The Mennonite Brethren Historical Commission gathered in Wichita, Kansas, June 21-22, 2024, for its annual meeting. It was a hybrid meeting with six people in person and four on Zoom.
Besides hearing updates from the four archives in the Historical Commission network, the Commission engaged deeply with the research grant applications on its agenda. The Commission awarded four research grants.
Abidon Malebe Mubwayel, instructor at the Christian University in Kinshasa, D.R. Congo, was awarded an MB studies project grant of $2,500. He is at the dissertation stage of his doctoral program. This grant is to support the editing and completion of his dissertation, “Symbolic Practices and Religious Language Specific to the Confessional Identity of Mennonite Brethren in D.R. Congo.”
An Alfred Neufeld $2,000 global church history grant was awarded to Anicka Fast, secretary of the Mennonite World Conference Faith & Life Commission, based in Bussum, Netherlands. She is co-editing a book that aims to reshape the story of the global Anabaptist church through biography, in this case, biographies of Congolese Mennonites. The book, Witnesses to Peace: Stories of Conversion, Mission, and Renewal in Congo, is being published by Langham Press, Cambridge. This grant is to subsidize the printing and distribution costs to make the volume more affordable in the African context.
A $2,000 publication grant was awarded to Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, professor at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto. Arnold is completing a manuscript on the history of the Fürstenland Mennonite settlement in Ukraine to be published by the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society. According to Arnold, from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, “Fürstenland was a place for new beginnings, identity formation and, from start to end, a place for lively debate about what it meant to be Mennonite.” This grant is to help with the book’s publication costs. The book title is Fürstenland: A History of Mennonites in Russia.
Jean-Claude Saki Kavula, director of a Christian peacemaking organization in Kinshasa, D.R. Congo, was awarded a $1,000 Katie Funk Wiebe research grant. He aims to make a church resource book that tells the stories of people resolving conflicts non-violently. This grant is for part one, the collection and editing of these stories into a manuscript. The title is “Religion and Nonviolence in the Resolution of Conflicts within Mennonite Churches in D.R. Congo.”
At this year’s meeting, the Commission also recognized the contributions of Kevin Enns-Rempel and Jon Isaak who will both retire from the Commission at the end of 2024.
Since its formation in 1969, the Commission has helped coordinate the collection, preservation and interpretation of MB archival records (congregational meeting minutes, conference proceedings, personal papers, periodicals, publications and photographs) that form and inform MB theology and history.
The Commission works with a network of four archival centers: Center for MB Studies (Hillsboro, Kansas), Mennonite Library & Archives (Fresno, California), Mennonite Historical Society of British Columbia (Abbotsford, B.C.), and Centre for MB Studies (Winnipeg, Manitoba).
More information about the work of the Commission—a funded ministry of both the U.S. Conference of MB Churches and the Canadian Conference of MB Churches—is available on its website. The website also includes details about the Commission’s funding initiatives and application procedures and news releases announcing past recipients.
Commission members include Richard Thiessen (chair, CAN), Don Isaac (vice chair, US), Valerie Rempel (recording secretary, US), Jon Isaak (executive secretary, CAN), Chris Koop (CAN), Kevin Enns-Rempel (US), Peggy Goertzen (US), Karla Braun (CAN), Hannah Keeney (US), Benny Leung (CAN) and Maricela Chavez (US).
The Mennonite Brethren Historical Commission is responsible for fostering historical understanding and appreciation within the Mennonite Brethren Church in Canada and the United States. It fulfills this goal by: coordinating the collection, preservation and cataloging of Mennonite Brethren conference archival records and publishing books and audio-visual material relating to the history of the Mennonite Brethren Church.
