Two leaders from the global Mennonite Church will be visiting south-central Kansas and speaking at Bethel College.
César García and Sandra Báez will speak on contemporary ecclesiologies in two presentations as part of Bethel’s periodic Bible Lecture Series.
García is the general secretary for Mennonite World Conference (MWC). Báez is a pastor and executive assistant to the general secretary.
Their first presentation, “Three Styles of Contemporary Ecclesiologies,” will be Sunday, March 17, at 7 p.m. in the Administration Building chapel on the Bethel campus.
The second, “Experiences in Contemporary Ecclesiologies,” will be a Bethel College convocation Monday, March 18, at 11 a.m. in Krehbiel Auditorium in Luyken Fine Arts Center.
The lectures are free and open to the public.
In addition, García will speak in the Sunday morning worship service at Bethel College Mennonite Church in North Newton, March 17 at 9:30 a.m.
García and Báez will also participate in a plenary discussion with Bethel students enrolled in the senior capstone course Basic Issues of Faith and Life.
They plan to connect with local church leaders and representatives of sister Anabaptist institutions, who are invited to a luncheon March 21 at noon at Kaufman House (home of the Kansas Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, KIPCOR) at 2515 College Ave. in North Newton. Participants are asked to register at https://forms.gle/Xrg5xidGwsveG1519
Mennonite World Conference represents the majority of the global family of Christian churches rooted in the 16th-century Radical Reformation in Europe, particularly in the Anabaptist movement.
In 2023, MWC membership included one international association and 108 Mennonite and Brethren in Christ national churches from 60 countries, with around 1.45 million baptized believers in close to 10,180 congregations. About 84% of baptized believers in MWC member churches are African, Asian or Latin American, with 16% located in Europe and North America.
Since 1951, the Bible Lecture series has been endowed by the Hartzler Foundation, established by Dr. and Mrs. John Ellsworth Hartzler. J.E. Hartzler was president of Bethel College from 1920-21 and was himself a Bible Lecturer in 1961. The lectures relate to subjects of general biblical, historical, theological and philosophical interest.
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel ranks at #23 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of “Best Regional Colleges Midwest” for 2023-24. Bethel was the first Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center, in 2021. For more information, see http://www.bethelks.edu
