A symposium hosted by Eastern Mennonite University
October 12-14, 2025
Politics takes many forms and Anabaptist churches have participated in most of them, if sometimes reluctantly. At least since the founding of the Mennonite Central Committee offices in Washington and Ottawa, Mennonites have done advocacy and lobbying. At least since the 1960s, Anabaptist communities have been a regular presence at protests, especially anti-war protests.
But recently increasing energy has been given to organizing: long term efforts to build communities of power to effect change. This has taken two forms. First, in recent years pastors and lay leaders across North America have become leaders in broad-based organizing groups like the Industrial Areas Foundation, DART, Gamaliel, Faith in Action, or the Just Power Alliance.
The second is organizing around a specific issue or set of issues. The Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery organizes Anabaptists and others “to address the extinction, enslavement, and extraction done in the name of Christ on Indigenous lands.” Mennonite Action organizes Mennonites to take public action for a free Palestine.
We find these developments to be significant enough to demand conversation.
The Concept
We are calling organizers, pastors, academics, and leaders of church institutions to come together at this event to reflect on questions like these:
- How is organizing different from other modes of political action that Anabaptists are more familiar with?
- What does organizing mean in light of Anabaptist-Mennonite traditions' historic distrust of power? What tensions need to be addressed? Does organizing mean that Anabaptists are overcoming their distrust of power or that organizing creates a specific kind of power with which they are comfortable?
- What are the affinities and points of connection between Anabaptism and organizing? That is to say, what difference does “Mennonite” make for any of this organizing and engagement?
- How might we encourage more pastors and churches to get involved in organizing?
Symposium Goals
The symposium aims to promote the visibility of, investment in, and commitment to organizing as an Anabaptist-Mennonite expression of peacebuilding, raising theological questions about synergies and tensions between organizing and traditional Anabaptist theology, and possibly establishing structures for an ongoing network.
It will also build connections among leaders working in both movement organizing and broad-based organizing who, while aware of others doing similar work, are rarely given the opportunity for mutual enrichment.
Keynote Speaker
Daniel Hunter
Co-Founder, Choose Democracy
Daniel has trained pro-democracy movements in Burma/Myanmar, Thailand, India, and many other places. Daniel has written multiple books: Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow, Climate Resistance Handbook, and Strategy and Soul — a thrilling personal story about community organizing and direct action. With over three decades of activist training experience, his training tools are used across the globe for helping people fight for a better, more democratic world.
Speakers and Facilitators
Jay Bergen
Jay Bergen (they/them) is the pastor of Germantown Mennonite Church and has organized for fifteen years in movements for climate justice, immigration justice, and prison abolition.
Peter Dula
Peter Dula is Professor of Religion and Culture. He received a Ph.D from Duke University in theology and ethics in 2004. He is the author of Cavell, Companionship, and Christian Theology (Oxford, 2011). Before coming to EMU in 2006 he was the Mennonite Central Committee Iraq Program Coordinator. He has taught at Lancaster Mennonite High School and at the Meserete Kristos College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where he was a Fulbright scholar in 2001-2.
Shannon Dycus
Shannon Dycus, Interim President of Eastern Mennonite University, holds a Doctor of Ministry Degree in Public Theology from United Theological Seminary (Minnesota). She is a trained spiritual director and actively contributes to writing and worship development roles within Mennonite Church USA and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Her books, Every Time I Feel the Spirit (2019) and The Holy in the Night (2023), are published by Herald Press. Prior to stepping into the Interim President role, Shannon served as Vice President of Student Affairs, Equity, and Belonging, prioritizing strategic vision for co-curricular learning communities that foster social accountability, holistic well-being, and academic success for all students. And before joining EMU, she was a co-pastor at First Mennonite Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, where she guided spiritual formation through preaching and teaching.
Melissa Florer-Bixler
Melissa Florer-Bixler is a doctoral student in homiletics at Duke Divinity School, where she studies preaching traditions in working-class communities. A Duke and Princeton Theological Seminary alumna, she writes for Christian Century and has contributed to Sojourners, Geez, and more. Author of Fire By Night and How to Have an Enemy, Melissa has worked in her community to organize memorials for lynching victims, preach in the Raleigh women's prison, and advocate for a just peace in Palestine. She serves on Mennonite Action’s pastoral committee and the boards of Anabaptist World and Central District Conference of Mennonite Church.
Saulo Padilla
Saulo Padilla is Coordinator of Mennonite Central Committee’s (MCC) U.S. Immigration Education National Program since 2008. He develops and provides learning opportunities about the need for better and safer mechanisms for people facing migration, and advocating to reform the immigration system. For MCC he coordinates immigration law trainings for non-profits offering immigration legal services to immigrant communities and leads learning tours to the U.S./Mexico and Guatemala/Mexico borders.
Jessica Sarriot
Jessica Sarriot is Co-Executive Director of VOICE, and is currently leading a statewide campaign
for housing justice. A graduate of Eastern Mennonite University and Princeton University’s
School of Public and International Affairs, she has organized on issues from divestment
and LGBTQ inclusion at EMU to affordable housing and reentry justice at local and
state levels. Her past roles include overseeing workforce development programs for
system-impacted people and coordinating LA County’s interagency LA Free the Vote initiative.
She lives in Washington DC in a community house with her husband.
Jonathan Matthew Smucker
Jonathan Smucker is a sociology PhD candidate at UC Berkeley and a senior research fellow at the Othering & Belonging Institute. His research focuses on political sociology, social movements, populism, and vulnerabilities of liberal democracy. His dissertation examines Mennonite Action, whose novel experiments in "worshipful" protest styles illuminate dynamics and popular perceptions of broader protest movements. With over 25 years of experience as a political organizer and strategist, he co-founded Popular Comms Institute, PA Stands Up, and others. He’s advised groups like Working Families Party and Sunrise Movement. His writings appear in The Guardian, The Nation, and more. He authored Hegemony How-To (2017) and has a forthcoming book in 2027.
Andre Gingerich Stoner
Andre Gingerich Stoner is lead organizer with We Make Indiana, a multi-racial and multi-faith network of thirty congregations in northern Indiana. He organized a three year campaign to win $3.3 million for a mental health crisis response system in St Joseph County and helped lead a successful statewide campaign for mental health funding. Previously Andre served on the pastoral team at Kern Road Mennonite Church in South Bend for 17 years and as director of holistic witness for Mennonite Church USA. His guiding question during seminary studies was “What’s the relationship between the church, this thing Jesus called ‘the kingdom,’ and social change movements?”
Panelists
Pastors Panel
Lori Friesen, Zion Mennonite Church and VIA
Joel Miller, Columbus Mennonite Church and BREAD
Mandy North, Manassas Church of the Brethren and VOICE
Fernando Ziata, Redemption Rehoboth Tabernacle and VIA
Samoan Circle: Organizing Congregations
Nadia Dames, Valley Muslim Community Foundation
Nick Martin, Mennonite Action
Jennifer Keeney Scarr, Valley Interfaith Action
John Stoesz, Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery
Symposium Listeners
Jonny Rashid, Mennonite Action
Janna Hunter-Bowman, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary
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Event Program
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Logistics
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Planning Committee
