Forgotten Practice of Footwashing

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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History of the Russian Mennonites

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