Mennonite Weekly Review

Four years from now, Mennonite World Conference will try something different — holding an assembly in North America. In the two decades since the last one, the Men­nonite world has turned upside down.

Before the most recent assembly in the global North — at Winni­peg, Man., in 1990 — MWC had met only once outside Europe and North America. That was at Curitiba, Brazil, in 1972. Now, after three gatherings in the global South — India in 1997, Zimbabwe in 2003 and Paraguay in 2009 — getting together in a place of wealth and power will feel very different.

For geographic diversity, a U.S. site — Harrisburg, Pa. — is a good choice for 2015. U.S. churches, with the world’s largest Anabaptist membership, haven’t hosted an MWC assembly since 1978. The eastern Penn­syl­vania location will give thousands of people a rare chance to experience the blessings of the global fellowship.

MWC’s plan to hold the 17th assembly in Indo­nesia in 2021 will bring the gathering back to the global South, where the balance of membership has shifted.

Since the Winnipeg assembly in 1990, Anabaptist world membership has nearly doubled, from 856,000 to 1.67 million. The South has led the way. Its share of the membership has grown from 48 percent to 64 percent.

“It is the duty of the church to turn the world upside down,” said Philip Mudenda of Zambia in a speech at Winnipeg. Now that Anabaptists in the South outnumber those in the North, one might say we’ve done that.

But there’s a lot of turning left to do. MWC has taken a step to move the balance of power by naming César Garcia of Co­lombia as its next general secretary. MWC has had presidents from the South — including the current one, Danisa Ndlovu of Zimbabwe — but never a general secretary. With Garcia’s appointment, MWC’s head office will move from Strasbourg, France, to Bogota, Colombia.

The growth of Christianity in the South has turned the church upside down. But can the church change the world? Or does the world pull it along?

At Winnipeg in 1990, Mennonites from the Soviet Union told of historic events transforming their churches. Thousands had seized the freedom to leave a country where many had suffered greatly. They rejoiced that the tide of history had turned.

In contrast to that positive change, today a climate of fear in the United States is raising a concern for the 2015 assembly. Inter­national visitors, especially youth, may have trouble getting visas. MWC’s Young Anabap­tists group is urging U.S. churches to advocate for young people who want to attend. It is a call to push against the tide.

Twenty-one years ago the world was at a pivot point of history. Four days after the Winnipeg assembly ended, Iraq invaded Kuwait, the first act in a series of post-Cold War conflicts that would emerge in ways beyond prediction.

Meanwhile, the Anabaptist movement has seen a new era of blessing and challenge as North and South seek to relate as equals. Through it all, MWC has stood as a beacon of God’s kingdom without borders. It draws us together as a body of Christ that may yet turn the world upside down.