A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

e Brethren in a constituency where they have a large membership. Of the 100 delegates Mennonite Brethren were entitled to, only thirty-nine made their appearance. According to one M.B. pastor involved in the planning committee, this lack of participation was due to the suspicion with which many Mennonite Brethren still view an inter-Mennonite fellow- ship — even though it centered in the study of the Scriptures. Another inter-Mennonite venture on a much larger scale was Probe 72, the All-Mennonite Congress on Evangelism held in Minneapolis, to which reference has been made earlier. As Mennonite Brethren met with concerned Christians from the other Mennonite groups for prayer, fellowship and consultation, many barriers were broken down. Mennonite Brethren discovered that the M.B. Church has no monopoly on evangelistic concern, and that their vision is shared by many leaders and members in other Mennonite bodies. In recent years both larger Mennonite conferences (the "Old" Mennonite and the General Conference Mennonite) have made overtures to the Mennonite Brethren inviting them to a closer cooperation and fellowship in order to achieve a more adequate expression of "oneness in Christ."" The response to these communications by the Board of Reference and Counsel (which the conference later approved) was cordial but cautious: "It is our studied opinion . . . that the consensus of our brotherhood at the present is not such that we could engage actively in COOPERATING WITH OTHER GROUPS 395 meetings and discussions having to do with merger or other bold steps to achieve church unity organically." 36 However, the statement does express a deep appreciation for increasing opportunities to share in discussion and fellowship with Mennonite and other related bodies. It also makes specific reference to cooperation in such inter-Mennonite agencies as the MCC, and expres- ses the hope that such fruitful relationships will continue in the future. V. Cooperation on an Inter-Continental Level The largest inter-Mennonite fellowship in which Mennonite Brethren have participated for over forty years is the Mennonite World Conference (MWC). This conference, whose scope and concern today encompasses approximately half a million Mennonites around the globe, had its beginning in a vision of a few European Mennonite leaders after World War I. Christian Neff (1863-1946), pastor of the Weierhof (Palatinate) Mennonite congregation and eminent leader of South German Mennonites, may be considered the "father" of the MWC." Under his initiative, and in cooperation with brethren from Switzerland and the Netherlands, the first MWC was held in Basel in 1925 to observe the 400th anniversary of the birth of the Swiss Anabaptist movement. Attendance at the first conference was small, with only one delegate from North America (H. J. Krehbiel, president of the General Conference Mennonite Church), and only a few from Holland,