Nov. 16, 2009 issue
Worker in France named a most influential Protestant
By Mennonite Mission Network staffPARIS — Neal Blough, a long-term worker with Mennonite Mission Network, was named one of the 100 most influential Protestants in France by La Vie, a Catholic weekly magazine.
Blough and his wife, Janie, have been working in France for 34 years. He is a 1972 graduate of Bluffton (Ohio) University and holds a master of divinity degree from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., and a doctorate in theology from the University of Strasbourg in France.
Blough teaches at Vaux-Sur-Seine Evangelical Seminary, the Mennonite theology school in Bienenberg, Switzerland, and the Catholic University of Paris. The Bloughs also serve on staff at Paris Mennonite Center.
The Oct. 22 issue of La Vie commemorated the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth and the influence of Protestantism in France. Part of that influence includes Anabaptists.
“Mennonites [in France] have a history as long as that of the Reformed and Lutherans, which is not the case for other free-church Protestant traditions,” Blough said. “In the words of the magazine article, they represent a ‘small but essential minority’.”
“Naming Neal to this list underlines the importance of his ecumenical relationships,” said Linda Oyer, another long-term Mission Network worker and colleague of Blough’s. “[He teaches] a joint course on Reformation history with a Catholic professor and a Reformed professor at the Catholic Institute and also taught a course on the Catholic-Mennonite dialogue at a Jesuit seminary.
“It underscores the importance of the Mennonite nonviolent position in the view of the magazine [and] highlights the place of Mennonites in a larger Protestant France.”
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