Mennonite Weekly Review

Two denominations, the Apostolic Catholic Church and the Community of Christ, are embracing Jesus’ nonviolent way and a peace church identity. These groups have very different stories and few connections with Mennonites.

Gingerich Stoner

The broader Christian church has sometimes seen gospel nonviolence as the special calling of the historic peace churches — Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and Friends (Quakers). For our part, we have often claimed this identity as ours exclusively. It can be hard for us to imagine others sharing this calling and living it out in their own way.

If love of enemies is not something we made up, we should not be surprised that wherever people gather around the cross of Jesus, peace church movements emerge. Two examples are the Catholic Worker movement and the Southern Freedom Movement.

These groups look very different from each other, but they share a trait: Each developed at the margins of Christianity. This is true, too, of the emerging peace churches.

The Apostolic Catholic Church is part of the Old Catholic family of churches, which rejected the doctrine of papal infallibility adopted at the First Vatican Council (1869-70). It is a small network of congregations and house churches, concentrated especially in Florida, with a deep commitment to sharing life with the poor. It embraced a peace church vision after several years of prayer and study. It teaches that “all life belongs to God alone, and no one has the right to take life for any reason.” It rejects abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment and war.

The Community of Christ, based in Independence, Mo., includes 130,000 members in the United States with an equal number around the world. Formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it shared 14 years of history with the Mormons more than 150 years ago. Burdened by this association, it changed its name in 2001.

Twenty-five years ago, the church embraced the call to seek “peace, reconciliation and healing of the spirit.” It sponsors an annual peace colloquy. Training in conflict resolution and mediation is taking place churchwide through specialists trained in part by Mennonites. The church supports for conscientious objectors while continuing to support those who choose military service. Leaders of the Community of Christ describe their church as “on the very difficult journey to becom[ing] a peace church.”

In small ways, Mennonite Church USA is connecting with these churches. In January, Roy Williams, a Mennonite pastor and former denominational moderator, attended the annual national gathering of the Apostolic Cath­olic Church in Tampa, Fla. The Community of Christ peace and justice minister has accepted an invitation to attend an ecumenical peace conference hosted by Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary this summer.

As I learn about these groups, I am reminded that initially the Pentecostal movement rejected warfare. It was ridiculed by mainstream Protestants, evangelicals and fundamentalists alike, called by some “the last vomit of Satan.” Finally, after World War II, it was embraced by evangelicals, but commitments to peacemaking, racial reconciliation and women in leadership were largely lost. I wonder what might have happened if Mennonites had offered encouragement to this group.

I hope that rather than belonging to a fixed and small club of historic peace churches, we will be part of a growing number embracing Jesus’ nonviolent way as living peace churches.

André Gingerich Stoner is director of interchurch relations for Mennonite Church USA and pastor of missions at Kern Road Mennonite Church in South Bend, Ind.