Canadian Mennonites visit Britain with peace message

With support from Ekklesia and other partners, the Anabaptist Network and the Mennonite Trust in Britain are coordinating the visit to the UK of Canadian Mennonites, Tom and Rebecca Yoder Neufeld.

On Wednesday and Thursday 1-2 October 2014 the pair are taking part in the Anabaptist Theology Forum in Birmingham. They are also taking part in discussions and lectures throughout the country, including a visit to Scotland from 1-6 November and a conversation on 12 November at Union Chapel in London, with Prof Nigel Biggar (In Defence of War) entitled 'Who would Jesus shoot?' These are the elements of the tour being co-sponsored and co-organised by Ekklesia.

Tom Yoder Neufeld is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies (New Testament), having retired at the end of 2012 from teaching at Conrad Grebel University College. Previously he served as a hospital and prison chaplain and as a pastor in small Mennonite congregations. He is a frequent speaker in seminar and conference settings. Among his writings are a commentary on Ephesians, a text book on Jesus Recovering Jesus: the Witness of the New Testament, and more recently a book exploring the way violence intersects with the New Testament Jesus and the Subversion of Violence: Wrestling with the New Testament.

With respect to peace and the Bible, Tom believes that the topic extends beyond ethical questions related to violence, war, and peace, to include themes such as ‘peace with God’, reconciliation with God through Christ’s witness, work, death, and resurrection, and the church as Christ’s peacemaking body.

Rebecca Yoder Neufeld has spent much of her adult lifetime working with Latin American refugees and immigrants in the US and Canada in the areas of settlement assistance, immigration advocacy, bilingual education and English teaching, as well as pastoring. For ten years she pastored the Latin American refugee community within her Mennonite congregation, where she is currently a lay leader. At an earlier time she exercised leadership roles in a student house church and a small congregation she and Tom helped start.

* More on the tour overall here: http://www.anabaptistnetwork.com/node/680

* 'Who would Jesus shoot?', 12 November 2014: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-uk-anabaptist-network-the-mennonite-tr...