Mennonite Encyclopedia project progressing

When the Mennonite Encyclopedia first came out in the late 1950s, computers were largely the stuff of science fiction. But now as those machines have become commonplace, a group of Canadian and U.S. volunteers are halfway towards their goal of making the five-volume reference work accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

Called GAMEO, or Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, the website currently makes available nearly 7,500 articles from the print version. With more articles being added weekly, managing editor Sam Steiner estimates the encyclopedia’s 14,000-plus entries will be online by the end of 2008. The site receives more than 1,200 visitors daily.

Steiner and his colleagues intend to also update existing articles and add new ones. More than 1,000 articles are new.

GAMEO is an inter-Mennonite, international initiative, a resource “that helps bind together the worldwide Mennonite communion,” he says.

—Rich Preheim