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MWC Faith and Life Council Documents 'Core Convictions'

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe — Anabaptists around the world will study a new statement on beliefs they have in common over the next three years. The Mennonite World Conference General Council approved the statement here on August. 17.

The new statement is not a confession of faith, but it might be used by those of MWC's 90 member churches in 54 countries that do not have one, council members said.

MWC's Faith and Life Council, whose membership is the same as its 120-member General Council, prepared the statement. It is based on statements of core convictions received from 19 MWC member churches and one from an association of church

The document's seven points describe basic beliefs held in common with most Christians, such as salvation through Christ, as well as beliefs Anabaptists emphasize, such as nonviolence.

Nelson Kraybill, president of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana (USA) who helped draft the statement, said it could be used to define who belongs to the Anabaptist family. Tom Finger, a U.S. theologian, said the statement could be useful for defining Anabaptism to others.

The statement lists the following points: "1. God is known to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Creator who seeks to restore fallen humanity by calling a people to be faithful in fellowship, worship, service and witness. "2. Jesus is the Son of God who showed in his life and teaching how to be faithful, and through his cross and resurrection redeemed the world. "3. The church is a community of those whom God's Spirit calls to turn from sin, acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, receive baptism upon confession of faith and follow Christ in life. "4. The faith community, under Holy Spirit guidance, interprets the Bible in the light of Jesus Christ to discern God's will for our obedience. "5. The Spirit of Jesus empowers us to trust God in all areas of life so we become peacemakers who renounce violence, love our enemies, seek justice and share our possessions with those in need. "6. The faith community gathers regularly to worship, to celebrate the Lord's Supper and to hear the Word of God in a spirit of mutual accountability. "7. We seek to live in the world without conforming to the powers of evil, witnessing to God's grace by serving others, caring for creation and inviting all people to know Jesus as Savior and Lord."

The Faith and Life Council is requesting responses to the statement to be revised at its next meeting in 2006.

Mennonite World Conference release by Paul Schrag for Meetinghouse *************

PEACE COUNCIL CONTINUES WORK ON CENTRAL PEACE PLATFORM BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe — The Peace Council, launched six years ago in Calcutta, India, is a forum for Mennonite World Conference member churches to discuss peace issues.

Peacemaking is important for churches and individuals in the global Anabaptist family. It grows from both biblical texts and historical identity.

Despite a strong awareness of our Anabaptist peacemaking heritage, the Peace Council, meeting here during the MWC Assembly 14, felt that a central statement would help create, cement and maintain awareness of our stand.

"Anyone who wants to be good at playing soccer has to practice certain skills," noted Paulus Widjaja, Peace Council secretary. "We also have to train ourselves and determine a game plan as peacemakers if we are to reach our goals," he noted.

This year's meetings centered on progress made toward creating a unified platform on which a collective of peace churches could stand. The council last met in Guatemala City in 2000. This year's meetings discussed the summary of work to date.

Widjaja and Judy Zimmerman-Herr, associate secretary for the council, had collected stories from 13 member churches that illustrated elements of the church's peace stance.

"Building our theology statement from good working stories helps test the ideas in practice," noted Widjaja in the first round of discussion. "We don't just want a set of good ideas."

The stories were a spring board for discussion and were used to create a document summarizing three areas important to a peace stance: relationships involved in peacemaking; virtues important to peacemaking; and practices that help develop peacemaking.

On the first day, small, internationally mixed groups of 10 General Council and other attendees discussed peace relationships and the virtues of peace. Comments from these groups were reported on the second day.

Continental groups then considered additional ideas for practices that might generate peacemaking.

Development of a peace practice statement is now slated to continue in subsequent meetings of this special council.

Gleaned from the reports and stories were these five levels of peacemaking relationships: 1) Making peace with God (conversion creates a new person who can live at peace); 2) Peacemaking within churches; 3) Peacemaking with neighbors; 4) Peacemaking with other Christians and reaching across historical division to members of other faiths; 5) Peacemaking within and between nations.

Possible additions generated from group discussions include: peace with oneself, peace within families, peacemaking with neighbors at conflict with each other, peace with the environment and peace with enemies.

The reports from MWC churches indicated five practices which help Christians and churches on their journey toward becoming habitual peacemakers: 1) Catechizing, though some thought the word might suggest teaching only theology and not practices; 2) Worship; 3) Prayer and spiritual disciplines; 4) Christian education; 5) Global awareness to help Christians perceive the need for peace.

Some groups thought that making peace with other Christians and other faiths were two distinct tasks, each large enough to constitute a separate goal.