Prayers of gratitude and intercession

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    Like the chambers of a heart, the four MWC commissions serve the global community of Anabaptist-related churches, in the areas of deacons, faith and life, peace, mission. Commissions prepare materials for consideration by the General Council, give guidance and propose resources to member churches, and facilitate MWC-related networks or fellowships working together on matters of common interest and focus. In the following, one of the commissions shares a message from their ministry focus.

    Some of the most succinct yet powerful words of Scripture guide the church into its vocation of peace, justice and reconciliation.

    So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near (Ephesians 2:17).

    For he is our peace (Ephesians 2:14).

    and has given us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).

    Be at peace among yourselves (1 Thessalonians 5:13).

    Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways (2 Thessalonians 3:16).

    Pursue peace with everyone, (Hebrews 12:14)

    seek peace and pursue it (1 Peter 3:11).

    And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace (James 3:18).

    Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (John 20:21).

    It is clear that God wants to reconcile the world to its intended purposes. It is also clear that Jesus understood his ministry to be one of peace, and that the vocation of the church is meant to be a vocation of peace, justice and reconciliation.

    Dann and Joji Pantoja, Mennonite workers in the Philippines, summarize this intention of God in the following way:

    Peace with God (hands and arms raised upward);

    Peace with ourselves (hands and arms crossed over the chest);

    Peace with others (extending hands to persons next to us);

    Peace with creation (sweeping motion of hands and arms).

    This small exercise captures well the all-inclusive purpose of God’s plan for peace. It points to the essential ingredients of God’s peace for the world: dependence on God, conversion and inner transformation, social justice and community solidarity, and concern for all of creation. This reflects the comprehensive plan of God as indicated in Ephesians:

    a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth (Ephesians 1:10).

    Anabaptist churches around the world have taken this vocation of “gathering up all things” seriously. The Peace Commission estimates there are more than 70 programs, schools, organizations and initiatives connected to MWC’s member churches who are dedicated to training, research, teaching, consulting and acting for peace. In addition, there are some 10,000 primary peace “agencies” of MWC, namely the local congregations of our member churches. God calls each one to the vocation of being a peace presence in its context.

    This vocation is not simple. In response to a survey the Peace Commission of MWC conducted a few years ago, congregations spoke of the challenges that each context presents. In southern India, they identified the caste system as a major challenge to peace. In the USA, they identified materialism, nationalism and militarism. In Canada, wealth was named. In Colombia, they spoke of efforts to end the civil war. In Europe, they mentioned the work with refugees. In some places, it was natural disasters of famine and floods. In other places, being witnesses to peace is risky and generates persecution against the church.

    The pursuit of being a “peace church” and embodying God’s lofty vision has led peace-concerned organizations, agencies, schools and programs of our churches around the world to explore forming a Global Anabaptist Peace Network. This will allow these church-related “fruits” to share information, generate partnerships, witness to best practices and offer solidarity with one another in the ongoing quest of embodying God’s shalom in our world.

    This developing effort is one more way that the power of the Word of God is shaping the work of Mennonite World Conference and its Peace Commission along with our member churches and their fruit.

    May God continue to grant us the wisdom and courage in being agents of God’s revolutionary peace, justice and reconciliation in our world.

    —Mennonite World Conference release by Robert J. (Jack) Suderman, who is a member of the Peace Commission. He lives in Canada.

  • Bogotá, Colombia – Maria Justa Ipanaque (34) never imagined that she would ride in a helicopter. The small-scale farmer who lives with her husband Ezequiel Ramos Sánchez (40) and five children in Chato Chico, Piura, Peru, became trapped in her house 7 March 2017 when a burst canal released El Niño floodwaters across the plain.

    “I was concerned about saving the animals,” says Ipanaque. “Suddenly, I was trapped. The water had risen considerably, and it was impossible to get out.” Ramos swam 40 metres to safety, but Ipanaque stayed in the house for several days until she was evacuated by helicopter. “I knew nothing of Ezequiel, but I was confident that he was alive and the children were with my mother-in-law,” she says.

    Ipanaque and Ramos lost the rice crop they’d sown on their half-hectare plot, in which they invested approximately 3,000 soles.

    Months later, they are living in a tent on a lot they received from the government in Nuevo Paraíso, farther away from their farm. “We know that now we cannot live near the farm, but we can use it to plant our food and get some income.” They hope to build a home on their new plot.

    “God knows all our needs,” says Ipanaque, who continues to hope for a better life and more education for her children.

    The flooding, which affected the 11 Mennonite Brethren congregations of Conferencia Peruana Hermanos Menonitas (CPHM), killed more than 100 people and affected more than a million people, more than 19,000 of whom were still living in temporary shelter months later. Houses, education and health facilities, and sanitation infrastructure were damaged and many crops were destroyed, affecting livelihoods.

    Mennonite World Conference is facilitating interdependent disaster response with all Anabaptist partners to support the Peruvian MB church help their members and their communities.

    MWC brought together MB Mission, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and ICOMB to form a steering committee resulting in the appointment of Antony Sanchez as disaster coordinator for a six-month inter-Mennonite response, jointly funded by MCC and MB Mission.

    Previously experienced with facilitating church participation in community disaster response with MCC and Mencoldes (a development program of the Mennonite and Mennonite Brethren churches of Colombia), Sanchez will assess needs, advise and train the disaster response committee and local groups formed by CPHM, and communicate with the involved organizations.

    In the immediate aftermath of the flooding, MWC, MB Mission, ICOMB and MCC supported the Peruvian church to distribute water, food, kitchen utensils and economic support. MWC regional representative Pablo Stucky conducted trauma accompaniment and resilience workshops, and the MWC Deacons Commission provided funding.

    The inter-Mennonite effort will help CPHM provide humanitarian assistance to affected families in the cities and surrounding communities in Piura department and La Libertad departments. The project will include installation of water tanks in one community to improve basic health and sanitation; reconstruction and renovation of damaged homes for 55 families; and provision of support for the recovery of agriculture and other livelihoods for 50 families.

    In addition, the project will provide training in disaster preparedness, trauma healing, sanitation and capacity building for church leaders.

    The MWC Deacons Commission will send another delegation in October 2017 to encourage the church and offer more workshops in trauma healing, disaster preparation and health basics.

    MWC and the other Mennonite partners are “God’s blessing to us,” says CPHM leader Antonio García. “It makes us feel responsible and committed, this opportunity will be a blessing for the churches here in Peru and a testimony for the community. As a church, we share the needs of the community.”

    “I feel blessed and grateful to have five children and that everyone is preparing and educating in order to have a better condition of life,” says Ramos. He and Ipanaque are members of the Mennonite Brethren church in Chato Chico. They are one of the 105 families who receive support from the program to improve housing and rehabilitate livelihoods.

    “We thank God for the help we have received through the church.”

    —a joint release of Mennonite World Conference, MCC, ICOMB and MB Mission

    Donations can be sent to MCC marked “Peru Disaster Response” or donate at www.mcccanada.ca (in Canada) and www.mcc.org (in the U.S.).

  • Akron, Pennsylvania, USA – A collaborative Anabaptist response will soon reach some of the 1.4 million people displaced by armed conflict in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) with food, household items and shelter supplies.

    The response, shaped and implemented by Congolese Mennonite and Mennonite Brethren church-based relief committees and coordinated by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), is supported by Mennonite World Conference (MWC) and other Anabaptist church organizations.

    The crisis began a year ago when a local militia group called Kamuina Nsapu and national security forces clashed over a political appointment. The armed conflict has escalated, and both militia and security forces have targeted civilians with forced conscription, mutilation, rape and mass killings.

    “It’s been hell on earth for a lot of our people, not only Mennonite people, but many peace-loving people in the same area that have gotten caught up in this maelstrom,” said Rod Hollinger-Janzen of Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission (AIMM).

    Among the people displaced in DR Congo are at least 8,000 Mennonites. “There is no place where this conflict has gone where there are no Mennonite churches,” said Hollinger-Janzen.

    Church leaders report that 36 Mennonites have been killed among the UN-estimated 3,300 deaths since October last year. Church buildings and church schools have been damaged or destroyed.

    National and local Mennonite leaders in DR Congo – from MWC member churches – are key to the response, which will initially focus around the cities of Tshikapa in Kasai Province and Kikwit in Kwilu Province, where many people have fled. The leaders represent Communauté Mennonite au Congo (CMCo; Mennonite Church of Congo) and Communauté des Églises de Frères Mennonites au Congo (CEFMC; Mennonite Brethren Church of Congo).

    “MWC is playing in important role today: that of bringing the members of our Mennonite family together to promote unity and fellowship and to support one member who is suffering (the Congolese Mennonites,) using its arm embodied by the various partners, united in action so that they are more efficient,” says a Congolese church leader (name withheld for security reasons). “Through this action, Mennonites will be able to share the Mennonite values that are almost unheard of in the Congo. I think that our churches will enlarge their tent.”

    A Congolese assessment team visited the Kasai region in July and found a severe lack of food and increasing malnutrition. Families had to leave their fields and animals when they fled the violence, and food that is available for purchase is very expensive.

    “Many people are going hungry or eating once a day,” said Mulanda Jimmy Juma, MCC representative in DR Congo.

    In addition, families lack basic supplies such as bedding, kitchen tools and cans for carrying water, the assessment team reported.

    “MWC supports the Mennonite national churches CMCo, CEFMC and Communauté Evangélique Mennonite, and those in Angola who are also helping Congolese refugees,” says Deacon Commission secretary Henk Stenvers. “MWC links our struggling members to the global church with calls for prayer, financial support and by sharing information about the situation.”

    Seven Anabaptist organizations are working together to raise funds and awareness of the crisis, which has been largely ignored by Western media. They are International Community of Mennonite Brethren, MB Mission, Mennonite Church Canada Witness, and Mennonite Mission Network, in addition to MWC, AIMM and MCC.

    Contributions to the emergency response in DR Congo may be made online at mcc.org/congo-relief.

    – an MCC release with files from MWC.

    Communicate community

    As you pray for brothers and sisters suffering violence and displacement in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mennonite World Conference invites your messages of encouragement and solidarity to share with our churches there.

    Take a picture with your congregation and a sign labelled “Prions pour la RDC” (Pray for the DRC). Please email messages and photographs to photos@mwc-cmm.org and post on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) with the hashtag #mwcmm.

     

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  • 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.

    Jesus said, “In the world you will have trouble.” The news reports: hurricane, typhoon and El Niño flooding; earthquakes; political leaders creating trouble. Jesus said, “Do not worry. I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

    Good news

    DRC

    In the city of Kikwit, at the headquarters of our MB church, over 5,000 displaced persons were welcomed. Many of them are staying with Mennonite Brethren families.

    Angola

    ICOMB has set up a 2-year plan to support renewal and cultivate a new pattern of local church giving to the conference (IEIMA). We are raising funds for meeting expenses and for churches taking in refugees from the Congo.

    Worldwide

    The Global Scholarship Fund received a gift last month. This enabled us to provide scholarships for all eligible applicants this year!

    —David Wiebe, executive director

  • 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.

    The Crisis in Congo

    A contact (who we can’t identify for security reasons) shared about a Congolese church worker who said: “I have talked with many people who have seen their loved ones hacked to death. They are now living with hunger, lack of medical care and a dullness of spirit that surely must be [psychological] protection against too much spiritual and emotional pain.” Armed conflict has displaced 1.4 million people including 8,000 Mennonites in Congo. People have fled, leaving fields and animals behind.

    Our Mennonite Brethren members are taking in refugees – also on the Angola side of the border. Please pray for Gerard Mambakila, president of CEFMC (MB conference), and for the Communauté Mennonite au Congo who have appointed key people to work on this crisis. Your prayers mean a lot! Seven Anabaptist organizations are working together to raise funds and awareness of the crisis, which has been largely ignored by Western media: International Community of Mennonite Brethren, MB Mission, Mennonite Church Canada Witness, and Mennonite Mission Network, in addition to MWC, AIMM and MCC.

    Read more about the crisis and MWC’s response here.

    —David Wiebe, executive director

  • Serving in an area of the world relatively close to your home country where the dominant language is the same as your own might seem relatively easy. But Young Anabaptist Mennonite Exchange Network (YAMEN) participants who hail from Latin American countries and are serving in other countries in the same region are seeing differences first-hand.

    YAMEN is a joint program between MCC and Mennonite World Conference, a global community of faith in the Anabaptist tradition. An important part of the program is making connections between Anabaptist churches in different parts of the world.

    YAMEN workers come from countries outside of Canada and the U.S. and do their service work outside of both of those countries.

    Here are the stories of some of the Latin American YAMEN participants:

    Erica VanEssendelft)

    Juan Torrico Soliz – Bolivian serving in Mexico

    Juan Torrico Soliz, 21, comes from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, and is serving in Mexico City as a hospitality assistant at Casa de los Amigos, where he also lives. Prior to moving to Mexico, Soliz studied Tourism and Hotel Management and worked at a daycare.

    One of the biggest shocks for him was moving to a city with 21.2 million people. Greater Mexico City dwarfs his hometown which is home to just over one million people. It was also challenging for him to adjust to a more structured day.

    “Lunch here [in Mexico City], depending on where you work, is one to two hours long, but in Bolivia everything would close down at lunch. Here, I’ll eat lunch between 3 and 4 in the afternoon, but at home, I’d eat around 12 or 12:30. The schedule during the day is so different, and it was really hard to get used to,” Soliz said.

    Like the others, he had odd encounters in his mother tongue.

    “In Mexico, a straw to drink out of a cup is popote, but in Bolivia it’s bombilla, In Mexico bombilla means lightbulb, so it just makes for some funny interactions,” Soliz said with a laugh.

    He is one of the few YAMEN participants who isn’t living with a host family. Still, he says it’s important to seek out people locally to build relationships.

    “Even though I’m not living with a host family, I think it’s important to find a balance between finding support in your host country and talking to family,” he said.

    Rebecca Smucker)

    Juliana Arboleda Rivas – Colombian serving in Bolivia

    Hailing from Quibdo, Chocó, Colombia, Juliana Arboleda Rivas is serving in Santa Cruz, Bolivia in Stansberry Children’s Home.

    Rivas said pastors in her home community noticed the passion she has for service and encouraged her to do YAMEN.

    “It’s been a very rich experience. I don’t have words to express the happiness that I feel. Happy happy happy happy,” she said with exuberance.

    “I knew it was going to be different, but I was ready for anything. My name is Juliana, the brave woman ready for challenges.”

    Rivas said she has learned key lessons along the way.

    “I’ve learned about teamwork, the value of service and the love and dedication you give without expecting things to change,” Rivas said. “I’m happy to get to know people who enrich my life.”

    Andrew Claassen)

    Jhon Alex Martínez Lozano – Colombian serving in Nicaragua

    Jhon Alex Martínez Lozano comes from the town of Basurú in Chocó, Colombia where he worked in a gold mine, volunteered with the Mennonite Brethren church in town, and studied radio journalism. Through YAMEN, he serves as a community assistant with an organization called Podcasts for Peace in Nicaragua’s capital Managua.

    Lozano was concerned his Colombian ethnicity would be a barrier to integrating into the community.

    “Before coming here I was worried about racism, that maybe there’d be discrimination because I’m Colombian and because Colombia has been vulnerable to drug addiction and trafficking,” he explained. “There have been a few times where people have talked to me or brought that up, but it hasn’t been bad.”

    In fact, Lozano was warned about working at Podcasts for Peace because of the area’s reputation for crime.

    “I don’t walk around with fear worrying about who is going to hurt me or rob me because I feel like I’m with family there,” he said.

    “One day I was talking with a family in Acahualinca and I was telling them about it (the public perception of the area) and the family told me that they wouldn’t let anything happen to me, so that helped me feel a lot more secure and safe.”

    Lozano said YAMEN allowed him to explore his faith further and in different ways, and taught him to interact with people he’s never related to before.

    “My time here in Nicaragua has been a time for God. I’ve learned a lot and I’m going to keep learning,” Lozano said. To learn more about YAMEN, visit mwc-cmm.org/yamen.

    Article by Rachel Bergen

     A Mennonite World Conference and Mennonite Central Committee joint release.

  • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada – “The situation is very serious,” says Francisca Ibanda, Mennonite World Conference regional representative for Central/West Africa.

    The UN expects more than 50,000 people from DR Congo to become refugees in Angola in 2017, fleeing violent attacks in the central region. From 1,000 people in March to 20,000 in May, the number continues to grow, influenced also by the overall economic, social and political insecurity prevailing in the Central African region, Ibanda says.

    Many Mennonite church members of Communauté Mennonite au Congo from the Kasaï provinces have fled to neighbouring Bandundu province or crossed the border to Lunda Norte province in Angola.

    A number of Mennonites taking refuge in Angola prefer to join a local Mennonite church rather than living in a refugee camp, reports Ibanda. She gives the example of Mennonite pastors Moise Kalondji and Malu Bakatuambisha from Tshikapa, DRC, who are sheltering with a Mennonite pastor in Angola. Kalondji is with his eight children, but Malu is seeking to be reunited with his four children who became separated from him in Congo.

    “Pray for peace,” says Ibanda.

    Angola faces its own economic challenges in the face of falling oil prices. The Mennonite churches in Angola, historically formed of refugees themselves, are responding out of their own poverty.

    —Karla Braun, Mennonite World Conference release

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  • Mennonite World Conference weaves a web of connections within the Anabaptist Mennonite family around the world through website, emails, social media, publishing and relations with other organizations. Several new connecting points are emerging over the past half year.

    • “A renewed peace church builds bridges” is the theme of this year’s Peace Sunday worship package. It contains sermon notes from Thomas Yoder Neufeld on “Christ is Our Peace” from Ephesians 2:11–22, stories from Anabaptist peacebuilders in Indonesia, Colombia and Zambia, prayers and object lesson suggestions. MWC releases three worship resource packages yearly: World Fellowship Sunday materials for 25 January, Peace Sunday resources for 21 September and a package assembled by the YABs Committee (Young Anabaptists) for youth/young adults to use during the third week of June.

    Click here to download the Peace Sunday materials.

    • Regional representatives are expanding MWC stories into languages beyond the official English, Spanish and French. Issues of Courier magazine may now be found in Chinese, Korean and Japanese and select issues of Info, the monthly e-newsletter, are available in Hindi, Korean and Japanese. Chinese translations of Info are available since February 2017.

    Go to mwc-cmm.org/courier to read Courier magazine online in these languages. Email bogota@mwc-cmm.org with your language preference to join a targeted mailing list.

    • The insights and inspiration from Assembly 2015 can be re-experienced in the Proceedings Book. Published February 2017, the volume collects plenary speeches, ecumenical greetings, worship resources, program listings and more.

    Visit www.mwc-cmm.org/pa2015proceedings to view or download the book.

    —Karla Braun, Mennonite World Conference news release

     

  • Renewal 2027 testimony: Anabaptists today

    Renewal 2027 is a 10-year series of events to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the beginnings of the Anabaptist movement. This series highlights leaders in the movement from history to the present. In this installment, KyongJung Kim, MWC regional representative for Northeast Asia, reflects on his visit with Eun Hunki (Takai Satoshi in Japanese), a Korean Mennonite farmer living in Japan. 

    Eun Hunki’s Mennonite Dairy Farm is located 40 min from Hukuzumin Mennonite Center, Hokkaido, Japan.

    Eun is a 1960s graduate of Mennonite Vocational School in Kyungsan, South Korea. When Mennonite Central Committee came to do relief work in South Korea after the Korean War, they set up a vocational school for orphan boys like Eun. The students learned not only academic knowledge but also Mennonite faith-based values, some of which were different from what Eun had learned before.

    His life was not easy, but he never failed to carry the spirit of Jesus that the Mennonites taught him through his vocational school years in 1950–60s. After graduation, he studied dairy farming and finally moved to Hokkaido, Japan, to live with his family.

    After many years of hard work, Eun established a Mennonite Dairy Farm in Hokkaido 2007. His farm signboard says: “In memory of Mennonite Christians serving in the name of Christ at the Mennonite Vocational School in Korea 1951–1971” He hopes his life and work contribute to the kingdom of God.

    Eun’s life journey took him into a foreign land to make a new home. (Many Koreans experienced Japanese colonial rule of Korea 1910–1945 as harsh and oppressive.) For Eun, reconciliation is an ongoing process for him; he is choosing to follow the way of Jesus even in a what might be called an enemy country. He is an example of how a victim can be transformed to produce fruit of the Spirit that is beneficial for all in God’s kingdom.

    The relationships offered by MWC and networking with national member churches are valuable to Eun. He is interested in having Mennonite workers come to serve and learn together at his farm in Hokkaido.

    “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:37–38).

    As Eun cultivates his vision to participate in God’s mission alongside Anabaptist churches in Japan, may his work and life also become a catalytic source for Japanese churches to grow.

    —KyongJung Kim is MWC regional representative for Northeast Asia. He visited the Anabaptist churches across Japan (Japan Mennonite Brethren Conference, Nihon Kirisuto Keiteidan*, Nihon Menonaito Kirisuto Kyokai Kaigi*, Nihon Menonaito Kirisuto Kyokai Kyogikai *, Tokyo Chiku Menonaito Kyokai Rengo* [asterisk denotes MWC membership) in 2016.

  • 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 some 190,000 attendees in over 30 countries around the world representing dozens of national churches.

    Prayers from around the world:

    Praise God for the interest and growth of a small group of seekers and new believers in a village in Thailand. Pray that they will take the step of baptism soon.

    Thank God that he is using recent pastor installations, fresh biblical teachings and simple recycling lessons to build his church in Malawi.

    News from Canada:

    On 6 May 2017, 476 delegates and community members from 67 churches, community groups and partner organizations met for the BIC Canada Annual General Meeting. Amid worship, prayer, conversations and videos, we discussed core business decisions including denominational name change. The process that led to the vote has roots even further back than 2014 when leaders first met to discuss the tensions around our name Brethren in Christ Canada. We are pleased to announce that our new denominational name is Be in Christ Church of Canada. We are very excited by the new opportunities this name affords to initiate conversations about what it means to follow Jesus.

    —Alex Nicholls, director of communications & donor coordination, BIC Canada

  • 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.

    Now is the time

    “After praying and fasting, I was convinced it is time,” shared Luis Alberto Mereles. Luis is a former prisoner with a long record of criminal activity and several escape attempts, one of them stabbing and kidnapping the director of the prison. He showed us the place that was the most dangerous one in the whole prison. It was locked and no guard would enter without a small army with him. He went in that section and asked the guard to lock behind him, who did it only after prolonged insisting. He started to preach and soon one convict, with a big knife clanging against the railing shouted: “you will die!” He silenced him in the name of Jesus. He went on preaching and after making an altar call, 52 prisoners accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour. After a week, these 52 men received permission to go and worship in another section called “Freedom,” conducted as a rehabilitation ministry of the Concordia Mennonite Brethren church in Asuncion, Paraguay. Now, this heavily guarded and locked place has been integrated into the “Freedom” section, and is a place of hope, giving sentenced prisoners the opportunity to go to school, university, do handicrafts or little jobs inside the prison to help support their families.

    —Rudi Plett, associate director

  • Renewal 2027 testimony: historical profile

    Renewal 2027 is a 10-year series of events to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the beginnings of the Anabaptist movement. This series highlights leaders in the movement from history to the present.

    What was it like for a Christian who defends the state’s use of force to have the force used against him? Or for a wife, after her husband’s imprisonment and torture, to watch as he is burned at the stake? Or, three days later, for her to be tied to a large stone and dropped from a bridge into the Danube River?

    The couple was Elsbeth (Elizabeth) and Balthasar Hubmaier.

    Christian Neff and Christian Hege sum up Elsbeth’s life: “Elsbeth (Elisabeth) Hügeline, the wife of Balthasar Hubmaier, was the daughter of a citizen of Reichenau on Lake Constance, whom he married on 13 January 1525. She was an energetic and courageous woman, who shared the very sad fate of her husband with devoted love and faithfulness. When he was seized and after cruel torture condemned to death, she spoke words of comfort to him. Three days later she also suffered a martyr’s death in Vienna. With a stone tied to her neck she was thrown from the large bridge over the Danube on 13 March 1528, in Vienna.” Her birthdate is not provided.

    Balthasar Hubmaier (ca. 1480–1528) was connected with the Peasants’ War in Germany. People wanted freedom from some taxes; the ability to use the land, water, and forest (and its creatures) for their benefits; and the right to choose their own pastors. It’s suggested that he even assisted in writing a list of the commoners’ demands.

    A former priest who held a doctorate in theology, Balthasar was an able theologian who opposed Catholic and Protestant abuses, defended believer’s baptism and was imprisoned for his views.

    After physical torture, he agreed to recant his Anabaptist beliefs, but, when he was to make a public statement before Ulrich Zwingli, he spoke up for believer’s baptism. Zwingli had him taken back to prison where he was stretched on the rack.

    Balthasar Hubmaier held that the state was divinely ordained to use force to protect the innocent, that a king could rule better if a Christian and a Christian could defend others with force. He did not do so in ignorance of other Anabaptists’ positions.

    In the same year that the Schleitheim Confession was prepared (1527), Balthasar had earlier written a booklet On the Sword in which he challenged non-resistant views among Anabaptists. Because of his views on the use of force, Hubmaier has been set aside in some nonresistant Anabaptist circles and highlighted in some wider circles, including Baptist.

    Some people think it is ironic that Balthasar defended the government’s use of force, yet he was tortured by officials. They are confused. What Balthasar defended was good government; what he suffered from was an abuse of government. Both are realities in our world.

    Elsbeth suffered equally. Think of her if ever you gaze upon the beautiful waters of the Danube River.

    —Terry M. Smith is editor of The Messenger, a publication of the Evangelical Mennonite Conference, based in Canada. This article first appeared on their website 30 April 2017.