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  Historical Committee
Reformed-Mennonite
Dialogue in Zurich: Reflections on Its Significance for the Unity of
Christ’s Body
by John Rempel
If we remember that the first Mennonite meetinghouse in Switzerland was
not built until 1896, we can imagine how momentous it was for
Mennonites there when the Reformed church of the canton of Zurich
offered to apologize for persecuting Anabaptists in past centuries. So
precarious was Mennonite existence in Switzerland three and a half
centuries after the movement began that Mennonites worshipped in the
privacy of homes and fields lest their public presence endanger them.
As a result of contact made two years ago when German, Swiss, and North
American Mennonites requested a memorial marker for Felix Manz, the
Swiss Reformed church initiated conversations about the conference.
After an initial meeting with John Sharp in July 2003, the Reformed
church invited Swiss and North American Mennonites, Amish, and
Hutterites, and Swiss Mennonites to consider attending. The invitation
was then extended globally through Larry Miller of Mennonite World
Conference.
The details of this occasion have already been described in the press.
My task is to take a few elements of this rich encounter and reflect on
their significance for unity in the body of Christ.
The event took place in the Grossmünster, the mother church of
both Reformed and Anabaptist Christianity in Switzerland. It was here
that Zwingli preached the liberating message of the Bible. It was just
downriver in the council hall that the two great disputations of 1523
were held in which Grebel, Hubmaier, and others pressed their vision of
renewal upon Zurichers, who had become evangelical by an act of the
city council in January. These disciples of Zwingli found themselves
increasingly at odds with their mentor. It was from Zwingli’s pulpit
that Larry Miller, executive secretary of Mennonite World Conference,
preached a message of healing and challenge. It was from the baptismal
font that the president of the cantonal church declared with evident
emotion that the Reformed had contradicted their own understanding of
the gospel by using coercion in matters of faith.
In the early evening the assembly adjourned to the spot along the
Limmat River where it is thought that the first Anabaptist martyr at
the hands of the Protestant church, Felix Mantz—named after the patron
saint of Zurich, himself martyred in the 4th century—was drowned. There
a city councilor declared on behalf of the council its apology for
using state power to violate human rights. He spoke with poignant
conviction about the wrongness of the persecutions (or the misguided
persecutions?).
What should we make of this extraordinary gesture? I came away with
enormous gratitude, and with a lingering sense of unfinished ecumenical
business. On the one hand, I found it remarkable that an institution of
power had asked for forgiveness. I rejoiced in the clear evidence that
not only individuals, but also institutions are able to repent. That is
surely a sign of the gospel. Our Reformed hosts put an aspect of their
own history into question. And they did so in the year dedicated to the
accomplishments of Zwingli’s successor, Heinrich Bullinger. In the
midst of an elaborate exhibit lionizing Bullinger stood a display
documenting the ferocity of his persecution of the Anabaptists and
prominently featuring a photograph of a believers baptism in a Swiss
Mennonite congregation today. Bullinger had not prevailed on that front!
Thomas Gyger, president of the Swiss Mennonite Conference, and Larry
Miller did exactly the right thing when they responded to the Reformed
overtures with humility and grace. They both emphasized that an ancient
wound is now healed and a new era has begun. Mennonites in the North
Atlantic world are no longer a persecuted people: we can discard that
picture of ourselves once and for all. Now our calling is to live out
the reconciliation the Holy Spirit has worked in us. How can we carry
this reality into the scholarship and church life of Reformed and
Mennonite communities? How can this reality become a sign in the midst
of other conflicts that repentance is possible?
What about my lingering sense of unfinished business? While I was in
Zurich I made it a point to converse with as many Reformed ministers as
possible. They were all gracious, receptive, and inquisitive about our
ways. But they were also committed to the notion of a state church as
firmly as in the 16th century. A military chaplain with whom I served
on a panel made her opposition to armed ways of conflict resolution
clear. But she was also emphatic about the fact that when soldiers are
conscripted, the church has the duty to stand by them and contribute to
the well-being of military personnel. A minister committed to reaching
unchurched people confided his discouragement to me. Later in the
conversation I suggested that part of the problem in making the gospel
appealing might be the union of church and state. He was shocked. He
couldn’t imagine the church surviving without the financial and
administrative support of the state.
In the end, it felt as if the Reformed had searched their consciences
and the gospel and concluded that coercion in matters of faith is
wrong. They had the courage of their conviction. (That prompted some
appropriate self-criticism among Mennonites present.) But what we saw
was a self-searching about one aspect of the Christian life: regarding
the freedom of the church from the state, nothing seemed to have
changed. Our task now is to imitate the spirit of repentance and repent
of our own sins. And when we’ve become good at that there might come a
day when we can engage our Swiss friends in more dialogue about our
contrary understandings of the church.
John
D. Rempel became assistant professor of historical theology at
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in 2003. Before that he was the
minister of Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship and Mennonite Central
Committee liaison to the United Nations in New York City. He has been
active in ecumenical work over the years, including membership on the
MC Interchurch Relations Committee
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Mennonite Historical
Bulletin
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Mission
Statement:
"God calls us to preserve our faith heritage, to interpret our stories,
and to proclaim God's work among us."
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