“We have no poor among us”: From "Blue Bag" to e-Transfer

Through not unique or original to Menno Simons, the idea of watching and caring for fellow travellers on the journey of faith “where no one is allowed to beg” (note 1) was a pillar of his teaching, and forms one of the most consistent threads in the Anabaptist–Mennonite story.

In the decades before Mennonites settled in Russia they used the “Blue-Bag” to collect for the poor in Prussia. In 1723 Abraham Hartwich—an otherwise unsympathetic observer of Mennonites—noted that Mennonites in Prussia “do not allow their co-religionists to suffer want, but rather help them in their poverty from the so-called blue-bag, their fund for the poor” (note 2). It is unclear when the “blue-bag tradition” changed?

Similarly, in the early 1800s, two Lutheran observers—Georg Reiswitz and Friedrich Wadzeck—noted that the Mennonite care for their poor through annual free-will contributions was “exemplary” (note 3).

Moreover Reiswitz and Wadzeck describe a community stubbornly committed to each other with “good deeds wherever it is needed, without being asked or ordered.” “The poor Mennonite will never suffer need; those impacted by fire, theft, or accident can anticipate almost full replacement loss” (note 4). “We have no poor,” a Mennonite minister informed a visiting scholar to the Vistula Delta in 1794; “we ensure that no one in our midst becomes impoverished” (note 5).

One example: in 1749 the Flemish Mennonite congregation in Danzig had eight elderly couples and sixteen individuals whom they cared for in their “poor house” (note 6).

Protestant and Catholic neighbours were also often recipients of “these good deeds from the hands of Mennonites,” as Reiswitz and Wadzek observed, though “this rarely occurs where those faith groups are hostile to Mennonites and pull themselves away from them” (note 7).

In Russia, according to Peter Epp, “every village took care of its own poor. It must be said, however, that there were seldom more than two or three poor families. At the end of the village several houses were built with quarters for the poor. The houses had a plot of ground for vegetables and a little orchard. Fodder for the domestic animals was brought to them by the village as well” (note 8).

Johann Cornies’ powerful “Agricultural Society” gave direction in this regard the young families unable to purchase a farm property. “The Society gives preference to the most diligent poor young families, providing places for them to construct houses and ensuring that poor and weak families are accommodated and receive housing” (note 9). He also had ideas about what the some of the poor should not be given: “The District Office should ensure that no disorderly, indolent, and extremely poor Mennonites from Khortitsa District are permitted to settle in the Bergthal District. All Mennonites who wish to resettle from Khortitsa must have sufficient funds and the ability to give dependable guarantees …” ([and Cornies was livid when that did in fact occur!] note 10).

In a letter by Johann Cornies to a Prussian Mennonite, 1833, he wrote: “In accordance with your wishes, I have given the money received for your [deceased] son’s clothing to Gerhard Reimer, Ohrloff, administrator for the support of the poor in our community” (note 11). His Agricultural Society bylaws stated that “the oppression of the poor or weak by well-to-do or rich villagers is prohibited” (note 12).

A notice from the Chortitza Mennonite Church in the Mennonitische Blätter a half century later (1891) provides a window onto the tradition as it was lived in Russia: the elderly, sick, and those otherwise unable to work are supported in part or in full by a congregational "tax for the poor" and also through free-will offerings. The Chortitza notice concludes with Galatians 6:10: "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."

“Southern Russia, Chortitza--As in many other congregations, the Chortitza Mennonite Church also has a benevolent fund for the poor. Congregational members who are old, ill, or unable to work and therefore poor, and who without this fund would be at the mercy of strangers ('fremde Leute' -interesting!]), are regularly supported. Monies flow into this fund for the poor partly through an insignificant so-called "poor tax" paid by congregational members, and partly—or for the most part—through voluntary donations and contributions from the same. The last account for the year 1890, which was read out at the Chortitza congregational meeting on January 4, 1891, shows revenues of 3,227 rubles and 13 kopeks, of which 500 rubles were collected from the estate of the deceased congregational brother Johann Brandt of Chortitza Island in accordance with his last will. In total, 2,465 rubles and 61 kopecks were spent to assist or to maintain completely poor members of the community; thus, a surplus of 761 rubles, 52 kopecks remains. As pleasing as this fact is, it must not hold us back from further works of love. The number of those in need of support is increasing from year to year, which is why we are addressing all the members of the Chortitza congregation at the beginning of this New Year with the request to remember the admonition of the Apostle Paul according to Galatians 6:10." (Note 13)

In Canada from the Leamington United Mennonite Church’s history volume (1925-1972), retired elder N. N. Driedger (b. 1893) reflected on the “alteration” in the method of taking offering in the 1930s:

“In Russia an offering box was usually fastened somewhere near the church exit so that worshipers leaving the service might make a contribution. Here in Canada the usual method was to pass an offering plate along each pew.”

The change “met with some resistance,” Driedger recalled. Moreover, collection was now taken every Sunday, and the amounts collected were announced the next week.

“At first offerings were taken on no particular schedule except that once per month an offering was lifted for relief in Russia and later once per month for the church building fund. Two Sundays per month were usually open … On January 10, 1932, a motion was passed by the members to announce openly the amount of each offering, a practice still in vogue today.” (Note 14)

The offering plate is a Canadian "innovation,” apparently. Does it make a difference? 90 years later we are donating to our local Mennonite congregation with e-transfers and to MCC with credit card.

Either way, I remain inspired and challenged by this pillar of our tradition: “there are no poor among us.”

---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: Menno Simons, Complete Writings of Menno Simons, edited by J. C. Wenger (Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1984), 558 (different pagination online: http://www.mennosimons.net/fulltext.html).

Note 2: Abraham Hartwich, Geographisch-Historische Landes-Beschribung [sic] derer dreyen im Pohlnischen Preußen liegenden Werdern (Königsberg, 1723), 293, http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/resolve/display/bsb10000874.html.

Note 3: Georg Reiswitz and Friedrich Wadzeck, Glaubensbekenntniss der Mennoniten und Nachricht von ihren Colonien: nebst Lebensbeschreibung Menno Simonis (Berlin: Rücker, 1824), 46, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009717593.

Note 4: Reiswitz and Wadzeck, Glaubensbekenntniss der Mennoniten, 42f.

Note 5: Cf. the longer excerpt by Ludwig von Baczko in Horst Penner, Die ost- und westpreußischen Mennoniten in ihrem religiösen und sozialen Leben in ihren kulturellen und wirtschaftlichen Leistungen, Teil 2, 1772–bis zur Gegenwart (Kirchheim-Bolanden/Weierhof: Self-published, 1987), 30.

Note 6: See Hermann G. Mannhardt, Die Danziger Mennonitengemeinde. Ihre Entstehung und ihre Geschichte von 1569–1919 (Danzig, 1919), 83. https://archive.org/details/diedanzigermenno00mannuoft.

Note 7: Reiswitz and Wadzeck, Glaubensbekenntniss der Mennoniten, 42f.

Note 8: Peter Epp to J. Winfield Fretz, letter, cited in J. Winfield Fretz, “Mutual Aid Among Mennonites (I),” Mennonite Quarterly Review 13, no. 1 (1939), 42.

Note 9: “No. 521. Johann Cornies’ description of the administrative and other arrangements instituted for the functioning_of the Molochnaia Mennonite District 1841. December 1841(?)," Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe: Letters and Papers of Johann Cornies, vol. 2: 1836–1842, translated by Ingrid I. Epp; edited by Harvey L. Dyck, Ingrid I. Epp, and John R. Staples (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020), 498, n.24, https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/100164/1/Southern_Ukrainian_Steppe_UTP_9781487538743.pdf.

Note 10: “No. 677, October 28, 1842 [?], Johann Cornies to Bergthal Settlement Administrators;” cf. also Cornies to von Hahn, “No. 679, November [1842],” in idem, Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe, II, 633; 635.

Note 11: Idem, Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe, 1812–1835, vol. I (2015), “No. 362, April 24, 1833.”

Note 12: “No. 521. Johann Cornies’ description of the administrative and other arrangements …,” Transformation on the Southern Ukrainian Steppe, II, 498.

Note 13: Mennonitische Blätter no. 5 (March 1, 1891), 31, https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/newspapers/Mennonitische%20Blaetter/1854-1900/1891/DSCF1344.JPG.

Note 14: N. N. Driedger, Leamington United Mennonite Church: Establishment and Development, 1925-1972, trans. J. N. Driedger (Altona, MB: Friesen, 1972), 46. http://www.ekmha.ca/collections/files/original/005b8bc1f6945f5316ac7abcd4f3cd20.pdf. See also the helpful article by Harold S. Bender, “Offerings,” GAMEO: https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Offerings.

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History of the Russian Mennonites

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