Helmut Harder, 92, a theologian and denominational leader who co-led the writing of a statement of beliefs used by many North American Mennonites, died May 7 in Winnipeg, Man.

A longtime professor at Canadian Mennonite Bible College, Harder co-chaired the committee that wrote the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective for the Mennonite Church and General Conference Mennonite Church.

MC and GC delegates approved the Confession at a joint assembly in Wichita, Kan., in 1995. When the denominations merged in 2002, the document became the Confession of Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada.

Born Feb. 22, 1934, in Manitoba, Harder studied at Goshen College, Mennonite Biblical Seminary and Toronto School of Theology. In 1962 he joined the faculty of CMBC, now Canadian Mennonite University. He 1990 he became general secretary of the Conference of Mennonites in Canada, a role he held until retiring in 1999. He was instrumental in creating the denominational structure that became MC Canada and MC USA.

While co-chairing a five-year Mennonite-Catholic Dialogue on behalf of Mennonite World Conference, Harder developed a profound commitment to ecumenism.

Speaking at the funeral, CMU President Cheryl Pauls, Harder’s daughter-in-law, said he believed “education and theological scholarship are inextricably interrelated to the church,” nurturing in believers an “expansive imagination shaped by trust that God is life in all its wonder and comprehensibility.”