At the institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism at Goshen College, I maintain a digital library that serves Anabaptist seminaries throughout the Americas and Spain. 

Its two most popular books are single-author works by well-known scholars on practical ministry skills. 

The third most highly consulted text does not fit this pattern. It is a daily devotional book with 232 authors. 

Titled 2021 Devotionals, the book was written, compiled and published by the Movement of Anabaptist Women Doing Theology from Latin America, or MTAL. 

It has garnered more than 12,000 views, an average of more than 100 a week. The extraordinary reach of this publication is but one glimpse into the impact and significance of MTAL in Latin America and beyond. 

MTAL grew out of an encounter between African women theologians and Latin American women theologians at the Mennonite World Conference assembly in Zimbabwe 2003. Inspired by their African counterparts, the Latin Americans dreamed of forming a women’s theological network on their own continent. 

A year later, Colombian, Ecuadorian and Venezuelan women at the Second Andean Anabaptist Conference gathered to learn about a new initiative to bring women together for support, encouragement and theological development. Smaller, regional gatherings continued until 2009, when the first MTAL gathering covering all of Latin America was held at the MWC assembly in Paraguay.

Gatherings have continued, bring­ing women together for training, dis­cussion and exchange. Beginning in 2013, MTAL members sought training through the Sister Care program, focused on personal and communal healing. Women who received the training replicated those spaces in their own contexts, eventually reaching well over 4,500 people. 

In Brazil, a local adaptation of Sister Care evolved to become a permanent ministry. In the Andean region, MTAL has focused on helping churches guard against abuse in faith settings, through a program called Healthy Boundaries. 

MTAL has also committed to publishing original material, giving outlet to women’s theologizing and leadership. In the case of Sister Care and Healthy Boundaries, support from Mennonite Mission Network and Mennonite Church USA made the translation and adaptation of existing materials possible. 

MTAL’s publishing commitments were present from its beginning. After Mennonite theologian John Driver shared a series of workshops on “Woman and Man: Image of God” at a meeting of Anabaptists from the Southern Cone in 2007, MTAL published his presentations as a study guide. Its second book, The Liberating Message of Jesus for Women Today, compiled speeches from MTAL meetings in Paraguay in 2009, along with plans for workshops that could build on the calls to action. 

Yet the most widely read MTAL publication is the 2021 Devotionals. In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, women throughout MTAL’s network began to dream about creating a devotional book. Churches were meeting online. Many countries were in strict lockdowns. The pandemic’s economic strain weighed heavily. 

“It was in this context that the Spirit inspired us to write and publish our first devotional book,” recalled MTAL leaders Olga Piedrasanta, Ofelia García and Ruhama Pedroza. 

The goal was to create a devotional book for women and by women with biblical reflections from an Anabaptist faith perspective. The book features 365 devotionals by 232 women from 21 countries.

MTAL also created voice recordings of each devotional entry, which were shared every morning on WhatsApp. Amid the pandemic’s isolation and fear, many found comfort and connection in listening to devotionals read by sisters from across Latin America. 

Since 2021, MTAL has continued publishing annual devotional collections.

More than 12,000 views is a strong testament to MTAL’s role as a source of theological inspiration. But there are other signs as well. 

At a commemoration of 500 years of Anabaptism in Cusco, Peru, last year, historian and theologian Jaime Prieto focused one of his plenaries on the 2021 Devotionals collection. 

“The most recent and notable developments in Latin American christological scholarship on the Gospel of John,” he said, “are the biblical readings created by the [MTAL].” 

Praise God for Latin American women and their contributions to Anabaptist theology!