the traditional group agreed to be more open to the moving of the Spirit while those in the charismatic group agreed that they could be more focussed on the Word,\u201d says Paul Duck.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unity within the church was maintained peacefully, with openness to continually revising understandings.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt should be emphasized that God\u2019s Word should be the reference for unity,\u201d says Paul Duck.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccording to [the apostle] Paul, God\u2019s unity plan is immeasurably bigger than the plan we might have in mind,\u201d says Larry Miller.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe unity on the conference was more important than each position,\u201d says Paul Duck, church leader in MWC member church Conven\u00e7\u00e3o das Igrejas Irm\u00e3os Menonitas (COBIM) in Brazil. \u201cWe agreed to create a path or a highway, not too narrow but also not too wide where both groups could live peacefully.\u201d&nbsp; During online General Council [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[227],"network":[],"eventcategory":[],"class_list":["post-8056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-general-council"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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