Prayers of gratitude and intercession

Goshen, Indiana – On 20-23 July, a six-member task force appointed by Mennonite World Conference (MWC) Faith and Life Commission met at Goshen College with counterparts from the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) to review progress globally on the commitments that the two global communions made to each other in a service of reconciliation in Stuttgart, Germany in July 2010.

At that service, which culminated nearly five years of dialogue, representatives of the LWF asked forgiveness for the actions of their forebears against the Anabaptists in the sixteenth century and for continuing negative portrayals of Anabaptists and Mennonites. They also committed their churches and seminaries to interpret the Lutheran confessions in light of the dialogue report, Healing Memories: Reconciling in Christ, and to continue conversations with Mennonites on the topics of baptism and the Christian relation to the state.

MWC leaders, in turn, committed themselves to promote a more balanced interpretation of the Lutheran-Anabaptist story, to continue conversation on unresolved issues, and to encourage their member churches to seek greater cooperation among with Lutherans in service to the world. 

In their joint meetings at Goshen, the two task forces identified several areas of progress in their mutual commitments. They noted especially the many local services of reconciliation held by Mennonite and Lutheran congregations around the world, a study guide produced by Mennonite Church Canada, and numerous examples of cooperation in service projects. They also affirmed the trilateral conversations on baptism that are now moving forward between MWC, the LWF and the Catholic Church through its Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

The Mennonite task force further affirmed a website, sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism at Goshen College, that provides easy access to resources related to Lutheran-Mennonite dialogue (www.anabaptistwiki.org). The MWC task force called on the Faith and Life Commission to take a stronger role in encouraging Mennonite colleges, universities, seminaries, historical societies, information centers and tour groups to incorporate the story of MWC-LWF reconciliation. It also recommended that several MWC national conferences pursue conversations on Christian peacemaking with their Lutheran counterparts, recognizing that local contexts differ widely on this theme.

On Sunday, 21 July, local Lutherans and Mennonites engaged in a public dialogue with the joint task forces at an afternoon service hosted by Trinity Lutheran Church in Goshen. The Lutheran task force concluded its visit with a tour of Mennohof, a nearby Anabaptist-Mennonite information center, and an extended conversation with 25 Amish ministers and lay people on the topic of baptism and Christian witness.

“After five hundred years of separation, full reconciliation will not happen overnight,” said, John D. Roth, professor of history at Goshen College and secretary of the MWC Faith and Life Commission. “But we praise God for these steps toward healing within the Body of Christ.”

Members of the MWC task force include Andre Gingerich Stoner, Gayle Gerber Koontz, James Juhnke, Enrique Rodríguez, and John D. Roth, along with Kathryn Johnson, a Lutheran professor of history who played a major role in organizing the reconciliation service in 2010.

The members of the LWF “Task Force on the Mennonite Action” are:  Timothy Wengert, Musawenkosi Biyela, Kathryn Johnson, Selma Chen, Hellen Rios, Anne Burghardt, Michael Martin, Ivo Huber and John D. Roth.

MWC release

Second meeting of the Catholic, Lutheran and Mennonite Trilateral Dialogue Commission on baptism

Strasbourg, France – “I continue to be inspired by the mutuality of our work,” commented John Rempel of Toronto, Ontario, one of the Mennonite participants in the 26-31 January 2014 second meeting of the Trilateral (Catholic, Lutheran, Mennonite) Dialogue Commission on Baptism.

The general topic of the dialogue, which is to extend over four years, is “Baptism and Incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church.” The theme for this year was “Baptism: God’s Grace in Christ and Human Sin”.

“Everyone is treated equally even though we are by far the smallest confession,” noted Rempel. “We are all trying to rethink the issues in terms of the 21st century, not only the 16th century.”

He commented further, “I find myself grappling especially with two aspects of this year’s meeting. I’m discovering how important sacraments are to Lutherans and Catholics as expressions of God’s initiative: God is mysteriously at work by means of prayer and water, whether we respond to it or not. And yet I can’t understand God’s initiative in the New Testament without the human response to grace.”

“At the same time our partners fear that we put so much weight on the human decision to believe that God’s initiative is pushed to the background. The participants are aware that only through the work of the Holy Spirit will this dialogue lead us closer to the mind of Christ.”

Mennonite participants who presented papers on this year’s theme were Alfred Neufeld of Paraguay and Fernando Enns of Germany. Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga of Colombia and Gregory Fairbanks of the United States and the Vatican presented papers from a Catholic perspective. And Friederike Nüssel of Germany presented a paper from a Lutheran perspective.

According to a joint release, the commission also continued to study the baptismal rites of each participating Christian tradition, with special attention in this meeting to the Lutheran tradition, particularly regarding the contextualization of baptismal rites in the African region. The commission began its working days with prayers and joint reflections on biblical texts relating to baptism.

“It is always surprising to me,” commented Fernando Enns, “how much we learn about ourselves when we are asked to explain our theological convictions to others. During this meeting the challenge was to lay out the Mennonite understanding of sin (original sin, actual sin, the free will) and salvation. We referred to biblical Scriptures, Anabaptist writings, Mennonite confessions and personal and congregational experiences. To do this in the critical presence of the other shows immediately at which points those rationalities are not as obvious as they seem to ourselves. It is a wonderful exercise in deepening the understanding of our own tradition.”

He added, “This seems to be true as well for the Lutheran and Catholic dialogue partners. Their voices are as varied as our Mennonite ones are. And every now and then we hear sentences such as ‘We should not limit God´s ability to heal and to save to our sacramental systems’. To me, this quote speaks about the cautious and humble approach to doing theology together – in ecumenical fellowship – during our encounters in this trilateral dialogue.”

The meeting was hosted by the Lutheran World Federation and took place at the Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg. The Institute also hosted a reception where commission members met with representatives of the local Catholic, Lutheran and Mennonite communities in Strasbourg.

In addition to those mentioned above, Mennonite participants included Rebecca Osiro of Kenya and Larry Miller of France. The Catholic representation included William Henn of the United States and Italy, Luis Melo of Canada, and Marie-Hélène Robert of France. The Lutheran representation included Theodor Dieter of Germany, Peter Li of Hong Kong, Kaisamari Hintikka of Finland and Switzerland, and Sarah Hinlicky-Wilson of the United States and France. Kenneth Mtata of Zimbabwe and Switzerland attended the meeting part-time as a proxy for Musa Biyela of South Africa.

The third meeting of the trilateral commission will take place in February 2015 in the Netherlands, hosted by Mennonite World Conference, and discuss the theme “Baptism: Communicating Grace and Faith”. A fourth meeting is anticipated in 2016, after which the commission is expected to submit its final report to the Lutheran World Federation, the Mennonite World Conference and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

MWC release

Co-secretaries of the commission (from left): Gregory Fairbanks, Kaisamari Hintikka , Larry Miller. Photo by Eleanor Miller

First meeting of the Catholic, Lutheran and Mennonite Trilateral Dialogue Commission on baptism

Rome, Italy/Bogota, Colombia – An international trilateral dialogue between Mennonites, Catholics and Lutherans began in Rome, 9-13 December 2012.

According to a joint release issued after the Rome meeting, the overall theme of the five-year process is “Baptism and Incorporation into the Body of Christ, the Church.” The release further stated: “This innovative trilateral forum will allow the dialogue to take up questions surrounding the theology and practice of baptism in the respective communions.”

The three international communions came to the inaugural meeting with a history of bilateral dialogues with each other. They mutually agreed to hold three-way talks on baptism, a topic that had surfaced in earlier exchanges.

Mennonite World Conference (MWC) and the Catholic Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) held conversations from 1998 to 2003. This resulted in a report entitled “Called Together to be Peacemakers.” Understandings and practices of baptism were among the divergences identified for further study. Mennonites practice adult baptism and Catholics infant baptism, as do Lutherans.

MWC and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) participated in a joint study commission from 2005 through 2008, which resulted in a final report entitled “Healing of Memories: Reconciling in Christ.” (To see both of the above reports, go to http://mwc-cmm.org/interchurch-dialogue.) During these talks, Mennonites and Lutherans agreed that two areas of difference that existed in the 16th century still exist today, namely the relation of Christians to the socio-political order and baptism.

Further, the PCPCU and the LWF have held 11 rounds of dialogue, with the current round focusing on “Baptism and Growth in Communion.”

The trilateral meeting in Rome, with five representatives from each communion, included summary presentations on past dialogues on baptism. Fernando Enns of Germany presented for MWC. The meeting also included principal papers on the introduction to the Understanding and Practice of Baptism. Alfred Neufeld of Paraguay and John Rempel of Canada presented for MWC.

Other members of the MWC team included Rebecca Osiro of Kenya and Larry Miller of France. MWC General Secretary César García of Colombia was an observer. Alfred Neufeld chaired the MWC team. Miller served as co-secretary along with Gregory J. Fairbanks of the Catholic and Kaisamari Hintikka of the Lutheran team.

According to the joint release, the group will convene for its second round of conversations in January 2014 to study “Baptism: God’s Grace in Christ and Human Sin.” Future topics in following years will include “Baptism: Communicating Grace and Faith” and “Living Out Baptism.”

MWC release