The Mennonite World Conference (MWC) is an international

Mennonite Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...

Anabaptist Anabaptism (from Neo-Latin , from the Greek language, Greek : 're-' and 'baptism'; , earlier also )Since the middle of the 20th century, the German-speaking world no longer uses the term (translation: "Re-baptizers"), considering it biased. ...

Christian denomination A Christian denomination is a distinct Religion, religious body within Christianity that comprises all Church (congregation), church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadersh ...

. Its headquarters are in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

History

The first ''Mennonite World Conference'' was held in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

in 1925. Its main purpose was to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Anabaptism. An assembly is convened approximately every six or seven years. Christian Neff (1863–1946), a Mennonite minister in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, is often called the "father" of the Mennonite World Conference. Neff, through the Conference of Mennonites in South Germany, issued the call for the first gathering in 1925, and was president of the following meetings in 1930 and 1936. The MWC prints a quarterly news publication in three languages—Spanish (as '), English (''Courier''), and French ('.) This project began in 1986. The ''Mennonite World Conference'' considers that its mission is to (1) be a global community of faith in the Anabaptist-tradition, (2) facilitate relationships between Anabaptist-related churches worldwide, and (3) relate to other Christian world communions and organizations. The official repository of Mennonite World Conference is the Mennonite Church USA Archives. According to a census published by the association in 2022, it would have 107 member denominations in 59 countries, and 1,47 million baptized members in 10,300 churches.

Beliefs

The Conference has an

confession of faith.

Affiliated organizations

GMF

The Global Mission Fellowship (GMF) has 71 mission member organizations.

GASN

The Global Anabaptist Service Network (GASN) supports humanitarian aid projects. Mennonite World Conference
Global Anabaptist Service Network
mwc-cmm.org, Canada, accessed May 5, 2023

Conferences

Notes

References

*''Mennonite Encyclopedia'', Harold S. Bender, Cornelius J. Dyck, Dennis D. Martin, et al., editors

External links

Official websiteMember churches and General Council
in the '' Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online'' {{Authority control Anabaptist organizations Mennonitism Mennonite denominations