Anabaptist Witness Blog

Welcome to our blog, a forum to foster discussion and share ideas from different corners of the Anabaptist world. It is regularly updated with short reflection pieces, reactions to articles, comments on current events relating to mission, and more. If you are interested in contributing, please review our guidelines and contact information.

Missiological Reflections for Christian-Muslim Engagement

By Alain Epp Weaver | Posted on May 25, 2015

The following is an excerpt from Alain Epp Weaver’s presentation at the Council for International Anabaptist Ministries gathering in January 2015. The entire presentation is available as a PDF download [at the bottom of the page]. The presentation is an historical overview of inter-Anabaptist consultations on Christian-Muslim encounter since the 1960s, and is based on […]

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Gravestones and Light

By H. J. Recinos | Posted on May 11, 2015

The following is a series of poems written in the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death. This event, like several before it, has brought the deeply ingrained racial tensions and injustices in American society – especially in its vulnerable urban areas – into light. In reacting to these events, Harold Recinos bears witness to the suffering […]

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Yom Ha’Shoah

By H. J. Recinos | Posted on April 16, 2015

sometimes I go back to the candy store on Broadway to see the old man with numbers on his forearm who tried explaining how he was ripped from his mother’s arms beneath a moon lit sky and taken to a place to weep, to starve, to see many only find death at the end of […]

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Lenten Witness Day By Day: Prayer Calender for Witness Work in West Africa

By Deb Bergen | Posted on March 9, 2015

As the Lenten season is now well underway, this week’s post highlights a creative variation of the Lent prayer calendar. Deb Bergen takes us day by day through the work of the Mobile Member Care Team supporting African Independent Church pastors, offering us insight into their work and the opportunity to pray for their context […]

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Sowing Kingdom Seeds Down Under

By Mark S. Hurst | Posted on February 21, 2015

In a poem written in honour of Oscar Romero called “A Future Not Our Own” are these lines that we find meaningful for our ministry in Australia and New Zealand: This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water the seeds already planted knowing that they hold […]

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Pray and Be Vigilant! A Plea from the Persecuted Church in Nigeria | Part Three

By Sharon Williams | Posted on February 7, 2015

This is article three of a three-part series The relief ministries of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) have material needs of staggering proportions. But the one thing they crave from their Christian sisters and brothers, is that we pray with them. “We are lifted up when we know that you […]

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We Still Have Hope: The Testimony of the Persecuted Church in Nigeria | Part Two

By Sharon Williams | Posted on January 31, 2015

This is article two of a three-part series Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) is in a tremendous time of trial. This Anabaptist denomination has been passing through a concentrated Boko Haram campaign of destruction, killing, kidnapping, and enslaving for five years. But the witness of EYN is Spirit-inspired and nothing short […]

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And We Thought the Kidnapping Was Bad: Updates from the Persecuted Church in Nigeria | Part One

By Sharon Williams | Posted on January 24, 2015

This is article one of a three-part series. Three things stand out about the recent presentations and reports coming from Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) regarding the persecution of Christians and Muslims in the northeastern region of Nigeria: This conflict is worse than we’ve heard and has been going on […]

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Bin ich Charlie?: The Response of a Witness Worker in Germany to the “Charlie Hebdo” attacks in Paris

By Jennifer Otto | Posted on January 18, 2015

In the hours after the Charlie Hebdo shootings earlier this month, my social media news-feeds were colonized by the Je suis Charlie hash-tag. Yours probably were too. I even considered posting it myself. Perhaps you did. But over the next few days, my initial urge to express solidarity with the victims—victims who did not deserve […]

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Hyphenated Mennonites

By Isaac Villegas | Posted on December 2, 2014

“Latino Mennonites? I’ve never seen one of them,” the man seated on the bench across from me said as he glanced at the title of the book in my hands, “Where do they live?” I laid the book on my lap, looked over at him, smiled, and replied, “You’re looking at one. So I guess […]

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