11:7,6 - The Mennonite

Swiss plan special ‘Anabaptists Year’
“Täuferjahr 2007” will culminate with international days July 26-29.
The Mennonite churches of Switzerland will
welcome Mennonites from around the world
to remember Anabaptist and Swiss roots in
2007. Church leaders, historians, genealogists, culture
folks and tourism officials are planning features
throughout the year, highlighted by “international
days” July 26-29.
The planning for Täuferjahr 2007—loosely
translated as “Anabaptists Year 2007”—is a
response to recent interest among Christians outside
Anabaptist circles in Europe. For most of the
Swiss Mennonite congregations this interest was
quite a surprise. An early indication of this interest
was the response following the publication of
Katharina Zimmerman’s novel Die Furgge in 1989.
But the interest began in earnest in 2003 with reconciliation
conferences, day-long meetings and the
dedication of memorial plaques.
The Winterthur Reconciliation Conference in
May 2003 was followed by the inauguration of a
memorial stone close to Schleitheim in March
2004, a Reformed/Anabaptist Day of Reconciliation
Gathering in Zurich in June 2004, a
memorial service in the Münster cathedral in
Bern in April 2005 and another reconciliation conference
in New Holland, Pa., in April 2005.
Peter von Gunten’s 2005 documentary film Im
Leben und über das Leben hinaus, which he filmed
among Mennonites in the Jura and in the United
States, is still in demand in Swiss movie theaters
today. In the summer of 2005 the play “Die
Täuferjagd” (“The Täufer Hunt”) appeared and
played for weeks on the Moosegg in Langnau.
Christians from churches that had previously
discriminated against Anabaptists—and even persecuted
them—sought dialogue with present-day
Mennonites as the heirs of the earlier Anabaptist
movement. The motives were different, but the
result was always discussion and working out of
the painful history and previous injustices, as well
as discussion of present-day theological positions
and a common Christian witness.—adapted from
an article by Hanspeter Jecker
John Sharp
This 2004 group
worshiped in the
cave in
Switzerland’s
Emmental region
where Anabaptists
met in secret.
It is close to
Joder Hill, the
origin of Amish
and Mennonite
Yoders. This cave
was not known
to North Americans
before 2003.
Emmental
Mennonite congregation
in
Langnau,
Switzerland , is
one of the oldest
continuously
operating
Mennonite congregations.
The
congregation
began meeting
ca. 1530.
November 7, 2006 TheMennonite 29