History of the Russian Mennonites

When my friends and I were baptized in the late 1970s in a bilingual, immigrant Canadian Mennonite General Conference church, most of our mothers presented us with a white handkerchief for our first experience (and observance) of communion. Where did this tradition come from? A veneration of the bread? I chose not to use one. In his 1723 book on the Vistula Delta, its peoples and customs, Abraham Hartwich--a generally unsympathetic observer of the Mennonites--quotes a 1701 letter he received from an official in Tiegenhoff. He describes the unique Frisian Mennonite practice ( bey den groben Mannisten) of placing the communion bread in their clean handkerchief ( in ihr reines Schnupfftuch ) and eating with caution and respect ( note 1 ; pic). 280 years later, this was still the practice in my home congregation. In the period just prior immigration to Russia, the Danzig Mennonite (Flemish) church practiced communion twice a year—shortly after baptism in the spring, and then again o