“A
presentation like that is what makes it easier for me to retire.” Those words
are forever inscribed into my memory. It was springtime 1980, Rev Henry Gerbrandt, recently retired General Secretary of then Conference of Mennonites
in Canada, shared these encouraging words with this young pastor
who had just braved a slightly controversial topic to a church full of delegates.
Now, forty-five years later and still in Alberta, I still remember title of that speech, “Evangelism and/or Christian Education,” definitely not an earth-shaking topic then and still not creating headlines! The occasion of this little tome, however, is kind of earth-shaking, not because of these few words I am writing, but because of this present date and time in history. Our neighbors just south of us have a problem; they have elected themselves an autocratic would-be-dictator President. Seems to me that our next generation of church leaders – and politicians - are being set up for a slightly greater challenge than what appeared before me back then.
I have
always been a reader, this probably in character for an Old Colony eldest son
back there who wanted to figure out many things (nesheah is the low German word used by my dad). So, this morning I was reading
again, not so much to gather news (no end of that since January 20, day one),
but to meditate, pay attention along with brothers and sisters, fellow
Christians and many other Americans reeling in shock at what they have just
done to themselves.
I find the
Americans’ material quite compelling especially in these days, and courageously presented in Sojourners,
a Christian magazine which I have subscribed to forever, valuable
info from a larger vantage than our Canadian Mennonite. Here are several
quotes from latest edition, published next door to the US Capitol, Washington,
DC.
[Donald] Trump is arriving at a time
of great social distrust: There’s more distrust of the media, medical
professionals, experts, politicians, community institutions, and membership
groups. There are rifts among friends and family. Even our trust in … weather
is diminished. Distrust fuels the flame of autocracy because it makes it easier
to divide people. [i]
A second
quote by same author, On her bedroom wall,
my mom had a copy of the Serenity Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept
the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the
wisdom to know the difference.” Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote this during
the rise of Nazi Germany. [ii]
There are several alcoholics in my family as well as addicts in most churches, a
prayer well known by many of us. Good thoughts, these, for us North
Americans who have been living the good life for the last 50 or so years.
Most western Canadian Mennonite forebears have been through European, Prussian, Russian history. Now
we still have unresolved indignations about WW2. Most of us
arrived with colonialist agendas, privileged immigrants moving in on Indigenous land, while our Swiss brothers and sisters in the U.S., along with other white settlers, reaped benefits from the Indigenous as well as the ‘colored help’ brought along by the shipload from
Africa!
History has some critiques for us. Firstly, it’s Anabaptism
at 500 time, and of course much attention to our early sixteenth Century beginnings. Among
the celebrations, I cannot but make note of a recent podcast series by our former
pastor and budding historian, Will Loewen. [iii]
The original Anabaptists, even alongside deep convictions of peacemaking and
adult believers’ baptism, were not all of stellar character, inflated egos and sin also part of those early beginnings, even
as they sought to correct the Church and the Governments of their day.
And
secondly, this one quite recent, well recorded in the books, and already hindering our effectiveness as a denomination.
The year 2002 marked the end of General Conference Mennonite Church and
beginning of Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church U.S.A. Had that not
happened, our life and witness would be of a greater wholeness especially at a
time like this. North America could benefit from a continuing peace church not
divided by a 49th parallel.
