Steps to Reconciliation

Both Reformed and Mennonite churches trace their beginnings back to Zurich, where Huldrych Zwingli and his friends Konrad Grebel and Felix Manz together discovered the liberating power of the Gospel that would renew both church and society. However, they quickly developed conflicting ideas about how to carry out this renewal. Their paths separated into dispute. Zurich became the “city of Zwingli” and banished the names of Felix Manz and Konrad Grebel from its memory. Still, the Anabaptist movement survived and never forgot its founding fathers. On June 26, 2004, Felix Manz returned to Zurich: a commemorative plaque on the banks of the Limmat reminds us of his execution during the time of the Reformation. This is a reference to an inheritance which Reformed and Anabaptist Christians have in common – and is likewise an encouragement to brotherly dialogue. “The story we have told for centuries of the birth of the Anabaptist Movement, and the persecution and execution of the radical reformers in Zurich now has a new ending. The new stone tablet along the Limmat River in Zurich bears witness to the acknowledgement and confession of the Reformed church, and gives the story a new twist.”. Mennonite Historical Bulletin, October 2004