Mennonite Weekly Review

The Lutheran World Federation’s adoption of the statement “On the Legacy of Lutheran Persecution of ‘Anabaptists’ ” is the ritual culmination of an ecumenical dialogue that has been going on for more than a decade.

We should all applaud the Lutheran apology and the Mennonite grant of forgiveness. It is a significant step forward.

And yet there remain unresolved issues. The Augsburg Confession of Faith (1550) includes a number of harsh condemnations of the Anabaptists. Every Lutheran candidate for ordination today must sign a statement that he or she is in full agreement with the Augsburg Confession.

I first read the Augsburg condemnations of the Anabaptists when I participated in the North American phase of the Lutheran-Mennonite dialogue. I was shocked. The goal of our dialogue, I innocently assumed, was to help pave the way for Lutherans to remove these condemnations from the Augsburg Confession. After all, in 1995 we Mennonites adopted an updated confession.

Our Lutheran discussion partners said that any alteration of the Augsburg Confession would threaten the unity of their church. Moreover, it would invalidate the ordination of all of their pastors, who had signed their agreement to the unaltered original Augsburg Confession.

I came to see that Lutherans are trapped with a confession that they do not literally believe in its entirety. Perhaps it is akin to Mennonite problems with certain passages about war in the Old Testament.

The Lutherans have promised to interpret the Augsburg Confession in the light of joint historical study with Anabaptists. Their teaching in seminaries will reflect the new interpretations.

This is a welcome development. But reinterpretation of texts is a tricky process. The Augsburg condemnations apparently will be interpreted to mean something different from what they actually say. Or they will be held not applicable in the 21st century.

One phase of the Lutheran-Mennonite dialogue has been concluded. But the work must go on. Mennonites will want to know how the Lutheran process of reinterpreting and teaching the Augsburg Confession is implemented in the coming years. And perhaps Lutherans will want to teach Mennonites what it means to be a confessional church.