Lenten thoughts on peace among Christians

As we begin today the season of Lent we are reminded of the wide variety of Christian practice here in the United States.  We are not separated from each other by region, race, education, or any other social factor that has throughout history driven wedges between the various churches of the Church.  It wasn't always this way, America has a past where the type of church you attended meant a great deal more than the type of man/woman you were.  As we have our racial past sins, we've been on the long road of moving beyond our past.
Nearly every day I work with a Christian volunteer, lay leader, or pastor from a non-Baptist church.  My work with Mustard Seed Missions crosses boundaries all the time without even consciously thinking about them.  We will soon join together in a community wide cross walk followed by an ecumenical tenebre worship service.  We are still many, but we function more and more as one.  In this we certainly please God whose son is the groom of the whole Church, no local version has a monopoly on the claim to being the Bride of Christ, nor does any continent spanning denomination. 
That being said, most of us don't know about two experiments that took place in Eastern Europe prior to the Thirty Years War that offered hope of toleration and civil peace among Catholics, Lutherans, Reformed, and Orthodox Christians.  That these experiments didn't survive into the modern world do not detract from the vision, honor, and courage of those who embarked upon a journey of hope in peace.
The first example comes from the nobility of Transylvania, a small principality that was wedged between hostile Ottoman Turks and the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor.  Transylvania was home to a wide variety of Christian churches,  as such these nobles were forced to find common ground with each other for their very survival.  The result was and agreement in 1568 in the town of Torda that stated,
"ministers should everywhere preach and proclaim {the Gospel} according to their understanding of it, and if their community is willing to accept this, good; if not, however, no one should be compelled by force if their spirit is not at peace...no one is permitted to threaten to imprison or banish anyone because of their teaching, because faith is a gift from God." (from Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid McCulloch, page 640)
Likewise, the kingdom to the north, Poland-Lithuania was faced with choosing a new king after the death of Sigismund Augustus in 1572; they were also faced with Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, and Orthodox churches within their territory.  When the nobility decided to ask Henri, Duke of Anjou to be their next king they required him to first sign a agreement that had been drawn up in Warsaw which stated,
"Since there is in our Commonwealth no little disagreement on the subject of religion, in order to prevent any such hurtful strife from beginning among our people on this account...we mutually promise for ourselves and our successors forever...that we who differ with regard to religion will keep the peace with one another, and will not for a different faith or a change of churches shed blood nor punish one another by confiscation of property, infamy, imprisonment or banishment, and will not in any way assist any magistrate or officer in such an act." (McCulloch, page 643)

As we begin the path of Lent, the road that leads to the Cross and the Empty Grave, let us remember those who tried (often in vain) to bring peace among Christians, to foster a sense of brotherhood among those who claim Jesus as their Lord.  We should be rightly proud of our current level of brotherly love here in America, but we should rightly remember that we didn't walk this whole path on our own, there were visionaries in Transylvania and Poland-Lithuania hoping for peace five hundred years ago.