European leaders face challenges in 2007

Hope for the future, keen public interest in Anabaptism, surprising church growth, new enthusiasm, and challenges highlighted reports from seven countries when 20 Mennonite church leaders from conferences in Europe gathered in Karlsruhe, Germany, in December for their annual meeting.

While they acknowledged that membership numbers suggest stagnation or even regression (the 2006 Mennonite World Conference directory showed a slight decline of 1.9 percent in Europe since 2003), they brought positive reports from Switzerland, The Netherlands, Germany, Lithuania, Spain, France, and England.

In Switzerland, where the first Anabaptists were persecuted for their faith, recent films, theatre productions, and reconciliation services have raised intense public interest and questions of today’s Mennonites. 2007 will mark the year of the Anabaptists, most prominently in the Emmental region, beginning March 24, in Langnau.

In 2006, Dutch Mennonites turned a new page by identifying Switzerland as the country of origin of the Anabaptist movement and a symposium in Amsterdam posed the question, “What is Anabaptist identity?” Some churches in the Netherlands are growing but the conference is looking for ways to support churches that continue to decline.

Building up the church has also been on the agenda of the Association of Mennonite Churches (AMG) in Germany. Its 6,000 members in 54 churches in three regions undertake larger tasks collectively: publication of the journal Die Bruecke (The Bridge), the Yearbook, and two youth projects.

Hermann Heidebrecht reported on ministry to the Aussiedler (repatriated German–Russians). Since 1972, 110,000 people from the former Soviet Union with a Mennonite past, now called Umsiedler, have been registered in Germany. People with a Mennonite past constitute only a small percentage of the newly arriving Aussiedler, however.

Witness in hospital

During the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mennonites emigrated from Kazakhstan via Lithuania to come to Germany. Today there are six churches in Lithuania with a total of 250 members because a Mennonite reading the Bible in a hospital captured the interest of his roommate. The man became a Christian and an elder in a Russian–German church. Other Lithuanians who were approached were converted and formed Lithuanian churches. Evangelism is important to them, but many people work long hours and have little time for church work.

Until recently, the six churches in various regions in Spain, founded by American Mennonite missionaries, had limited contact with each other. In 2006, all met together for the first time in Malaga.

Issues under discussion in the Mennonite Conference of France (AEEMF) are the joining of two churches, one African and the other Vietnamese, as well as a request for membership from the French Protestant Federation. Many churches are discussing questions of leadership. France is also heavily involved in the Francophone Network, which is facilitated by Mennonite World Conference.

The London (England) Mennonite Centre is widely known for its peace work and its connection with “Roots and Branches,” a network of organizations with Anabaptist values. New challenges in London are work with African immigrants who are building rapidly growing churches. Recently, the Mennonite Centre has begun the project, “Work among Muslims.”

—from a report by Barbara Hege Galle and Markus Rediger, translated by Henry J. Regehr