A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

he two decades following World War II. Again only a brief survey of beginnings and subsequent expansion is possible here. VI. Mennonite Brethren Come to Ontario 50 Although the Ontario Conference of Mennonite Brethren joined the Canadian Conference (Northern District) only in 1946, 61 the beginnings of church life and activity coincide with the arrival of the third large wave of Mennonite immigrants twenty years earlier. As mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, the first Mennonites to settle in Ontario came from Pennsylvania after the Revolutionary War. These so-called "Old" Mennonites living in Waterloo and Lincoln counties in southern Ontario not only manifested the spirit of fine Christian hospitality toward these newcomers, but in many instances also provided employment for them. A relatively large number of M.B. families in this early period found 172 HISTORY OF THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH employment in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Here the first congregation was organized in Kitchener in 1925 with Jacob P. Friesen as leader. This congregation, named the Molotschna Mennoniten Bruedergemeinde, must be acknowledged as the mother church of the Mennonite Brethren churches in Ontario, since all congregations in the province were affiliated with Kitchener until 1932. 52 In church practice it differed from M.B. churches in the other provinces (as well as from those in the United States) in admitting non-immersed believers and practicing open communion. This was partly due to the fact that some of the founders of the church had belonged to the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren Church in the Molotschna. Under the Bible-centered preaching of such able ministers as J. W. Reimer, J. P. Wiens, and H. H. Janzen, the Kitchener congregation and its affiliated groups experienced a wholesome growth and development. In 1927 the scattered members living around New Hamburg (twelve miles west of Kitchener) organized as a branch church of Kitchener. The membership dwindled through the years, however, and Ln 1952 those remaining joined Kitchener. In Hespeler, a large town nine miles southeast of Kitchener, a group affiliated with Kitchener since 1926 became an independent congregation in 1932. The history of this congregation runs somewhat parallel to that of New Hamburg, and in 1953 the church was dissolved with the remaining families joining Kitchener." The Mennonite immigrants coming from Russia to Ontario in the twenties settled in two areas that were somewhat isolated and removed from the older settlements. One of these was at Port Rowan on the north shore of Lake Erie, where a congregation was organized in 1927. It is one of the few rural churches in Ontario where most members are engaged in farming. J. A. Penner was presiding minister for many years during the early period. Another group of the Russlaender Mennonites went to Essex County where they found work in the tobacco and tomato plantatio