GENEVA (RNS/ENI) Lutheran World Federation leaders plan to apologize for their ancestors 16th-century persecution of Anabaptists, religious reformers whose successors include Mennonites and the Amish.
"We ask for forgiveness -- from God and from our Mennonite sisters and brothers -- for the harm that our forebears in the sixteenth century committed to Anabaptists," says a statement adopted unanimously on Monday (Oct. 26) by the LWF's council.
The apology is now recommended for formal adoption by the highest LWF governing body, its assembly, meeting in Stuttgart, Germany, in July 2010.
Anabaptists, whose originally pejorative name means "re-baptizers", stressed the need to baptize Christian believers, including those who had been baptized as infants. They were persecuted as heretics by both Protestants and Catholics, and many of them fled to America.
The Rev. Larry Miller, general secretary of the Mennonite World Conference, who attended the Geneva meeting, welcomed the vote by the LWF council. Miller said this request for forgiveness would require that Mennonites also change.
"Mennonites have learned from Lutherans that we are justified by faith alone, because we know that justification produces not only relations between oneself and God but also communion between the churches," said Miller.
LWF president, the Rev. Mark Hanson, who is also presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said the apology process had begun 25 years ago, "when we began to examine Luther's anti-Semitic writings".
"We are also heirs of a tradition that has borne pain in the lives of others because of how our ancestors have written, spoken and communicated," said Hanson.
A document presented to the LWF council about the apology described repentance as "the only fitting response to the persecutions of the 16th century and the continuing Lutheran characterizations of Anabaptists in the centuries which followed. "It noted how the Augsburg Confession of 1530, a central Lutheran statement of faith, explicitly condemned Anabaptists and their teachings.
By Stephen Brown
Copyright 2009 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
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Should we all investigate our personal forefathers so we can apologize for what they did? Or maybe we could just take it for granted they did something wrong somewhere, and just apologize to God or the Universe for the ones who lived before.
Good point, Henrietta.
"It's nice to apologize. But what will follow this act of repentance?"
In the case of Lutherans officially apologizing and asking forgiveness for past anti-Semitism on the part of Luther and Lutheran churches, there has since been a lot of good, constructive interfaith dialogue. In this country one of our ELCA-affiliated colleges (I think Gettysburg) is home to an institute for improving Jewish-Christian relations. I myself, in my lay ministry training, took a Torah class taught by a rabbi. Individual churches and synagogues work together on any number of projects -- in my area, for instance, the ELCA congregation partnered with the local Jewish community as well as with other Christian churches to fight local hate crimes and "Christian identity" groups seeking to establish a local foothold.
I live in an area with a large Amish population, although there isn't a community near my church. One of my fellow parishoners operates a home business (fixing sewing machines) with an almost exclusive Amish customer base. My partner and I buy our chicken and eggs, and a large percentage of our fruits and vegetables during the growing season, from Amish farmers. Our church has had dinner at an Amish home that provides hospitality to local groups seeking to learn more about the Amish. Because of the decentralized structure of Anabaptist churches as well as the obvious value of relational interaction, boots-on-the-ground rapprochement is, I think, the best way to form relationships.
A few months ago I was approached by a former coworker of mine, who's active in her Church of the Brethren (another church with Anabaptist roots), asking if I'd be available to supply-preach while her congregation is in between pastors. I haven't been able to do that yet, but I'd love to. More bridge building!
LutheranChick
Cross denominational preaching is indeed very cool. Good luck.
And in your area (assuming you are near the Lancaster Amish) is some of the very best sausage I have ever had. There is nothing particularly religious about that remark, but I thought I would mention it. I do wonder if their pursuit of purity may have something to do with this amazing product.
Henrietta,
Our denomination did some soul-searching and as a group we apologize to our Hawaiian partners for the abuses of our ancestors from the New England Congregationalists. I have forgotten what the penance was, but it I know some significant and real efforts were made to soothe the sting from generations past.
If you follow the Tom Jefferson story there is some confession and penance there for his relationship with his slave Sally Henning. Several other founders families have taken a similar route. In fact the whole state of Rhode Island is voting on changing their official name, eliminating the portion that says Providence PLANTATIONS - in recognition of the shame of slavery.
We can't ask for forgiveness for everything, but at least we can show we have matured a bit.
Yes, RI is going to have a chance to change the name of the state, and I hope it doesn't pass. If it is a state vote, I'll vote against it, because the word Plantation was used to describe the land used for farming etc,. not for slave holder's lands. The word isn't always a reference to slavery.
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