Bridgefolk is a movement of sacramentally-minded Mennonites and peace-minded Roman Catholics who come together to celebrate each other's traditions, explore each other's practices, and honor each other's contribution to the mission of Christ's Church.
“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.
On October 10, a week into this year’s groundbreaking synod at the Vatican bringing bishops, other clergy, and laypeople together for a month of listening and discernment, the daily press conference focused on ecumenical dimensions of the event. Among four panelists from varying Christian traditions was Anne-Cathy Graber, a French Mennonite representing Mennonite World Conference. The following are excerpts from a Vatican News press release reporting on the briefing:
Anne-Cathy Graber speaks at Vatican press conference, 10 October 2024.
Reverend Anne-Cathy Graber, a pastor from the Mennonite World Conference and secretary for ecumenical relations, who is participating in the Synod for the first time, said she was “surprised by the invitation,” as she belongs to a “little-known church” that emerged from the Reformation in the 16th century and is characterized by the baptism of believers and active nonviolence.
Reflecting on her presence, she observed: “The Catholic Church does not need our voice, which is very small, but this in itself says much about synodality – it shows that every voice matters, every voice is important.”
For Pastor Graber, “Christian unity is not only a promise for tomorrow, it is here and now, and we can already see it. We are not only close but belong to the same body of Christ, we are members of one another, as St. Paul said.”
“Even though we do not have voting rights as fraternal delegates, “our voice and presence were welcomed just like everyone else’s. The equal dignity of baptism is visible. There is no powerful Church dominating from above. We are all a people walking together and seeking,” she continued.
Other panelists noted the close link between the “synodality” by which Catholics are working to better listen to one another, and ecumenical listening between Christians:
Voice was then given to the guests at the briefing, who focused on ecumenism, which forms an inseparable pair with synodality.
Cardinal Kurt Koch, Prefect of the [Vatican’s] Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, summed up the concept with these words: “The synodal journey is ecumenical. And the ecumenical journey cannot be anything but synodal.”
Defining the ecumenical dimension as “one of the most relevant aspects of this Synod,” the cardinal emphasized how fundamental “the exchange of gifts, in which we learn from one another, with the conviction that no Church is so rich that it does not need the contribution of other Churches, and no Church is so poor that it has nothing to offer” is to both ecumenism and synodality.
At an ecumenical Taize service the following day, Pope Francis himself underscored this message in a homily emphasizing the “common mission” of Christians around the world. Francis noted that “The ecumenical movement evolved from the desire to bear common witness: to witness alongside one another, not standing apart from or, worse yet, at odds with one another.”
To read the entire Vatican News press release from 10 October, click here.
For Pope Francis’s homily at the 11 October ecumenical Taize service, click here.
For a report on the synod and Graber’s participation in Anabaptist World, click here.
The second and final session of the Vatican Synod on Synodality will include a Mennonite representative and underline the Catholic Church’s plan to promote dialogue with other Christian denominations, enhance transparency and take responsibility for mistakes.
The number of representatives from other Christian denominations at the synod has grown from 12 to 16 to include Mennonite World Conference, the World Lutheran Federation, the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria.
The Oct. 3-27 gathering at the Vatican will include MWC representative Anne-Cathy Graber of France, a member of MWC’s Faith nd Life Commission and MWC’s representative to the Global Christian Forum. She is a Mennonite but also a member of the Chemin Neuf Catholic community in Paris.
