The Lutheran Dialogue with Mennonites: An Example of a Dialogue with a Free Church (with a Postscript on Visions of Unity)

Abstract: After sketching the background that prompted a series of ecumenical dialogues between Lutherans Mennonites, this essay traces the progression of steps that unfolded as the dialogues progressed, culminating in a service of formal reconciliation in 2010. The essay then outlines a series of essential marks of dialogue from a Free Church perspective, concludes with a vision of how Christian unity might take on a more visible form in the future. Theological dialogue between Lutherans Mennonites first took place in the early sixteenth century, before the lines between were definitively drawn. In the 1520s the 1530s the city of Strasbourg was an especially important location for conversations between the reformers the radical reformers. Some of the participants in those conversations maintained warm respectful relationships with one another even though they were engaged in high-stakes theological disputes. This was the case, for example, of Martin Bucer and, especially, Wolfgang Capito, as they intensely debated issues of (infant) baptism political responsibility with the Anabaptist leader Michael Sattler. (1) In the end, however, the challenges to dialogue in that historical context were too great to overcome. The result was not ecclesial communion between free churches state churches, but rather separation, condemnation, sometimes death. Still, even then, a sense of belonging to the same body of sometimes persisted. In December 1526, several months after Sattler participated in a series of exchanges with Capito Bucer in Strasbourg, the Austrian authorities tried, convicted, brutally executed him for heresy. When Capito Bucer received the shocking news, they acclaimed Sattler as a martyr of Christ even though they believed he was seriously mistaken on fundamental doctrinal issues. Saint Cyprian, likewise also Tertullian many others have always been held by everyone to have been holy martyrs, they explained, and have nevertheless held to serious errors. (2) While dialogue between Bucer, Capito, Sattler did not produce a communion of churches, it did seem to have nourished the communion of saints. LUTHERAN/MENNONITE DIALOGUE From Condemnation to Dialogue The path to Lutheran Mennonite dialogue did not reopen significantly until 1980. That year Lutherans in both Germany France invited Mennonite representatives to participate in ecumenical festivities in their countries marking the 450th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession (Confessio Augustana). German Mennonite representatives, however, aware of the condemnations pronounced in that confession against Anabaptists, hesitated before accepting the invitation? How, they wondered, could they celebrate their own condemnation. German Lutheran leaders, most of whom had little awareness of the condemnations of Anabaptists their painful consequences over centuries for Mennonites, were deeply moved. Almost immediately, this moment of Mennonite pathos Lutheran empathy received international attention. At its meeting in Augsburg on July 11, 1980, the Lutheran World Federation (L.W.F.) Executive Committee adopted a Statement on the Confessio Augustana: It is with sorrow that we recognize the fact that the specific condemnations of the Confession against certain opinions that were held at the time of the Reformation have caused pain suffering for some. We realize that some of these opinions are no longer held in the same way in these churches, we express our hope that the remaining differences may be overcome. We worship Jesus who liberates call on our member churches to celebrate our common Lutheran heritage with a spirit both of gratitude penitence. (3) Four years later, in July 1984, the Lutheran World Federation, meeting as a global assembly in Budapest, sent an official greeting to the Mennonite World Conference (M. …