{"id":8093,"date":"2023-05-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/a-witness-to-the-gospel-together\/"},"modified":"2024-12-09T17:14:16","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T17:14:16","slug":"witness-gospel-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mwc-cmm.org\/en\/stories\/witness-gospel-together\/","title":{"rendered":"A witness to the gospel together"},"content":{"rendered":"

One city, one decade, two movements, 500 years. Today, representatives of Mennonite World Conference (MWC) have embarked on dialogues with representatives of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), a movement that also arose in Zurich in the 1500s.  <\/p>\n

Four MWC representatives and three WCRC representatives began dialogues at Camp Squeah, B.C., Canada, for several days in March alongside the Executive Committee meetings.  <\/p>\n

Efforts, like the trilateral dialogues on baptism with Catholics and Lutherans, and the current dialogue with WCRC, are \u201ca critically important part of Mennonite World Conference\u2019s work,\u201d says MWC\u2019s policy on \u201creconciling our perspective.\u201d  <\/p>\n

\u201cRelating to other Christian world communions\u201d <\/a>is part of MWC\u2019s mission. MWC seeks to encourage greater unity within the global church through participating in dialogues that prioritize healing memories and restoring relationships. <\/p>\n

Historically the Reformed movement had \u201clethal hostility toward Anabaptists over baptism, the nature of the church and the use of the state to further and enforce the Reformation,\u201d says Thomas Yoder Neufeld (MWC Faith and Life Commission chair and member of the dialogue group). <\/p>\n

However, there are many ways \u201cin which our paths of commitment have converged,\u201d he says. \u201cOur dialogue becomes not a re-litigating of the past,\u2026 but a shared sense of the need to live into the unity Christ has created among often still estranged and even hostile members of the body of Christ.\u201d <\/p>\n

The dialogue group will work together on a statement that includes remembering our past together, confession and commitment to living into unity in Christ. The upcoming 500th anniversary in Zurich, Switzerland, forms the immediate focus of these efforts.  <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful to see sharp disagreements of the past make way for mutual learning and encouragement in living out a gospel witness in our complementary traditions today,\u201d says C\u00e9sar Garc\u00eda, MWC general secretary. \u201cIt will be a blessing to mark this 500th anniversary in Zurich amid this reconciling spirit of dialogue with the Reformed church.\u201d  <\/p>\n

There is a potential for dialogue to continue beyond 2025 with a focus on how the Mennonite commitments to peace and Reformed commitment to justice can find expression in shared work and witness.  <\/p>\n

MWC dialogue team <\/h4>\n