Holy Spirit works through Catholic synod, says Mennonite representative

Head shot of Anne-Cathy Graber — ^{Anne-Cathy Graber, Mennonite World Conference representative at Vatican synod in October.}

Mennonite World Conference
news release
19 December 2024

“It was necessary to take courage: it’s another world, another vocabulary, another way of thinking. How was I to bring my own questions and be respectfully present as a guest while being fully Mennonite?” Anne-Cathy Graber asked these questions as she received an invitation to attend the Vatican’s Sixteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod in October 2024.

Having taken the role of Mennonite World Conference (MWC) Secretary for Ecumenical Relations for MWC in 2023, Anne-Cathy Graber represented Mennonite World Conference at the month-long event, which had 16 “fraternal delegates” representing other Christian churches and communities, 8 Protestant and 8 Orthodox.

Anne-Cathy Graber is an itinerant Mennonite pastor and theologian and co-director of the Chair of Ecumenical Theology at the Faculties Loyola Paris. She serves on MWC’s Faith & Life Commission. Additionally, she has represented Anabaptists at the Global Christian Forum Committee, in the Faith & Order Commission of the World Council of Churches (2014-2022), in the bilateral dialogue between MWC and the Reformed Church. She is also a consecrated sister in Chemin Neuf, a Catholic community with an ecumenical vocation.

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Mennonite ecumenical leader Larry Miller to address prospects for Christian reconciliation

The World Conference on Faith and Order in 2025 (Alexandria, Egypt) will mark the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea under the theme “Where Now for Visible Unity?” International ecclesial dialogues seeking ecumenical convergence as a step towards visible unity have generally focused on issues of a doctrinal nature, paying little attention to the role of “experience” and, more specifically, “experiences of unity” in and between churches.

Larry Miller, former Secretary of Global Christian Forum and General Secretary of Mennonite World Conference, speaking in Bogotá, Colombia in 2018 — _{Larry Miller, former Secretary of Global Christian Forum and General Secretary of Mennonite World Conference.}

Is this pattern beginning to change, thanks in particular to the globalization and the “pentecostalization” of the churches, as well as initiatives for ecclesial “reconciliation”?

In this Figel Event on Ecumenical Dialogue, Rev. Dr. Larry Miller, first full-time Secretary of the Global Christian Forum, and former General Secretary of the Mennonite World Conference, will receive the Consortium’s Ecumenism Award for 2024. Dr. Miller will address how experience and reconciliation between the churches is reshaping our understanding of Christian unity. He will draw upon responses to the Faith and Order Commission’s text “The Church: Towards a Common Vision,” conversations in the annual meeting of the Conference of Secretaries of Christian World Communions, encounters in the life of the Global Christian Forum, and the results of the international Lutheran-Mennonite reconciliation process.

The event will take place February 21 in the chapel of Wesley Theological Seminary, 4500 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20016. For more information, including how to RSVP or register for possible online streaming click here.

Week of Christian Unity 2021: A Report from the Vatican

On the occasion of the just-completed Week of Christian Unity, L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican daily newspaper, has published a report on the state of ecumenical dialogue by Bishop Brian Farrell, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The report mentions the trilateral Lutheran-Catholic-Mennonite dialogue, along with some 15 other bilateral dialogues and discussions in which the pontifical council was engaged during 2020.

Mutual understanding and reciprocal trust

22 January 2021

The year 2020 will long be remembered for the transformation of life, communal and personal, caused by the pandemic. The Ecumenical world, too, has suffered from the restriction imposed due to the health crisis. In relationships among Christians, divided but eager to overcome separations, personal contacts are essential. The mutual understanding and reciprocal trust necessary to deepen communion are born and grow only through encounter. Many meetings, many church gatherings and ecumenical dialogues have had to be cancelled or postponed to a future date. Certain meetings have been replaced by video conferences, but there is no doubt that a conversation mediated by technology does not produce the same effect as an exchange of ideas, beliefs, and motivations that takes place in person. Yet, even in this fateful year, the search for Christian unity has continued, and has made progress. Sixty years after its founding (June 1960), the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (pcpuc) carries onward with conviction its mandate: to promote ecumenism in the Catholic Church and the relationships of the Catholic Church with other Christians, in their Churches and communities. …

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Trilateral report on baptism by Lutherans, Catholics, Mennonites released

Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
News release
30 July 2020

Representatives of the Catholic Church, the Lutheran World Federation, and the Mennonite World Conference met periodically from 2012-2017. These trilateral Conversations focused on the understanding and practice of Baptism in light of contemporary missional challenges facing these Christian communities.

The final report entitled Baptism and Incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church summarizes the outcome of these Conversations. The text is published together with a Catholic Commentary authored by Professor Peter Casarella (Duke University, USA). The report is published as a study document in the hope that through wide diffusion, both within the three communities and among Christians in general, it will contribute to better mutual understanding on the mystery of Baptism and greater faithfulness to Jesus Christ.

The report treats three fundamental themes: 1) the relationship between Baptism, sin and grace; 2) the celebration of Baptism and the communication of grace and faith in the context of the Christian community; 3) the living out of Baptism in Christian discipleship.

The publication of the report was announced by a joint communiqué issued for the publication of the report.

Participants in the meetings on behalf of the Mennonites were Prof Dr Alfred Neufeld † (co-chair, Paraguay); Prof. Dr Fernando Enns (Germany); Revd Rebecca Adongo Osiro (Kenya); Prof. Dr John Rempel (Canada); Revd Dr Larry Miller (co-secretary, France/USA).

Lutheran delegation members were Prof. Dr Friederike Nüssel (co-chair, Germany); Bishop Emeritus Dr Musawenkosi Biyela (South Africa); Prof. Dr Theodor Dieter (France); Revd Prof. Peter Li (Hong Kong-China); Revd Raj Bharath Patta (India/UK); and Revd Dr Kaisamari Hintikka (co-secretary, Finland/Switzerland).

Catholic Church delegation members were Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga, IMC (co-chair, Colombia); Revd Prof. William Henn, OFM Cap (USA/Italy); Revd Prof. Luis Melo, SM (Canada); Sister Prof. Dr Marie-Hélène Robert, NDA (France); and Revd Avelino González-Ferrer (co-secretary, USA/Vatican).

Ecumenical relations mark MWC meetings

Miller Elizabeth slide

7.24. 2015 Written By: Gordon Houser, editor of The Mennonite, for Meetinghouse

Photo: Elizabeth Miller of the Moravian Church brings greetings. Photo by Dale Gehman.

During both morning and evening worship sessions on July 22 and 23 at the MWC Assembly in Harrisburg, Pa., representatives from various Christian communions brought greetings to MWC participants. Nearly all praised Mennonites for their long-standing peace witness.

In the morning worship on July 22, Gretchen Castle of the Friends World Committee for Consultation brought greetings. That evening, Larry Miller, former MWC General Secretary, brought greetings from the Global Christian Forum, followed by Monsignor Gregory Fairbanks of the Roman Catholic Church.

On July 23, greetings came from Elizabeth Miller of the Moravian Church and William Wilson of the Pentecostal World Fellowship in the morning, followed by Isabel Phiri of the World Council of Churches, Martin Junge of the Lutheran World Federation and Diop Ganoune of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in the evening. Junge received sustained applause as he expressed gratitude for MWC extending forgiveness to Lutherans in 2010 for their treatment of Anabaptists in the past.

Several workshops also addressed ecumenical concerns. Jonathan Seiling and Fernando Enns led a July 22 workshop, “Introduction to Mennonites and Ecumenism,” which introduced the reasons and contexts in which Mennonites have entered into official dialogue with other Christian denominations.

That same day, Valerie Rempel led the workshop “The MWC-Seventh-day Adventist Dialogue,” which highlighted the outcomes of a dialogue that happened in 2011-12.

On July 23, Alfred Neufeld, John Rempel and Seiling led the workshop “Trilateral Dialogue: Catholics, Lutherans and Mennonite Conversations on Baptism,” which reported on dialogues between MWC and the Lutheran and Catholic churches, a five-year process that has dealt with the healing of memories, theologies and practices that separate us, the meaning and function of a sacrament and the problem of Christian initiation.

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On the journey with Lutheran brothers and sisters: an interview with John D. Roth

By Andre Gingerich Stoner

At its most recent meeting, the Executive Board asked Ervin Stutzman, executive director, to send a letter of greeting and Christian friendship to Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The letter recounts with gratitude the remarkable developments in Mennonite-Lutheran relations in the past fifteen years. It acknowledges ways Anabaptists, too, have at times misrepresented Lutherans and Lutheran practices.

Further, the letter responds to occasional informal questions from Lutheran leaders as to whether Mennonites regard Lutherans as fully part of the body of Christ. Finally it affirms the current three-way dialogue on baptism between Mennonite World Conference, the Lutheran World Federation and the Vatican.

John Roth, professor of history at Goshen (Ind.) College, was part of the formal dialogue with Lutherans both on behalf of Mennonite Church USA and later Mennonite World Conference. We have asked him to reflect on the content and the significance of the recent letter sent on behalf of Mennonite Church USA to Presiding Bishop Eaton of the ELCA.

See the interview here.

Greek Catholics in Ukraine restore former Mennonite church building

Release date:

Monday, 5 May 2014

Kitchener, Ontario (Mennonite World Conference) – In Ukraine a former Mennonite church building is being restored and transformed – with the help of Canadian Mennonites – into a Greek Catholic church.

This development, according to observers, is an example of Mennonite-Catholic collaboration in the spirit of other exchanges over the past decade or so. Continue reading “Greek Catholics in Ukraine restore former Mennonite church building” →

Mennonites, Catholics and Lutherans hold second round of dialogue on baptism

Co-chairs of the commission (from left): Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga, Friederike Nüssel, Alfred Neufeld. Photo by Eleanor Miller

Release date: Sunday, 9 March 2014

Strasbourg, France – “I continue to be inspired by the mutuality of our work,” commented John Rempel of Toronto, Ontario, one of the Mennonite participants in the 26-31 January 2014 second meeting of the Trilateral (Catholic, Lutheran, Mennonite) Dialogue Commission on Baptism.

The general topic of the dialogue, which is to extend over four years, is “Baptism and Incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church.” The theme for this year was “Baptism: God’s Grace in Christ and Human Sin”.

“Everyone is treated equally even though we are by far the smallest confession,” noted Rempel. “We are all trying to rethink the issues in terms of the 21st century, not only the 16th century.”

He commented further, “I find myself grappling especially with two aspects of this year’s meeting. I’m discovering how important sacraments are to Lutherans and Catholics as expressions of God’s initiative: God is mysteriously at work by means of prayer and water, whether we respond to it or not. And yet I can’t understand God’s initiative in the New Testament without the human response to grace.”

“At the same time our partners fear that we put so much weight on the human decision to believe that God’s initiative is pushed to the background. The participants are aware that only through the work of the Holy Spirit will this dialogue lead us closer to the mind of Christ.”

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Baptism the focus of trilateral dialogue by Mennonites, Catholics and Lutherans

trilateral_participants_0 — Front row (from left): Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga, Turid Karlsen Sein, Cardinal Koch, Alfred Neufeld. Second row: Musawenkosi Biyela, Rebecca Osiro, Kaisamari Hintikka, Gregory J Fairbanks. Third row: William Henn, Larry Miller, Theodor Dieter. Fourth row: César Garcia, Marie-Hélène Robert, Kwong-Sang Peter Li. Fifth row: Luis M Melo, Fernando Enns, John Rempel.

Rome, Italy/Bogota, Colombia (MWC) – An international trilateral dialogue between Mennonites, Catholics and Lutherans began in Rome, 9-13 December 2012.

According to a joint release issued after the Rome meeting, the overall theme of the five-year process is “Baptism and Incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church.” The release further stated: “This innovative trilateral forum will allow the dialogue to take up questions surrounding the theology and practice of baptism in the respective communions.” Continue reading “Baptism the focus of trilateral dialogue by Mennonites, Catholics and Lutherans” →