... can you fit into one living room?  Evidently the answer yesterday was 19, as our 'First Monday' group squeezed into my living room for a presentation and discussion on Mennonite theology.

The speaker is one of the Gatherers who retains her Canadian Mennonite identity.  Given the debated and debateable anabaptist influence on the original Baptists (Smyth and Helwys went to Amsterdam and had contact with anabaptist fellowships) it was interesting to hear about one strand of anabaptists in a Western, and more speicfically North American, context.

There was, as I'd expcected, much in common, from believer Baptism to separation of the church and state.  The biggest difference, I think, is that for Mennonites active persecution continued into the twentieth century, which means that this is a tradition living out that legacy - for Baptists, at least in the West, such experiences are 'old history' and so don't actively shape our daily lives.

I was struck by the fact that there are what might be termed 'cultural Mennonites' - those whose forebears were active in faith but who, whilst so labelling themselves, no longer attend church or live specifically in accord with Mennonite teaching.  At the same time there are what might be termed 'incomers' - people with no Mennonite background who are seekers after Christ.  The long term impact of this for Mennonites will be interestng to observe - and I can't help wondering how open they might be to learning from the experiences of other Reformation (Protestant or Radical) traditions who have already travelled this path.

I was fascinated by the Mennonite canon-within-a-canon for scripture: first the sermon on the mount, then the gospels, then the rest of the New Testament, then the Old Testament.  If I had the time it would be interesting to compare and contrast this with such Baptist oddities as the scriptures central to the Six Principle Baptists and dear old (?!) Spuregeon on the downgrade, or even, for that matter the ancient views of Marcionism.  I wonder, for all our claims, what is really the canon-within-a-canon that Baptists are inclined to use?

A very interesting and thought provoking evening.