A photo from this year’s Midwest Catholic Worker gathering.
When we started Missio Dei in 2003, we had no idea where the next nine years would lead. Back then, we were a kinda hip urban church startup. Within a year, we were a small congregation of about forty people. But it didn’t feel right. The core community at the time wanted to go deeper into Jesus’ radical way of life. And so, a year into forming a new church, we killed Missio Dei and started over as an intentional community. Volumes could be written about the challenges of that process, but I’ll spare you the awkward details and jump to the next major turning point in our journey.
As we started embracing practices like peacemaking and hospitality, we quickly discovered that we felt alone. We wanted comradery, and so we formed a relationship with the Mennonite Church USA. Mennonites are people with a rich history of peacemaking. They take the Sermon on the Mount serioiusly and have (to varying degress of success) seeked to live into the radical implications of Jesus’ life and message. So we became Mennonite.
Over the past 9 years, we’ve found ourselve rubbing shoulders with a lot of Catholic Workers. We’ve discovered that, while our theological convictions often line up with our Mennonite siblings, our politics and our practices look very Catholic Worker. For the past few years, our primary friendships have been between both Mennonites and Catholic Workers. To communicate the meaningfulness of these two great frienships, we’ve changed our name from Missio Dei to the Mennonite Worker.
There are also mundanely practical reasons for the name change. “Missio Dei” is a pretty obscure Latin phrase for most folks. We’ve been asked “what is that Mexican for?” (this statement alone has several things wrong with it. It has also been pointed out (repeatedly) that we sound like we’re named after an Irish barmaid (Missy O’Day). I get the Irish part, but I have no idea why folks consistently assume that a woman named Missy O’Day would work at a bar. My Irish grandmother would be offended (rest her soul). My favorite has been the way in which our name has been routinely mispelled. One example is “Miseo Dei” (miseo is Greek for “hate” while Dei is Latin for “God”). Another is “Missio Die” which comes across like a threat.
For these reasons (and more), we felt a name change is an order.
