This year marks the five hundredth anniversary of the beginnings of the Anabaptist movement, dated to the rebaptisms performed by Conrad Grebel and George Blaurock in the home of Felix Manz’s mother in Zürich, Switzerland, on January 21, 1525. After this watershed moment, various expressions of Anabaptism emerged across Reformation Europe. Balthasar Hubmaier emerged as a leader of Anabaptists in Moravia in 1526, where he wrote his tract On the Sword. The Hutterian Brethren also emerged around this time in Moravia under the leadership of Jakob Wiedemann and Jakob Hutter. Figures like Hans Hut, Hans Denck, and Pilgram Marpeck led Anabaptist reforming movements in and around southern Germany. Then in the Netherlands and northern Germany, others including Melchior Hoffman, Jan Matthijs, and Menno Simons led their own Anabaptist reform and missionary efforts, from which the Mennonite tradition grew. Since then, Anabaptism has grown and evolved. Its direct descendants include contemporary Mennonites, Hutterites, Amish, and Brethren groups, and Anabaptists influenced the formation of other Christian denominations, like Baptists. But what does this mean for us today as inheritors of this tradition five hundred years later?

Lately, it seems like every year is another Mennonite anniversary celebration: the centennial of the migration of Mennonites to Mexico in 2022, the centennial of the Russlaender migration in 2023, and the sesquicentennial of Mennonite settlement in Manitoba last year. And next year is the centennial of Mennonites in Paraguay! These are all more recent anniversaries, making them a little easier us to connect with. But with the Anabaptist quincentenary this year, I find myself unsure how to best remember and mark this significant anniversary. As a PhD candidate studying sixteenth-century Anabaptism, I am in the rather unique position of researching the lives, writings, and actions of early Anabaptists who were roughly my age five hundred years ago! And yet, the events of the first rebaptisms and the emergence of Anabaptism in the sixteenth century can feel chronologically, physically, and theologically distant from my own experience as a twenty-first-century Anabaptist-Mennonite living in Canada. How can I overcome these immense distances to appreciate and celebrate this milestone?

Chronological Distance

We are all products of our time, and yet we are formed and shaped by those who came before us. Isaiah 51 calls us to “look to the rock from which you were hewn.” This biblical text helps me to make sense of the chronological distance in this anniversary celebration, as it is not a restorationist call to return to our earliest fundamental beliefs or teachings, but rather an encouragement to recognize where we have come from, acknowledging that although we are different and cannot go back to the way things once were, we are deeply connected to our past. While we can learn about ourselves by studying history, what it means to carry forward our tradition and live faithfully looks radically different today than it did five hundred years ago. Imagine a statue, expertly carved out of a single slab of marble. While the statue is of the same substance as the rest of the rock face in the quarry, and you can recognize similar grains and features in it, we will never be able to put the statue back into the quarry’s rock face no matter how hard we try. It has been forever changed and shaped into something different through time and its experience of being chiselled by the sculptor. It has become something new and different.

An example of this “looking to the rock” can be seen in the Dutch Mennonites of the seventeenth century who sought to collect the stories of the Anabaptist and Mennonite martyrs from the previous century, to remind the Mennonites who were experiencing relative prosperity and toleration in the Dutch Republic of the struggles their ancestors faced not a hundred years earlier. Some were concerned that worldly comfort and lack of suffering for the faith had caused the faith of the Mennonite community to weaken. Galenus Abrahamsz, a Mennonite minister in Amsterdam at this time, remarked that “the devil had found a clever way of dealing with the Mennonites; he stopped persecution and led them to become interested in the material things of the world.”¹ To help keep the prosperous Mennonites grounded to their historical legacy, Thieleman J. van Braght compiled the Martyrs Mirror, publishing the first edition in 1660. Later editions were beautifully illustrated with etchings by Jan Luyken, including the famous scene of Dirk Willems saving his pursuer who had fallen through the ice of a frozen pond. Martyrs Mirror remains popular in the Mennonite community; the book has gone through multiple translations and numerous printings (Herald Press produced its thirty-third reprint in 2012).²

The Anabaptist quincentenary is a great opportunity for us to “look to the rock.” However, we can reflect on more than the faith found in martyr stories. We can read the writings of the sixteenth-century Anabaptists, sing hymns preserved in the Ausbund, and explore the many published histories on the early Anabaptists. While we are not likely to ever experience persecution and martyrdom like they did, their stories remain for us examples of people who attempted to live lives worthy of the calling they had received.³ We are not the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century, but their lives, writings, and stories can be examples for us to remember, learn from, and find meaning in for our lives today as Mennonites in the twenty-first century. These early Anabaptists, and those who followed in their tradition over the past five hundred years, surround us as our great cloud of witnesses as we run the race set out for us.⁴

Physical Distance

Winnipeg is obviously not anywhere near Switzerland, nor is my church anything like the Grossmünster Church towering over the Limmat River in Zürich. I am not shaped by, nourished by, or living on the same land as the early Anabaptists. Physical geography, local culture, and experience are strong influences that can create contextual distance. The land on which we stand holds the stories and experiences of those who came before, shaping the local context and culture.

For Mennonites, the connection to the physical land and local context has always been full of tension and complexities. Narratives of seeking toleration and freedom coexist side by side with narratives of exploitation, displacement, and participation in colonial projects in Poland/Prussia, imperial Russia, and the Americas. The land, local culture, and physical space we occupy shapes us and creates distance that we must grapple with as well.

One place where I experienced physical distance as a Mennonite was in 2022, when I had the privilege of attending the Global Youth Summit at the Mennonite World Conference in Salatiga, Indonesia, as a youth participant. For this summit, we gathered with other young adults from around the world for a time of worshipping, participating in workshops, and making new friends. We shared what it means to be a Mennonite in our local contexts, experiences in our faith communities, and hopes for the future. There were Mennonites from the United States, Paraguay, and the Netherlands, but also from Tanzania, Colombia, and Hong Kong. As someone who has studied Anabaptism and Mennonite history, I thought I had a firm understanding of what it really means to be a Mennonite. While I knew that being a Mennonite meant more than just possessing an ethno-cultural identity, I believed that it involved having a principled peace position, a more traditional worship style, and a thorough understanding of the sixteenth-century Anabaptist roots of the Mennonite faith. But my whole understanding of Anabaptism and Mennonites was flipped on its head as I met so many different people who claimed to be Mennonite despite not believing all the same things as me, not looking like me, and not having an ancestry or last name related to mine.

While this initially frustrated me, because the people I encountered did not fit my definition of what a Mennonite was or should be, further reflection helped me understand that all of our expressions of Mennonitism are influenced by our physical location, local context, and cultural experience. Even my own expression of Mennonitism would probably seem odd to a Mennonite living in Paraguay, or to an Old Colony Mennonite in Manitoba. And just because someone has a differently articulated theological understanding of Christian pacifism, or their church’s preferred music is different than mine, does not mean that they have less of a claim to the Anabaptist/Mennonite tradition than I do. Perhaps their country recently experienced a war, or they come from a context less influenced by Western thought, or maybe they just really like dry ice and guitar solos more than a pipe organ and four-part harmony.

The 2022 statistics from the Mennonite World Conference state that there are over two million Mennonites living in eighty-four countries around the world⁵ – and this does not count other Anabaptist-descended or related groups like the Hutterites or Baptists! There are so many different ways to be a Mennonite across the world. In 2006, Mennonite World Conference sought to develop a list of seven Shared Convictions to help root Mennonites and define what they believe across vast physical distances.⁶ At first, I was a little disappointed by how simple these Shared Convictions were, but I have grown to appreciate this simplicity for allowing room for interpretation and inclusion based upon a common foundation.

I am reminded of Menno Simons’s favourite biblical text, 1 Corinthians 3:11: “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.” This strikes me as significant here, because as Mennonites of various stripes scattered across the globe, we are not all rooted in the same physical context as each other, nor as the sixteenth-century Anabaptists, yet this common foundation can be seen in the many contexts and expressions of Mennonitism. I believe that we can share in this common ground with the early Anabaptists regardless of where we find ourselves in this quincentenary year, and celebrate this shared foundation, rather than an understanding of Anabaptism or Mennonitism limited by ethnicity, cultural origin, or a particular set of beliefs.

Theological Distance

Despite being part of a Christian denomination that originated with the sixteenth-century Anabaptists, I tend to feel uneasy when people refer to themselves as “Anabaptists” today. To me, the Anabaptists were those people five hundred years ago who made the bold move to be rebaptized upon their confession of faith (anabaptista literally means “rebaptizer”), rejecting the baptism they received at birth while subverting the state-church institutions of their time out of a desire to live lives of radical discipleship to Christ. These Anabaptists were not a centrally organized or cohesive unit that was easy to identify and define, but were instead very theologically diverse loose groupings of Christian reformers across Europe. For example, some Anabaptists believed in sharing everything in a community of goods, some practiced polygamous marriages, and some even employed violence in order to usher in the Kingdom of God and Christ’s return in the end times – and many other Anabaptists believed in none of these things. And yet these groups were all identified as Anabaptist. The only real common marker among these Anabaptists was rebaptism. It was only as groups of like-minded Anabaptists came together to define their shared beliefs that anything resembling a cohesive unit or set of theological beliefs became apparent.

One of the very first examples of defining a set of shared beliefs among the early Anabaptists was the Brotherly Union of a Number of Children of God Concerning Seven Articles, or the “Schleitheim Confession,” of 1527. This statement outlined doctrines concerning believer’s baptism, the use of the ban, communion, separation from worldly evil, the selection of pastors, the practice of nonresistance, and the rejection of oaths. Despite its significance as a confessional document in early Anabaptism, I would guess that many people in my contemporary Mennonite congregation would find little common ground or relevance in these “Anabaptist doctrines,” particularly regarding the practice of the ban, the refusal of oaths, or the stark dualism of its position on separation from evil. Even the Mennonite World Conference’s Shared Convictions contains only three or four points that bear any resemblance to articles in the Schleitheim Confession. Mennonite peace theologians would also identify many things problematic with its articulation of nonresistance, likely opting instead for more socially active forms of Christian pacifism or nonviolence.

So, if sixteenth-century Anabaptist theology was wildly diverse, and bears little similarity or relevance to contemporary Mennonite theology or practice, what value is there in it today? How do we grapple with this theological distance during the quincentenary?

These are important questions, and ones that I ask myself quite often in my studies. I am drawn to this statement from the conclusion of Mennonite World Conference’s Shared Convictions: “In these convictions we draw inspiration from Anabaptist forebearers of the 16th century, who modelled radical discipleship to Jesus Christ.” I do not believe that there is much value in applying the theology of the Anabaptists from the sixteenth century directly to our time. These theological texts were written at a certain time in a particular context which does not exactly line up with our experience. However, I also believe that there is tremendous value in the inspiration that Anabaptists’ stories, writings, and legacies can provide for us today. We can be inspired by their lives of faith that led to their calls for social, political, and economic justice and reform to support organizations like Mennonite Central Committee continuing this work around the world. We can be inspired by the radical examples of faith documented in the Martyrs Mirror to find courage when times get tough. And we can be inspired by stories of unique commitments to peace and find ways that we can work toward peace and justice in our world today.

Celebrating the Quincentenary

There are many events happening this year to mark the quincentenary of Anabaptism. An international group of conservative Mennonites held a conference in Wyssachen, Switzerland, on January 21–22, to coincide with the anniversary of the first Anabaptist rebaptisms in 1525.⁷ This conference featured many guest speakers presenting on biblical and historical topics related to Anabaptism. The Mennonite World Conference will also be gathering in Zürich for their event “Courage to Love: Anabaptism@500” on May 29, which will also mark the centennial of the Mennonite World Conference.⁸ This event will include exhibits, workshops, and other activities with Mennonites from around the world, and conclude with a worship service in the Grossmünster Church, as well as another youth summit for young adults aged eighteen to thirty.⁹ There will also be several historical tours led by TourMagination that will follow the Mennonite World Conference event, exploring places of Anabaptist historical significance in Europe.¹⁰ Another interesting project marking the quincentenary is MennoMedia’s Anabaptism at 500 series of products. This includes the Anabaptism at 500 Tool Kit, which contains ideas and resources for commemorating the quincentenary.¹¹ There is also the Anabaptist Community Bible, which features contextual notes by Anabaptist biblical scholars, textual connections to the early Anabaptists and their theological writings, and comments submitted by over five hundred Bible study groups from Mennonites around the world.¹²

If you are like me and will not be able to make it to Switzerland to attend any of the conferences or historical tours, there are many ways you can still participate in the anniversary, wherever you are located. You could watch the classic 1989 film The Radicals about the Anabaptist movement and two of its first leaders, Michael and Margaretha Sattler (it is available to watch for free on YouTube).¹³ Or you can tune into the livestreamed worship service with the Mennonite World Conference in May.¹⁴ And keep an eye out for local church events happening near you. With all of this in mind, however you plan to mark or celebrate the quincentenary of Anabaptism, I would encourage you to “look to the rock” to remember where our tradition comes from, to remember our shared foundation in our global communion, and be inspired by our Anabaptist forebearers from the sixteenth century as we live forward into the future.

Andrew Klassen Brown is a PhD candidate in theology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, through the International Baptist Theological Study Centre. He also serves as the archivist and records manager for Mennonite Central Committee Canada in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

1. Cornelius J. Dyck ed., An Introduction to Mennonite History, 3rd ed. (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1993), 131. ↩︎
2. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, “Martyrs’ Mirror,” last updated Nov. 2014, https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Martyrs%27_Mirror. ↩︎
3. Ephesians 4:1. ↩︎
4. Hebrews 12:1. ↩︎
5. “Map, Membership, and Statistics,” Mennonite World Conference, https://mwc-cmm.org/en/membership-map-and-statistics/. ↩︎
6. “Shared Convictions,” Mennonite World Conference, https://mwc-cmm.org/en/shared-convictions/. ↩︎
7. “500 Year Anniversary of Anabaptism in Europe,” https://anabaptist.nl/en/events/. ↩︎
8. “Courage to Love: Anabaptism@500,” Mennonite World Conference, https://www.anabaptism500.ch/. ↩︎
9. “Global Youth Summit 2025: Empowered by Love,” Mennonite World Conference, https://mwc-cmm.org/en/global-youth-summit-2025/. ↩︎
10. “Anabaptism@500 Tours,” Mennonite World Conference, https://mwc-cmm.org/en/resources/anabaptism500-tours/. ↩︎
11. “Anabaptism at Five-Hundred Tool Kit,” MennoMedia, https://anabaptismat500.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Toolkit_txt_web.pdf. ↩︎
12. “Anabaptist Community Bible,” MennoMedia, https://www.mennomedia.org/anabaptist-community-bible/. ↩︎
13. The Radicals, written by Darryl Wimberley and Joel Kauffmann, directed by Raul V. Carrera, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTX5iWQOuZ4. ↩︎
14. “Program Schedule,” Mennonite World Conference, https://www.anabaptism500.ch/program-schedule. ↩︎