The one, true, holy, Mennonite Church

I’ve been following with interest the eccumenism thread.  I was pretty tempted to respond to the editor’s invitation to ‘separated’ brothers and sisters with something mildly tongue-in-cheek inviting Catholics to join the one, true, holy MENNONITE Church.

Reading the various comments expressed about less-than-Catholics receiving the Eucharist, I found myself considering the concerns silly and elitist.  The claims about the Roman Church holding “fullness of Christian life” are outright offensive.

But then it occurred to me that if the discussion were about baptism, most Mennonites would appear as exclusionary and silly as the hard-line Catholics.  How would Catholics react to the realization that Mennonites don’t see their infant baptisms as valid?  Given the Catholic understanding of the church as the gathering of the baptized, that would effectively mean that their church is not valid.  It would quickly become difficult to have that discussion in any sort of reasonable way.

Many Mennonites are now following a more nuanced way of thinking–for example, it is becoming common to accept confirmation as sort of a dynamic equivalent to adult baptism if a candidate for membership sees it that way and doesn’t desire re-baptism.  But even then, the norm is baptism following catechesis and an informed decision by the believer.

Considering all of that, I was amazed to realize that Catholics see all (trinitarian, water) baptisms as valid.  Here I was feeling holier-than-thou in regards to open communion, and suddenly I was forced to recognize that in an equivalent conversation on another sacrament, I’d be the one sounding like a silly elitist!

Like many of you, I long for a full reunion of Christ’s body, where all of us can freely share water, wine, and bread.  This is a difficult charge, and it is one that all of our denominations fail at miserably.  May God have mercy on us all, and may the Spirit make us one despite our differences.

Hymn writer Adam Tice is Associate Pastor of Hyattsville Mennonite Church in Hyattsville, Maryland. His MA in Christian Formation with an emphasis on worship is from the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary. He serves on the Executive Committee of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada.

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5 responses to “The one, true, holy, Mennonite Church”

  1. Fr. Allan J. McDonald

    Most Catholics living in the south are a minority group and often are challenged in loving and sometimes unloving ways about their faith. Being more private about their own personal faith than most evangelical Protestants, normally most Catholics admire and respect the zeal and enthusiasm that Protestants exhibit towards their own Church and faith and desire to share it. We would expect them to believe that they have the true faith, otherwise why belong and be so committed? Since most Catholics in the south have to live actual ecumenism with the majority of our marriages to Protestants, we encourage them to focus on what we have in common and the respect each other religious beliefs and not try to proselytize the other. Of course Catholics must promise to remain Catholic and baptize and rear their children as Catholic. That’s what we believe, so hopefully the Protestant understands what he or she is getting into. We’re quite ecumenical in the south but strive to uphold our traditions, even those of exclusion from certain aspects of our faith. I doubt seriously that any southern Catholic believes that those separated from us are not saved. If fact most Catholics believe that Protestants who are so committed to their own faith will probably get into heaven before them.

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  2. Christopher Douglas

    Thank you, Mr. Tice, for your reflection.

    I have many happy childhood memories of hearing Handel’s Messiah and Mendelssohn’s Elijah sung by the Mennonite Choral Society in Berne, Indiana. They were a glorious source of spiritual inspiration.

    I and others like me who argue for doctrinal clarity, and may seem elitest or exclusionary, sometimes feel beseiged on every side, setting aside ecumenism for a moment, by the questioning of the most basic tenets of the Catholic Faith. Said tenets are attacked from without and within. I’ll give you two examples, one of each, about the doctrine of the Resurrection.

    Even though a Catholic, I’m involved with an Episcopal School, and I was one of two people interviewing a perspective clegyman to be Chaplain. I asked him, “Do you believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead?” He gave an ambiguous answer; we did not hire him.

    I asked a religious order priest, within the Catholic Church, the same question, and he too refused a direct answer, saying, “Even if he didn’t bodily rise, it wouldn’t change my faith.”

    In my view, we have a dire problem.

    So, when ecumenism comes up, I’m on alert. Each church or ecclesial community has the right to define her own doctrine and doctrinal boundaries, and we have common cause in trying to get to heaven, and taking as many with us as we can, and in practicing all the treasury of Christian principles. I just don’t want Catholic doctrine watered down.

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  3. Adam Tice

    I realized half-way through the day today that I had used the wrong word in part of my post. It is not an important change in regards to this conversation, but is something worth clarifying. In the sentence below I should have used “confirmation” rather than “catechism” as follows:
    …it is becoming common to accept CONFIRMATION as sort of a dynamic equivalent to adult baptism if a candidate for membership sees it that way and doesn’t desire re-baptism. [Now changed – ed.]

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    1. Jeffrey Pinyan

      +JMJ+

      There seems to be a “folk” understanding of the sacrament of Confirmation among Catholics that it is a person “confirming” their baptism, a sort of public affirmation of the faith, making it something the person does, instead of something God does.

      That sounds similar to your description of confirmation in the Mennonite community.

      Reply
      1. Adam Tice

        I should have been more clear–I refer in the post to accepting confirmation instead of rebaptism for those who come to a Mennonite church having been baptized as children in another denomination. We do not typically have a process of confirmation of our own apart from baptism.

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