I am intrigued with two perspectives I’ve read recently on Mennonites and unity. The first was from Kate Bowler in her book Everything Happens for a Reason, in which she says Mennonites “might be the most quarrelsome group I have ever studied. I once read an entire year’s worth of debates over the continued use of a hymnal they already liked. But I love their goal — unanimity. They will live and die together.” The second was in “Journeying through Anabaptist-Mennonite realities” (on the AW website, ­anabaptistworld.org), in which Henok T. Mekonin tells how Anabaptist leaders in Ethiopia came together after praying over issues that could have torn them apart. I wonder: Is splitting in our DNA? Can we pray our way out of that?

Carol Duerksen, Hillsboro, Kan.