July 23rd, 2024

Young Adults hopeful about challenges facing the church

Young Adult Anabaptist Conference for an Active Future

Winnipeg – Twenty-four young adults gathered at Camp Squeah in B.C. from June 4-6, 2024, for the Young Adult Anabaptist Conference for an Active Future.

They met to discuss how to engage their faith in the climate crisis. They left excited about forming a close-knit community in their short time together.

Organizer Zachary Shields, a member of the MCBC Young Adult Task Force which planned the event, observed how the group coalesced a year earlier at the Living Hope Retreat in Manitoba. He knew they had to meet again and took the lead in planning the meet-up at Camp Squeah.

Participant discussion at Squeah quickly extended to include themes of nonviolence, inclusion, Indigenous Relations, and housing and affordability.

Young adult Anabaptists want to “… build up communities that are not only brought together by faith, but spurred by their commitment to Jesus' teachings to enact powerful change in the larger world,” wrote Shields in his reflections on the Squeah gathering.

Regional Mennonite Churches Alberta, Manitoba, and Eastern Canada sent young adult ambassadors to the event with support from MC Canada.

Regional ambassadors pictured left to right: Rachel Reid (Mennonite Church Eastern Canada); Liesel Retzlaff and Charlene Lauzier (Mennonite Church Alberta); Andrew Klassen Brown, Emma Siemens (Mennonite Church Manitoba). Photo by Sandy Plett.

Participants interacted with folks from Langley Mennonite Fellowship [LMF], also at the B.C. camp for a church retreat on the same weekend. In a joint reflection on the event, Liesel Retzlaff and Charlene Lauzier from Alberta found comfort in their conversation with older LMF adults about climate change.

“It was inspiring to hear from mostly seniors about the impacts that climate change had on their lives,” they wrote in a joint reflection. It was clear to us that this was not something that was only scary for younger generations, but everyone.” Hearing from the older generation had “… a lasting impact on us and continued our determination to talk about this in the church.”

Andrew Brown from Manitoba wrote, “It was fantastic, but waaaaaaaay too short!” He wondered how to reach his peers who are passionate about climate change and other justice issues but are “outside our church walls.”

Brown expressed concern that “A lot of my young adult friends are having these very same conversations, but they are not in a church context for a variety of reasons.”

Several participants acknowledged the dichotomy of flying to an event concerning climate change, but also placed a high value on meeting face-to-face. Brown wondered, “How can we create a local community like this of young adult Anabaptists in Manitoba without all of us having to fly to B.C. to attend a conference for a weekend?”

Rachel Reid from Ontario wrote, “I came away renewed and ready to put my ideas into action here in the [Mennonite Church Eastern Canada] region.”

Emma Siemens of Manitoba found the beautiful setting of Camp Squeah especially poignant, considering the group’s conversation about climate change and other challenges facing her generation. In her reflections, she wrote, “To me, this time in creation proved to me how right we were to be talking about the necessity and truth of hope while navigating the difficulties of being the church in 2024.”

A contingent from the group met online a week after the event to discuss ways for the group to move forward. Shields reported that “… the prevailing common thread was about building up young adult Anabaptist community.”

Sandy Plett, Climate Action Coordinator for Mennonite Church Canada, also attended the event. “It was energizing to see these young adults take seriously Jesus’ teachings and their Anabaptist theology as they wrestled with some pretty serious problems facing not only the church, but society at large,” said Plett. 

Aiden Scherzinger, associate pastor at Foothills Mennonite Church, addressed the group at their Saturday morning worship time.

He said, “My hope, for this group, but truly for our generation of Jesus followers is that we would understand our calling to be prophetic voices in our places and spaces together.”

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