Thanks for John D. Roth’s “2025: Less Triumph, More Confession” (March 24). His report on Mennonite, Catholic, Reformed and Lutheran conversations over the last 20 years is much appreciated. Mennonite mission and Mennonite Central Committee personnel have cooperated ecumenically for decades. Congregations across the U.S. and Canada sometimes work with other denominations across the Protestant spectrum. (There are 15 uses of the Greek word “ecumenical” in the New Testament, meaning “the whole inhabited world.”)

In 1948, the churches of Europe, traumatized by World War II, asked the historic peace churches — Mennonites, Quakers and the Church of the Brethren — to prepare a study on the biblical basis of pacifism. By 1953, they presented a joint study to the World Council of Churches titled “Peace Is the Will of God.” That was followed by 10 years of consultations in Europe, cosponsored by the MCC Peace Section. A half dozen North American Mennonite leaders had a major role in those conferences.  

Decades ago, Mennonites were leaders in New Call to Peacemaking in the United States, joining with Friends and Brethren groups.  

Mennonite theological education draws heavily on Protestant and Catholic writings and includes a strong historical stream of social ethics. Mennonites could do much more with others on the basis of what is shared, as Roth suggests. 

Urbane Peachey, Lititz, Pa.