A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

in seeking new levels of spiritual experience. The I860 event was only 133 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH one link in a chain of calls for renewal The emergence of the Kleine Gemeinde in 1812-1819, under the leadership of Klaas Reimer, was a forerunner to i860-4 It was a cry for new life which could not fully emerge for lack of qualified leader- ship. In 1853 and 1854 the hunger for new vitality sparked a religious awakening in Neu-Kransweide.3 Peter M. Friesen's chapter on "Unrest and Reform Efforts'' in the Molotschna churches described a groundswell of yearning for new life.6 The soul agony in the Mennonite Church at the time was poignantly articulated by an elder of the Ohrloff Mennonite Church: "There is no fear of God, no faithfulness or honesty in the land. . . . The keepers of Zion see it and remain silent.,.. Are all the keepers blind? ... Do they hate disci- pline and order? 'Let them go their way for they are blind leaders*/7 This movement for reform in the old church continued into the twentieth century. The formation of the "Alliance'1 movement in 1905, which did not demand immersion baptism as a condition of membership, resulted in a new exodus from the old church. The statement of Franz Martens, elder of the Altona Mennonite Church at Sagradovka, who affiliated with the Alliance group in 1907, bears a tone similar to the I860 secession document: Already for some years the majority of the ministers of the Nikolaifeld Mennonite Church of Sagradovka shared the understanding and conviction that our Mennonite church- es had, in many points, departed from our Confession of Faith (and especially from God's Word), and that there was a need for a serious and thorough reform in respect to the administration of baptism, the Lord's Supper, and evangelical church discipline. Those ministers who longed for spiritual life in the church had for many years already pointed to the abuses and had pressed for reform in order that our church practices would conform with the 134 SUMMARY OBSERVATIONS TO PART ONE teaching and confession handed down to us by our fore- fathers. Everyone who loves truth must admit that this is presently not the case. This is also the reason why those dear ministers, who love to preach the Gospel with their whole heart, come into conflict with their consciences whenever it comes to the most solemn of church prac- tices, such as baptism, communion, excommunication and acceptance into church membership. ... Is this not the main reason why in the last forty years, most of those who have been awakened