Only a couple of blocks away, in the home of Felix Manz and his mother, some of Zwingli’s younger disciples, dissatisfied with the pace of reform and with Zwingli’s deference to the Zurich City Council, met on 21 January 1525. There they conducted the first adult “believers baptisms,” which came to define Anabaptism. Only a few more blocks away, condemned to execution by drowning in the Limmat River that flows through the city, Manz became the movement’s first martyr scarcely two years later. Now, both inside and outside of the cathedral, vibrant choirs from across the globe gave sound and colour to the joyful reality of a multicultural church in which Europeans and North Americans are now in a minority.

For Anabaptist-Mennonites to meet at all in Zurich’s Grossmünster was itself a miracle, but only the first. For the MWC commemoration on the afternoon of 29 May drew upon still other invitations. Along with MWC leaders, representatives of the Lutheran World Federation, the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), and the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity reported on the fruit of ecumenical dialogues over the last quarter century. Cardinal Kurt Koch, head of the dicastery, read a letter from Pope Leo XVI affirming and elaborating on the event’s theme, “The Courage to Love.”

And there, at the front of the Grossmünster, one more miracle climaxed the miracle of the historical day. Mennonite and Reformed theologians had prepared a shared statement for the day’s event, “Restoring Our Family to Wholeness: Seeking a Common Witness.” Leaders of the two communions read portions of the document committing together “to the sacred mission of proclaiming the Gospel of love in all our contexts, … to heal the wounds of the past and to re-member the body of Christ [, and to] purposeful cooperation that affirms God’s mercy and opens doors to the justice that leads to peace.” As they read these words, Setri Nyomi, interim general secretary of the WCRC and César Garcia, general secretary of MWC, embodied its commitment by washing one another’s feet.

Attending the commemoration in Zurich along with my wife Joetta on behalf of Bridgefolk, I wanted to proclaim, “It’s a miracle!” in Kauffman’s place. However modest Bridgefolk’s contribution to warming relationships between Mennonites and Catholics – and thus other Christians as well – has been, only God and perhaps a future historian may judge. What I know is that a generation ago, and certainly two generations ago, no one would have expected any of this to happen. But it happened anyway.

For if the 500-year anniversary had fallen 50 or even 25 years ago, the global celebration would have been less likely to have taken place in the Grossmünster. But more than that, Mennonites – like most denominations at the time – would have undoubtedly taken a more triumphalistic tone, sure of their rightness, confident of their faithfulness.

Instead, MWC leaders have taken pains to call the 29 May event in Zurich (and related events around the world throughout 2025) a “commemoration” more than a “celebration.” For while Mennonites have much to rightly celebrate, ecumenical conversation as well as their own self-examination has prompted humility and indeed repentance for past mutual recrimination and misrepresentation across church divides.

Perhaps younger Christians and church leaders would be less likely to discern an outright miracle in Zurich than Ivan Kauffman would have been, or I was. But that’s okay. For if more Christians are coming to expect warming, receptive relationships across historic church divides – or even take them for granted – that is the miracle that matters most.