Co-editor of new project announced

Paul Hiebert

The Historical Commission (bi-national) and the International Committee of Mennonite Brethren (ICOMB) have announced the appointment of Paul Hiebert as co-editor of a Mennonite Brethren global history project in anticipation of the 2010 celebration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Mennonite Brethren Church in 1860.

The project emerged from discussions by ICOMB more than a year ago when they first considered how best to celebrate the anniversary of the MB Church. Their initial vision included the possibility of producing a history in a variety of formats, including multi-lingual DVDs and web-based media. The main and initial project would be a book in several languages in a relatively popular style, which could be used for group study purposes.

The last relatively comprehensive book on the history of the MB Church was A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church: A Pilgrim People, published in 1975 and written by John A. Toews. Since then, many books and articles have been published on aspects of Mennonite Brethren history, much of it produced by the Historical Commission and published by Kindred Productions.

Paul Hiebert is a well-known missiologist and anthropologist who has taught at a number of institutions in North America and abroad, including Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, Fuller Theological Seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Chicago), and Osmania University in Hyderabad, India. He has published many books and articles and was the general editor of a series of books on Mennonite Brethren missions and church growth published by the Board of Christian Literature.

Hiebert will be assisted by an editorial committee (Peter Klassen, Abe Dueck, Bruce Guenther) and has requested that a co-editor be appointed. Writers for different sections will be selected from the various regions of the world where the MB Church has become established. The desire is to produce a book that does not simply reflect the work and perspective of North American MB missionaries and institutions abroad, but allows the church in various cultures to introduce itself to the global MB community.

—Abe Dueck, Historical Commission