Mennonite-Lutheran Dialogue: “Right Remembering”

Several years ago, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America proposed to the Mennonite Church USA a series of meetings of representatives for a “healing of memories.”

Five Meetings

Four Mennonite representatives met with four Lutherans.  Five meetings were held in Mennonite and Lutheran locations between February 2002 and March 2004. 

Agendas

The agendas included such subjects as:

1. Reflections on the Protestant Reformation
2. Experience of each church in the North American context
3. Role and authority of confessional writings
4. Each church's hermeneutic for interpreting Scripture
5. The role and authority of church structures
6. The relationship between church and state
7. Baptism
8. The Lord's Supper
9. Nonresistance and nonviolence
10. Anthropology and free will
11. Related topics

Reports

Three of the papers from the first meeting were published in the July 2002 issue of the Mennonite Quarterly Review.

In March 2004 the committee issued its final report, “Right Remembering in Anabaptist-Lutheran Relations” (PDF 150K).

“Our Hope”

The participants have said, “It is our hope that our deepening fellowship will strengthen both faith communities for mission in the world.”