wfn.org | Brussels Mennonite Center celebrates 20 years

[BethAH@mbm.org]

March 21, 2001
Beth Hawn
Communications Coordinator
Mennonite Board of Missions
phone (219) 294-7523
fax (219) 294-8669
<www.MBM.org>

March 21, 2001

Sidebar: Brussels Mennonite Center celebrates 20 years

ELKHART, Ind. (MBM) – The Centre Mennonite de Bruxelles (Brussels
Mennonite Center) celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2000 and has
been the focus of Mennonite Board of Missions work in Belgium
since the early 1990s.

The Mennonite Center is located in a row house built just before
World War I, about a quarter-mile from the European Union’s
headquarters.

The house, originally built by a prosperous family with servants,
has six levels.  It houses an Anabaptist library, a children’s
peace education library, offices, meeting rooms, guest rooms, and
an apartment where mediation services director Juan Romero lives
with his family.

J. Robert Charles, MBM director for Europe and Africa, helped
start the center in 1980 with the idea that it would be a public
witness.

“This puts a face on Mennonites beyond the local congregations,”
he said.

In addition to Romero, the mediation team headquartered in the
Center consists of Pascal Keller, a French Mennonite pastor who
also conducts theological work with local congregations, and
Francoise Cognaux, a Belgian who assists with the mediation work
in the schools.

Annie Hubinont is the president of the Center’s board of
directors.

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By Gary Kauffman for MBM news