Mennonite Church USA News Service

News archive

Contact: Laurie L. Oswald (316) 283-5100, E-mail: LaurieO@MennoniteUSA.org

Zimbabweans' hospitality spills into lives of MC USA Executive Board delegates.

U.S. Mennonite women help Indian sisters to come to Bulawayo.

Institute encourages individuals to clean their spectacles.

EMU to hold bioethics conference.

Zimbabweans' hospitality spills into lives of MC USA Executive Board delegates

by Laurie L. Oswald

This story is the first in a series depicting Africa 2003, the Mennonite World Conference Assembly Gathered in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, from Aug. 11-17.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (MC USA) -- Mennonite Church USA Executive Board delegates to Africa 2003 discovered that just as the Zambezi River rushes over Victoria Falls, so does suffering spill into Zimbabwe with widespread death from HIV/AIDS, food and fuel shortages, a collapsing economy, high inflation and 70 percent unemployment.

But just as the magnitude of Victoria Falls fills people with wonder, the Africans' joy and generosity struck the nine Executive Board delegates with amazement. How could people with such great struggles extend such great welcome at Mennonite World Conference's Assembly Gathered in Bulawayo on Aug. 11 through 17?

Grappling with this mystery left no easy answers in the stark contrast between North American material abundance and Zimbabwe's needs. But forging new relationships in Bulawayo showed delegates that it's not how much one owns but how much one shares that most impacts the global Anabaptist family of faith, delegates said.

Their African brothers and sisters modeled this spirit, expressed in the Assembly theme, "Sharing Gifts in Suffering and Joy." It's a theme that the Executive Board is fostering in one of its main priorities -- developing mutual relationships across the global church. These relationships are being shaped by the sharing of gifts and needs across and between continents and churches rather than driven by prior north-south mission relationships.

"Even though Mennonite Church USA is one of the largest denominations represented in MWC, when I look at our relationship in light of how many people from so many different places are here, I see how small we really are," said delegate Duane Oswald, moderator of Mennonite Church USA.

"I think it's easy for North Americans to think that we are at the center of the universe and that we are the be all and end all. But we have a lot to learn from other parts of the church -- particularly those in Africa. One thing they're showing us is tremendous hospitality at a time when they have nothing."

Scant resources, lavish faith

Delegate Miriam Book, a pastor at Salford (Pa.) Mennonite Church, said she was struck with how people with scant physical resources have a lavish dependence on God that's harder for North Americans to attain because of their more secure lifestyles.

"MWC staff say that even though the organization doesn't have an abundance of wealth, it has an abundance of faith and uses the phrase, 'we do what we can with what we have,'" Book said. "MWC identifies with local people who said that even though other North Americans told us not to come during this uncertain time, we needed to come by faith. By coming, we are expressing solidarity and standing with them in faith that God provides."

Book and Oswald joined seven other Executive Board delegates and about 6,300 Mennonites and Brethren in Christ from churches across Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe and North America. The BIC Church of Zimbabwe at the Zimbabwe International Trade Center hosted the gathering.

Other Executive Board delegates were Jim Schrag, executive director of Mennonite Church USA, Kenyetta Aduma, director of the Executive Board Office of Cross-Cultural Relations, Jeanne Zook of Portland, and Erin Huebert, a graduate student in Chicago and a delegate at the first-ever Global Youth Summit (GYS), held Aug. 8-10.

A Schowalter Foundation Grant also sent people of color to Africa 2003 as part of the U.S. delegation. They were Zenobia Sowell-Bianchi of Chicago; Juan Montes, a member of Iglesia Menonita Hispana in Reedley, Calif.; and Erica Littlewolf, 22, a college student who grew up on Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Adults pass torch to younger Anabaptists

By inviting young adults such as Littlewolf and Huebert to attend MWC, the Executive Board hoped to pass on the priority of building global relationships to the next generation. During one session of the MWC General Council -- which Executive Board delegates attended Aug. 7-9 -- Huebert and other GYS delegates shared their struggles and dreams.

They struggle with the traditionalism of the older generation and with knowing how to share their faith in a pluralistic world, they said. But they also dream about finding mentors and setting up worldwide networks through e-mail and the Web.

During the summit, Huebert shared her findings of a survey she conducted on young adults in Mennonite Church USA. MWC created the survey for youth delegates from participating national churches.

"I saw how boundaries of culture and age and gender and economic levels melted away when we began to relate to each other," said Huebert, a graduate of Bethel College in North Newton, Kan., and the former AmeriCorps and Vista volunteer coordinator for Inter-Faith Ministries for Wichita, Kan. She grew up in Bethesda Mennonite Church in Henderson, Neb., the congregation that helped bring her to Africa.

"I see that we're all just searching for relationships, and they seemed easier to form here than in North America. I think it's because at this gathering we didn't draw artificial boundaries about why we can't or shouldn't hang out. We just hung out. I will take these friendships back home with me, and this is what I will most cherish about my time here."

Littlewolf, who worked the last three summers at White River Mennonite Church, in Busby, Mont., in Mennonite Central Committee's Summer Service Program, said she found more similarities than she expected between the Zimbabweans and Native Americans living on the reservation.

"When people saw me on the street, they came up to me asking for money, assuming that I was a rich North American," Littlewolf said. "But I grew up in a needy community that has a lot of unemployment, too.

"Perhaps that helped us identify with each more, because I made a lot of new friendships here. Even in their need, the Africans gave me a lot. They've shown me that it's not important what I have materialistically but what I have spiritually that matters."

Rivers of change

Young adult and adult Executive Board delegates alike discovered at Africa 2003 that Christ's church is experiencing changes as powerful as the Zambezi waters tumbling from their previous boundaries into swirling pools below. And in this intermingling of people and cultures, God is doing something new, Schrag said.

These changes bring hope and challenge as Mennonite Church USA journeys with its brothers and sisters into the 21st century, he said. He and some of the other adult delegates also attended the Global Mission Fellowship, held Aug. 10-11, to discuss how these changes are reshaping mission efforts into more mutual partnerships.

"I'm learning that everything is changing," Schrag said. "Our denomination is not alone in all the changes it's gone through with our merger. MWC's identity, ideas about mission, worldwide relationships are all shifting and changing.

"And since 9/11, it's more important than ever before to form these open relationships. The position of USA in our name reminds us that we're not part of a hospitable nation. Our nation is shutting down our borders to immigrants, and we're seen from a new angle in terms of isolating ourselves. For this and many other reasons, it's important to have these global relationships and friendships."

Laurie L. Oswald is news service director for Mennonite Church USA.


U.S. Mennonite women help Indian sisters to come to Bulawayo

From left, Esther Kunjam, of India, and Joyce Schertz, of the United States, enjoy a walk after attending a tea party Aug. 12 at Mennonite World Conference's Assembly Gathered in Bulwayo, Zimbabwe. Kunjam was one of four Indian women who received support from U.S. women in about 50 Mennonite Church USA congregations. The donors raised $4,271 to help the Indian women travel to the gathering.

by Laurie L. Oswald

This is the second story in a series depicting Africa 2003, the Mennonite World Conference Assembly Gathered, held in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, from Aug. 11-17.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (MC USA) -- In India where society hasn't allowed women much voice, Esther Kunjam has helped her daughters to use their gifts. And because of the generosity of some U.S. Mennonite women, Esther told her own story at Africa 2003.

Kunjam -- a mother of four daughters -- was one of four Indian women sent to Mennonite World Conference Assembly Gathered in Bulawayo on Aug. 11-17 through the support of about 50 donors in Mennonite Church USA congregations who raised $4,271.

Because the Indian churches were sending mainly men to MWC, Twila Miller, serving with Mennonite Central Committee in India, wrote a proposal to reverse that trend. This was sent off to Rhoda Keener, Mennonite Women USA executive director, as a potential Sister-Link project. Sister-Link connects women from across the globe with each other.

Keener contacted Dorothy Yoder Nyce of Goshen, Ind., to help with a $3,000 fund drive to sponsor trips for three women to Bulawayo. But by exceeding their goal, they could sponsor a fourth woman. The women included Kunjam, Margaret Wilson Devadason, Meera N. Netam and Hanna Soren.

"I thank God for the honor of being here, and when I got the e-mail from Twila, I couldn't believe it, because I never dreamed I'd go to Bulawayo," said Kunjam, vice president of All India Mennonite Women's Conference (AIMWC) and the wife of Shant Kunjam, bishop of the Mennonite Church of India. "I helped with organizing MWC in Calcutta in 1997 and it was such a wonderful experience, so I'm thrilled to be part of another assembly."

Kunjam, a member of the Mennonite Church of Ragnagaon in Chhattisgarh, had experienced Mennonite Women USA's generosity before when the women's organization helped to send her second daughter, Elisabeth, to Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., through the 2003 International Women's Fund. Elisabeth contributed $100 on behalf of her mother and the three other women.

Kunjam and the other women shared their stories during "Twila's Tea Party" sponsored by Miller and Keener at the MWC gathering Aug. 12 to thank the donors. The Indian women shared stories of how societal norms often keep women from many leadership positions. Nevertheless, they'd become AIMWC officers and worked on behalf of women in their congregations, including teaching, counseling and organizing events.

For example, Kunjam teaches Bible studies, preaches, counsels in her congregation and is asked to speak throughout India. Soren, of Nepal, is secretary of AIMWC, and wife of Shemlal Hebrom, pastor of a Brethren in Christ congregation. Netam is treasurer of AIMWC and the headmistress of the one of the eight Beacon Schools in Korba, Chhattisgarh. She was part of the MCC's International Visitor's Program in the early 1970s. And Devadason is retired from MCC and does ministry with Muslim women. She was the national coordinator for the MWC assembly in Calcutta in 1997.

Kunjam spoke of how she is passing the baton of faith and leadership to her daughters. Her oldest, Sharon, is married to a pastor; her second, Elisabeth, is pursing a master's degree in Christian formation at AMBS; her third, Sarah, is attending Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.; and her youngest, Rebekah, is in her final year of pursuing a bachelor's degree in commerce in India.

"They say that children often want to follow in the footsteps of their parents, and that is certainly true with my daughters," Kunjam said. "Besides pursuing education, they have all worked among women's groups and have taught Sunday school."

Kunjam credits her husband for helping the women in their household to thrive. "In our church, women didn't have any importance," she said. "But when my husband started pastoring, he was more liberal and gave opportunity for women to help conduct the worship services. Up to that time, women hadn't been allowed up on the pulpit. And now, we even have deaconesses."

Just as Kunjam finds joy in nurturing her daughters, Miller and Keener said they are grateful that U.S. women are nurturing women around the world whose traditions haven't allowed them free reign.

"We felt that these women needed to be here to experience what the larger Mennonite church looks like and to see that women from around the world are preaching sermons and are active in many ways," said Miller, co-country director of MCC's work in India with her husband, Ed.

This project brought Keener full circle into family history. As a 17-year-old, she had visited her late Aunt Blanche Sell, who served as a missionary in India with the former Mennonite Board of Missions for more than 35 years. Keener brought her aunt's teapot to the tea party, where the women could drink from a part of history that had helped pave the way for their own ministries.

"This whole project became a spiritual experience for me, as Aunt Blanche was the one who introduced me to India, a trip that changed my life forever and created a deep attraction to India and God's work among the women there," Keener said.

Laurie L. Oswald is news service director for Mennonite Church USA.


Institute encourages individuals to clean their spectacles

by Kendra King

NEWTON, Kan. (MC USA) -- Two thousand years of differences cloud our view of Jesus' life, and Jerry Truex intends to help us clean the lenses of our spectacles.

Truex, director of the Institute of Christian Studies (ICS) in Wichita, feels called to provide opportunities for individuals to strengthen their faith by examining Jesus' life through historical lenses.

ICS is a relatively new Wichita-based organization of Anabaptist Christians who affiliate with Mennonite and Brethren churches.

"Early on in my quest to understand Jesus and his earliest followers, I recognized that I had to do more than simply read the Gospels," Truex said. "I had to overcome a great distance between my world and the world of first century Judaism.

"Because of the work of historical Jesus scholars, Jesus is no longer an enigmatic, one-dimensional figure of the past, but an understandable, multidimensional figure, who is both credible and significant to modern and post-modern people.

"Historical Jesus scholars -- not popular devotionals or the sentimental type of preachers -- have enriched my understanding of Jesus and invigorated my desire to follow him more than any other factor in my adult life."

This drive to meet Jesus in the first-century culture, language, world view and experiences led him to earn a M.Div. from the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary in Fresno, Calif., and a Ph.D. in New Testament from Durham University, England. Now, he's the director of ICS, and hopes to help others have the same opportunity.

ICS offers three courses available for college credit through Tabor College of Wichita, where Truex is also an instructor of biblical studies. These classes cover such topics as "The Historical Jesus"; "War, Peace and Nonviolence"; and "Anabaptist Life and Thought." This curriculum, plus other book studies offered, aims to help individuals encounter God through study, discussion and reflection.

Public forums facilitated by ICS provide a way to forge understanding about current political, social and religious issues from an Anabaptist perspective. A series of four public forums focusing on the impending war in Iraq were held in October 2002. The "Politics of Jesus" and "The Bible: Fact, Fiction, or What?" are planned for October 2003 and March 2004.

"We were very happy with the first series of forums," Truex said. " It was exciting to have such a broad range of people come and dialogue with us about our Anabaptist-Christian convictions." Several participants indicated that they were deeply moved to consider peace and non-violence, he said.

ICS charges no fees for classes, book studies or forums. "We are imitating Jesus by not charging fees," Truex said. "What we offer is not for sale. We offer it as a gift."

ICS began as a ministry of the Mennonite Church of the Servant. As of June 30, 2003, it is now an independent non-profit organization with board members from various Mennonite churches in the Wichita area.

More than 300 persons have wiped a little dust from the lenses of their spectacles since the birth of ICS in July 2002. Did they even wear spectacles in the first century? Truex would be the first one to ask.

Kendra King is communications intern for the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board Office of Communications.


EMU to hold bioethics conference

by Jim Bishop

HARRISONBURG, Va. -- A major conference on issues surrounding new capabilities and possibilities in biotechnology will be held Nov. 13-15 at Eastern Mennonite University.

"Ethics of Biotechnology: Viewing New Creations with Anabaptist Eyes" will bring authorities on issues related to genetic research and applications to campus for presentations on the theme. The Anabaptist Center for Health Care Ethics, Elkhart, Ind., and Mennonite Central Committee, Akron, Pa., are associate sponsors.

The conference will include case studies, panel discussions and opportunity for audience questions and responses. It is designed for students, faculty, health care professionals, bioresearchers, agriculturalists, pastors, counselors, educators and others who care about the power and use of new understandings in genetics.

Seven keynote speakers from various disciplines and perspectives will address the conference, including: Dr. John Gearhart, gynecology and obstetrics professor at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; Dr. LeRoy Walters, professor of Christian ethics at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.; Dr. Carole Cramer, professor of plant pathology and physiology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg: and Dr. Stanley Hauerwas, professor of theological ethics at Duke Divinity School, Durham, N.C.

Dr. Roman J. Miller, the Daniel B. Suter endowed professor of biology at EMU and conference coordinator, said the meeting will explore current applications in cloning, stem cell research, gene therapies and use of genetically modified plants and animals. It will emphasize the role of various academic and professional disciplines and Anabaptist perspectives in informing and shaping our bioethical discernment.

"Our goal is to view the promises and perils of these biotechnologies with 'Anabaptist eyes,' bringing insights of our faith tradition to enlighten our understanding and practice," Miller said. "We hope that a cautious optimism, rather than reactionary censorship, will pervade the gathering."

Registration is $140 with a special student rate of $25. For more information or to register, call 540-432-4000 or visit the EMU web site at www.bioethics.emu.edu.

Jim Bishop is public information officer for Eastern Mennonite University. (540) 432-4000, E-mail: info@emu.edu