Congregational Discipline: Trouble with "the Saints”

Gerhard Wiebe was elder of the Elbing-Ellerwalde (Polish-Prussia) Mennonite Church from 1778-1796, which includes the years of early immigration to Russia. His ministerial diary lists many names, and each comes with a story (note 1).

Wiebe’s accounts of church discipline are particularly revealing for helping us understand the first immigrant generation to New Russia.

After preaching the gospel, the elder's most important duty was discipline, and this elder kept note of everything. Wiebe’s cases included:

• regular incidences of drunkenness;

• bar-tending at “The Kruge” [pitcher / name of inn], with music and all manner of “wicked things”;

• leading an “immoral” lifestyle;

• dancing in “The Lame Hand” pub [?],

• stealing pigs;

• licentiousness and leading a worldly life;

• jeering and fist-fighting on the street;

• excessive agitation and anger (mixed with alcohol);

• forgery of payment records, non-payment of debts;

• engagement/ marriage to a Lutheran, or to a Frisian Mennonite;

• premarital intercourse (early arrival of baby for newlywed couple);

• adultery with a married woman; whoring;

• accusation of rape [?] made by a woman of ill-repute with beer involved;

• a woman who left her husband and refused to return;

• a man who lived with his widow’s daughter and then married her (wedding by a Reformed minister);

• a paternity accusation and request for support payment for child born out of wedlock;

• a woman who beat her maidservant multiple times and threw her out without payment;

• a man who verbally abused, choked and pushed down a pregnant woman on the street over a land rental contract, etc.

The accused were normally first required to appear before the ministers and elder after the church service, and then for a second offense, before the entire “brotherhood” for decision. They were asked to clarify, confess, apologize, reconcile and make a promise of improvement.

Some will think: “I can’t believe that this happened in a Flemish congregation!” The list of his Frisian counterpart, Elder Heinrich Donner from the Orlofferfelde Congregation is almost as interesting (note 2).

As far as Elder Wiebe was concerned, to warn and to apply congregational discipline to “obstinate and gross sinners,” i.e., members “living immorally and sinning against God’s commandments” was the next most significant formational task of the minister or elder after “pure and spotless” biblical preaching, teaching, baptism and communion (note 3).

As his colleague Flemish Elder Peter Epp in Danzig emphasized, it is the elder’s high duty to stand guard when others sleep, to admonish and call forth Christian responsibility and the pursuit of unity and perfection—not rashly, with rigour or in anger, but with a love of justice and truth, in kindness and with one’s own example, compassionately sharing in the need and misery of others (note 4).

Wiebe, Donner and Epp were each trained in “the lap of the congregation” (note 5) and together display a recurring emphasis in Mennonite ministry: to form a disciplined, visible “pure and spotless” church which can be a light to the world as they await patiently a new kingdom of righteousness. It is the community that is saved, and that is why it is separated. “You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming … Make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him” (2 Peter 3:11–14).

Despite these convictions, the Prussian elders offered little support to their people leaving for Russia in the first years. Elder Peter Epp was willing to join the settlers but died before leaving Danzig. The first group to settle Chortitza seemed to be a similarly mixed bag. Some early “troublemakers landed in jail until they came to their senses” (note 6). Heinrich Heese, who married into the Mennonites, knew the first settlers well, and years later was unimpressed with many: ignorant, discontented, distrustful, abusive and lethargic (note 7)!

"None but saints"? These diaries can make Mennonites more honest in their story-telling, and help us better understand the leadership intentions and nature of the church community from which the early Russian Mennonites had their beginnings (note 8).

---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Pic 1: Elbing City, 1720 (Merian), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbl%C4%85g#/media/File:Elbl%C4%85g-_miedzioryt_z_XVIII_wieku.jpg .

Pic 2: Rembrandt, 1641, Portrait of the Dutch Mennonite preacher Cornelius Claesz Anslo and his wife Aaltje Gerritsdr Shouten.

Note 1: Gerhard Wiebe, “Verzeichniß der gehaltenen Predigten samt andern vorgefallenen Merkwürdigkeiten in der Gemeine Gottes in Elbing und Ellerwald von Anno 1778 d. 1. Januar.” Transcriptions from the original by Willi Risto, https://chortitza.org/Buch/Risto1.pdf. ALSO Ingrid Lamp: https://mla.bethelks.edu/Prussian%20Polish.../wiebe.html.

Note 2: Heinrich Donner and Johann Donner, Orlofferfelde Chronik, transcribed by Werner Janzen, 2010. From Mennonite Library and Archives-Bethel College, Prussian-Polish sources (online), https://mla.bethelks.edu/Prussi.../orlofferfeldechronik.html.

Note 3: G. Wiebe, “Verzeichniß,” 162, 171.

Note 4: Peter Epp, “Abschiedspredigt von Peter Epp, gehalten am 2. August 1789,” in Diese Steine: Die Russlandmennoniten, edited by Adina Reger and Delbert Plett, 20–21 (Steinbach, MB: Crossway, 2001), 20-21, https://www.plettfoundation.org/publications/diese-steine-die-russlandmennoniten/. One the tasks of an elder to keep the congregation pure, in peace and harmony, and to punish the quarrelsome, cf. hymn for the installation of a new elder in: Geistreiches Gesangbuch, zur öffentlichen und besondern Erbauung der Mennonitischen Gemeine in und vor der Stadt Danzig (Marienwerder, West Preußen, 1780), no. 298, http://pbc.gda.pl/dlibra/doccontent?id=8000.

Note 5: The training of ministers and elders is noted in Prussian government documents copied in Georg von Reiswitz and Friedrich Wadzeck, Beiträge zur Kenntniß der Mennoniten-Gemeinden in Europa und Amerika, Part I (Berlin, 1821), 279, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009717700.

Note 6: George K. Epp, Geschichte der Mennoniten in Rußland, vol. 1 (Lage: Logos, 1997), 90f.

Note 7: Heinrich Heese, et al., “Das Chortitzer Mennonitengebiet 1848: Kurzgefasste geschichtliche Übersicht der Gründung und des Bestehens der Kolonien des Chortitzer Mennonitenbezirkes,” https://chortitza.org/Ber1848.php#Eg.

Note 8: A few ministerial diaries from Russian Mennonite period survived and have been deemed worthy of translation and publication. Cf. Jacob D. Epp, A Mennonite in Russia: The Diaries of Jacob D. Epp, 1851–1880, translated and edited by Harvey L. Dyck (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013); Diaries of David Epp: 1837–1843, translated and edited by John B. Toews (Vancouver, BC: Regent College, 2000).

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 ...

Catherine the Great’s 1763 Manifesto

“We must swarm our vast wastelands with people. I do not think that in order to achieve this it would be useful to compel our non-Christians to accept our faith--polygamy for example, is even more useful for the multiplication of the population. … "Russia does not have enough inhabitants, …but still possesses a large expanse of land, which is neither inhabited nor cultivated. … The fields that could nourish the whole nation, barely feeds one family..." – Catherine II (Note 1 ) “We perceive, among other things, that a considerable number of regions are still uncultivated which could easily and advantageously be made available for productive use of population and settlement. Most of the lands hold hidden in their depth an inexhaustible wealth of all kinds of precious ores and metals, and because they are well provided with forests, rivers and lakes, and located close to the sea for purpose of trade, they are also most convenient for the development and growth of many kinds ...

Quiet in the Land: Peter Fast, 1932-2010

My father Peter Fast passed away in January 2010. The years have given me many opportunities to reflect on his life and impact. He was a gentle and good person--and could work like horse. He was born into poverty in 1932 in Paraguay. His parents were pioneers, first in Fernheim and then (1937) in Friesland. He liked to tell me that he ate manioc root for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was never sure if that was true, and it didn’t help to convince me to eat things I didn’t like. His mother died when he was fourteen; the basic medical aid she needed was out of reach. His new step-mother was a complex person who made life difficult for him and others. Dad only finished the 6th grade in Friesland. He was more than happy to get off the school bench and onto a horse. I don’t think I ever saw him write a complete sentence in my life, whether in English or in German. He had no interest in history, let alone reading—though over time he read the local city paper. Nothing I’ve written on...

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...

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...

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...

Invitation to the Russian Consulate, Danzig, January 19, 1788

B elow is one of the most important original Mennonite artifacts I have seen. It concerns January 19. The two land scouts Jacob Höppner and Johann Bartsch had returned to Danzig from Russia on November 10, 1787 with the Russian Immigration Agent, Georg von Trappe. Soon thereafter, Trappe had copies of the royal decree and agreement (Gnadenbrief) printed for distribution in the Flemish and Frisian Mennonite congregations in Danzig and other locations, dated December 29, 1787 ( see pic ; note 1 ). After the flyer was handed out to congregants in Danzig after worship on January 13, 1788, city councilors made the most bitter accusations against church elders for allowing Trappe and the Russian Consulate to do this; something similar had happened before ( note 2 ). In the flyer Trappe boasted that land scouts Höppner and Bartsch met not only with Gregory Potemkin, Catherine the Great’s vice-regent and administrator of New Russia, but also with “the Most Gracious Russian Monarch” herse...

"They are useful to the state." An almost forgotten Prussian view of Mennonites, ca. 1780s-90s

In 1787 Mennonite interest for emigration was extremely strong outside the quasi independent City of Danzig in the Prussian annexed Marienwerder and Elbing regions. Even before the land scouts Johann Bartsch and Jacob Höppner had returned from Russia later that year, so many Mennonite exit applications had flooded offices that officials wrote Berlin in August 1787 for direction ( note 1a ). Initially officials did not see a problem: because Mennonites do not provide soldiers, the cantons lose nothing by their departure, and in fact benefit from the ten-percent tax imposed on financial assets leaving the state. Ludwig von Baczko (1756-1823), Professor of History at the Artillery Academy in Königsberg, East Prussia, was the general editor of a series that included a travelogue through Prussia written by a certain Karl Ephraim Nanke. Nanke had no special love for Mennonites, but was generally balanced in his judgements and based his now almost forgotten account of Mennonites on perso...

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...

Russian Mennonites: A People of Peace and a People of Witness

One way of explaining well who a certain group of people is, is by looking at the unique set of questions they kept on asking, generation after generation. What peculiar issues did Russian Mennonites (or earlier in Prussia) keep struggling with in each new context? What were their experiments as community? Of course the answers differed in each place and time, and the arguments were divisive. Some experiments failed. Utterly. Below are two basic sets of questions that Mennonites asked over and again in each generation in Russia/Ukraine. The questions, I would suggest, were unique to their experience; that is, the other Christian communities in their context--Lutheran, Pietist, Catholic and Orthodox--were asking different sets questions First, and perhaps least surprising, Mennonites in Russia/Ukraine kept asking / being concerned about non-resistance, about being a people who took those New Testament admonitions of peace seriously, and did not return evil for evil, seek revenge o...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog