 Drawing on European conferences dating back to 1527, Mennonite bishops who had immigrated to present-day Bucks, Montgomery, Chester and Berks Counties endorsed in 1725 a “brotherly agreement” originally drawn up in the Dutch Republic in 1632 and affirmed by Swiss leaders in 1660.By 1735 the American bishops were conferring repeatedly over new issues in their American environment.Their central concern was how to preserve and keep vital the fundamental issues of non-violent witness to their Christian faith.