NEWS RELEASE
Mennonite World Conference
For Immediate Release
August 30, 2005
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA – “Called Together to be Peacemakers,” a document issued after five years of dialogue between the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity of the Catholic Church and representatives of Mennonite World Conference, was the topic of an ecumenical dialogue at the Colombian Catholic Bishops Conference here on May 20, 2005.
An invitation from the Brethren in Christ, the Mennonite Brethren, the Mennonite Church and the Department of Ecumenicity and Doctrine of the Catholic Bishops Conference said that the ecumenical effort was worth knowing about in the “fractured and pained country” of Colombia.
With the encouragement of Father William Correa, Executive Director of the Ecumenical Department, the three Anabaptist conferences organized the dialogue during the week of prayer for Christian unity.
More than fifty persons attended, including Anabaptists, Anglicans, Lutherans, the president of the Protestant Council of Churches (CEDECOL) and Muslims.
Father Carlos Mario Alzate of the Fraternal Order of Preachers (Dominicans) of St. Thomas University presented the first section on reconsidering our history. He lamented the fact that a lack of finances prevented this meeting from being open to more people, like interested university students.
Alzate highlighted the need to recover centuries of common tradition between Mennonites and Catholics. Also important was examining the social situation that led to the Reformation and martyrdom in both traditions, due to the intolerance during that period. Infant baptism and some contributions of medieval spirituality recovered in Anabaptism would be elements for further dialogue, said Alzate.
Each presenter had a respondent. The first respondent, Isdalia Ortega, an ordained Mennonite Church minister, highlighted the call to purify and redeem history. She said that the document fell short in explaining the political, social, and economic conditions and the search for social change in the radical movements. She underlined the importance of our pacifist tradition and that the Anabaptists did not persecute the Catholics.
Reviewing post-Reformation history, recovering the patristic tradition and the contribution of women, working with the moral and political force that motivated the Reformation movements are challenges that remain.
Father Alberto Echeverri of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), director of post-graduate studies in the Faculty of Theology of the Javeriana University, presented the second section on “Considering Theology Together.” Its three points, the nature of the church, sacraments and ordinances, and commitments toward peace, were ecclesiological, he said. He pointed out that the division among the disciples of Jesus has scandalized people in a way that a matter like neoliberalism has not.
The Mennonite conviction that Christians are the bearers of peace can influence changes in our social, political and Catholic reality and can reach common people. These changes can’t wait; they are urgent in Colombian society, said Echeverri. Reconciliation and justice, the pressing need to address military service and conscientious objection set the agenda of common actions in Colombia.
Respondent Arturo Orrego, pastor of a Brethren in Christ church, pointed out that baptism for Anabaptists of the 16th century had much wider than just religious implications. It implied separation of church and state, separation from aspects of civil life and it had grave consequences for citizens. Loyalty to Jesus Christ was above loyalties to the political sphere. He named points for continued examination: the role of the Bible, tradition and the magisterium or teaching of the church.
Both churches, Orrego said, had made great efforts toward peacemaking, including peace with creation. Other commonalities were a preferential option for the poor, an eschatological vision and the church as first-fruits of the Kingdom. He saw the just war as a topic that needs further work.
Peter Stucky, pastor of the Mennonite Church of Teusaquillo and a Mennonite World Conference Executive Committee member, presented the third section on “Healing of Memories.” Stucky told about Swiss Reformed pastors who recently traveled to Pennsylvania (USA) to seek reconciliation with Mennonites. He also highlighted paragraph 202 of the document where Catholics and Mennonites mutually recognize sins against the other. He said the document was timely in Colombia where two German Catholic missionaries were cooperating in a new Anabaptist School of Peace in Bogota.
“We [in Colombia] are deeply wounded and don’t know how to heal our own wounds nor those of people mistreated in the war in our country,” he said. Are we as Christian churches willing to help reconciliation take place in our country? Have relations between Catholics and Protestants in Colombia ever been healed? asked Stucky.
He read letters of greeting from two international dialogue participants, Dr Joan Patricia Back from Italy and Dr. Neal Blough from France.
In responding to Stucky, Cesar Garcia, pastor and president of the Mennonite Brethren Church, asked why there is so much resistance to this kind of dialogue. The elements for forgiveness are in the Bible but there is danger of becoming more conscious of the other’s weaknesses than our own. Reconciliation should begin among ourselves. We need to forgive and to work together in practical ways.
During discussion, persons in the audience made important contributions, some of them addressed to a panel. A recurring comment was the necessity of taking this dialogue and the document to the grass-roots. Another had to do with forgiveness and what exactly needs to be forgiven. Discrimination against women in our churches, for example? The possibility of a public act of forgiveness that can impact society was raised.
Participants from various denominations expressed their appreciation for this opportunity. Perhaps a third Vatican Council is necessary, particularly to work on topics of ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue.
Any lingering apprehensions or misunderstandings seemed to disappear over the final luncheon in the many animated conversations and ideas for future dialogues.
The Mennonite Central Committee office in Colombia helped sponsor the event by financing the duplication of the report, renting the auditorium and serving refreshments and the concluding lunch.
Mennonite World Conference release by Peter Stucky with Pastors Roberto Caicedo and Arturo Orrego.