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

Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp, 1942: List and Links

Each of the "Commando Dr. Stumpp" village reports written during German occupation of Ukraine 1942 contains a mountain of demographic data, names, dates, occupations, numbers of untimely deaths (revolution, famines, abductions), narratives of life in the 1930s, of repression and liberation, maps, and much more. The reports are critical for telling the story of Mennonites in the Soviet Union before 1942, albeit written with the dynamics of Nazi German rule at play. Reports for some 56 (predominantly) Mennonite villages from the historic Mennonite settlement areas of Chortitza, Sagradovka, Baratow, Schlachtin, Milorodovka, and Borosenko have survived. Unfortunately no village reports from the Molotschna area (known under occupation as “Halbstadt”) have been found. Dr. Karl Stumpp, a prolific chronicler of “Germans abroad,” became well-known to German Mennonites (Prof. Benjamin Unruh/ Dr. Walter Quiring) before the war as the director of the Research Center for Russian Germans...

1929 Flight of Mennonites to Moscow and Reception in Germany

At the core of the attached video are some thirty photos of Mennonite refugees arriving from Moscow in 1929 which are new archival finds. While some 13,000 had gathered in outskirts of Moscow, with many more attempting the same journey, the Soviet Union only released 3,885 Mennonite "German farmers," together with 1,260 Lutherans, 468 Catholics, 51 Baptists, and 7 Adventists. Some of new photographs are from the first group of 323 refugees who left Moscow on October 29, arriving in Kiel on November 3, 1929. A second group of photos are from the so-called “Swinemünde group,” which left Moscow only a day later. This group however could not be accommodated in the first transport and departed from a different station on October 31. They were however held up in Leningrad for one month as intense diplomatic negotiations between the Soviet Union, Germany and also Canada took place. This second group arrived at the Prussian sea port of Swinemünde on December 2. In the next ten ...

What is the Church to Say? Letter 4 (of 4) to American Mennonite Friends

Irony is used in this post to provoke and invite critical thought; the historical research on the Mennonite experience is accurate and carefully considered. ~ANF Preparing for your next AGM: Mennonite Congregations and Deportations Many U.S. Mennonite pastors voted for Donald Trump, whose signature promise was an immediate start to “the largest deportation operation in American history.” Confirmed this week, President Trump will declare a national emergency and deploy military assets to carry this out. The timing is ideal; in January many Mennonite congregations have their Annual General Meeting (AGM) with opportunity to review and update the bylaws of their constitution. Need help? We have related examples from our tradition, which I offer as a template, together with a few red flags. First, your congregational by-laws. It is unlikely you have undocumented immigrants in your congregation, but you should flag this. Model: Gustav Reimer, a deacon and notary public from the ...

Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor), 1932-1933

In 2008 the Canadian Parliament passed an act declaring the fourth Saturday in November as “Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (‘Holodomor’) Memorial Day” ( note 1 ). Southern Ukraine was arguably the worst affected region of the famine of 1932–33, where 30,000 to 40,000 Mennonites lived ( note 2 ). The number of famine-related deaths in Ukraine during this period are conservatively estimated at 3.5 million ( note 3 ). In the early 1930s Stalin feared growing “Ukrainian nationalism” and the possibility of “losing Ukraine” ( note 4 ). He was also suspicious of ethnic Poles and Germans—like Mennonites—in Ukraine, convinced of the “existence of an organized counter-revolutionary insurgent underground” in support of Ukrainian national independence ( note 5 ). Ukraine was targeted with a “lengthy schooling” designed to ruthlessly break the threat of Ukrainian nationalism and resistance, and this included Ukraine’s Mennonites (viewed simply as “Germans”). Various causes combined to bring on w...

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...

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...

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...

1871: "Mennonite Tough Luck"

In 1868, a delegation of Prussian Mennonite elders met with Prussian Crown Prince Frederick in Berlin. The topic was universal conscription--now also for Mennonites. They were informed that “what has happened here is coming soon to Russia as well” ( note 1 ). In Berlin the secret was already out. Three years later this political cartoon appeared in a satirical Berlin newspaper. It captures the predicament of Russian Mennonites (some enticed in recent decades from Prussia), with the announcement of a new policy of compulsory, universal military service. “‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire—or: Mennonite tough luck.’ The Mennonites, who immigrated to Russia in order to avoid becoming soldiers in Prussia, are now subject to newly introduced compulsory military service.” ( Note 2 ) The man caught in between looks more like a Prussian than Russian Mennonite—but that’s beside the point. With the “Great Reforms” of the 1860s (including emancipation of serfs) the fundamentals were c...

“Removal of Old Testament Names” after the Trek, 1944

Or: How my Aunt Sara became an “Else” I remember as a young adult hearing for the first time that my Aunt Sara’s name was officially “Else”. I was stunned to hear that story. No one had ever told us that! After the “trek” out of Ukraine and upon naturalization as a German citizen in 1944, my 13-year-old Aunt Sara’s name was changed to “Else.” There are many similar examples. Another Mennonite Sara changed her “Jewish-sounding” name to “Agatha;” one Mennonite boy with the name David was given “the sturdy German” name “Albert;” an “Isaak” took the name “Georg;” and an “Abraham” the name “Gerhard” ( note 1 ). Hundreds of Mennonites (minimally) had their “Old Testament names” changed upon naturalization. With the annexation of western Poland in 1939, Nazi Germany began to remove Poles and Jews and to settle the new territory of Warthegau with "Germans". Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler had said: “I want to create a blond province here” ( note 2 ). In 1943-44 most of the 35,0...

“Operation Chortitza” – Resettler Camps in Danzig-West Prussia, 1943-44 (Part I)

In October 1943, some 3,900 Mennonite resettlers from “Operation Chortitza” entered the Gau of Danzig-West Prussia. They were transported by train via Litzmannstadt and brought to temporary camps in Neustadt (Danzig), Preußisch Stargard (Konradstein), Konitz, Kulm on the Vistula, Thorn and some smaller localities ( note 1 ). The Gau received over 11,000 resettlers from the German-occupied east zones in 1943. Before October some 3,000 were transferred from these temporary camps for permanent resettlement in order to make room for "Operation Chortitza" ( note 2 ). By January 1, 1944 there were 5,473 resettlers in the Danzig-West Prussian camps (majority Mennonite); one month later that number had almost doubled ( note 3 ). "Operation Chortitza" as it was dubbed was part of a much larger movement “welcoming” hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans “back home” after generations in the east. Hitler’s larger plan was to reorganize peoples in Europe by race, to separate ...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog