Document
You Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness: On the 500th Anniversary of the Anabaptist Movement
On behalf of the World Council of Churches and its global fellowship, I am honoured to bring greetings and best wishes to this your joyful and reverent quincentennial celebration of Anabaptist confession, witness, and discipleship.
Historically, the courageous yet extremely costly witness of the Anabaptist movement and its founders from 1525 offered a critical correction to the churches, prophetically pointing them to the radical message and example of Jesus and its pertinence for authentic Christian discipleship in the world.
Over the centuries and across the continents, Anabaptists have demonstrated their deep desire to adhere not only to the words of Jesus and the example of the early church but also to a radical commitment to nonviolence, insistence on religious freedom, a clear countercultural critique of secular power, and decisive confession and witness for peace and justice in the world. These characteristics and values are so pertinent for the world all through the ages but even more needed today in a world facing wars, conflicts, poverty, climate catastrophe, migration and injustices. We need to hear afresh God`s call for `peace on earth.`
In light of that bold ancestral Anabaptist witness and your indomitable spirit over the years, with our Lord I say to you, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matt. 5:6). Indeed, theirs is the kingdom of God.
Yet, perhaps at no time since 1525 have the gratuitous gift, witness, and devotion exemplified in the many Anabaptist traditions been more important to the larger ecumenical fellowship, and to a pained and imperiled world, than right now.
As a creative and committed minority, firmly rooted in the teachings of Jesus and the witness of the early churches, you stand as a beacon for all of us, illuminating for the larger church and society the ways of peace and hope. Indeed, we continue to learn from you.
Gifted with these vital markers of discipleship, you have so much to contribute to today's most pressing challenges—whether of climate, inequality, racism, or war. Legitimated and inspired by your costly historical witness to the larger church, may you always be champions of unity, advocates for justice, and agents of reconciliation.
Indeed, as we revere and critically appropriate Anabaptist history and its enduring legacy, all of us in the wider ecumenical fellowship join your centuries-long, sacred pilgrimage of faith, always seeking God’s reign of justice, searching Jesus’ ways of peace, and sharing the fruits of life in the Spirit for the sake of the world. May that legacy of faith endure and flourish for many centuries henceforth. May your celebration grant you the inspiration, hope and joy to continue your faithful witness to Christ in a broken and suffering world as the world continues to hunger and thirst for God`s righteousness.
Yours in Christ,
Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay
General Secretary
World Council of Churches
