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Plans for Finances and Facilities for Assembly 15 Move Ahead

STRASBOURG, France — Paraguayan Mennonites are eager to host Assembly 15, Mennonite World Conference's next global gathering July 13-19, 2009 to be held in Asuncion. Interest is expanding beyond the leadership of the eight Mennonite host conferences and the people want to contribute substantially to the cost of the event.

These were the impressions of MWC staff, Ray Brubacher, associate secretary, and Karen Martin Schiedel, financial manager, who spent a week in Paraguay in October. They, along with MWC treasurer Paul Quiring, focused on financial projections, checking facilities and overall planning with the National Coordinating Council (NCC).

MWC staff expects to set a registration fee for internationals, to be adjusted according to their country's per capita Gross Domestic Product, reflecting MWC’s guiding Fair Share principle. They hope to set a single registration for Paraguayans, but deciding where to peg the fee is a challenge since the level of wealth ranges widely. All planners embrace the fair share principle.

Paraguayans want to help with the cost of Assembly 15. At a meeting in Asuncion with 12 successful Germanic business leaders, the MWC visitors were told: Give us — businesses, cooperatives and conferences — a challenge. Ask us for a significant sum of money and we will decide how to meet that challenge. Later, indigenous representatives said they would set specific goals for their congregations and encourage individuals to begin now to save for registration costs.

Planning for the next assembly has different challenges from those of 2003. Paraguay's economy is stable. Its currency compared to the American dollar is strong, so exchange rates will offer little if any advantage. In 2003, the American dollar could buy ever increasing amounts of Zimbabwean currency, but inflation constantly spiralled upwards and the country's instability kept offering new surprises.

A constant is the fact that to attend the global gathering will require sacrifices. “But will the financial sacrifices of wealthier participants be equal to the sacrifice of those with lower incomes?” mused Brubacher.

“The ideal for 2009, as it was in 2003, is to make it possible for all participants in Anabaptist/ Mennonite-related churches in the host country who want to attend to be able to come,” he said.

Brubacher expects the number of Canadian and German registrants to double from 2003 because of strong family connections. During the 20th century there were several surges of migration by Germanic Mennonites from Europe to Canada and Paraguay and subsequently between Canada and Paraguay.

According to the most recent data, there are 29,461 Mennonites in Paraguay. Of these, 22,940 or about 79% of the total, are baptized members of the eight conferences hosting Assembly 15: three Germanic with 9,611; three indigenous, with 8,379 members; and two Latino, with 4,950 members. Germanic conferences now include some Spanish-speaking members.

Each hosting conference has an equal voice on the NCC with three representatives. It is the first time the divergent conferences have worked together in this way. Twelve sub-committees will soon begin work and report to the NCC, which also includes a representative from the Global Youth Summit (AMIGOS) and MWC staff.

In Asuncion, MWC staff donned hard hats to visit the Centro Familiar de Adoracion, a large Pentecostal facility now under construction. Its auditorium will seat 10,000 people, an adjoining chapel will accommodate 1,000 and there will be numerous classrooms as well as kitchen and dining space. Most Assembly 15 events will take place here. Pictures and details of this facility are available on its website: www.cfa.org.py.

The MWC guests also visited the Paraguayan Chaco. It was helpful to get the geographic and historical background of the different Mennonite communities and to see the faces of the people with whom we communicate in their own context, noted Martin Schiedel.

“Every group is excited and asking, 'How do we participate?' They are all eager to do their part,” she observed.

Brubacher has met with the NCC four times and will continue to attend their meetings twice a year until 2009. The NCC will join the MWC Executive Committee for two days during its meetings in Asuncion in July 2007.

In conjunction with Assembly 15, MWC's General Council, the Peace and Faith and Life commissions, the Global Mission Fellowship and AMIGOS will also meet in Asuncion in July 2009.

— Ferne Burkhardt, Mennonite World Conference news editor

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