Mennonite World Conference's list of assignments keeps growing. Expectations for its assistance and support and intervention are stepping up. And Mennonite World Conference (MWC) staff and Executive Committee members, scattered in a series of small offices around the world - not unlike the churches they serve - are sorting out how to be a partner on many fronts. How much can this small body capably - and responsibly - handle for the global church family?

Meeting in Indonesia, near the central Java home of MWC President Mesach Krisetya from August 19-25, the 14-member Executive Commitee representing Anabaptist-related fellowships around the world unanimously endorsed the need to continue to enlarge MWC activity.

In a prophetic welcome to the week of work, hosting President Krisetya remarked, "We need to change in our organization in order to accomplish the work of God in our world."

Members of the global family are seeking an open "space" where they can experience mutual exchange, a "space" that is not owned or managed by any one of the partners (especially not a partner with the longest history nor the most money).

Mennonite World Conference is increasingly viewed as offering such a place for working together interdependently. The list of possibilities grew longer as the Executive Committee, representing five continents, repeatedly asked Executive Secretary Larry Miller (and the rest of its skeletal staff and volunteers) to pursue projects and linkages that point toward increased worldwide exchange among its churches. At the same time, the Executive Committee undertook studious management of its own resources, calling for a plan to increase its tiny staff and modest financial base.

Some of the projects involving MWC are major and are becoming more clearly defined:

1. A Global Anabaptist Missions Consultation, co-sponsored with the Council of International Ministries, will take place July 12-15, 2000, in Latin America (because of political uncertainty, the event will not take place in Colombia as earlier planned; two other sites are currently being considered). Representatives from churches in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and North America, who are engaged in international missions, will explore working together and being accountable to each other in missions.

   This event is one of five global get-togethers that will happen conjointly in July, 2000: the others are MWC's General Council, Peace Council, and Faith and Life Council, as well as a meeting of the International Committee of Mennonite Brethren.

2. The Global Gifts Sharing Project. An inventory of gifts and resources found in MWC member churches is being assembled - for use by those churches.

   "MWC is creating the list. What happens after that is up to the churches to decide. Then, for example, the church in the Philippines can enter into direct contact with the church in Guatemala. They don't need to go through us," explained Larry Miller. (The inventory will likely include special gifts of praying, worship leading, working with young people, teaching, serving the local community, and so on.)

3. The Global Church Sharing Fund. A portion of this fund of about $1,000,000 U.S. (initially) is currently being distributed to churches in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Several churches reported on their use of their funds - in Tanzania the church has built an investment house; in Congo, they've bought bicycles for their evangelists.

4. The Global Mennonite and Brethren in Christ History Project. A multi-volume effort with each continent providing the writer(s) for its own book. Latin America's volume is being researched; three of Asia's four writers are assigned; Africa's are still being secured. "These need to be narrative, integrative accounts that are readable," commented organizing committee member Paul Toews.

5. The Global Anabaptist Peace and Justice Network. Begun in Latin America, it is gaining strength there as a prayer and action connector. Elsewhere the pick-up has been slow, suffering from the lack of translation or practical communication links.

1. The publication of the study booklet, From Anabaptist Seed by C. Arnold Snyder. Can this effort to articulate a common historical core of Anabaptist-Mennonite identity serve as a starting point for exploring a contemporary core of identity among Anabaptist-related churches globally? A Council on these Faith and Life matters will be convened in July, 2000.

2. World Fellowship Sunday will be celebrated January 23, 2000. The Latin American churches have prepared the materials for this year. The theme? "Celebrating Hope." The text? Habakkuk 3: 17-19. MWC member churches will make the worship service materials available to all their congregations.

3. An occasional newsletter links Theological Educators on Five Continents, keeping this network modestly active.

4. Readership of the quarterly magazines Courier (in English) and Correo (in Spanish) continues to grow. Staff will research the cost of offering the publication in French in response to adamant requests from the French-speaking churches of Congo (now numbering some 186,000 members, who are frequently sidelined by language from full participation in global church life).

   A special edition of Courier/Correo in 2000 will highlight the 75th anniversary of the first Mennonite World Conference Assembly, held in 1925 in Basel, Switzerland.

5. Formal contact with other world church bodies goes on. MWC sent a representative (Max Wiedmer of France) to this summer's meeting of the General Council of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA). Plans are developing for a joint MWC-BWA conference on "The Mission and Peace Witness of the Church."

   An MWC representative will attend a Forum of Christian Churches and Ecumenical Organizations, a broad and occasional global gathering of Christians, including Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Roman Catholics and others.

   A second Mennonite-Catholic Dialogue will be held October 12-18, 1999.

1. A recommendation to MWC's General Council (who will next meet in July 2000) that it approve Zimbabwe as the site of the next global Assembly in August of 2003. An invitation had also come from the churches of Ethiopia, but MWC Vice President Bedru Hussein, a member of that community, advised, "Ethiopia remains at war with Eritrea, and we don't know how long that will go on. That makes planning a problem. So I think Assembly Gathered needs to be in Zimbabwe. We do hope a major part of Assembly Scattered can happen in Ethiopia - and in Tanzania, Kenya, Congo, and Zambia, also."

2. The hiring of an Associate Executive Secretary one year from now to assist with new projects. The intent is to hire a person from Africa, Asia, or Latin America. Until then, Ray and Margie Brubacher (Canada) will work from Elkhart, Indiana, and later from Strasbourg, France, through August 31, 2000, on special projects; and Pakisa Tshimika (Congo) will be employed half-time in Fresno, California, from now through July 31, 2000, as coordinator of Global Sharing Projects.

3. A major fundraising effort will begin this fall. "MWC needs more resources and more capable people to do its current work, plus all that is being brought to it. We are trying to imagine what kind of financing and staffing we will need," acknowledged treasurer Paul Quiring. "We are charting a new direction; we're exploring as we go along." The intent is to provide adequate financing for the growing demand for MWC activity now and in the future. "We are operating on the thinnest of margins now; we can't respond to any unexpected opportunities - or needs; that is not responsible," remarked Quiring.

   This move will test whether MWC can grow substantially stronger while continuing to function primarily as an encourager and facilitator of "others" activities. "We are all enthusiastic now," said Stefan van Delden of Germany. "Let's not overdo it by trying more than we can handle. But it's good to be moving this way for the sake of the global church."

What will become of this slender body, formed around a restlessly enlarging vision? Throughout its week together on a hillside in Bandungan, Indonesia, the Executive Committee kept returning to two matters - 1) the possibility of having Mennonite World "Conference" become Mennonite World "Communion," thereby reflecting more faithfully its developing "theological, operational, practical, and organizational" shape in the future; and 2) to begin a serious review and revision of its constitution, now outdistanced by a reality that was scarcely imagined when the constitution was accepted 20 years ago, also in Indonesia.

- Phyllis Pellman Good, for Mennonite World Conference News Service