Mennonites in Colombia

Mennonites as a religious group can trace back their roots to the time of the Protestant Reformation. They belonged to the radical wing of the Reformation who tried to base its faith only on the Bible as God's word and live according to it.

Starting in 1683 (Germantown, Pennsylvania), Mennonites from Europe migrated to North America but most came in the 18th and 19th centuries. Mainly since the second half of the 19th century they split into different groups ranging from extremely conservative to very liberal.

Liberal and moderately conservative Mennonites engaged in worldwide missionary work like other North American Protestant denominations. In 1945 the Mennonite Brethren started missionary work among the Amerindian and general population in La Cumbre in Valle del Cauca and the corregimiento Noanama in Istmina, Chocó Department. In 1949 there were 50 believers and a missionary staff of 16 members.

The missionaries learned the indigenous language und started to write religious texts in this language. Linguistic work on the Choco languages was done by Mennonite missionary Jacob Loewen.

Mission and social work was also done by the General Conference Mennonite Church near Cachipay, Anolaima and La Mesa, all in the department of Cundinamarca and in La Esperanza in the department Norte de Santander. In 1954 there were nine missionary workers and 81 baptized converts.

In 1990 there were four Anabaptist groups working in Colombia: the Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Colombia, that resulted from the mission work of the General Conference Mennonites, the Asociación de Iglesias de los Hermanos Menonitas, stemming from the Mennonite Brethren mission work, the Iglesia Colombiana de los Hermanos, stemming from the mission work of the Brethren Church, Ashland, Ohio, starting in 1973, and the Comunidad Cristiana Hermandad de Cristo, stemming from the Brethren in Christ, starting in 1982. The membership of these four groups in 1986 was about 2,300.[1]