PRELIMINARY FINDINGS REGARDING THE EMB-FEBC
AND THE MCC
Caution: While
this essay represents a review of available materials and will probably exist
in a state of constant revision as additional materials and persons become
available.
Having spent two days in the archives
looking into the nature of the relationship between the Brüderthaler-Evangelical Mennonite Brethren (EMB) and the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), I think that
I have discovered the probable truth regarding their divorce, and that like
most stories, it is both mundane and revealing.
The MCC was established 27 July 1920 in
response to the famine decimating the then Soviet Republic of Ukraine. In many senses, the modern identity of the
Anabaptist community was born in this struggle of the new world Mennonite
immigrants to meet the needs of starving family and conference members in
Ukraine. One early lesson being that all
of the disparate Mennonite-Amish-Anabaptist groups would have to work
together. The situation was complicated
and dire enough without having to work around the efforts, needs, and
preferences of individual congregations and small conferences. Secondly, in learning how to care for our
own, we learned how to cooperate to effectively minister to the needs of
others, non-Mennonites, as a form of service witness. Third, the international effort to meet the
international needs of an international faith body reinforced the
internationalist perspective of the greater Anabaptist community. Fourth, the need was met by everyday people, each
doing their own small part according to what they had or could do, thereby
contributing to a great and effective project.
Everyday people doing everyday things to help and assist everyday people
is more or less how the MCC has generally been perceived. So what then is the problem?
