Mennonite Weekly Review

CUAUHTÉMOC, Mexico — Mennonites from different backgrounds and ethnicities gained appreciation for each other when representatives of five Mexican Mennonite conferences gathered Aug. 3-8.

Maria Bergen, left, a church planter, and Leticia Portillo, from a church north of Mexico city, were among representatives from five Mexican Mennonite conferences who gathered Aug. 3-8 to worship and explore their shared identity. — Photo by Linda Shelly/MMN

For the first time since it formed in 1992, member churches of the Iglesia Anabautista Menonita Unida de México (United Anabaptist Mennonite Church of Mexico) met to worship and explore their identity.

Five of the organization’s six member conferences sent representatives. They included Hispanic and Germanic Mexicans, some from congregations along the border that relate to both a Mexican conference and a Mennonite Church USA conference.

“New Mennonites see the ethnic German Mennonites with their stability as an example, and they in turn also see things in us, like the freshness of our faith,” said Leticia Portillo of the Seguidores de Cristo (Followers of Christ) church near Mexico City.

“Upon seeing these values reflected in the other, we can each be more aware of things that seemed obvious and ordinary.”

A significant portion of the assembly consisted of small-group discussion among people from different backgrounds and ethnicities. Portillo said the gathering of Mennonites of Spanish and German descent allowed her to learn more about how other Anabaptists approach community.

“They have learned since they were young certain principles that for us are newsworthy, or at least that haven’t been emphasized much in the churches, like life in community, love of work and mutual aid,” Portillo said of the Germanic members. “This is attractive to us.”

Maria Bergen, a Mexican Mennonite of Germanic background who plants churches among Hispanic neighbors with her husband, Isaak, said learnings go both ways. Hispanic Mexican Mennonites, she said, often have more theological knowledge than many in German-speaking congregations — in part, perhaps, due to their process of choosing to join the church and their level of engagement.

“When they make a commitment, it is more radical,” Bergen said. “So many are first-generation Mennonites, while in the German-speaking churches people have generations of history in the church.”

While connections among Mexican Mennonites are important, Juan Jesús Garza of the Conferencia Cristiana Menonita Anabautista (Anabaptist Mennonite Christian Conference) said conferences in northern Mexico also find it beneficial to be in relationship with churches in the United States.