Ed Boschman
U.S. Conference Executive Director
Bakersfield, Calif.

When you gather people from all over the world and you listen to the same Scripture passage together, you soon realize that we each hear with our own ears. How we hear is set up by who we are and where we live and what our context is and what the politics and the economy is and the culture and the life circumstances—that builds our context, and we hear out of that context. Sometimes our understanding of a promise of Jesus or a clarification of authentic Christian living just plays out a little differently. In a Western world context where affluence is quite pervasive, we see things out of that context. We should, as a result of that, be careful that when we hear the Word of God we try to listen not only through our own ears, but through the ears of our brothers and sisters who are in very different contexts.

Lynn Jost
President of MB Biblical Seminary, Fresno, Calif.

U.S. MBs express value to the world Mennonites by being present at MWC. We validate their mission and their identity. I chatted at a break with the leader of the Panama Mennonite Brethren church. We talked about his long ocean ride in a dugout canoe to get to Asuncion. It was clear that for him to meet North American Mennonites reinforced his confidence in Jesus' promise to build his church and that the gates of hell would not be able to withstand the advance. If we as U.S. Mennonite Brethren can give this gift of solidarity and support to world Mennonites, why wouldn't we continue our support?

Cesar Garcia
Former president of the MB Colombian MB Conference

Current student at MB Biblical Seminary, Fresno, Calif.

 

There were very good and interesting experiences: The participation of other Christian confessions of faith, the diversity in worship styles, the encounter with old friends who serve the Lord in other countries, the development of important decisions. All those experiences were very special. However, at the end of the day the economic differences were evident. Far away from the event the economic differences are still there.

How could we act like a global family about it? I think the first step has to do with our identity. Many Mennonites have more in common with other families of faith than with their own Anabaptist family. That was evident in some workshops, songs and presentations at MWC. If we don’t identify ourselves as a global Anabaptist family, if we don’t feel as a part of the same family, to think in community will always be a utopia instead of a New Testament style of life.

Dennis Becker
Mennonite World Conference staff member
Clovis, Calif.

I was excited as an MWC staff person who was privileged to have a small part in planning the assembly and working with a very dedicated group of people. Now the result of two years of work was before us. But I was also excited to meet friends that I had made from around the world. One could get lost among over 6,000 participants spread over the sanctuary, two balconies, the parking garage/dining hall, the Global Village displays and numerous hotels. But I did manage to find many friends from around the world.

Bible studies and sermons opened our eyes to the interpretation of Scripture from all the continents as speakers, almost equally divided between male and female, spoke from the perspective of their continents and the particular circumstances of their churches and lives. Speakers often referred pointedly and powerfully to the need for believers to exercise unity, justice and social action if we are to “Come Together in the Way of Jesus Christ.” I realized again that the gospel is universal.

Mary Anne Isaak
College Community Church, Clovis, Calif.

 Wednesday, July 15, Ishmael Noko, the general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, shared about the discussions addressing the Lutheran condemnation of Anabaptists in the 16th century. Maintaining respect and honor for the founders of the Lutheran church, Noko acknowledged that with hindsight they see that the founders had other options for disagreement open to them. Noko confessed that their choice of persecution and execution was wrong; the history of condoning persecution is a spiritual wound that the Lutheran church carries with it. Graciously accepting his words of confession was Bishop Danisa Ndlovu, the new president of Mennonite World Conference.

Linda Tshimika
College Community Church, Clovis, Calif.

The experience has added something to who I am as a follower of Christ and as a Mennonite Brethren. The sermons and Bible studies were excellent and challenging, as were the workshops. The music was vibrant and soul-satisfying. And yet, I can hear excellent sermons and Bible studies in other contexts.

There is absolutely nothing that can replace the sharing of hugs, handshakes, smiles, laughter, prayers, insights and God's presence with sisters and brothers from Congo, India, Germany, Angola, Brazil, France, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Canada. This will remain with me and be a part of me. It reaffirms and deepens the sense of what it is to be part of God's kingdom, part of God's redeemed community.

Assembly Scattered is the second component of Mennonite World Conference assemblies. Assembly Scattered gives visiting Christians the opportunity to meet Christians living in the region that is hosting the global Assembly Gathered. The follow two stories on Assembly 15 Scattered come from the perspective of Christine Fehrle and Wilhelm and Liesa Unger of Karlsruhe and Regensburg Mennonite churches in Germany, the guests who visited Mennonite Brethren in Panama, and the church leaders who hosted them. 

Bigger and more beautiful in Panama

In Panama City a welcome team greeted us and took us to the harbor town of Chepo. Among our hosts was Lochi, our captain for the next few days (who is pictured right). We learned that Indigenous people, either Wounaan or Emberá, make up all 13 Mennonite Brethren churches in Panama. Most churches are located in the jungle area of Darién.

And yes, the famous German children’s book is right. Everything is much bigger and more beautiful in Panama. - Liesa Unger

Hosting was a blessing

Paul Schrag for Meetinghouse

“Are you a Mennonite?” a policeman asked Ditrich Pana as he approached the huge church in Asuncion, Paraguay, where some 6,000 Anabaptists from around the world had gathered.

In Paraguay, Mennonites are known as fair-skinned, German-speaking farmers and ranchers who live in isolated colonies and produce much of the country’s cheese.

Pana doesn’t fit that profile. He is Enlhet, an indigenous group that—as much as it might surprise most Paraguayans—includes 6,000 Mennonites. The Enlhet churches—and those of another indigenous group, the Nivacle—grew from mission work by Mennonite immigrants of Germanic and Canadian background who made Paraguay their refuge from war and worldliness beginning in the 1920s.

Pana, a radio evangelist, told how he answered his uniformed questioner: “Through the Holy Spirit I said, ‘Yes, I am a Mennonite.’ ”

His story of claiming the Mennonite name as a label of faith rather than of ethnicity captured a leading theme of the 15th Mennonite World Conference assembly, held July 14-19 in Asuncion. In a sermon to the global Anabaptist gathering—which drew Mennonites and Brethren in Christ from 62 countries—Pana praised Christ’s power to bridge the world’s divisions.

“This gathering unites us with glad hearts,” he said. “We belong to each other and to God this week as brothers and sisters and friends.”

In that spirit of unity, Paraguay’s 32,000 Mennonites hosted a weeklong reunion of the global Anabaptist body. Mennonite World Conference is a global fellowship of 217 national conferences with Anabaptist roots from 75 countries on six continents, including U.S. Mennonite Brethren. MWC assemblies are usually held every six years but may be less frequent in the future.

The 2009 gathering in Paraguay followed the two-part format of previous assemblies. Assembly Gathered, July 14-19 in Asuncion, featured corporate worship, workshops, service projects, recreation and local tours. Assembly Scattered allowed international guests to visit regional Mennonite congregations and communities before and after Assembly Gathered.

Of the 6,200 people who registered for the Asuncion conference, 3,476 came from Paraguay, 592 from other Latin American and Caribbean countries, 766 from the United States, 730 from Canada, 370 from Europe, 90 from Asia and 180 from Africa.

U.S. Mennonite Brethren were represented at meetings of the MWC’s governing body, the General Council, by Ed Boschman, U.S. Conference executive director, and Lynn Jost, president of MB Biblical Seminary, Fresno, Calif; by Lisa Washio of Clovis, Calif., at the Global Youth Summit, a gathering of young adult representatives from across the globe, held July 10-12; and by Greg Quiring of Fresno, Calif., at a business consultation hosted by Mennonite Economic Development Associates.

For Assembly Gathered, attendees gathered twice a day in the Centro Familiar de Adoración (Family Worship Center), a Pentecostal church with a three-level, 10,000-seat sanctuary in the final stages of construction. The “platform language” was Spanish, so English speakers and others listened to translators through headsets.

They heard sermons and Bible study messages under the theme, “Come Together in the Way of Jesus Christ” that emphasized living in unity and working for equality and justice, especially within the Anabaptist fellowship.

“Our conduct must reflect a change of thinking and attitude evidenced in how we relate to one another,” said Danisa Ndlovu, bishop of the Brethren in Christ Church in Zimbabwe and the new MWC president, on Saturday night. “This is a clarion call for mutual respect, acceptance and, above all, unity in the household of faith.”

While sermons needed translation, music crossed language barriers—and turned a sudden difficulty into a joyful moment. During Thursday morning’s service, the windowless sanctuary went dark while Clair Brenneman of Palmer Lake, Colo., was telling about the building of Paraguay’s Trans-Chaco Road by Mennonite Central Committee Pax workers in the 1950s and early ’60s. Songleader Paul Dueck of Canada and his team of musicians bounded to the stage and led the congregation in “Alabare,” “Grosser Gott, wir loben dich,” “We are walking in the light of God” and other songs until power was restored.

A poignant moment with historic overtones occurred Wednesday morning when MWC President Ndlovu embraced Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, after Noko spoke of Lutherans’ plans to ask for forgiveness of Lutheran persecution of Anabaptists in the 16th century. Worshipers gave Noko a standing ovation. Remarkably, Noko and Ndlovu are both from Zimbabwe. “Divine providence has brought these (two leaders) together,” said Larry Miller, MWC general secretary.

Another gesture of reconciliation took place Sunday morning when Helmut Isaak of Paraguay read a statement of forgiveness to the man who killed his brother. “More than 50 years ago, your clan and tribe were resisting us, but now we aren’t enemies anymore but brothers in Christ,” Isaak said to Jonoine, a chief of the Ayoreo tribe. The chief came to the stage carrying the spear used to kill missionary Kornelius Isaak in 1958.

About 8,500 people attended the Sunday morning service as local Mennonite churches closed and encouraged their members to participate.

Two workshop sessions were held each afternoon on topics such as violence against women and children in Congo and the shared convictions of global Anabaptists. Special-interest groups, such as women theologians from Africa and Latin America, held meetings. Many conference goers spent their free time at the Global Church Village, an outdoor area featuring displays organized by continents.

Meals were served in the church’s underground parking garage. Due to health concerns, especially the need to guard against the H1N1 (swine flu) virus, some conference goers wore cloth coverings over their mouths, and volunteers sprayed disinfectant on people’s hands before meals.

Activities for youth, including music and sports, took place in the “Teen Zone,” a fenced field across the street from the church. Before the assembly, the Global Youth Summit drew more than 700 participants, including 48 delegates from 32 countries. MWC’s governing body, the General Council, also met before the assembly.

The words of a young Nivacle woman may have summed up the week for many. “I learned that God has different gifts for each of us,” said Mirta Perez of Paraguay, reporting on the Global Youth Summit during a worship service. “My dream is that the Mennonite family can remain in unity, because before God we are all the same, we are all valuable.”

Giant cooker assists feeding thousands at MWC Assembly

by Cathleen Hockman-Wert for MWC

by Doreen Martens for MWC

Few are aware she’s there, but hundreds of English-speakers are depending on her ability to listen, interpret and talk at the same time to make this a meaningful evening. Epp was one of about 125 interpreters who volunteered to translate between Spanish and French, German, English, Portuguese, Nivacle, Guarani and Enlhet on stage, in the booths and at workshops and meetings during the Mennonite World Conference Assembly 15.

“It’s a high calling, but also a very humble ministry,” Rebecca Yoder Neufeld says of the vocally and mentally demanding job. “Especially in a booth: The better you do, the less you’re noticed. If you’re doing the job really well you fade into the background.”

Yet without it, “all the careful preparation done for this assembly would pretty much come to nothing.” she says.

Yoder Neufeld, a Canadian born in France who’s familiar with all four MWC official languages, coordinated the interpreters for Asuncion and the last assembly in Bulawayo, as well as smaller gatherings in between.

Asuncion was the first MWC assembly in memory at which English was not an official platform language, which meant that many North Americans and English-speaking Africans and Asians were learning for the first time what it’s like to depend on headsets.

Equipment was obtained through a company in neighboring Argentina and close to 2,400 headsets were dispensed before each session by young volunteers.

But for Yoder Neufeld the job began one and a half years earlier, determining needs and recruiting and screening interpreters with assistance from Paul Amstutz and Carmen Epp of Paraguay. As indigenous languages coordinator, Jakob Lepp trained volunteers who had never interpreted simultaneously before.

Then came the big task of scheduling equipment and volunteers to cover not only the two daily mass meetings but also dozens of daily workshops, three concurrent pre-assembly meetings and other gatherings where interpretation, sometimes in several languages, would be required.

“It involves a lot of careful thinking and matching about who fits what kind of venues best, because of their experience, practice, the kind of vocabulary they’re familiar with,” Yoder Neufeld says. Some feel quite comfortable translating sentence-by-sentence; others find doing so on stage in front of 6,000 people too nerve-wracking.

“I haven’t done it often enough not to get nervous, but it’s exciting,” Epp says of interpreting English to Spanish, sentence-by-sentence, on stage.

Coordinating her army of talkers kept Yoder Neufeld on the run all week and brought some tense moments when interpreters took ill or otherwise missed their assigned times.

One might wonder: Why not just hire professionals? On a previous occasion when that was necessary, Yoder Neufeld says, the pros didn’t do so well because they didn’t know “church language.” Two German professional interpreters, however, were welcomed as volunteers.

Wherever possible, written texts were collected in advance so volunteers could prepare. Speakers were counseled on how to make their addresses translate easily, for example by avoiding expressions that are too culture-specific. Interpreters, in turn, were cautioned to keep their voices neutral, avoid the temptation to soften speech that seems politically incorrect and as effectively as possible convey the speaker’s tone and message.

All went through an orientation first. “Part of the point of that, in addition to practical suggestions, the ethics of interpreting and things like that, is trying to help people think about the meaning behind this task,” says Yoder Neufeld.

Hanging in the interpreters’ office was a colorful banner she commissioned for the Bulawayo assembly. It reflects the Pentecost story and Revelation, which picture a multitude of tribes and nations and languages praising God.

“Language isn’t erased there, in that final picture of how God wants things to be,” Yoder Neufeld says. “[That’s] what we’re aiming toward. These gatherings are a little glimpse.”

Dora Dueck for Meetinghouse

Paul Dueck is music minister at the United Mennonite Church and music teacher at United Mennonite Educational Institute, both in Leamington, Ont. He is also a harpist with three recordings to his credit.

Though Canadian, Dueck was born in Asuncion to Mennonite missionary parents and lived there 12 years. He returned to the country as an adult with his wife, Linda, and their family for two separate stints of teaching at CEMTA, a Mennonite seminary in Asuncion.

The energetic Dueck moved easily at Assembly 15 between the three languages he speaks fluently— Spanish, English and German. He also moved easily from leading on the stage front to leading behind the piano or harp.

As in several previous assemblies, the music committee had debated the merits of creating a songbook for the event, since many people do not read notes.

They once again decided in favor, because a book collection can be enjoyed further at home. This assembly’s songbook was smaller than the previous one, however, with about half as many songs.

As songbook editor, Dueck made sure that, in addition to international representation and MWC favorites, a good portion of its 44 songs would be in Spanish.

Dueck’s other main task was to put together the team of international singers, instrumentalists and composers that helped him lead the twice-daily worship sessions.

He kept pushing for more time for singing, he says, because “that’s where people get involved in the conference.”

One slot was given him unexpectedly when the power went out in the windowless sanctuary during the Thursday morning service.

Dueck and his team scrambled to the stage. The congregation joined them as they moved from one familiar song to the next in several languages until the house lights were restored.

Applause and cheers concluded the spontaneous and beautiful singing in the dark.

“It was amazing,” says Dueck.

Tuesday, July 14: “This church is on the way”

Worship leader Werner Franz of Paraguay read from John’s vision in Revelation about the thousands around the throne of the Lamb and said, “This church is on the way.”

MWC general secretary Larry Miller welcomed the diverse throng of people and noted that MWC members come from 101 countries. Representatives from nine language groups stated the conference theme—“Come Together in the Way of Jesus Christ”—in their own languages. Spanish served as the “platform” language of the assembly, with simultaneous translation available in English, French, Enlhet, Nivacle, German and Portuguese.

A group from Paraguay presented a drama, “United in Christ,” that depicted through song and dance cultures from the various continents and their unity in Christ.

In her keynote address, outgoing MWC president Nancy Heisey of the United States modeled the diversity of MWC by beginning her talk in Spanish, then telling a story in French before proceeding in English. She noted that humans are made for community and celebration, and “this gathering is like one of the many celebrations we take part in.”

However, she said, noting the text of Philippians 2:1-11, having the mind of Jesus, who was killed, doesn’t sound like a typical celebration. “The way of Jesus Christ does not begin with us ... but with God.” In order to have the mind of Christ, she said, we must experience the love of God.

Though we may be delighted by our diversity, Heisey said, experiencing people who are different can be hard. “We don’t experience Christ in the same way.” There is no resting place for expanding God’s love, short of God’s kingdom, she said.

But love turns sour when it clings to sameness. “Our love of church can be disruptive if it only seeks to protect our fences,” she said. “If a church fails to expand, it will perish.”

Our work as a church must be grounded in God’s love, Heisey concluded. She called people to celebrate but not cling to the blessings of these days. “Let us spread to the wind the blessings of this assembly,” she said. Heisey then introduced Danisa Ndlovu of Zimbabwe as the incoming president of MWC and led a prayer of blessing on him for this work.—Gordon Houser, associate editor with the Mennonite Church USA magazine,  for Meetinghouse

The sound of Paraguayan harps graced the worship services.

Wednesday, July 15: Reconciliation and a call to practice justice

A moving gesture of reconciliation and strong preaching marked the first full day of Mennonite World Conference’s Assembly 15.

Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), addressed the gathering with a “heavy heart,” he said, because of the “painful history” Lutherans and Mennonites share, especially the persecution—and execution—of Anabaptists in the 16th century.

“This history of condoning persecution," he said, "is a spiritual wound we carry around in us." He further described the condemnations of Anabaptists, contained in the “anathemas” of the Augsburg Confession, as “the poison of a scorpion.”

“We were wrong, regrettably wrong,” he said. “Execution was not the only choice, even then.”

In recent years, Mennonites and Lutherans have been in dialogue about these matters, and Lutherans are seeking a healthier continuing dialogue now, said Noko. At their next meeting, the LWF will be asked “to take action which will put us in a new position to the anathemas and express our deep repentance and regret.”

The assembled Mennonites reacted spontaneously to Noko’s words by standing and applauding.

If this exchange was an exhibit of “the way of Jesus Christ”—the day’s theme —the Bible study later that morning was an inviting exposition of it. Elfriede Verón, instructor at Instituto Biblico Asuncion, went through Philippians 2:1-11, verse by verse, considering its exhortations to unity and Jesus’ “way,” as seen in his relinguishment, humility, and obedience.

That evening, Nzuzi Mukawa, professor at the School of Missiology and pastor of a Mennonite Brethren church in Kinshasa, DR Congo, further developed the theme in a passionate sermon on Micah 6:1-8. “We follow Jesus Christ,” he said, “through the practice of social justice.”

Often using the phrase, “listen to me carefully,” Mukawa rolled out a range of issues in which the church is called to “live justice.” 

Mukawa’s message was one of the most appreciated but also controversial of the week. He urged the church to ordain women, to accept minority group leadership, to “rise up and defend” children, to support women suffering from sexual violence, and to act on behalf of poor countries by eliminating their international debt, by granting more access to trade and by rich countries paying damages for pollution.

Wednesday’s program also included special music by groups from Paraguay and Indonesia, and several other speakers. Wilma Bailey of the U.S. talked about caring for God’s creation. “We think it’s all about us,” she said. “It’s not about us, but for the pleasure of God.”

Sandra Rincon, Colombia, reported on the activities of Christian Peacemakers Team, reminding that “nonviolence is a real option.”

A young American duo, Lars Åkerson and Jon Spicher, who spent six months traveling more than 7,600 miles by bicycle to Assembly 15 from Harrisonburg, Va. by bicycle, charmed the audience with their spiritual openness and stories.

They discovered “incredible hospitality” and “good” everywhere they went, Åkerson and Spicher said.—Dora Duec, interim editor for the Mennonite Brethren English-language magazine in Canada, for Meetinghouse

Former Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte Frutos and his wife, Glorio de Duarte, take part in the opening worship service. The Duartes attend Raices MB Church in Asuncion. 

Thursday, July 16: Women call for solidarity

Rejecting patriarchal models of church leadership and calling for more interdependence and dialogue in the Anabaptist community, three Latin American women theologians made a bold statement of solidarity with women leaders in the global Mennonite church in Thursday evening’s session.

“We base our actions on the liberating message of Jesus Christ,” declared Ofelia Garcia Herandez, president of the Mennonite Church in Mexico and a member of the MWC General Council, in a formal statement. “We affirm Anabaptist unity from a different perspective,” she said, having a goal of becoming a prophetic voice that denounces leadership abuse and lifestyle choices that perpetrate male dominance.

At the same time, added Alix Lozano Forero, president of the Mennonite Church Columbia and a member of the MWC General Council, “we want to walk together with our male counterparts in a spirit of discernment. She said women leaders will gather strength as they share their stories and promote women in leadership. Also standing in solidarity was Olga Piedrasonta, co-director of the Latin American Peace Network.

In his morning Bible study, Antonio Gonzalez, a former Jesuit who is now a professor of theology in Madrid, rejected the Greek understanding of “glory” as “praise” that many of us interpret in reading John 17, but rather the Hebrew definition of receiving a significant gift from God. It is something the believer is given, not what he or she earns.

“Glory has more to do with loyalty than with what we receive from each other,” he taught. It is what we give to others, as God gave it to Jesus so that the “Father would be glorified.” The end purpose of this process, he said, is to build up unity in the body of Christ, his church. It is our challenge to make this “glory” known to our neighbours. “How are we doing?” he asked.

Continuing the theme of unity as recorded in Acts 2, Ditrich Pana, an Enlhet church leader from the Chaco active in radio evangelism, recalled how the first Christians gathered every day to break bread together. It was only in this way that they got to know each other, he said, likening the Mennonite World Conference to this act of unity. “This gathering unites us with glad hearts.”

Earlier in the day, Clair Brenneman of Palmer Lake, Colo., recalled the building of the 250-mile Trans-Chaco road in the 1950s and ’60s by Mennonite Central Committee Pax workers.

Musicians from Paraguay play zampona flues and guitars.

The road was the largest undertaking in its history by Mennonite Central Committee until the tsunami of 2003. The mammoth five-year project enlisted the volunteer labor of 1,700 young men from 40 different countries. More than 40 pieces of heavy equipment were used to construct the roadway.

The highway gave the isolated farmers of the Chaco a way to get their crops to market, boosting the Mennonite colonies’ prosperity and the country’s economy. Today more than 50 percent of the population uses the road to get from north to south. After the north and south sections of the highway were connected in 1961, the road was continued into Bolivia.

All this happened in the days before tight security measures, he recalled, telling the story of a Pax man from South Dakota hearing of all the good hunting in Paraguay: “He boarded the plane in Philadelphia with his shotgun and rifle.”—Dick Benner, editor of the Mennonite Church Canada magazine,  for Meetinghouse

Friday, July 17: Christ’s way of serving

Worship services on Friday focused on “Serving Like Christ.”In her Bible study, Jenny Neme, director of a center for peace and justice in Bogotá, Colombia, focused on Isaiah 58:1-10. In this text, she said, God underlines the need to name injustices, to ask how these happened and who is responsible.

God invites Isaiah and those assembled, she said, to act in spite of fears. “Our relationship with God has to be transparent,” she said, and must show itself in actions. Neme noted the huge gap between those who have and those who don’t, and called those assembled to close that gap. “Obeying God involves spirituality and action,” she said. This passage, she said, is a strong call to remember that all actions of service are oriented toward justice.

A choir from Switzerland sang at the morning service.

The evening worship included an offering, an introduction of MWC’s commissions (service, peace, mission, and faith and life), a choreography by “Amor y Fe” of Paraguay and music by a Paraguayan choir.

In her sermon, Elizabeth Soto, a member of Mennonite Church USA who grew up in Puerto Rico, noted that Mennonites have done much service, and people talk about what Mennonites do. “But we haven’t matched Jesus’ beautiful service,” she said, as illustrated in Mark 10:35-45. “Jesus knows that serving means being in solidarity with those who are rejected and fallen.”

Soto described two experiences of being in solidarity. In 2000, she was visiting displaced churches in Colombia when an army surrounded the village. They felt the same terror that these villagers lived with each day.

She also described working in a women’s shelter in Elkhart, Ind., which took her “beyond her comfortable Mennonite world.” She learned that it wasn’t just women in the street who were suffering but women in the pews of our churches as well.

Soto mentioned Mennonite worker Susan Classen, who wrote about the spirituality of service that goes beyond doing to being. “The beginning point is not the task but our connection with God,” Soto said. We are to be an instrument in God’s hands and walk with those who suffer.—Gordon Houser

Saturday, July 18: New president: no selfishness

Nancy Heisey of the U.S. passes the MWC presidency to Danisa Ndlovu of Zimbabwe, standing with his wife, Trezia.

Worshipers celebrated communion and heard a call for unity, humility and selflessness by Mennonite World Conference’s new president at the Saturday evening serviceDanisa Ndlovu, bishop of the Brethren in Christ Church in Zimbabwe, who began his term as president during the assembly, spoke on the conference’s theme text, Philippians 2:1-11.

Ndlovu said the church must banish selfishness to attain unity in Christ. It is easy to group ourselves by nationality, economic status, race or denomination and “without realizing it pursue selfish interests,” he said. “Let us therefore be warned and stand our guard against the enemy, the devil himself, the father of self-interests.”

He called selfishness a killer disease and humility the key to harmony. “Our conduct must reflect a change of thinking and attitude evidenced in how we relate to one another,” Ndlovu said. “This is a clarion call for mutual respect, acceptance and, above all, unity in the household of faith.”

After Ndlovu’s sermon, worshipers shared bread and juice in observance of the Lord’s Supper.

In the Saturday morning worship service, an Anabaptist theologian from New Zealand said Christians who want to make peace need to start by putting their own house in order.

“We will never be credible as peacemakers in a violent world unless, within our own Christian congregations, communities and families, we make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” said Chris Marshall, a professor at the University of Wellington.

Unity is the starting point for all of the church’s witness to the world, said Marshall, who formerly was involved in leadership at London Mennonite Fellowship.

“The oneness of the church is every bit as essential to the Christian faith as the oneness of God and the Lordship of Jesus Christ,” he said.

Unfortunately, Marshall said, the church sometimes is as crippled by conflict as the rest of the world. Nothing is more damaging to the cause of Christ than a divided church.

“The unity of the church is not something we manufacture by being unusually nice to one another,” he said. “It is something that already exists. It is an objective reality, brought into being by the Spirit of God.”

Marshall said four qualities—humility, gentleness, patience and forbearance—make it possible to overcome every conflict.

Also that morning, Nguyen Quang Trung, president of the 4,000-member Vietnam Mennonite Church, told of the church receiving legal recognition from the government. An MWC delegation participated in a celebration of that milestone last November. —Paul Schrag, editor an an inter-Mennonite newspaper,  for Meetinghouse

Sunday, July 19: Forgiving the murderer

In a symbolic peace gesture toward the indigenous Ayoreos people of the Chaco, Helmut Isaak read a statement of forgiveness to the man who killed his brother, Kornelius Isaak, during the three-hour closing assembly worship service.

Jonoine, now a chief of his tribe in the northern Chaco, came to the stage carrying the spear that killed missionary Isaak in 1958 when a delegation of Mennonite missionaries were trying to win over the Ayoreos. The fatal incident occurred, according to an account by Edgar Stoesz in his book Like a Mustard Seed, following a presentation of gifts to the tribes people. Then a young warrior, Jonoine fatally speared Isaak.

“More than 50 years ago, you were a courageous young warrior of your tribe who defended your territory against the invasion of the white man,” said Isaak, “You did what you had to do according to your values and tradition, and my brother did what he needed to do. At that tragic confrontation, Kornelius lost his life. Today we are not enemies; we are brothers in Jesus Christ and warriors together for the kingdom of God.”

Isaak concluded with a call to establish centres of study and research of Anabaptist and Peace Theology and training in ways to find peaceful solutions to confrontations, to the applause of some 8,500 worshippers, the largest gathering of the five-day assembly.

According to Stoesz, some 300 members of the Ayores are now Christians, the result of efforts by the New Tribes Mission.

In his closing message to the assembly, Alfred Neufeld, a Paraguayan Mennonite Brethren theologian and author, said “Jesus needs you to love,” clinching the conference theme “Come Together in the Way of Jesus Christ.” Christians are not only members of the church of Christ,” he further pushed, “we need to be lovers of the Church of Christ.”

He warned against trusting ideologies and politics rather than Jesus Christ to whom God has given all authority in heaven and earth. But this is not easy, he insisted. We have to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.” He concluded with an appeal to attach this “working out one’s personal salvation” to a congregation, a place of safety and from which the Christian can draw strength. “The world will know us by our helping of one another inside this community of faith,” he said.

Neufeld is dean of the theology faculty, and a teacher, at the Universidad Evangélica del Paraguay and an ordained minister in the Concordia Mennonite Brethren congregation in Asunción.

A delegate from Siberia brought greetings from a small 100-member Mennonite group located in a small Russian village where they converse in Low German. “Arriving by way of Canada,” he said, “I never knew there were so many Mennonites.”—Dick Benner for Meetinghouse

MWC General Council approves new initiatives

by Fern Burkhardt, MWC, and CL Staff

What’s new with Mennonite World Conference? A great deal, beginning with new leaders and new member churches.

The MWC’s General Council and Executive Committee conducted business in Asunción in conjunction with MWC’s global Assembly 15, July 14-19. U.S. Mennonite Brethren were represented at the meeting by Ed Boschman, executive director of the U.S. Conference, and by Lynn Jost, president of MB Biblical Seminary, Fresno, Calif. This was the first time Boschman had represented U.S. MBs at the General Council; Jost also represented U.S. MBs in Zimbabwe in 2003 and at mid-conference meetings in California in 2006.

“One thing that doesn’t change,” Jost says via e-mail in reflecting on the meetings, “is the energy and excitement from having the world Mennonite community gathering for fellowship and discernment. One thing that is changing is the growing body of common structures that characterize the work of the General Conference.”

New leadership at the 2009 meetings included Danisa Ndlovu from Zimbabwe, who was installed as president of MWC for six years. Ndlovu has been vice-president for six years and president-elect for three; he succeeds Nancy Heisey from the United States.

Janet Plenert from Canada was elected vice-president for six years. Plenert chaired the Global Mission Fellowship for three years and worked with GMF and MWC in establishing what has become MWC’s Mission Commission.

The General Council elected a new Executive Committee from its members, with two people nominated by each continental caucus and affirmed by the Executive Committee. For the first time, the African Caucus chose a woman, Mawangu Biavula Ibanda from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as one of its representatives.

Reflecting on the African representative as well as other women in MWC leadership, Jost says, “This appears to me to signal a fresh movement of the Holy Spirit among us.”

Other Executive Committee members elected are: (Africa) Thuma Hamukang’andu, Zambia; (Asia) Prem Prakash Bagh, India, and Adi Waludjo, Indonesia; (Latin America and the Caribbean) Edgardo Sanchez, Argentina, and Felix Rafael Curbello Valle, Cuba; (Europe) Rainer Burkart, Germany, and Markus Rediger, Switzerland; (North America) Iris de Leon-Hartshorn, U.S., and Ron Penner, Canada. All Executive Committee members are new except Rediger and Ndlovu.

The first action of the new Executive Committee, which met July 19, was to accept by consensus a report from AMIGOS, the young adult team, and its nominations for a Youth Task Force to operate for one year. AMIIGOS, with one representative from each of the five continental regions, organized a Global Youth Summit in Zimbabwe in 2003 and in Asunción in 2009. Lisa Washio of Clovis, Calif., represented U.S. MBs at the Global Youth Summit.

The new task force will have a member from each continental region who has been vetted by AMIGOS and affirmed by his or her church, and one member from the outgoing AMIGOS team. Its mandate is to propose MWC youth programs and structures by 2010.

Churches must apply for membership and meet eligibility criteria. They must be known and recommended by the general secretary and the regional caucus. They must be an organized church for at least five years, have 500 or more baptized members and at least two congregations and affirm MWC’s vision, mission and shared convictions.

Spain has several small Anabaptist churches which have formed an association but together they have fewer than 500 members. Those churches were granted decision-making rights on the General Council until the question of their full membership as a special case is determined.

For the first time, management of MWC’s finances has moved to the global South with the appointment of Ernst Bergen, a Mennonite Brethren from Paraguay, as treasurer. Paul Quiring, a Mennonite Brethren from California, concluded 11 years as treasurer at the Asunción meeting.

During the past decade, MWC’s income, investments and expenses have increased dramatically to approximately $1.2 million at the end of 2008 with positive fund balances. Assembly 15 finances are not yet final.

The General Council has about 116 members named by member and associate member churches. Approximately 50 percent of the new General Council (GC16) were also members of GC15.

New commissions

Other commission chairs, named earlier, are: Deacons, Cynthia Peacock from India; Faith and Life, Alfred Neufeld, an MB leader from Paraguay; and Peace, Mulugeta Zewdie from Ethiopia. Valerie Rempel, an MB from California, will serve as a member of the Faith and Life Commission. While each commission has goals and plans for specific areas of work, they will also discern how to operate in unity.

Boschman notes that, while he sensed general enthusiasm for the new structure, he wondered how U.S. Mennonite Brethren can realistically support what he called “another layer” of partnership and responsibility. Those questions became particularly highlighted when discussion turned to “Fair Share”—each member conference’s contributions to MWC. Boschman says the suggested dollar amounts for North American conferences were “quite steep.”

Boschman says that U.S. Mennonite Brethren have a responsibility to follow through with the initiatives and partnerships they affirm; it’s a matter of integrity. At the same time, he says, “that felt to me like it was going to be a real challenge.”

The LWF representatives reported that the LWF Council plans to present a statement on the final report of the MWC-LWF Joint Study Commission at its 2010 world assembly. The statement is expected to ask for forgiveness of Lutheran persecution of Anabaptists in the 16th century. “What we [Lutherans] did to Anabaptists was wrong,” grieved Noko. Following his statement, there was an emotional embrace between Noko and Ndlovu, the leaders of two world communions, both of whom were sons of Zimbabwean Brethren in Christ mothers.

MWC is also looking into the future. Under consideration is reconfiguring its offices and staffing, intending to shift some administration to the global South, with MWC representative offices in each continent.

There is strong support for continuing global assemblies, not losing current momentum. Boschman says, “There is always something we can learn from listening and sharing experiences” in a setting such as MWC.

Both Boschman and Jost say the structure of MWC offers U.S. MBs a chance to have valuable input into theological issues. In addition, Jost points out that U.S. MB participation in MWC gatherings “expresses value” to other Mennonites, some of whom travel great distances for such encouragement.

“If we as U.S. MBs can give this gift of solidarity and support to world Mennonites, why wouldn’t we continue our support?” Jost says.

A study is underway to determine the time and place for the next global gathering. Already a major celebration is anticipated in Europe in 2025, the 500th anniversary year of the beginning of the Anabaptist movement and MWC’s 100th anniversary.

The next General Council meeting will take place in May 2012 in Switzerland in conjunction with MERK (Mennonite European Regional Conference).

From Meetinghouse reports by Dora Dueck, Lydia Penner, Paul Schrag and Ferne Burkhardt for MWC

Workshops were popular during four afternoons at Assembly 15. The thousands of participants faced daunting challenges: selecting which of the 77 workshops to attend; climbing several flights of stairs to upper level classrooms since elevators were not yet installed; and finding the right room in the maze of hallways in the monstrous Centro Familiar de Adoración. It was often standing room only.

Thirty workshops were repeated once, and eight others ran three or four times. A few were held at a different site within walking distance.

For Margaret Brubacher, the challenges began with scheduling the flood of requests to hold workshops that poured into the Kitchener, Ont., office months and sometimes only weeks before the assembly. In Paraguay, it was choosing an appropriate room with interpreters who spoke the right language present and directing dedicated volunteers to hustle chairs and equipment where they were needed. Workshop attendance was unprecedented.

A workshop on the Anabaptist churches in Cuba and Vietnam were presented by leaders from both countries.

What is probably the world’s newest national Mennonite church is part of a revival of Christian faith in Cuba.

Reyna, whose passion for Anabaptism is the driving force behind the Cuban Mennonite movement, spoke July 16 during a Mennonite World Conference workshop on the Anabaptist churches in Cuba and Vietnam.

The Mennonite Church in Cuba was founded last August and now has about 150 members in 12 cell groups.

It is expanding the Anabaptist faith tradition in Cuba, which began in 1954 with the Brethren in Christ, who now have 3,400 members there.

Raul Suarez, former president of the Cuban Council of Churches—and a Baptist firmly committed to Anabaptism—sees the new Mennonite church as part of a Cuban church revival.

“Protestantism has grown more in the last 25 years than in the previous 100 years,” Suarez said. “Cuba has experienced a revival of the spirit of God.”

The resurgence began in 1983-84 when the government showed a “new openness that has slowly increased,” Suarez said. In 1992 the government took atheism out of the constitution, he said. “People are able to go to the churches without any fear,” he said.

Vietnam freedom grows

“It is easier now [since recognition],” said Nguyen Quang Trung, the church’s president. “Now we can open a new church. We can organize a Bible training school.”

Other Mennonites in Vietnam, not part of the government-recognized group, have experienced persecution in the last several years.

When six Vietnamese Mennonite leaders were imprisoned in 2004, Reyna wrote to the Cuban government, asking officials to intercede for them.

Reyna believes the Mennonite Church in Cuba can present “a different gospel in the middle of a society shaped by the [socialist] system.” It can show that the church tries to improve people’s lives.

“A church with Anabaptist thinking is necessary,” he said. “If the government is doing things the church should be doing, then it is time for the church to do its part.”

Art, workshop tell of Soviet persecution, recovering history

Suffering and faith go hand in hand in the story of the Russian Germans in the 20th century. Workshops and an exhibition at MWC Assembly 15 showed how German-speaking peoples—including Mennonite—in the former Soviet Union were treated as enemies of the people.

They endured deportation, forced labor, forced collectivization of farms and industries, arrests, detentions, liquidations, resettlement and pressures to give up their faith.

Walter Sawatsky, professor of church history at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., hosted a workshop on “Recovering the History of Mennonites in the USSR: 1930-1980” that highlighted a complex and relatively recent story of almost unimaginable loss and dispersal during the Soviet state war on religion.

People from the “Aussiedler” groups in Germany, who lived in or originated from the Soviet experience are doing research and writing. Conservative estimates put the number of baptized Aussiedler members at about 80,000.
“Many congregations in Germany want to do historical work now,” said Sawatsky, “to find their way.”

Katharina Neufeld, director of the Museum for German-Russian Cultural History in Detmold, gave an overview of the period, and Johannes P. Dyck presented his findings on one region – Kazahkstan – where many Mennonites eventually settled after World War II and re-established church life.

Neufeld chronicled waves of repression that stripped Mennonites of identity and status, both on religious grounds and for being “German.”

Strategies of adaptation included spiritual leadership by women, religious practices based on meager resources such as a Bible verse or hymn stanza written on a scrap of paper, and alliances among Christians of various confessions.
Art and artifacts from the Detmold museum displayed on the top floor of the Centro Familiar de Adoración gave visual testimony to the workshop presentations.

Sketches by Kurt Hein and Ernst Dyck, and some works by sculptor Jakob Wedel, portray aspects of life under the Communist dictatorship that reached its most severe form under Joseph Stalin.

The tables of dates and a map of Mennonite dispersion show how the communities, sometimes expressing a common faith in a written confession – such as the one in 1902, also exhibited – were dispersed by the policies of governments. And yet, the German-speaking Christians continued to nourish their faith by carrying miniature testaments (easily hidden), spiritual songs written into notebooks, Bibles disguised as wallets, cards with biblical messages, and invitations to church weddings.

After 1955 the situation changed for the Russian Germans. They received citizenship and acquired somewhat more freedom of movement. Nevertheless, many thousands left for Germany in the 1970s and onward, when the German government invited people of German background to settle there.

By Gordon Houser for Meetinghouse

Anabaptists will probably have to wait longer for their next world assembly. Two Mennonite World Conference leaders spoke about the organization’s future at a July 15 workshop.

Outgoing president Nancy Heisey of the United States and Danisa Ndlovu of Zimbabwe, the new MWC president, listed some benefits and costs of these assemblies, which have been held every six years. “Nothing replaces personal contacts,” Ndlovu said.

Among the costs are the literal one of finances, said Heisey. After the 1990 assembly in Winnipeg, Manitoba, MWC had such a large deficit it took years to dig out. She added that it’s complicated to get people together from around the world. About 200 MWC delegates to this assembly had their passports held by the Paraguayan ministry, she said. Sometimes diseases are a problem, and few from the global South can afford to come.

Heisey noted, however, that many in North America think assemblies are all that MWC does. She pointed out that MWC’s executive committee meets annually, the General Council meets every three years and a koinonia delegation visits a member church somewhere around the globe each year. In addition, MWC organizes the Global Youth Summit, the MWC history project, ecumenical work and World Fellowship Sunday.

She reported that the General Council meets next in 2012 in Switzerland. At that time they plan to make decisions about the next assembly, which will likely be in 2017 or 18. They hope to hold an assembly in 2025, perhaps in Switzerland, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of MWC and the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Anabaptist movement.