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.

Comments

Swiss and Palatinate Connections

Sometime after 1850 Andreas Plennert and his family immigrated to South Russia from the Culm Region of West Prussia. Though there was at least one Mennonite “Plehnert” who had already immigrated to Russia in 1793, it is not a very common Prussian-Russian Mennonite name. As such, however, it is easier to trace than many and offers a minority narrative and identity within the longer and broader Russian Mennonite story. The account below is adapted largely from information in Horst Penner, Die ost- und westpreußischen Mennoniten , vol. 1, though I have expanded upon his work to offer a slightly different narrative. In 1724 there was a group of Mennonites forced out of the Memel region in East Prussia for political and religious reasons and were given assistance to resettle back to West Prussia in areas populated by Mennonites. Among the 23 households that went to the Stuhm region there is one Plenert listed, namely Christian Plenert. We know that Mennonites entered the Memel region ...

Fraktur (or Gothic) font and Kurrent- (or Sütterlin) handwriting: Nazi ban, 1941

In the middle of the war on January 1, 1942, the Winnipeg-based Mennonitische Rundschau published a new issue without the familiar Fraktur script masthead ( note 1 ). One might speculate on the reasons, but a year earlier Hitler banned the use of the font in the Reich . The Rundschau did not exactly follow all orders from Berlin—the rest of the paper was in Fraktur (sometimes referred to as "Gothic"); when the war ended in 1945, the Rundschau reintroduced the Fraktur font for its masthead. It wasn’t until the 1960s that an issue might have a page or title here or there with the “normal” or Latin font, even though post-war Germany was no longer using Fraktur . By 1973 only the Rundschau masthead is left in Fraktur , and that is only removed in December 1992. Attached is a copy of Nazi Party Secretary Martin Bormann's official letter dated January 3, 1941, which prohibited the use of Fraktur fonts "by order of the Führer. " Why? It was a Jewish invention, apparent...

Mennonites in Danzig's Suburbs: Maps and Illustrations

Mennonites first settled in the Danzig suburb of Schottland (lit: "Scotland"; “Stare-Szkoty”; also “Alt-Schottland”) in the mid-1500s. “Danzig” is the oldest and most important Mennonite congregation in Prussia. Menno Simons visited Schottland and Dirk Phillips was its first elder and lived here for a time. Two centuries later the number of families from the suburbs of Danzig that immigrated to Russia was not large: Stolzenberg 5, Schidlitz 3, Alt-Schottland 2, Ohra 1, Langfuhr 1, Emaus 1, Nobel 1, and Krampetz 2 ( map 1 ). However most Russian Mennonites had at least some connection to the Danzig church—whether Frisian or Flemish—if not in the 1700s, then in 1600s. Map 2 is from 1615; a larger number of Mennonites had been in Schottland at this point for more than four decades. Its buildings are not rural but look very Dutch urban/suburban in style. These were weavers, merchants and craftsmen, and since the 17th century they lived side-by-side with a larger number of Jews a...

Mennonite-Designed Mosque on the Molotschna

The “Peter J. Braun Archive" is a mammoth 78 reel microfilm collection of Russian Mennonite materials from 1803 to 1920 -- and largely still untapped by researchers ( note 1 ). In the files of Philipp Wiebe, son-in-law and heir to Johann Cornies, is a blueprint for a mosque ( pic ) as well as another file entitled “Akkerman Mosque Construction Accounts, 1850-1859” ( note 2 ). The Molotschna Mennonites were settlers on traditional Nogai lands; their Nogai neighbours were a nomadic, Muslim Tartar group. In 1825, Cornies wrote a significant anthropological report on the Nogai at the request of the Guardianship Committee, based largely on his engagements with these neighbours on Molotschna’s southern border ( note 3 ). Building upon these experiences and relationships, in 1835 Cornies founded the Nogai agricultural colony “Akkerman” outside the southern border of the Molotschna Colony. Akkerman was a projection of Cornies’ ideal Mennonite village outlined in exacting detail, with un...

Snapshots of Danzig Mennonites, late 1600s & early 1700s

A picture can be worth a thousand words. We do not have photographs, but we have a few colour paintings of life in and around Danzig in the late 1600s and early 1700s, as well as maps. We also have a limited number of "textual snapshots" of Mennonites at this time and place, which offer an instructive window into that foreign world. These snapshots of work, worship, health, education, community relationships, smaller repressions, and security can contribute to the creation of a larger collage of Mennonite life in Danzig and Polish Prussia. Snapshot 1 : In 1681 there were approximately 180 Mennonite families who lived in the “gardens” or villages outside Danzig, with 113 of those families within the jurisdiction of the city. At this time Mennonites were barred from owning houses within the walls of the city. Of these 113 family heads, we know: 43 were retailers of spirits, 24 merchants, 9 lacemakers, 7 dyers, 3 silk dyers, 3 pressers, 2 brokers, 2 treasurers, 2 waitresses, et...

Polish-Prussia? Royal Prussia? West Prussia? Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth? Notes for Clarification

The historical jurisdictions, names and political powers under which Mennonites lived since their arrival in lands that are today Poland are difficult to keep straight. However they are important for telling the story right. This post simply provides some notes for orientation with reference to the late sixteenth-century map below. Polish- or Royal Prussia comes into being with the defeat of Teutonic Knights by the Polish Crown in 1466. See the pink-shaded area of the map below. Ducal Prussia is a fiefdom of the Kingdom of Poland after 1525 (see stiped on map). In 1618, this duchy (voivodeship) is inherited by Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg, who separated it from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1657. After 1701, the Elector of Brandenburg is the “King of Prussia” when in that territory. With the First Partition of Poland in 1772, it becomes East Prussia . By 1569 Polish- or Royal Prussia was fully integrated into Kingdom of Poland and part of the larger Polish-Lithuanian...

Jews and Mennonites Together in Danzig's Suburbs

There has been very little reflection on the relationship of Jews and Mennonites in the suburb of Schottland (or Alt-Schottland or Stare Szkoty) where Mennonites first settled in the mid-1500s. Here Mennonites and Jews lived in the small community together for two centuries, quite literally on the margins outside the gates of the city of Danzig. Many historic maps that include Alt Schottland have become available in recent years ( note 1; pic ). H.G. Mannhardt’s book on the Danzig Mennonite church community plus some archival membership lists are our best sources for the Mennonite experience, while illustrations from the day bring many of those episodes of prosperity, repressions, war, plague, emigration, flooding etc. in an urban environment to life ( note 2 ). Peter J. Klassen’s writings on Mennonites in Poland and Prussia also present newer research on Mennonite life in and around Danzig in helpful ways ( note 3 ). There is one small sentence in Klassen’s larger volume that sugg...

Why Danzig and Poland?

In the late 16th century, Poland became a haven for a variety of non-conformists which included Jews, Anti-Trinitarians from Italy and Bohemia, Quakers and Calvinists from Great Britain, south German Schwenkfelders, Eastern Orthodox, Armenian, and Greek Catholic Christians, some Muslim Tatars, as well as other peaceful sectarians like the Dutch and Flemish Anabaptists. Unlike the Low Countries and most of western Europe, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a “state without stakes,” and as such fittingly described as “God’s playground” ( note 1 ). In the view of 17th-century Dutch dramatist Joost van den Vondel, it was “the ‘Promised Land,’ where the refugee could forget all his sorrow and enjoy the richness of the land” ( note 2 ). Over the next two centuries an important strand of Mennonite life and spirituality evolved into a mature tradition in this relatively hospitable context ( note 3 ). Anabaptists from the Low Countries began to arrive in Danzig and region as early as 15...

Plague and Pestilence in Danzig, 1709

Russian and Prussian Mennonites trace at least 200 years of their story through Danzig and Royal Prussia, where episodes of plague and pestilence were not unfamiliar ( note 1 ). Mennonites arrived primarily from the Low Countries and in large numbers in the middle of the 16th century—approximately 750 families or 3,000 refugees and settlers between 1527 and 1578 to Danzig and Royal Prussia ( note 2 ). At this time Danzig was undergoing tremendous demographic, cultural and economic transformation, almost tripling in population in less than 100 years. With 80% of Poland’s foreign trade handled through this port city ( note 3 ), Danzig saw the arrival of new people from across Europe, many looking to find work in the crammed and bustling city ( note 4 ). Maria Bogucka’s research on Danzig in this era brings the streets of the maritime city to life: “Sanitation facilities were inadequate … The level of personal hygiene was low. Most people lived close together: five or six to a room, sle...

The Selbstschutz (Self-Defence Units) and Benjamin H. Unruh

Abram Kröker, editor of the Molotschna (South Russia/ Ukraine) -based Mennonite Friedensstimme , wrote that Mennonites are “predestined to foreshadow … even in an imperfect way, the great peace among nations in the Thousand-Year-Reign [of Christ].” And among all denominations, “it has pleased God,” according to Kröker, to “present and manifest” through the Mennonites this “pearl of evangelical truth gained at great cost by our fathers” ( note 1 ). And it is because of this theological hope and inheritance that “our youth are raised differently,” Kröker reminded his readers; “not military bravery or fighting are presented as the highest civic virtues, but rather sacrifice, suffering and renunciation for the sake of others. In all our schools, non-resistance is explicitly taught and impressed [upon students] according to the Mennonite catechism” ( note 2 ). But taking up arms in self-defence was nuanced differently by his colleague and influential 37-year-old teacher and theologian Benja...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog