Communion and the "white Handkerchief"

When my friends and I were baptized in the late 1970s in a bilingual, immigrant Canadian Mennonite General Conference church, most of our mothers presented us with a white handkerchief for our first experience (and observance) of communion.

Where did this tradition come from? A veneration of the bread? I chose not to use one.

In his 1723 book on the Vistula Delta, its peoples and customs, Abraham Hartwich--a generally unsympathetic observer of the Mennonites--quotes a 1701 letter he received from an official in Tiegenhoff. He describes the unique Frisian Mennonite practice (bey den groben Mannisten) of placing the communion bread in their clean handkerchief (in ihr reines Schnupfftuch) and eating with caution and respect (note 1; pic). 280 years later, this was still the practice in my home congregation.

In the period just prior immigration to Russia, the Danzig Mennonite (Flemish) church practiced communion twice a year—shortly after baptism in the spring, and then again on a Sunday in the Fall. Mannhardt’s history of the congregation does not mention a handkerchief, but notes that the bread is broken and eaten in unison (note 2). Similarly Heinrich Donner, elder in the Orlofferfelde (Frisian) Mennonite church does not make special mention of a handkerchief in his 1788 booklet on communion (note 3). White bread and a white table cloth for the communion table are usually noted.

A 1743 etching of a Mennonite communion service in Amsterdam shows women holding a hand fan in front of their mouths while eating the bread, and the men taking their hats from the hooks on the way to cover their mouths (note 3b). This suggests that it is not the bread as such that is venerated, but that the act of eating the bread is a holy and intimate act of communion.

The 1911 (Kirchliche) Ministers Manual (Russia) gives both models; Gnadenfeld has no handkerchief tradition (Frisian) but does practice footwashing before the Lord's Supper. The other older Flemish model expects that all come to the front--men first, then women--with an open handkerchief (note 4; pic). One Dutch scholar in 1915 however said it was the Frisians in Russia who practiced it (note 5).

How widespread was the "handkerchief" model? The GAMEO article by Cornelius Krahn helps only a little, and then makes a guess as to the "Catholic" origins of the practice:

"The practice of putting the bread into a cloth or handkerchief until it is eaten in unison must be old, going back to the Catholic days when the actual presence of Christ in the bread and wine was a basic belief. According to Vos (De avondmaalsbediening . . .) this practice was observed among the early Dutch Mennonites but disappeared completely. Among some of the Mennonites of Prussian, Polish, and Russian background in America, it was still practiced in the 1950s (Beatrice, Gnadenberg, Rosenort, and other congregations)." (Note 6)

This is speculation. The earlier materials certainly emphasize that the bread is “blessed” and should be “enjoyed” accordingly, but also that the supper is a memorial. Prussian /Russian Mennonites have not been shy to use the word “sacrament” either (note 7). But is this practice with the hanky a lingering element of "Roman Catholicism"? Likely that would not be a problem—unless it is seen as something “magical” or superstitious (there are examples of that). But I have seen no evidence that any Prussian/Russian Mennonite thought this.

A writing by Danzig Flemish Elder Georg Hansen in 1671 speaks of communion in the context of the purity of the congregation, citing a lot of scripture: “Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates … perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” (2 Cor. 7:1; note 8). This too is connected to reconciliation with the neighbour before taking communion and with a congregation that takes the ban seriously.

While I have never heard a Mennonite preacher or theologian speak to this practice with anything more than curious speculation, ignorance or dismissiveness, I am beginning to think Hansen’s connections to a reconciled community are the origins of the symbol – something uniquely Mennonite, like a hanky without "spot or wrinkle." That might just predate the “quilt” as Mennonite symbol; it tells us much of the communal life and vision of Russian and Prussian Mennonites—for better or worse.

---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: Abraham Hartwich, Geographisch-Historische Landes-Beschribung derer dreyen im Pohlnischen Preußen liegenden Werdern (Königsberg, 1723), 291, https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb10000874?page=306,307.

Note 2: Hermann G. Mannhardt, Die Danziger Mennonitengemeinde. Ihre Entstehung und ihre Geschichte von 1569–1919 (Danzig, 1919), https://archive.org/details/diedanzigermenno00mannuoft.

Note 3: Heinrich Donner, Abendmahls-Andachten: Gebete, und Liedern, vor, und nach dem heiligen Abendmahl, zum Gebrauch der Taufgesinnten Gemeine in Preußen (Marienwerder: Kanter, ca. 1788), https://mla.bethelks.edu/books/donner/.

Note 3b: Illustration: "Sharing the bread during the Holy Supper in the Mennonite Church De Zon in Amsterdam - 1743" (Delen van het brood tijdens het Heilig Avondmaal in de Doopsgezinde Kerk De Zon te Amsterdam - 1743), https://www.europeana.eu/item/90402/RP_P_AO_24_9. Similarly see: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/dienst-in-de-kerk-bij-de-tooren-frans-de-bakker/VgGWbn9V64xZxg.

Note 4: Handbuch zum Gebrauch bei gottesdienstlichen Handlungen zunächst für die Aeltesten und Prediger der Mennoniten-Gemeinden in Rußland, edited by the Allgemeiner Konferenz der Mennoniten in Rußland (Berdjansk: Ediger, 1911), 82, https://mla.bethelks.edu/books/264.097%20Al34h/45.jpg ; see also the Gnadenfeld model, p. 49: https://mla.bethelks.edu/books/264.097%20Al34h/28.jpg. H. G. Mannhardt’s 1888 yearbook indicates which congregations practice footwashing and which do not (Jahrbuch der Altevangelischen Taufgesinnten oder Mennoniten-Gemeinden [Danzig, 1888]), https://books.google.ca/books?id=ok5FAQAAMAAJ&dq.

Note 5: Karel Vos, "De Avondmaalsbediening beij de Doopgezinden," Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis, NS 12 (1915/1916), 258-270; 260.

Note 6: Cornelius Krahn and John D. Rempel, “Communion,” GAMEO, http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Communion&oldid=162901; Krahn cites Vos (see above, "De Avondmaalsbediening," 265) who cites L. G. Le Poole, who thought it was once practice in Leiden, in Bijdragen tot de kennis van het kerkelijk leven: onder de Doopsgezinden (Leiden: Brill, 1905), 153, https://books.google.ca/books?id=BP0OAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA153#.

Note 7: E.g., see Jakob Mannhardt, ed., Gemeinde-Ordnung der vereinigten Mennoniten-Gemeinde zu Danzig vom Jahre 1841, revidiert im Jahre 1860 (Danzig, 1860), p. 6, no. 5, https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/books/1860,%20Gemeinde%20Ordnung%20der%20vereinigten%20Mennoniten%20Gemeinde%20zu%20Danzig/DSCF9909.JPG.

Note 8: Georg Hansen, Ein Glaubens-Bericht für die Jugend durch einen Liebhaber der Wahrheit gestellt und ans Licht gebracht im Jahre Christi 1671 (Elkhart, IN: Mennonite Publishing, 1892), 138.

---

To cite this post: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, "Communion and the 'white Handkerchief,'" History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), May 29, 2023, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/01/communion-and-white-handkerchief.html.

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