Monday, July 7, 2003
Exploring the Anabaptist past and Mennonite future
Photos available in the GC online 'photo album'.GOSHEN, Ind. – Our over-sized tour bus struggled to round another corner of the switchback. Jan, our jovial Dutch bus driver, expertly maneuvered the bus back and forth in a many-pointed turn. But the next proved to be even tighter, so he stopped in the narrow road. Twenty-five college students waited expectantly while our leader, Goshen College Professor of History John D. Roth, ran up the steep hill ahead of the bus to convince Jan to keep driving.
To our delight, Jan conquered the impossible road. We cheered for him as the bus pulled in to park in front of the Bienenburg, a Swiss Mennonite seminary and retreat center where we would spend four days amidst blooming yellow meadows and brown, belled milk cows. It was our second stop during a three-week “Anabaptist History in Europe” class that also took us through four countries.
Our group was not Jan’s first introduction to Mennonites. Though he was not Mennonite, or even Christian, Jan preferred to drive Mennonite tours because he liked to explore places other than the standard tourist traps of Rome, Munich and Paris.
Jan often stayed with the bus when we stopped to visit sights like Trachselwald, a prison tower that housed many Anabaptists in the 16th century, and the Mennonite church in Witmarsum, Netherlands, Menno Simons’ birthplace. But in Bielefeld, Germany, where our group dispersed to various homes for an overnight stay with Russian Mennonite Brethren hosts, Jan requested a host family, too, instead of taking his usual hotel room. Jan wasn’t about to allow himself to be converted to Christianity, but he seemed curious to learn more about current Anabaptist expressions of faith.
His curiosity mirrored that of those of us in the class. Throughout the trip, Roth led us on a chronological examination of the origins and development of the Anabaptist movement. We started in Strasbourg, France, a medieval city with a gloriously ornate cathedral; attending mass and looking through city archives gave us a sense of the Catholic presence in every peasant’s daily life in the 16th century. In Zürich, we explored the city where the Swiss Anabaptists began to rebel against Protestant reformer Ulrich Zwingli; we stood on the shore of the River Linmat where city officials drowned Felix Mantz in 1527. From the city, Jan drove us up into the Swiss hills, where we hiked to a cave once used by Anabaptists for prayer and refuge. A small waterfall trickled over the cave’s entrance, and old hay covered the earthen floor. We sang “What is this place?” the first song in Hymnal: A Worship Book, and listened to the music reverberate off the sacred stone walls.
In Germany, we explored the Palatinate and met descendants of a famous Anabaptist, a model farmer named David Müllinger who became wealthy by introducing potatoes to the area. A long drive took us to the Netherlands, Jan’s home. He took a day off while we explored Amsterdam on foot, engaging with a history many of us knew little about – the wealthy, urban, cultured Dutch Anabaptists. We found an enormous hidden church in the heart of Amsterdam’s bustling downtown, capable of seating 1,000 congregants and outfitted with a raised pulpit and a pipe organ. Jan returned with the bus to take us north to Friesland, the birthplace of Menno Simons. We traced Menno’s footsteps from Witmarsum to Pingjam on a windy walk through a land divided by canals.
In Münster, we explored the peaceful town that was once a violent kingdom ruled by a group of Anabaptists convinced of Armageddon’s approach. We stayed for only one night in Bielefeld with generous hosts who welcomed us into their homes. Expecting a quiet evening and frustrating communication in broken English and German, the youth of the church surprised us with their energetic friendliness and English conversation. Fellowship with the Bielefeld church proved to be an unexpected highlight of the trip.
We returned to Strasbourg to visit a Mennonite World Conference office and to prepare presentations on a topic of our choosing, which covered everything from the history of the Yoder surname to Rembrandt and his possible connection with early Dutch Mennonites to a comparison of worship spaces: cathedrals, churches and caves.
For us students, every stop on the journey meant new knowledge and new challenges in how we think about the Anabaptist past and the Mennonite future. Awareness tiptoed into our hearts and minds, urging those of us who are Mennonite to consider the effect of history on our faith. Matt Clemens, a junior from Harrisonburg, Va., said, “By more closely examining Anabaptist history, I can more accurately and with greater precision adopt and espouse my Anabaptist faith.”
Jan, too, demonstrated his increasing personal interest in connecting with God. As we said our farewell to him outside the hostel in Strasbourg, he took up the bus microphone and quieted our applause. Jan spoke about how much he enjoyed driving our bus, hearing us sing and chatting with us at meals. He admitted that he wasn’t “on the right road yet,” but hoped that every time he went on a tour with Mennonites, he would learn more and “maybe get on the right path someday.” Maybe baptism is not in Jan’s future, and maybe it is – but at least he’s aware of his search.
Like Jan, not all of the students in our class were Mennonites. Yolonda Werman, a junior from Mishawaka, Ind., believes that “Mennonite history shows a people of faith whom I think are good models for our everyday lives.” Werman also finds it easier to connect with Mennonite friends now that she has some knowledge of Mennonite history. “I find myself playing a different sort of Mennonite game now, asking my friends about their European ancestry,” she said.
Anabaptist history is full of suffering, love, community, division, diversity and, above all, faith. With an astute awareness of that rich and complex past, contemporary Anabaptists can create a vibrant, expanding, global church. Over 50 percent of contemporary Mennonites live south of the equator. In a sense, all Mennonites are “Mennonites by choice” (we are, after all, a believers’ church), but an increasing number of “non-ethnic” Mennonites continue to enrich the church. As we discuss Mennonite identity in the 21st century, we must define the church as descendents of the past in conversation and community with the living, breathing congregation of the present.
Yet learning our history does not provide all the answers for the future. In a final lecture, Roth cautioned us to not become so caught up in learning the story that we forget to live the story. An awareness of history must extend into an awareness of the present. This could mean entering a conversation about missions, but doing so with an awareness of your motivation; playing a new “Mennonite game” that includes an acquaintance from Indonesia you met at Mennonite World Conference or your friend who grew up in the Lutheran church and was recently baptized; acknowledging a history rich with the beautiful and the ugly, the peaceful and the violent, the faithful and the unfaithful. It means living the story, and, like Jan, being aware of your search for the right road.
— by Rebecca Allen
Goshen College is a national liberal arts college known for leadership in international education, service-learning and peace and justice issues in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program and exceptional educational value, GC serves about 1,000 students in both traditional and nontraditional programs. The college earned citations of excellence in U.S. News & World Report and Barron's Best Buys in Higher Education. For more information, visit www.goshen.edu.
Editors: For information, contact Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.
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