Think further ecumenically! Churches of the Anabaptist tradition in the dialog Okumene weiter denken! Kirchen der tauferischen tradition im dialog

In the light of the growing impatience - not only among the church public - regarding the stagnation of ecumenism, the present contribution starts from the general question of the efficiency of ecumenical dialogues. For this purpose especially the dialogues with churches of the Anabaptist tradition (Mennonites and Baptists) are presented and analysed. The intention is to highlight - almost exemplarily - the complexity and the necessity of the aecumenical busincss. The progress already achieved becomes recognizable in the dialogues with Catholics, Lutherans and Reformed. Without a carefully induced healing of memories, without the recognition of the richness of theological reflections, without respect for the other's living tradition and without the fundamental possibility of revision of one's own dogma, there is no opportunity of an aunity in reconciled diversity. In Germany especially, the perception is limited too often to the atwo major churchesc. The contribution seeks to overcome this artificial limitation in order to think ecumenism in a broader context.