Is that accurate? If so, what are the differences, and how clean-cut is the distinction? Or are we all more shaped by influences over the centuries in between and more modern Mennonite cultures? In my own background, we often heard the stories of the Swiss Brethren and sometimes looked at their writings but often looked at the writings of Menno Simons. The writings of the Hutterites were not often used. We did look at the Martyr's Mirror from time to time. Our confession of faith was the Mennonite Confession of Faith. What writings and stories have your fellowships focused on?Neto wrote:If I need to distinguish between the two, I just try to always refer to the Swiss anabaptists as "Swiss Brethren", and to the others as "Dutch Mennonites". But I think that the differences between the two groups are greater now than they were then, so, as you say, hindsight.
I thought some people were claiming that some of the groups most directly descended from the Swiss Brethren are the same groups that adopted the Dordrecht Confession, which was written by Dutch Mennonites. To me, this is an indication that these lines blur. Am I missing something?
Bootstrap wrote:According to GAMEO, Dordrecht was written by Dutch Mennonites, and was not accepted by the Swiss Mennonites. (This article agrees with what Hats Off shared, and expands on it a little.)
However, the descendants of the Swiss Mennonites in Pennsylvania did accept it, probably through the influence of Dutch Mennonites.
So if you want to be purist about Swiss Mennonite versus Dutch, the Dordrecht is probably not the confession you want to use. That would be Schleitheim.
Written in the first draft by Adriaan Cornelisz, elder of the Flemish Mennonite congregation in the Dutch city of Dordrecht, this confession of faith, containing 18 articles, was adopted April 21, 1632, and signed by 51 Flemish and Frisian Mennonite preachers as a basis of union. The official (Dutch) title reads: Voorstellinghe van de principale articulen onses algemeynen Christelijcken Geloofs, ghelijck de selve in onse Gemeynte doorgaens geleert ende beleeft worden. On Feb. 4, 1660, six preachers and seven deacons from Alsace, in a meeting held at Ohnenheim in Rappoltstein, adopted the Dordrecht Confession "as our own." Later it was adopted by the Mennonites in the Palatinate and North Germany; the Swiss Mennonites never accepted it, perhaps because it teaches shunning (Article 17) which only the Swiss Amish practiced, not the Swiss Mennonites. Probably through the influence of the Dutch Mennonites of Germantown, Pa., the Mennonites of southeastern Pennsylvania, of the Franconia and Lancaster Conferences (MC) adopted the Dordrecht Confession in 1725. The more conservative Mennonite bodies in North America, including the Mennonite Church (MC) prior to 1963, recognize it as their official articles of faith, but its personal acceptance is not required either for baptism or ordination. Historically this symbol has been much used as an instrument of catechetical instruction in preparation for baptism.