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Mennonite
Tricentennial Resolutions, 1983
General
Conference Mennonite Church and Mennonite Church
The first permanent Mennonite
settlement in North America was established at Germantown, Pennsylvania,
in the year 1683. Three hundred years later, in 1983, we as Mennonites
are assembled at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, representing the Mennonite
Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church, in Canada
and the United States. We have celebrated here in a special way
God's rule and presence among us during the three hundred years
since our North American beginnings at Germantown.
In 1683, and in Europe a century and a half earlier forebears
established a church that patterned itself after the apostolic
church founded by Jesus Christ. As followers of Christ in this
new land, they tried to live according to the teachings and spirit
of Jesus. Along with their fellow believers, the Quakers, they
sought to build a peaceful community where all would be one under
the lordship of Christ. Now, three hundred years later, we affirm
our centuries-old Mennonite faith. We also acknowledge that we
have failed, and continue to fail, in living fully the way of
love, peace, and faithfulness to Christ.
II--As Mennonites we are grateful that we can be identified with
the first group of Dutch-Germans to migrate to North America.
Further, we are grateful for the current interest of the United
States and the Federal Republic of Germany in celebrating the
German-American Tricentennial, and in cultivating friendship
between two nations which only forty years ago were enemies in
a world war. We are concerned, however, by certain recent events
that relate to Mennonite beginnings in Germantown, in 1683.
This year the United States and the Federal Republic of Gennany
are also celebrating the three-hundredth anniversary of the Gennan
immigration to the American colonies. President Reagan of the
United States has appointed a Tricentennial Commission of forty
members to plan this event.
In the president's proclamation of the Tricentennial year, he
noted the coming of "thirteen Mennonite families" in
1683 and went on to herald the success of the Marshall Plan,
the Berlin airlift and the NATO military partnership. As a symbol
of this German-American partnership, the United States plans
to install in West Gennany 108 Pershing II missiles, the most
accurate and deadly missiles ever aimed at the Soviet Union.
The irony and the tragedy of this Tricentennial celebration is
that it commemorates the arrival from Krefeld, Gennany, on October
6, 1683, of thirty-four Mennonites and Quakers-peace-loving simple-living,
gentle-spirited people seeking new homes and communities in a
new land.
The landing of the ship, the Concord, in 1683 symbolizes a significant
moment in the history of religious freedom and cultural pluralism
on this continent. We are saddened to see, however, in this Tricentennial
event--coupled with the planned placement of Pershing missiles
in Germany--the militarization of the Mennonite-Quaker story.
III--We, the spiritual descendants of those people of peace who
came to North America in 1683, sense a calling on this Tricentennial
occasion to speak for peace and justice which have been our heritage
and hope these three hundred years:
1. We reaffinn our commitment as Mennonites to our centuries-molded
mission of reconciliation within the church and among all peoples,
and to nurture among ourselves a renewed devotion to the biblical
ways of peace in Christ.
2. We invite the leaders of the United States and the Federal
Republic of Germany to recognize in the Tricentennial celebrations
the presence of a heritage in the North American experience of
a longing for peace, fairness, and justice and a quest for a
free church in a free society.
3. We encourage Mennonites to gather with like-minded lovers
of peace in Philadelphia on October 6, 1983, in a peaceful witness
of faith and conscience to a European-North American bond of
"Friendship Without Missiles."
4. We respond with favor to the invitation of our German Mennonite
kinsmen to join with them on Sunday, October 16, 1983, in a joint
observance of "Transatlantic Peace Sunday" for the
purpose of prayer, worship, discernment, and speaking forth on
the ways of peace in a violent world.
5. We encourage the United States to cultivate a new community
of friendship among nations, not only with the people of Germany,
but also with the peoples of other nations, including the Soviet
Union, where many of our Mennonite brothers and sisters live.
Knowing the deep yearning of all peoples for peace, we urge both
nations to use the means of peace to attain the ends of peace.
With urgent voice we call for the United States to halt its deployment
in Germany of the Pershing missiles aimed at the people of the
Soviet Union.
IV--We pray that we might keep faith with those Quaker-Mennonite
immigrants of 1683 who came to these shores in gratitude that
they might pursue their ways of simple living, biblical discipleship,
and peace in new communities in this new land.
Enacted by the Delegations of the Seventh Mennonite Church General
Assembly and the General Conference Mennonite Church at Lehigh
University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA, August 6, 1983, Pennsylvania,
Proceedings, pp.35-36.
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