Leaders of the Lutheran World Federation have approved a statement apologising for the 16th-century persecution by Lutherans of Anabaptists, religious reformers whose successors are found in groups such as the Mennonites.

"We ask for forgiveness – from God and from our Mennonite sisters and brothers – for the harm that our forebears in the sixteenth century committed to Anabaptists," says the statement adopted unanimously on 26 October by the LWF's main governing body, its council.

The apology is now recommended for formal adoption by the highest LWF governing body, its assembly, meeting in Stuttgart, Germany, in July 2010.

(Ecumenical News International-ENI)