"I Choose Love": What Dock Mennonite Academy Students Learned About the Anabaptist Story in Switzerland

 

"Our challenge is not to pretend our differences don't exist. Our challenge is to remain with people we disagree with... and find ways to wash one another's feet anyway."
— Riki Neufeld

By Zach Bower ('02), Social Studies Teacher and Communications Associate

One question we asked students at the end of Dock Mennonite Academy's recent 2026 Touring Choir Europe Tour (June 10-24) was: Which song was most meaningful for you to sing?

For many, the answer was "I Choose Love." (click HERE to view performance at La Prairie Mennonite Church)

As the Touring Choir traveled across Europe, that message extended far beyond the music itself. Several host families and church leaders expressed how much they appreciated the choir serving as ambassadors of peace from the United States and from Dock Mennonite Academy, a school rooted in the Anabaptist tradition.

(Learn more about Dock's Anabaptist Faith Integration)

At Dock Mennonite Academy, a Christ-centered private high school serving families throughout Montgomery County, Bucks County, and the greater Philadelphia region, learning extends far beyond the classroom. Every two years, members of the Touring Choir travel through Europe—not simply to perform concerts, but to deepen their understanding of Christian faith, Anabaptist history, cross-cultural relationships, and serving others through music.

This year, the Touring Choir experienced the rich hospitality of Anabaptist communities across Europe, worshiping and building relationships with Owingen Mennonite Church in Germany, Holee Mennonite Church in Basel, Switzerland (which partnered with Schänzli Evangelical Mennonite Church to host the choir and concert), and La Prairie Mennonite Church in Montbéliard, France, the largest Mennonite church in France. 

One experience in particular on this tour helped students understand why those experiences matter. While traveling to our host churches in Switzerland, Dock students visited a hidden Anabaptist worship cave outside Zurich, where early Anabaptists secretly gathered nearly 500 years ago while facing persecution for their faith.

Guiding the group was Riki Neufeld, pastor of Schänzli Evangelical Mennonite Church in Muttenz, Switzerland, educator, and recipient of the 2024 Menno Simons Sermon Prize, awarded by the University of Hamburg's Department of Peace Church Theology. Born in Paraguay, Neufeld studied at Steinbach Bible College in Manitoba and has served in Mennonite educational ministry in Switzerland since 2011. 

Riki has now guided Dock's Touring Choir through Anabaptist history sites on three Europe Tours. His friendship with Dock teacher Zach Bower began while the two served together at Black Forest Academy in Germany during the 2006–07 school year, a relationship that has since grown into a meaningful partnership helping Dock students connect to the history of the Anabaptist movement.

Standing inside the cave, students expected to hear a history lesson. Instead, they received a challenge about what it means to follow Jesus in today's world.

Riki's Message at the Anabaptist Cave

Standing inside the hidden Anabaptist worship cave outside Zurich, Riki Neufeld challenged Dock students to see the Anabaptist story not simply as history, but as an invitation to faithful discipleship today.

He began with a recent conversation he had with a 17-year-old from his church who wanted to be baptized as a believer. Although baptized as an infant, the young man explained that his faith in Christ had become deeply personal, and he wanted to publicly declare his commitment to following Jesus. Riki pointed out that this young man's decision was rooted in the same conviction that led the first Anabaptists nearly 500 years ago to practice believer's baptism.

As early Anabaptists studied Scripture, they became convinced that baptism should follow a personal decision to follow Christ. They longed to build churches filled not simply with people who called themselves Christians, but with people whose lives reflected the teachings of Jesus. That conviction, however, came at an enormous cost. Beginning in 1525, many Anabaptists were imprisoned or executed—some by drowning in Zurich's Limmat River in what authorities mockingly called a "third baptism."

Yet persecution did not stop the movement. Instead, Riki explained, it helped spread it. People noticed the way Anabaptists lived. They cared for neighbors, kept their promises, served those in need, and remained faithful even in hardship. There was something contagious about lives marked by humility, integrity, and love. Because they could not gather publicly, believers often met in hidden places like the cave where the Touring Choir now stood, worshiping despite the risk.

For generations, Riki said, Mennonites primarily told this story as one of persecution and perseverance. But in recent decades, something remarkable has happened in Switzerland. The Catholic Church and the Reformed Church publicly acknowledged the suffering they had caused Anabaptists and formally apologized. During the 500th anniversary celebration of the Anabaptist movement in Zurich last spring, those same churches opened their buildings free of charge and helped support the celebration financially.

"We weren't only celebrating 500 years of Anabaptist history," Riki explained. "We were celebrating that reconciliation is possible."

That experience, he said, has reshaped the way Swiss Mennonites understand their own story. Rather than seeing themselves only as a persecuted minority that had always been right, they are learning to become a reconciled people—remaining faithful to their convictions while also acknowledging that they, too, have lessons to learn. Riki even joked that Mennonites have sometimes been known for believing they are always right, and if disagreements arise, simply starting another church. Real reconciliation, he suggested, requires humility and a willingness to admit that we are not always right either.

Riki concluded by connecting this story to the challenges facing Christians today. Polarization is growing around the world, he observed, including in both Europe and the United States. The answer is not pretending differences do not exist, but learning to remain in relationship with those with whom we disagree. 

One of the most meaningful moments during the 500-year celebration was a foot washing service where representatives from the Catholic Church, the Reformed Church, and Mennonite World Conference washed one another's feet as a visible sign of humility, service, and reconciliation.

He closed with a challenge that stayed with many students throughout the remainder of the Europe Tour:

"Our challenge is not to pretend our differences don't exist. Our challenge is to remain with people we disagree with... and find ways to wash one another's feet anyway."

Following Riki's message, the Touring Choir responded in worship by singing the Doxology, "Praise God, From Whom All Blessings Flow," inside the Anabaptist Cave. (click HERE to view)

To read/listen to Riki's full message click HERE.  

Carrying the Story Home

As the Touring Choir continued traveling through Germany, Switzerland, and France, Riki's message stayed with many students. Looking back, it is easy to understand why "I Choose Love" became one of the songs that resonated most deeply. Several of our hosts later shared how much they appreciated Touring Choir serving as ambassadors of peace from the United States and representing Dock Mennonite Academy so well.

For Dock Mennonite Academy students, visiting the Anabaptist Cave became much more than another stop on the Europe Tour itinerary. It offered a living connection to the school's Anabaptist heritage and challenged students to consider how they are called to live into a new telling of the Anabaptist story—one that remembers the courage of the past while embracing Christ's call to reconciliation, bridge building, and loving those with whom we disagree.

Experiences like these are part of what makes a Dock Mennonite Academy education distinctive. We believe Christian education is most meaningful when students not only study their faith, but also experience it through worship, service, meaningful relationships, and opportunities that encourage them to follow Jesus wherever He leads.

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