I wish I could have been present for the deliberations and signing of the Dordrecht Confession in Dordrecht, Holland, 1632. It was at a peace convention held on April 21, 1632 that the document was entitled A Declaration of the Chief Articles of our General Christian Faith. Fifty-one ministers of the Word of God signed it. Why do I wish I had been at this meeting? According to Irvin S. Horst, when it first appeared in print it bore the title, "Confession and Peace-Agreement at Dordrecht."

I wish I had been there:
· To hear the range of discussion and to observe in what ways this was a document of compromise, or peace, among the Mennonites of the Lowlands and northern Germany. Perhaps we could have learned some secrets in the formulation of a peace agreement in the 21st century.
· To detect the surfacing of any regional differences, and particularly any reference to the highlanders (Swiss brethren) and questioning whether they would or would not agree with the document.
· To observe the order of procedure, almost a quarter of a millennium before Robert's Rules of Order was published in 1876.
· To detect any reference or comment in its formulation or conclusion, direct or indirect, about the anticipated longevity of the usefulness of the document.
· To aid in determination of why the woman's veiling and the place of women in the church did not find itself in the confession. Were any women observers present?
· To learn if there were attempts made to introduce any additional subjects or articles, and what they might have been.
· To observe what forms of address were used by the leaders among themselves during the discussion. How did they select the foreman or leader?
· To learn if they consciously or unconsciously clustered the eighteen articles to the three fundamental propositions: (1) the church is made up of regenerated people; (2) the Christian can take no part in temporal government; and (3) the Christian must withdraw himself from the rest of the world.