*Pictured: “Fields of Hope”, a sculpture by artists Ann Zerger and Chip Parker recently dedicated in Moundridge, KS, by the Moundridge Arts Council and the Swiss Mennonite Cultural and Historical Association. It features prairie grass, wheat and a dove, representing the legacy and presence of Indigenous people, the fertile soil farmed by Mennonites settlers, and ideals of justice and peace.
This year, many WDC congregations and their communities are observing the 150th anniversary of the migration of Mennonites from South Russia and Prussia to the central plains of North America in 1874. Last weekend Eden Mennonite Church hosted a weekend filled with seminars, sharing of food traditions, worship, agricultural demonstrations and other activities sponsored by the Swiss Mennonite Cultural and Historical Association (https://swissmennonite.org/). This coming weekend, Hoffnungsau Mennonite Church (https://www.hoffchurch.com/150th-celebration) and Grace Hill Mennonite Church (https://gracehillmc.org/events/) will host anniversary celebrations. The Mennonite Heritage and Agricultural Museum in Goessel, KS, is sponsoring a series of 150th anniversary heritage events this year. And this fall Kauffman Museum at Bethel College in North Newton, KS will host a special exhibit and program series on Mennonite migration, sparked by the 150th anniversary of the 1874 migration and in anticipation of the 500th anniversary of the Anabaptist movement beginning in 1525.
Thanks to all who have been planning, organizing, hosting and leading anniversary events and exhibits! Anniversaries not only bring together people who share a common past; they also compel all of us to reflect on history and heritage, memories and stories, theology and values, identity and purpose. Anniversaries prompt us as individuals and as communities to wrestle with questions such as, “Where do we come from?,” “How did we get here?,” “Who are we now?” and “Where do we go from here?” These are important questions for any congregation to periodically consider – whether it is 5, 50 or 150 years old (or somewhere in between)!
An anniversary is a complex mix of celebrating history and identity, reckoning with the shadows of our past and peoplehood, and seeking God’s guidance for the future:
It is a time to enjoy favorite ethnic foods, long-held cultural traditions, familiar names and inside-jokes and stories. It is also a time to realize that markers of belonging for some people can be barriers of exclusion for others. How is God calling us to build relationships with neighbors, friends and siblings in Christ, with respect and appreciation for diverse traditions?
It is a time to give thanks for God’s faithfulness and the accomplishments of our ancestors. It is also a time to acknowledge painful chapters in history – the ways in which our forebears experienced or perpetuated displacement, dysfunction, division and other harm and trauma. How is God calling us to learn and practice new, life giving ways for the future?
It is a time to articulate Anabaptist values and beliefs that have shaped our history. It is also a time to apply those convictions to new contexts and realities that our ancestors could not have dreamed of. How is God calling us to release old “wineskins” in order to imagine new ways of embodying the good news of Jesus Christ?
Reflecting on these 150th anniversary observances, I recently read these verses from 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 “…We pray continually that God will make you worthy of God’s calling and will fulfill all your desires for goodness, and empower all your works of faith. In this way, the name of our Savior Jesus Christ will be glorified in you, and you in Christ, by the grace of our God and of our Savior Jesus Christ.”
God’s calling is central to the peoplehood, pathways and purpose that we highlight when we observe church anniversaries. Let us celebrate the ways in which we have followed that calling, and truthfully confess the ways we have not lived up to it. And as we move forward in our journeys of faith, let us pray with humility and with hope that God will make us worthy of the calling to which we have been called, and will fulfill and empower us in that calling.
-Heidi Regier Kreider, WDC Conference Minister