Healing Memories: Reconciling in Christ: Report of the Lutheran-Mennonite International Study Commission
Lutheran-Mennonite International Study Commission
Lutheran World Federation and Mennonite World Conference, 2010
ISBN: 978-2-9404-5900-1

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This report - born of a 5-year ecumenical dialogue that led to formal reconciliation between denominations in 2010 - will be good for Mennonites and Lutherans, and the church at large, around the world.

Even before its publication, its recommendations have been greeted with approval and heart-felt enthusiasm on both sides. At the Mennonite World Conference Assembly in Paraguay in July 2009, Ishmael Noko (General Secretary of the Lutheran world Federation) received an emotional standing ovation as he described Lutheran sorrow and regret at their history and their intention to seek forgiveness.

In turn, Larry Miller (General Secretary of MWC) also received warm thanks and a standing ovation in October 2009, as the Lutheran World Federation Council voted unanimously to recommend that the 2010 Assembly ask forgiveness "of God and of our Mennonite brothers and sisters" for the wrongs of the persecution and its legacies "up until the present day."

The report is commended to our careful reading, reflection, discussion, and prayer. Our hope is that Anabaptist-Mennonites and Lutherans will now seek one another out in new ways, and see in one another our sisters and brothers.