AMBS Conference asks what Mary might mean for Mennonites

After two days of singing, discussing, pondering images and praying, questions continued to swirl around Mary, the mother of Jesus, and what she might mean for Mennonites and Anabaptists today.

A conference, “My soul rejoices in God, my Savior; Mary in Anabaptist dress,” brought together approximately 100 pastors, artists, musicians, storytellers, spiritual directors and scholars to begin conversations about the place Mary has had in Mennonite and Anabaptist faith and how that might be changing.

Sara Wenger Shenk, AMBS president, opened the March 24–26 conference noting, “I am grateful to be part of a learning community belonging to MC USA and MC Canada that has the courage to invite us back into our own history, and into the Scriptures for a fresh look at the treasure that is there in Mary’s story.”

Mary H. Schertz, professor of New Testament and member of the planning committee for the conference, presented a biblical survey of Mary. “We hear a longing for Mary; we need to attend more carefully to this enigmatic woman,” Schertz said. “We begin, as Anabaptists do, with the Mary we encounter in the Scriptures.”

Biblical accounts, particularly those in Luke, depict Mary as a woman of courage. She accepted God’s invitation to be the mother of Jesus, acting against the expectations of her betrothed, her family and her culture. “Mary said ‘yes’ boldly and with confidence,” Schertz explained. 

However, it is the Magnificat, Mary’s song in Luke 1, that is the most revolutionary. It is, in fact, so revolutionary that it is viewed as dangerous by some oppressive governments, Schertz pointed out. Mary is a young, poor woman caught in a quandary not her own making, but she sees her out-of-wedlock pregnancy as good news, not only for herself but for all people.

John Rempel, AMBS professor of theology and Anabaptist studies, next examined how the reformers of the 16th century viewed Mary. Affection for Mary carried forward into most Anabaptists’ faith, Rempel pointed out, but “first generation Protestants were concerned to think of Mary in her relationship to Christ, rather than as co-mediator of salvation.”

One area in which Rempel called for further exploration is belief in the communion of saints. “The saints in God’s presence are now so at one with God’s will that they pray with us for God’s purposes to be realized in our lives. The saints pray with us, not because we appeal to them, but because they now unreservedly will what God wills.” Reexamination of this teaching is a necessary theological starting point for a reappraisal of Mary’s place in the church, Rempel said.   

Wendy Wright, Ph.D., professor of theology at the University of Creighton, Omaha, Neb., and frequent writer in Christian journals, looked for commonalities between the Catholic devotion to Mary and significant elements of Mennonite and Anabaptist faith. Three of these are discipleship, the free acceptance of the invitation to do God’s will; martyrdom, seeing the love of God and the cross of Christ as connected; and the corporate nature of the Christian life, sharing God’s love with others after we experience it ourselves.

Wright emphasized that a template of discipleship is present in Mary: she said “yes” to God and was moved to go to visit Elizabeth, sharing her news. “When we are open to God—open to the ‘yes’—we intrinsically visit” others, Wright pointed out.

Elizabeth Soto, D.Min. ordained minister in the Colombian Mennonite Church and coordinator for field education at Lancaster Theological Seminary, reflected in a more personal way how Mary has been important in her spiritual journey, beginning in her early life as a Catholic. She recognized that in Mennonite congregations today there may be little room for appreciation of Mary. However, Soto confessed that she sees a need for more female images in the church to nurture our spirituality. “We have thrown out the basin with the bathwater,” she said, in a turn on a familiar phrase. “We have kept Jesus,” but not the womb that bore him, the woman who created with God. Thus we have lost valuable perspectives that can help us to know and follow Jesus.

A significant element of the two-day conference was singing, led by Paul Dueck, harpist and former music teacher now giving leadership to a Mennonite congregation in Windsor, Ont. For an evening hymn sing and concert, the Goshen College Women’s World Music choir performed several pieces based on the Magnificat, led by Debra Brubaker. Celah Pence, Bridgewater, Va., contributed a new hymn, “Mary’s song,” for the worship times during the conference.

Other sessions featured scholars sharing their study and appreciation of Mary in the Scriptures, the Apocrypha, literature and art. Visual artists, fabric artists, songwriters and storytellers shared original art depicting Mary.

The last session of the conference gave a panel of four participants an opportunity to continue questioning what Mary might mean for Mennonites. Irma Fast Dueck, professor at Canadian Mennonite University, said, “The conference has given evidence to our yearning and thirsting for the gifts that Mary has given the church over the centuries—her understanding of suffering and love.” But Fast Dueck asked how we can separate Mary from the ways we have come to see her in Catholic settings in order to connect with her in ways that are meaningful and fit with Mennonite faith.

Dan Schrock, on the pastoral team of Berkey Avenue Mennonite Church in Goshen, expressed appreciation for the ways music and images were part of the conference. Noting that traditional depictions of Mary always pointed to Christ, he asked, “What if we had one or two images of Mary in our church buildings, not depicted as European, but as a mixture of Asian and African parentage? How would she summon out our own collaborations with God?”

Sara Dick, member of the pastoral team of Shalom Mennonite Church, Newton, Kan., noted that her congregation is a mix of people from many different backgrounds, some of whom come with an appreciation of Mary. This conference, she said, can help her better understand these members of the congregation she serves.

In the discussion that followed, several participants called for a new appreciation of the communion of saints, recognizing that those who have gone before us are companions on our journeys. A step for Mennonites toward appreciating Mary might be placing her in this context of people whom we can see as models for faith.

The conference was coordinated by the Institute of Mennonite Studies at AMBS. The planning committee consisted of Schertz; Marlene Kropf, AMBS associate professor in spiritual formation and worship; Libby Richer Smith, AMBS student; Kay Bontrager-Singer, copastor of Faith Mennonite Church, Goshen; and Rosanna McFadden, AMBS student and pastor at Creekside Church of the Brethren, Elkhart.

See an album of photos from the conference on AMBS's Facebook page.

Mary E. Klassen / March 2011