Canadian Mennonite University

CMU is an innovative Christian university, rooted in the Anabaptist Mennonite tradition, moved and transformed by the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Through teaching, research and service CMU inspires and equips women and men for lives of service, leadership and reconciliation in church and society. CMU's mission statement, like that of any organization, is like a densely packed coil with the potential and the obligation to spring to life in a vibrant array of programs and projects, conversations and commitments. CMU's mission statement is upfront and out there in its particularity. Faithfulness to the story of God's creating and transforming work through Jesus Christ is the heartbeat, the mindfulness and the motivating impulse for the service, leadership and reconciliation through which CMU participates in church and society.

CMU's mission statement takes shape through a vibrant array of programs and projects, conversations, and commitments. The statement names the story of God's creating and transforming work through Jesus Christ as the heartbeat of the service, leadership, and reconciliation through which CMU students, faculty, graduates, and surrounding community participate in church and society.

At CMU ‘service, leadership and reconciliation’ are personal and communal learning outcomes that are encountered within academic, personal and interpersonal, theological, artistic, physical, and environmental contexts. Education involves "building understandings" in ways that are about knowledge as much as relationships, for the sake of enabling us to see, engage, and share in a world that is as wondrous as strained, and that ever calls for our best care and innovative capacities.

Convictions regarding integrity in life and faith alongside the integration of knowledge, action and community wisdom, lie at the heart of CMU’s educational vision. CMU’s self-understanding as a church-related university is grounded in relationships of trust and in commitments to ongoing, open dialogue and inquiry. By the grace of God, we seek to live and proclaim the good news of reconciliation in Jesus Christ. As part of the one body of Christ at all times and places, we hold the following to be central to our belief and practice:

God is known to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Creator who seeks to restore fallen humanity by calling a people to be faithful in fellowship, worship, service, and witness. Jesus is the Son of God. Through his life and teachings, his cross and resurrection, he showed us how to be faithful disciples, redeemed the world, and offers eternal life. As a church, we are a community of those whom God's Spirit calls to turn from sin, acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, receive baptism upon confession of faith, and follow Christ in life.

As a faith community, we accept the Bible as our authority for faith and life, interpreting it together under Holy Spirit guidance, in the light of Jesus Christ to discern God's will for our obedience. The Spirit of Jesus empowers us to trust God in all areas of life so we become peacemakers who renounce violence, love our enemies, seek justice, and share our possessions with those in need. We gather regularly to worship, to celebrate the Lord's Supper, and to hear the Word of God in a spirit of mutual accountability. As a world-wide community of faith and life we transcend boundaries of nationality, race, class, gender and language. We seek to live in the world without conforming to the powers of evil, witnessing to God's grace by serving others, caring for creation, and inviting all people to know Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.

In these convictions we draw inspiration from Anabaptist forebears of the 16th century, who modeled radical discipleship to Jesus Christ. We seek to walk in his name by the power of the Holy Spirit, as we confidently await Christ's return and the final fulfillment of God's kingdom.