0. Orie O. Miller, "The Mennonite Central Committee. God's Miracle Among Us: The Meaning of the Past Fifty Years," MQR 44 (1970), 316.

2. John S. Oyer, Editorial introduction to MCC anniversary issue of MQR 44 (1970), 212.

3. Calvin W. Redekop, Mennonite Society (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989), 253.

4. Calvin W. Redekop, "The Mennonite Central Committee Story: A Review Essay," MQR 67 (1993), 84.

5. For an introduction to the issues undergirding the sociology of knowledge consult Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (New York: Doubleday, 1966); Barbara Hargrove, ed., Religion and the Sociology of Knowledge: Modernization and Pluralism in Christian Thought and Structure (Toronto: Edwin Mellen Press, 1984); Karl Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1936) and Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1952); Max Scheler, Problems of a Sociology of Knowledge (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980); and Werner Stark, The Sociology of Knowledge (Chicago: The Free Press, 1958).

6. Paul Peachey, "Identity Crisis Among American Mennonites," MQR 42 (1973), 243.

7. The conference dealing with Mennonite identity and self-understanding, organized by Calvin Redekop, was held at Conrad Grebel College in May 1986. Many of the papers from the conference were published in Calvin W. Redekop and Samuel J. Steiner, eds., Mennonite Identity: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1988). In addition to this volume of essays, other scholars have also explored the question of Mennonite identity. Some of the key contributors include A. B. Anderson, "The Sociology of Mennonite Identity: A Critical Review," in Redekop and Steiner, eds., Mennonite Identity, 193-201; Leo Driedger, "The Anabaptist Identification Ladder: Plain-Urbane Continuity in Diversity," MQR 51 (1977), 278-91; Leo Driedger, Mennonite Identity in Conflict (Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1988); Leo Driedger and Leland Harder, eds., Anabaptist-Mennonite Identities in Ferment (Elkhart, Ind.: Institute of Mennonite Studies, 1990); Harry Loewen, ed., Why I am a Mennonite: Essays on Mennonite Identity (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1988); Elmer Miller, "Marking Mennonite Identity: A Structuralist Approach to Separation," Conrad Grebel Review 3 (1985), 251-64; Calvin Redekop, "The Mennonite Identity Crisis," Journal of Mennonite Studies 2 (1984), 87-103 and Mennonite Society, 125-27; John H. Redekop, A People Apart (Winnipeg, Man.: Kindred Press, 1987); John L. Ruth, Mennonite Identity and Literary Art, Focal Pamphlet 29 (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1978); Rodney J. Sawatsky, "History and Ideology: American Mennonite Identity Definition Through History" (Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1977); Rodney Sawatsky, "Defining Mennonite Diversity and Unity," MQR 57 (1983), 282-92; Rodney Sawatsky, "The One and the Many: The Recovery of Mennonite Pluralism," in Walter Klaassen, ed., Anabaptism Revisited (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1992); Paul Toews, "A People Apart or Pulling Apart a People?" Journal of Mennonite Studies 5 (1987), 144-48 and "Differing Historical Imaginations and the Changing Identity of the Mennonite Brethren," in Klaassen, Anabaptism Revisited, 155-169; and Daphne Naomi Winland, "A Plea for Peoplehood: Religious and Ethnic Identity Continuity and Change among the Mennonites of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario" (Ph.D. dissertation, York University, 1989) and "The Quest for Mennonite Peoplehood: Ethno-religious Identity and the Dilemma of Definitions," Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 30 (1993), 110-38.

8. Leo Driedger, "The Anabaptist Identification Ladder: Plain-Urbane Continuity in Diversity," MQR 51 (1977), 278-91.

9. Schneider is quoted by Talcott Parsons, "Some Theoretical Considerations on the Nature and Trends of Change of Ethnicity," in N. Glazer and D. Moynihan, eds., Ethnicity: Theory and Experience (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975), 56-57.

10. The creation of and subsequent interest in the traveling exhibit "Mirror of the Martyrs," the publication of Mirror of the Martyrs by John S. Oyer and Robert S. Kreider (Intercourse, Pa.: Good Books, 1990) as well as the interest in Dirk Willems as portrayed in drama by James Juhnke and in the popular etching all attest to the importance of the suffering theme for the construction of identity. David Luthy, "Dirk Willems: His Noble Deed Lives On," Family Life (February 1995) reports that the Willems etching has appeared in more than ninety publications, with growing popularity in recent years.

11. Mennonite Disaster Service, Mennonite Voluntary Service, Mennonite Economic Development Association.

12. Calvin W. Redekop, "The Organizational Children of MCC," Mennonite Historical Bulletin 56 (1995), 1-8.

13. Apart from the analysis of CMP II data, my argument throughout this paper is primarily based on general observations and episodic evidence. Extensive surveys of MCC personnel and members of the supporting constituencies would need to be conducted in a systematic fashion to buttress the argument with empirical evidence.

14. The General Conference Confessions of 1896, 1933 and 1941 all make explicit reference to nonconformity, as does the Brethren in Christ Confession of 1961 described in Howard John Loewen, One Lord, One Church, One Hope, and One God: Mennonite Confessions of Faith (Elkhart, Ind.: Institute of Mennonite Studies, 1985). Nonconformity is less evident in the Mennonite Brethren confessions, but it was a dominant theme in confessions, conference disciplines and other writings of the Mennonite Church. Although the doctrine of nonconformity is found in the confessional statements of all the Mennonite bodies, it was promoted most vigorously among those with Swiss-South German cultural roots.

15. This percentage is based on the 1936 Census of Religious Bodies (Bulletin No. 17 for Mennonite Bodies, U.S. Government Printing Office 1940) and refers to the location of the church building of Mennonite congregations. Buildings located in villages or townships with a population of 10,000 or more and population density of 1000 or more per square mile were considered urban. The percentage of church buildings in rural areas by denomination were Mennonite Church (86%), General Conference (80%) and Mennonite Brethren (77%). These are likely low estimates for the percent of rural members because some members may have attended urban churches even though they lived in rural areas.

16. The data for 1972 come from the Church Member Profile of five Mennonite denominations reported by J. Howard Kauffman and Leland Harder, Anabaptists Four Centuries Later (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1975).

17. Robert S. Kreider, "The Impact of MCC Service on American Mennonites," MQR 44 (1970), 253.

18. This wording appears in the minutes of the Joint Meeting of the Mennonite Relief Committees on July 26 and 27, 1920, which led to the formation of MCC. See Cornelius J. Dyck, ed., From the Files of MCC: The Mennonite Central Committee Story, Vol. 1 (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1980), 14-18.

19. Cornelius J. Dyck, "Series Preface," in Robert S. Kreider and Rachel Waltner Goossen, Hungry, Thirsty, a Stranger (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1988), 9-10.

20. John D. Unruh, In the Name of Christ (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1952), 35.

21. The text of this message appears in Cornelius J. Dyck, Witness and Service in North America: The Mennonite Central Committee Story, Vol. 3 (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1980), 101-03.

22. The numbers for 1920-1969 come from Paul Classen, "Statistics on Mennonite Central Committee Personnel," MQR 44 (1970), 324-29, an estimate calculated for the fiftieth anniversary. The number of placements and persons in service for the 26 years, 1970-1995, were retrieved from the annual reports of the MCC office of Personnel Services. The estimate of 15,000 includes those serving in CPS and in short-term assignments. The numbers for 1995 are estimates based on the 1994 data.

23. The estimates of number of volunteers who, although not in formal assignments, contribute significantly to MCC-related projects in one way or another were summarized by John Hostetler, Director of MCC Constituency Relations, in a January 23, 1995 letter to Donald B. Kraybill.

24. These numbers include Canada. The estimates represent individuals and not volunteer work days. These are conservative estimates because actually more people are involved, but there is an overlap because some persons work in several of these efforts. The number given for relief sales refers to people serving on committees and coming to work the day of the sales. This does not include the persons who make items at home or church for the sale. The figure listed for Re-Uzit shops includes only those who work on the premises; it does not include a person who makes a wall hanging or some other item and donates it to the shop. The MDS estimate of 4000 varies from year to year and includes only volunteers coordinated through the Akron MDS office, not those who work at local efforts coordinated by regional offices. The numbers in Table 1 total 30,000 persons. If everyone who volunteers in one way or another is counted--for example the owner of a lumber yard who gives roofing material for building a house--John Hostetler estimates that at least 50,000 persons serve as volunteers. These estimates were provided by John Hostetler, MCC Director of Constituency Relations in a January 23, 1995 letter to Donald B. Kraybill.

25. The estimate of Amish volunteers was provided by Ann Roth, volunteer coordinator in the Akron, Pennsylvania Material Aid Resource Center in a telephone interview on January 23, 1995.

26. The estimates of financial giving come from a working paper "Compilation of MCC Income, 1920-1994," compiled from the annual MCC workbooks and provided by the Financial Services Office at Akron. The total of $663 million includes an estimate of $40 million for fiscal 1995. The number of donors and size of contributions for 1994 were supplied by Peter Passage in memos to Irene Leaman dated February 6 and 7, 1995.

27. Chairman's report to the December 30, 1924 meeting of MCC in Dyck, From the Files of MCC, 34-35.

28. The text of the policy statement appears in Dyck, Witness and Service in North America, 30-36.

29. "Report of the MCC Peace Section Study Conference" held at Winona Lake, November 9-12, 1950, 69.

30. All the references in this section are from the Report of the MCC Peace Section Study Conference, Winona Lake, Indiana, November 9-12, 1950. The report, in the archives of MCC, contains the program, major addresses, a summary of discussions and the statement. The Peace Section Newsletter for November-December 1991 contains the Winona Lake statement and reflections on it, as well as the draft of a proposed new inter-Mennonite statement.

31. Emphasis added.

32. Cited by John A. Lapp in "The Peace Mission of the Mennonite Central Com-mittee," MQR 44 (1970), 297.

33. MCC Handbook 1954, 7 cited in Lapp, "The Peace Mission of the Mennonite Central Committee," 281.

34. John A. Lapp, "Blessed are the Peacemakers: Peacemaking as a Driving Force for MCC," MCC 1993 Annual Report in MCC Contact (Feb. 1994), 5-6.

35. Lapp, "The Peace Mission of the Mennonite Central Committee," describes the "Peace Mission of MCC" prior to 1970. One issue of the MCC Peace Office Newsletter (September-October 1992) celebrates fifty years of Peace Section's efforts. The newsletters of the Peace Section published since 1970 offer a resumè of the Section's activities in the past two decades.

36. Lapp, "The Peace Mission of the Mennonite Central Committee," 296.

37. Personal interview with John K. Stoner conducted by Donald B. Kraybill, September 18, 1992.

38. Emphasis added.

39. The paper is reprinted in Dyck, From the Files of MCC, 136-37.

40. Reprinted in Dyck, Responding to Worldwide Needs, 111-12.

41. The July 1966 letter is reprinted in Dyck, Responding to Worldwide Needs, 111-12.

42. The organizational guidelines are reprinted in Dyck, Responding to Worldwide Needs, 114-15.

43. Kreider, "The Impact of MCC Service on American Mennonites," 256-58.

44. The methods employed in the CMP II survey and the results are reported in J. Howard Kauffman and Leo Driedger, The Mennonite Mosaic (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1991). I am grateful to J. Howard Kauffman for graciously providing access to the computerized data files. Professor Conrad Kanagy and student assistant Kristin Montaperto at Elizabethtown College conducted the computer analysis of the CMP II data presented in this section. They kindly ran dozens of cross tabulations--many not reported here--teasing out possible relationships with MCC support.

45. "Satisfaction" with MCC is a loose operational measure of identification with MCC. It is the only measure in the CMP II related to MCC and provides a reading of attitudinal support across a large number of rank and file members.

46. These estimates are based on the membership of the five denominations in 1988 as reported in Kauffman and Driedger, The Mennonite Mosaic.

47. The small number of nonwhite congregations and members who participated in the CMP II prohibits any meaningful or statistically reliable analysis of African-American and Hispanic Mennonite views. Unfortunately there is no evidence on the relationship between race and satisfaction with MCC.

48. Percentage-point differences between categories of a particular variable provide a rough measure of the strength of association (substantive significance) between satisfaction and other variables. In the text I generally refer to "percent difference" or "percent more or less likely" for ease of literary flow. Technically speaking, however, these are percentage-point differences, not percent or percentage differences. Estimates of statistical significance are based on Chi Square calculations at the .01 level of significance. Even if statistically significant, a percentage-point difference of 5 points or less has little substantive or meaningful difference.

49. Kreider, "The Impact of MCC Service on American Mennonites," 259, credits Orie Miller with this observation.

50. Cited by Kreider, "The Impact of MCC Service on American Mennonites," 261.