 Evangelisch-reformierte
Landeskirche des Kantons Zürich
Blaufahnenstrasse 10, 8001 Zürich
Schweiz – Suisse – Switzerland
Zurich, 20 January 2004
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
The Reformation and the
Anabaptists – steps to reconciliation
A conference in Zurich, Switzerland,
June 26, 2004
Official Invitation to descendants of the Anabaptists:Delegates from Mennonite,
Amish and Hutterite congregations
Dear brothers and sisters
On June 26 this year the Evangelical-Reformed
Church of the Canton of Zurich will hold a conference
on the origins of the Reformation in Switzerland.
We will commemorate the successor of Zwingli,
Heinrich Bullinger, born 500 years ago, and one
of the fathers of the Reformed Church. But we
will also commemorate one of the fathers of the
Anabaptist movement, Felix Manz, and set a memorial
at the Limmat-river where he and some of his
friends were drowned.
The Reformation started as a
movement of renewal but immediately turned out
to become a story of separations. It’s
time to set a memorial in the city of Zurich
where the roots of both the Reformed and the
Anabaptists are to be found. We plan to celebrate
this sign of reconciliation with a conference,
a common worship service and the memorial followed
by the first performance of a film about Anabaptists
in Switzerland and in the USA.
It will be a great honour and
a joy to have direct descendants of the Anabaptists
with us. You will be our guests for that weekend.
We hope this event to become a new beginning
of ecumenical relations among our churches and
congregations.
In Christ
Rev. Peter Dettwiler
Ecumenical officer of the Evangelical-Reformed Church
phone: ++41 1 258 92 38, E-Mail: peter.dettwiler@zh.ref.ch |