Telling our story and growing the Anabaptist network has been the main focus for 2007 of the Anabaptist Association of Australia and New Zealand. I have noticed an impetus across the network for people to be more proactive and to get involved. The emergence of new cells of interest in Christchurch and Auckland is particularly exciting to report. So the circles grow.

Contemporary Anabaptism is emerging as a significant movement for change. Its strength lies in its ability to blend a life of community with the work of reconciliation founded on a faith in Jesus. When Jesus and community and reconciliation are combined, faith becomes whole and engages with the real stuff of life.

Anabaptism suffers from being hard to explain simply, as often people get hung up with a name. Yet there is a legacy that the radical reformation brings which provides not only a valuable connection with the past but a springboard for the future.

To broaden and strengthen the network we have agreed to partner more with other groups who share similar values. This will mean dialogue at first and perhaps some shared strategies. To start with, AAANZ has agreed to partner with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) who are seeking to set up an Australasian regional base supported by their team from New Zealand. The power of CPT is in the willingness of a Christian group to go to places of conflict to be a peacemaking presence and to show the alternative way of non-violence.

Protestantism has traditionally grown by new groups beginning and separating themselves by their distinctions and differences, which has often resulted in divisiveness. I see a way forward which will bring strength to the growing network as people from a wide variety of backgrounds connect and discover that we actually share a lot more in common than what we may have first imagined. The common thread that ties a network together is a willingness to share and learn from each other.