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

eft Russia and ended up in China, Paraguay and Brazil.20 The subject of nonresistance became prominent dur- ing the 1930s and remained so into the 1950s.21 In the 1930s the Canadian Conference also introduced the presentation of position papers to the delegates. The first such papers were read to the conference in 1936: "The church in its final perfec- tion" Oohann Braun); "The threat of modernism for the be- lievers church" (Heinrich Regehr); and "The sin of gossip and 159 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH its effect on the life of the church" (John G. Wiens).22 By 1945, the Kanadier and Russlander had reached a level of integration within the Canadian Conference that mutually benefitted both groups. It could be argued that this process accounts for the increasing strength of the Canadian over the United States Conference in leadership, evangelism, church growth, urbanization and integration with the national envi- ronment in the decades that followed. MENNONTTE BRETHREN AND THE GENERAL CONFERENCE: AN UNEASY RELATIONSHIP Many Mennonite Brethren congregations in Canada, swollen with new members from numerous different colonies in several different regions of Russia, all bringing their own at- titudes, habits and traditions, became like a mosaic. The close interrelationships demanded in the process of forming new communities and churches created many tensions. These tensions were not only among Mennonite Brethren, but with the General Conference (GC) Mennonites as well, who still conjured up memories of religious differences of the past. Historian Frank H. Epp placed major responsibilities for such tensions at the feet of the Mennonite Brethren.** In Russia these MB-GC tensions had by now subsided considerably. The tempest of the First World War and the Russian Revolution had helped the Mennonite Brethren recog- nize the importance of better relationships with the wider Mennonite world. A visitation of God through a spiritual re- newal in the larger Mennonite community in Russia brought about further healing. The Mennonite Brethren found fellow- ship in the company of their former opponents and began to establish common spiritual ground. The all-Mennonite con- ference in Lichtenau, June 30 to July 2, 1918, reflected grow- ing spiritual warmth in the Mennonite peoplehood. The outstretched arm of North American Mennonites in the relief work following the First World War and the Russian 160 MENNONITE IMMIGRATION TO CANADA DURING THE 1920s Revolution also fostered unity. The Mennonite Brethren real- ized that there was room for diversity in spiritual understand-