"The future of the Mennonite Church is not in Prussia but in Russia."

The 1788-89 start for Mennonites in New Russia was disastrous, and after four years colonists begged for ministerial leaders from Prussia to come and establish order (note 1).

On Good Friday, April 18, 1794, a Flemish church elder and a minister--Cornelius Regier of Heubuden and Cornelius Warkentin of Rosenort-- arrived in Chortitza to assist. After only three weeks of moderating, reconciling, teaching, ordaining and baptizing, Regier contracted an illness and died; Warkentin finished their work and returned to Prussia on July 10.

Warkentin’s Prussian ministerial colleagues were skeptical. Would order last in that rag-tag group? But Warkentin returned with the conviction “that the future of the Mennonite Church was not in Prussia but in Russia” (note 2). Why?

During his visit to Chortitza, Warkentin met Russian State Counsellor Samuel Contenius—the son of a German Westphalian Protestant pastor—responsible for the oversight and care of foreign colonists. Warkentin was convinced of the counsellor’s deep commitment to the Mennonite settlement (note 3).

And importantly, Warkentin was struck by the empire’s ecumenical peace, respect and protection—quite foreign to Prussia!—for minority religious groups like the Mennonites. On his return, Warkentin had inter-church encounters in New Russia that helped to strengthen that conviction (note 4).

First, around Vyshenka he stopped and met with German Lutheran, Catholic, and Hutterite leaders. The Lutheran pastor offered coffee, long conversation and a polite farewell. The Catholic priest extended similar hospitality to him, and “as we parted we were both convinced that we would meet again in that place of eternal bliss.” While in the middle of their harvest, the Hutterites too gave Warkentin a “warm welcome,” invited him to preach twice and were “deeply moved” by his reflections on conversion, new birth and Christian service. This was complemented by a friendly invitation for a tour of the Tsarina’s summer palace and conversation with the Orthodox countess in Vyshenka. 

Then another German group immigrating to Russia but held up in Riga “made me preach to them in a large room in their hotel where people from various religious backgrounds attended. They all expressed their satisfaction to me, and a rich merchant invited me to have dinner with his family in his garden.” Additional lengthy conversations “on many topics” over coffee and meals were held with the mayor and the governor of Riga and the latter’s guests “of very high rank.” Finally, two evangelical pastors saw Warkentin off at the harbour in Riga. This was not Prussia: the unique climate of hospitable ecumenism and official support solidified Warkentin’s vision for a thriving Mennonite future in the Russian empire.

For the next twenty-five years, Warkentin actively negotiated “with a great deal of circumspection” (note 5) with Contenius and other Russian officials to promote emigration, especially as land restrictions tightened for Mennonites in Prussia under Friedrich Wilhelm III in 1801.

On August 22, 1802, Contenius wrote Warkentin regarding the request for some two hundred families of Mennonite faith to settle in the region. He indicated that Governor Count von Miklashevsky was prepared to welcome not only two hundred, but several thousand Mennonite families, and that he would set aside the best available land for them. Moreover, they would receive the same privileges and better crown loans than those Mennonites who had immigrated earlier, and be given even more generous terms than any other settler group.

“[I]f necessary, a half million Morgen [125,000 hectares] of land will be divided and held in readiness for them,” Contenius wrote encouragingly. “In order to take advantage of the generous terms offered by the state we must move as quickly as possible.” Contenius added that Warkentin should understand that the contents of the letter “must be guarded with caution and not broadcast too widely. I do not wish to promote misunderstandings or anger elsewhere by appearing to entice strangers into leaving their fatherland” (note 6).

In the next year, as thousands prepared for emigration with detailed recommendations for would-be settlers sent by Contenius, Warkentin’s highly secret Russian correspondence was in fact confiscated and, in turn, he was silenced. Warkentin responded to Russian officials that “the Prussian government continues threatening those who want to leave. It has promised to confiscate half of all property and possessions of every emigrant” (note 7).

Historically Russia’s religious policies and accommodations for non-Orthodox minority groups had proven to be more successful in minimizing religious violence than in the west—which Warkentin understood.

Because of his ongoing efforts and accomplishments, Alexander I recognized Warkentin in 1804 with a solid gold medal with the inscription: “To Warkentin, the Elder of the Mennonites” (note 8 ).

Moreover, a half century later Mennonites confessed that “Contenius, was the man whom God gave us at this time, so that we would be led towards our destiny in the new Fatherland. Imbued with a Christian love of humanity, he dealt with matters of the community with rare faithfulness and great circumspection. No branch of business that could become important went unnoticed by him” (note 9).

            ---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

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Photo (close up of coin) https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/numbered-photos/pholist2.php?num=2004-0215.

Note 1: Cf. related post.

Note 2: Cf. Johannes van der Smissen, The History of the Church in Chortitza. Towards an Understanding of the History of the Church in the Mennonite Colonies in South Russia (1856), translated and edited by William Schroeder (Winnipeg, MB: Schroeder, 1992), 28. Also published in Preservings no. 15 (1999): 3–10, https://www.plettfoundation.org/files/preservings/Preservings15.pdf.

Note 3: David G. Rempel, “The Mennonite Migration to New Russia (1787–1870): II. The Emigration to Russia,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 9, no. 3 (July 1935), 120. On Contenius, see E. Schmid-München, Die deutschen Bauern in Südrußland (Berlin: Deutsche Landbuchhandlung, 1917), 15, https://chortitza.org/0v937.pdf.

Note 4: Cf. van der Smissen, History of the Church in Chortitza, 23–28; Peter M. Friesen, The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia, 1789–1910 (Winnipeg, MB: Christian, 1978), 163-165, https://archive.org/details/TheMennoniteBrotherhoodInRussia17891910/.

Note 5: Rempel, “Mennonite Migration to New Russia (II),” 120.

Note 6: Samuel Contenuis to Cornelius Warkentin, Rosenort, West Prussia, August 22, 1802, Letter, California Mennonite Historical Society Bulletin 35 (January 1998), 7–10. https://fpuscholarworks.fresno.edu/bitstream/handle/11418/335/cmhs035-7.pdf. On problems finding land suitable to meet the state mandate (model farming) for new settlers, cf. David G. Rempel, “The Mennonite Migration to New Russia (1787–1870): I. The Colonization Policy of Catherine II and Alexander I,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 9, no. 2 (April 1935), 88f.

Note 7: C. Warkentin, correspondence cited in Andrey Ivanov, “Emigration to New Russia: Complications and Challenges,” California Mennonite Historical Society Bulletin 37 (December 1999), 7f., https://fpuscholarworks.fresno.edu/handle/11418/350.

Note 8: Van der Smissen, History of the Church in Chortitza, 28.

Note 9: Johann Peters, “Eine einfache Erzählung der Auswanderung der Chortitzer Mennoniten,” 1857 (from Chortitza: Mennonitische Geschichte und Ahnenforschung, https://chortitza.org/pdf/0v751.php).

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To cite this page: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, "The Future of the Mennonite Church is not in Prussia but in Russia," History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), September 16, 2022, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-future-of-mennonite-church-is-not.html.