Previous | Next 

Karlsruhe, Germany
MWC executive committee moves forward on 14th assembly, other projects


The Mennonite World Conference executive committee held its annual meeting in the Mennonite retreat centre of Thomashof, near Karlsruhe, Germany, August 18–24. The executive committee heard plans for the next MWC assembly – a gathering of thousands of Anabaptists from around the world – and heard reports about MWC’s projects.

Mennonite World Conference is an international fellowship of Anabaptist churches, including Mennonite, Mennonite Brethren and Brethren in Christ churches. Church leaders from the member churches gather for a general assembly about every six years. The last assembly was held in Calcutta, India in 1997. The 14th MWC assembly will be held in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe in 2003. It is the first time in its 76-year history that an assembly, dubbed Africa 2003, will be held in an African country.

Dothan Moyo, national coordinator of Africa 2003, reported that over 50 people in Zimbabwe have been appointed to planning committees. Kenneth Nafziger of the US and Eunice Khanye of Zimbabwe, co-leaders of the music committee, hope to assemble an international team of 12 that will teach and lead music at the assembly.

Executive committee members acknowledged the political, economic and medical uncertainties facing the host country. Since their meeting, Ray Brubacher, MWC associate executive secretary, events and administration, returned from a visit to Zimbabwe on Sept. 11. He is convinced Zimbabwe is a good place to hold the assembly. The Brethren in Christ of Zimbabwe, with a membership of 26,000, are excited about hosting it.

The country is experiencing unrest and some conflict at this time. A central issue is land distribution, causing agricultural production to drop and businesses to close. The economy is suffering greatly, inflation is high and tourism is down. As a result, hotels are more willing to negotiate prices.

Zimbabwe is ravaged by HIV/AIDS, but the affliction need not affect visitors, said Brubacher. He learned that Zimbabwe is the third country worldwide to institute blood screening for HIV and that doctors now use fewer blood transfusions. They said that assembly participants could volunteer to donate blood if someone requires a transfusion. Brubacher also learned that Bulawayo has an excellent private hospital providing 24-hour service.

The Zimbabwe International Trade Fair Centre will be the venue for Africa 2003. It has numerous locations for workshops, small group meetings and exhibits, dining rooms and mass meeting halls that can accommodate up to 10,000 people.

The program will include morning and evening mass meetings for worship, singing, prayer, preaching, Bible study, storytelling and MWC reporting. Afternoons will be open for tours, workshops, visiting global village exhibits and performances and free time. A youth summit will be held several days before the assembly.

Global gifts sharing, phase 2

Pakisa Tshmika and Tim Lind reported to the executive committee on the completion of the gifts inventory that they have been gathering among member churches in Africa, as part of the Global Gifts Sharing Project. The GGSP is an inventory of available resources from member churches for use by other member churches in other countries. A new phase of this project suggests that MWC may need to subsidize the sharing of the resources, instead of just communicating what resources are available. For example, a group of women in Ghana have a food preparation technology to offer to women of Burkina Faso, but unless they can visit each other, the information cannot be passed along.

Tshmika and Lind are also fielding requests to speed up a gifts inventory for Latin America, Asia and North America.

Global history project

Two volumes of the global Mennonite History Project are scheduled for release at Africa 2003 – the Latin American book and the African book, each prepared by writers from those respective continents. John A. Lapp, project coordinator, reported that the project has stirred questions such as: Who owns the archives of the mission groups who worked in the Congo? Don’t mission groups have a moral obligation to return archival material to the people among whom they worked? What is an appropriate way to refer to this project and its subjects since many MWC member churches do not use the “Mennonite”, “Brethren in Christ” or “Anabaptist” in their names?

Selecting writers for the volumes about Europe and North America is currently underway, he said.

Conversations with other Christians

Executive committee members learned the importance of the Mennonite–Catholic dialogues that have been held annually for the last four years. They were reminded that as Mennonites become more visible to other groups for their peace position, their behaviour should bear that out.

Strengths of the MWC pointed out to the executive committee are that the MWC offers to its member churches “a meeting space and place” and that it has a growing number of projects designed to help churches become more of a global congregation.

 – from releases

Previous | Next 

Last modified November 30, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
Masthead and usage information.