Anabaptist Witness

A global Anabaptist and Mennonite dialogue on key issues facing the church in mission

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Witness in Palestine and Israel

Mennonite Central Committee workers arrived in the West Bank in 1950 to assist Palestinian refugees displaced during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Since then Mennonites have been involved in a variety of ministries in Palestine and Israel, from a hospital in Nazareth to scholarly research in Jerusalem to an English Language program in Gaza City. Authors in this issue of Anabaptist Witness reflect on 75 years of Mennonite witness in the region, in addition to topics such as challenges raised for Anabaptists by Palestinian liberation theology; the 2017 Mennonite Church USA resolution "Seeking Peace in Israel and Palestine"; and recent efforts to organize Mennonites in the US to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. The issue includes essays, sermons, poetry, and images.

November 2024

Film review by Mark J.H. Klassen

Review of The Mission directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss

Book review by Josh Wallace

Review of Disrupting Mercy: The Gift of Extreme Kindness Motivated by Compassion by Matthew C. Clarke

Book review by Luis Tapia

Review of Beyond Missio Dei: Contesting Mission, Rethinking Witness by Sarosh Koshy

Academic article by John Kampen

An Earnest Effort Falls Short

Academic article by André Gingerich Stoner

Cultivating a Common Mind on Israel-Palestine

From the blog

By Desalegn Abebe Ejo Posted on March 4, 2025

Innovation and Transformation in the Meserete Kristos Church Relief and Development Association

The Meserete Kristos Church has existed as a Church since 1951, continuing as an underground ministry under the socialist regime. Besides its spiritual activities, the Church began relief and development work during the underground period.  Following the fall of the communist government, the organization was registered as the Meserete Kristos Church Relief and Development Association […]

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By Johannes Reimer Posted on January 23, 2025

Systematically Building the Community of Faith

500 years and Now What? Time and again, I hear Mennonite pastors in Christian congregations complaining about the entrenched structures, inflexibility, and traditional ineffectiveness of their congregations. “If only I could start all over again,” I soon hear the quiet sigh. “That’s done all the time these days,” I reply, “it’s called re-planting or re-founding.”[1] […]

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By Johannes Reimer Posted on December 31, 2024

Wonderfully Protected by Good Powers

The gloomy year 2024 is coming to an end Hand on heart—we haven’t experienced a year as dark as 2024 in the Western world for a long time. What on earth was going on? The forces of nature kept people on tenterhooks: hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and, unfortunately, wars and cries of pain. Millions of people […]

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By André Gingerich Stoner Posted on December 4, 2024

Response to Kampen

This blog post responds to John Kampen’s article An Earnest Effort Falls Short from Anabaptist Witness 11.2. The author also has a piece in the same issue detailing his own perspective on the 2017 resolution discussed by Kampen. Note that Kampen comments on this response below. I want to respond to key matters John Kampen addresses in […]

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By Kebede Bekere, Desalegn Abebe Ejo Posted on November 21, 2024

God’s Reconciling Work in Development: The Development Theology and Practice of Meserete Kristos Church (MKC) in Ethiopia

Introduction The Meserete Kristos Church (MKC) is one of the Christian evangelical denominations in Ethiopia established by the North American Mennonite missionaries in 1951. The Mennonite missionaries entered Ethiopia to assist Ethiopia in the 1940s in reconstruction after the five-year occupation of the Italians. One of the strategies the missionaries used to engage in God’s […]

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