How justify special privileges?

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You obviously put a lot of good work into Church Education Sunday theme section (January). My concern is that it offers almost no sense of our educational institutions having ties with Mennonite-related schools in other parts of the world. I know this is Mennonite Church USA. But how important should we make our national boundaries when we pray for Mennonite educational efforts, and to what extent can we justify the special privileges we have in our small, insulated and privileged part of the globe?

The cost of educating one U.S. Anabaptist disciple from kindergarten to college is simply astronomical as compared with, for example, the Meserete Christos Church of approximately the same size in Ethiopia.

Encouraging our schools to develop fraternal partnerships with sister colleges and seminaries around the world might make us look bad (as we compare the kinds of facilities and budgets we assume are necessary for U.S.-based Mennonites). But maybe we should face that disparity and either make a case for it or work to change it.

Associated Issue: New director begins - January, 2010

Associated Article: Five reasons for Mennonite education

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