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

bulence as clashes continued between the old guard and more progressive Mennonites who were open to deeper piety, education and missionary endeavors. At one point the tension expressed itself in the forced resignation of elders Cornelius Warkentin and Heinrich Wiens over the issue of suppression of change.26 Further controversy surrounded Bernhard Fast (1821-1860), elder of the large Ohrloff congre- gation. His association with evangelical believers and his en- dorsement of the Russian Bible Society for Scripture distribu- tion resulted in a split, with the laiger part of the congregation selecting new leadership.27 Another expression of a growing new mood was the Ohrloff School Society, which established a private school in the early 1820s to bolster education among Russian Mennon- ites. Founded under the leadership of Tobias Voth, this school became a preparatory chapter for the emergence of the Mennonite Brethren Church in I860. Voth, born in Brenkenhofswalde and educated in Leipzig and Berlin, had been converted through the writings of the widely known Pietist, Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling.28 Hein- rich Huebert, first elder of the Mennonite Brethren Church, as well as other students, received their first indelible Christian impressions from him. In the 1820s Voth and his associates were in correspondence with the Moravian Brethren. This group of revitalized believers provided the leadership for the founding of the Mennonite Brethren Church in I860.29 The in- fluence of Heinrich Heese (1787-1868), who came to the Ohrloff Vereinsschule in 1829, as well as Heinrich Franz (1812-1889), who joined the faculty in 1832, provided further impetus towards reform.50 Education was thus a major influence in the reform of a people in cultural and religious stagnation resulting from cen- 9 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH tunes of isolation. James Uny has furnished important evi- dence of the expansion of education, especially among fami- lies of successful farmers and estate owners. Beginning in 1820, children who showed ability but whose families lacked financial resources were selected for further education and supported by community funds.31 Of special significance in the march towards religious re- newal was the immigration of a group from Brenkenhof- swalde, Prussia, to Russia in 1835 under the leadership of El- der Wilhelm Lange. Lange, who established Gnadenfeld, came with a background of Lutheran Pietism strongly influenced by pietistic group meetings in Prussia.32 According to RM. Friesen, "Gnadenfeld became the center for a religious move- ment of greater warmth, the ma