A Day in the Life of the Global Anabaptist Church
Following up on conversations from the Power and Preservation Symposium in June 2019, ISGA has initiated a project to collect photos and videos of Anabaptist congregations around the world. According to ISGA director, John D. Roth, the project will help to preserve “a visual sense of the places and spaces of worship of our fellowship in different parts of the world. As this archival collection expands over the years, it could become an important source for future church historians.”
In early January 2020, the ISGA invited symposium participants to take part in a test run of the project on MWC’s World Fellowship Sunday (January 19) by taking photos of their worship spaces, congregational interactions, and their order of worship or bulletin. Additionally, we asked for video clips of the church service including music, preaching, and short interviews with members.
Our first effort resulted in an enthusiastic response from all over the world, including Indonesia, the USA, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Canada, Paraguay, and Kenya. The “Day in the Life of the Global Church” project reveals both our diversity as well as our shared convictions across the global Anabaptist-Mennonite church. “We hope sharing these ‘snapshots’ of our global family at worship will give us a deeper sense that we are all part of the Body of Christ,” Roth said.
Now that we have worked out the technical wrinkles, we are ready to promote the “Day in the Life of the Global Church” on a much broader scale. If you would like to participate in the future, send us an email at isga@goshen.edu. To see the photos and videos we have gathered thus far, scroll down the Anabaptistwiki.org web site and find the “A Day in the Life” link.
Sample Photos (more here):
