- The youth must be a bit a more engaged than I am since they don’t seem to be posting much. They also don’t have my neat little wi-fi netbook that I am testing out.
- The conference “floor language” is Spanish so everything is either in Spanish or translated into Spanish from the podium. Other languages are translated via earphones. I look forward to those North Americans, who like me, speak only English!
- The most fascinating speech was a rousing call to service and action by Nzuzui Mukawa from Congo. In addition to talking in broad terms about a range of concerns, he talked (and sobbed softly as he spoke) about the use of rape as a war tactic in eastern Congo. Stylistically he was dramatic and, since he was speaking in French, he had a Spanish interpreter beside him who matched him in enthusiasm at every step along the way. (Perry Bush, if you are reading this, you have competition in content and in passion.)
- Yesterday I went to two choir concerts at side venues. One was a mixed Swiss choir that did essentailly a program of classics from Mendelsohn and others. I watched them warm up and then I enjoyed the presentation though I started to doze off at points. On the other hand, the Faith and Life Men’s Choir from Winnipeg had a number of songs created specifically for this event and also did a few more recognized hymns. They wowwed the crowd with a version of “dry bones” that included different noise makers for each bone of the body, as in the “the ankle bone ( a pan lid) is connected the leg bone ( a small anvil that was struck with a hammer).”
- The Lutherans are going public at MWC with their intent to change the Augsburg confession to no longer advocate persecution of Anabaptists. Many seem quite excited about this though I must admit that this is not an area of great passion for me.
- The world wide Baptists that are products of the Southern Baptist Convention appear to be in a process of theologically moving toward Anabaptism and away from conventional Southern Baptist thinking. Part of their 500th annivserary will be a kick-off event at a Mennonite church in Switzerland.
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