Talk about a big day! I checked my location history and it says we walked over 9 miles today. It definitely didn’t feel like it but man are we all tired. Today was the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism conference! It was held in Zurich because this is where the movement began with Ulrich Zwingli and his local compatriots. We enjoyed a historical walking tour, surprised Katie and Hudson, participated in a panel discussion, and sang hymns with people from around the world. I’ll try to summarize an extremely packed day!
Mom’s tour
Mom headed off to do a tour of Zurich this morning. I didn’t get all of the details yet, but she was able to stop and hear about the various historical events throughout the city center, then take a river cruise, finishing up with a tour of the Lindt chocolate factory. My goodness, the Lindt chocolate here is soooo much better. Not even close to what we have in the US. I think she really enjoyed her time!
The walking tour
The Anabaptist conference set up 10 historical locations scattered throughout the center of Zurich that explained important Anabaptist-related events occurring since the movement began. They varied from locations where local church members met to discuss their convictions, baptize in light of their convictions, and protest the Catholic church through events like feasts during seasons of fasting. That is a gross oversimplification, but the members of the Anabaptist movement endured a lot of persecution, with nearly all members facing expulsion, prison, or death.
The walking tour also led us past the courthouse where the movement leaders were tried, a quay where a martyr of the movement was drowned, and the home of Vladimir Lenin, a man who greatly affected the history of the Anabaptist migration. The last of those was of particular interest, as I didn’t realize Lenin ever lived in Zurich.
For context, the Anabaptists, led by Zwingli and other men such as Menno Simons, were deeply concerned about peacefulness (pacifism/nonviolence) in all situations. This led to a deep conviction against serving in any militaries. When the Prussians and Dutch threatened conscription, there was a mass exodus to other countries, namely the Crimean peninsula in what was then Russia. Once Lenin left Zurich in 1917 to lead the Communist revolution in Russia, conscription once again faced the Anabaptists. Many of those still in the area left for areas of Canada and the US. I thought it ironic that Lenin would leave the birthplace of Anabaptism to begin a revolution that would then force the Anabaptists to leave once again. Persecution has followed them everywhere.
It was fascinating to stand in such important places that determined the course of both Valerie’s and my family’s history. As in almost all locations on this trip though, it was hard to feel what had happened here. Few things feel as real as the world we live in today, so we try to accept the past and remember its meaning as best we can. If you’re interested in learning more about the sites we visited, you can read the guides at the button below. It’s a fairly quick read.
Group discussion session
The conference had lots of breakout sessions that you could attend. There was honestly enough content for several days, so we had to choose carefully. Unfortunately, there was also a pretty small capacity, so our choices ended up changing frequently.
The first session we attended was a group discussion on the “Reverse Pentecost”, that is the increasing secularization of the Western world. The term was chosen because as secularization increases, the language that Christians use to help others understand who they are becomes increasingly difficult for non-Christians to understand, leading to a sort of reversal of the understanding reached at Pentecost in the book of Acts.
The moderator began by talking about her experience in the Netherlands, where people believing in some kind of higher power has decreased from 46% to only 31% in the last five years alone (can’t recall the source). Patterns of secularization and church alteration tend to occur in the US and Canada a few years behind Europe, so similar changes are on the horizon for us. There is hope though, as Gen Z is the first generation since the 1960s to actually increase in their beliefs of higher powers, although that belief is often simply in spirituality, not necessarily Christianity. Still though, it shows hope and reveals that the youngest people do not carry with them the prejudices of their parents.
The discussion was a little bit disjointed, but there was definitely some good information and wisdom in there. I took plenty of notes, which I can share at a later time. The most important points of the conversation were that (1) our actions are a primary way to communicate who we are, (2) that the Church today should not alter itself in an effort to appeal to outsiders because we then lose ourselves, and finally that (3) we as the Church need to take this period of history to reexamine our core, as in what makes us Christians, Anabaptists, and local communities. It was fascinating to hear these points from people being formed from 7-8 countries, all struggling with increasing secularization. Certainly points to think about and expand on in local discussions.
Hymn sing
The next breakout groups that I wanted to attend turned out to be full and out of the way, so we went to a hymn sing! It was packed in there with well over a hundred people in a small chapel room. We had a man from Iowa that graduated at Bethel College lead the singing! Over the course of an hour and a half, he took us through 500 years of hymns. We started with hymns written by Menno Symons (didn’t know he wrote) and ended with contemporary hymns from a few years ago. He explained the history of each piece, focusing on the stories of the authors as much as he could. Hymns are an important piece of Christian tradition because they’re poetry, explaining the most critical aspects of our theology in very meaningful ways. Though I didn’t know any of the hymns we sang, they were all lovely and had very rich lyrics.
Any group of walk-in singers will have some imperfection, but hearing the sounds of 100 voices from around the world singing through their history was nothing short of blessing. We sang in English, French, German, and Swahili(?). We heard some Amish singers share their version of a traditional slow-sung hymn that takes over 20 minutes to complete. It was all wonderful. Though a recording can never capture the beauty of reverberation and voices all around you, you can sample our session with the voice recording I took.
Missing events
Sadly, there were a couple of things we wanted to do today but couldn’t. We never did get to hear any of the choirs that traveled from South America or Africa due to high interest. We also barely missed the main church service at Grossmuenster church; we were only 5 feet from the door when they cut off the attendance. Given that the church could hold over 1000 people and we were in the front third of the crowd, there were a lot more people than they probably anticipated today. I was bummed to miss the service, but I’m glad so many people came from all around the world to celebrate. I’m also really grateful we went to the hymn sing so that we could experience a little bit more of that intercultural worship. It was a day of missing things that we wanted to see, yet still full of meaningful experiences.
Meeting up with people
One of the highlights of my day was surprising Katie and Hudson with our attendance. We had kept secret our desire to attend the celebration, knowing that they would be here. We weren’t sure when or how to meet up with them, so we just charged into the events knowing that we probably would see them at some point. It didn’t take long! At the first walking tour site, we saw their group. We found them both and got in their line of sight. It took a while for them to notice us, probably because it’s hard to recognize people in places they shouldn’t be. When they finally did, Katie’s eyes popped and she ran over to give us a big hug. We loved it.
We also ran into several people we knew! Well, at least people Valerie knew. There were a couple of Tabor College professors and one of her old camp counselors. It was fun to catch up. It’s always strange to meet people you know on another continent, even if it was expected.
Throughout the day, we met and talked with Mennonites from around the world. Our first experience was with some ladies from Switzerland. Over lunch, we met a married couple that both pastored at a church in British Columbia. So cool to see how God is working in similar ways all around the world.
Much more
There’s so much more to talk about, but I’ve been typing over an hour already. Hopefully, I can add more later. Altogether, today was very special. It was a great insight into the worldwide Kingdom that Jesus initiated 2000 years ago and the movement of passion for him that started 500 years ago. I won’t soon forget this celebration.
Traveling to Munich
In the morning, we head for Munich! I’m going to show Valerie and Mom some of the gorgeous churches in the city that I discovered on my impromptu visit to Germany two years ago. It’ll be another busy day!