The most important and influential Prussian Mennonite leader in a century, Danzig Elder Georg Hansen, taught in the late 1600s that footwashing is “necessary for salvation (Seeligkeit)”—symbolic of the community’s deep commitment to humility and mutual service as a strategy for establishing the Lord’s kingdom. In this regard, he echoed Danzig’s first Anabaptist elder, Dirk Philips, a century earlier (note 1). He shaped a tradition.
Hansen “disciplined” an accomplished but haughty (in
Hansen’s perspective) portrait painter in the congregation in 1697, for
example, for painting “graven images,” and barred him from communion, footwashing,
and membership meetings (note 2).
A century later, a new confession of faith was published by
Elbing Mennonite Elder Gerhard Wiebe in 1792, which was taken to Russia and
reprinted for another century and more (note 3). While the government is a
divine ordinance to obey, according to this tradition, it is ultimately through
a servant people that God will bring the world to himself: thus the poor are to
be zealously cared for, and with footwashing the community reminds itself to
follow the Lord’s example and “serve one another in humility and love.”
A 1888 yearbook gives information on all Russian Mennonite
congregations, and notes which ones practice footwashing and which ones do not
(note 4). It was practiced in Gnadenfeld, Halbstadt, Herzenberg, Waldheim,
Alexanderwohl, Karasan (Crimea), Molotschna Mennonite Brethren (four times per year); "not
typically" in Pordenau or Rudnerweide, for example, and not at all in
Chortitza.
The 1911 Ministers’ Manual (Handbuch zum Gebrauch bei
gottesdienstlichen Handlungen) gives sample services for footwashing (before or
after communion) while noting that many congregations do not practice
footwashing (note 5).
While Menno Simons mentioned footwashing only twice—he does
not insist on it like Dirk Philips—he does highlight mutual aid, for example,
which “is the only sign whereby a true Christian may be known … All those who
are born of God, who are gifted with the Spirit of the Lord, … are prepared by
such love to serve their neighbors, not only with money and goods, but … in an
evangelical manner with life and blood” (note 6).
Why did (most) Russian Mennonites practice footwashing? It
connected baptismal vows, a Mennonite understanding of Lord’s Supper, and the
ever-present emphasis on discipleship and mutual care.
Following the Ministers’ Manual (1911), preparation for
participation in the Lord’s Supper in a “worthy manner” (1 Corinthians 11: 29)
included “earnest, humble, and prayerful self-examination,” mutual confession
and the holy duty of reconciliation with the neighbour—“so that brotherly love
is awakened and multiplied amongst us.” This normally culminated in footwashing
and a collection for the poor. The communion service then concluded with an
exhortation to faithful discipleship (note 7).
Footwashing is no longer practiced widely among Mennonites with this history through Russia—and with that a formational practice lost, and maybe more. But thinking about it does help to understand the unique legacy of this tradition and who those ancestors were or at least tried to be.
---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast
---Notes---
Image: Footwashing scene of the Old Flemish Mennonites at
Zaandam, The Netherlands, engraving, ca. 1743, by Jacob Folkema, https://picryl.com/media/voetwassing-bij-de-oude-vlaamse-doopsgezinden-te-zaandam-ca-1740-048121.
Note 1: Georg Hansen, Confession oder Kurtze und einfältige
Glaubens-Bekänetenüsse derer Mennonisten in Preußen, so man nennet die
Clarichen (1678), question 35. http://pbc.gda.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?from=rss&id=35959.
Cf. also Dirk Philips, The Writings of Dirk Philips, 1504–1568, translated and
edited by Cornelius J. Dyck et al. (Waterloo, ON: Herald, 1992), 367f.
Note 2: For primary texts with analyses, see Hans Rudolf
Lavater, “Der Danziger Maler Enoch I Seemann, die Danziger Mennoniten und die
Kunst,” Mennonitica Helvetica 36 (2013), 11–97. Renowned Canadian novelist Rudy
Wiebe has put the story of Enoch Seemann, Mennonite artist, into a beautiful
historical narrative in: Sweeter than all the World (Toronto: Jackpine, 2001),
111–136. https://books.google.ca/books?id=UAonPMyassYC&dq.
See previous post: https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2022/09/1690s-scandal-in-danzig-flemish-church.html.
Note 3: Glaubensbekenntniß der Mennoniten in Preußen und
Rußland (Berdjansk, 1874), https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/kb/bekent74.pdf.
Note 4: H. G. Mannhardt, ed., Jahrbuch der Altevangelischen
Taufgesinnten oder Mennoniten-Gemeinden (Danzig, 1888), https://books.google.ca/books?id=ok5FAQAAMAAJ&dq.
Note 5: Handbuch zum Gebrauch bei gottesdienstlichen
Handlungen zunächst für die Aeltesten und Prediger der Mennoniten-Gemeinden in
Rußland, Allgemeiner Konferenz der Mennoniten in Rußland
(Berdjansk: Ediger, 1911), https://mla.bethelks.edu/books/264.097%20Al34h/.
Note 6: Menno Simons, Complete Writings of Menno Simons,
edited by J. C. Wenger (Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1984) 558; also 559 (different
pagination online: http://www.mennosimons.net/fulltext.html).
Note 7: Handbuch zum Gebrauch bei gottesdientlichen
Handlungen, 21, 49, 83.
---
To cite this post: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, "Forgotten Practice of Footwashing," History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), May 29, 2023,
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