A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

. Neither group was quite prepared to submit to the leadership of the other party. 53 Hence, no union was achieved. A historic consultation was held on January 28, 1895, in the TH V. KltlMMFK MKNNONITK BRETHREN COME TO NORTH AMERICA 191 Springfield (Kansas) K.M.B. Church, where both groups met for a united conference. Elder J. A. Wiebe was elected chairman and John F. Harms, secretary. This session "resulted in fully recognizing each other and expressing willingness to work together 'shoulder to shoulder.' Elder Abraham Schellenberg made the close. All indicated by standing that they were in love and peace with each other."" Again, the discussions did not lead to a merger, but cordial fraternal relationships were strengthened. As a result of close inter-church fellowship and a cooperative working relationship in several areas, differences in faith and practice between the two groups gradually vanished. By the time of World War II former lines of demarcation were hardly recognizable, especially in com- munities like Gnadenau. It was therefore perhaps logical that the Gnadenau church again spearheaded the merger- movement in 1945 by voting in favor of uniting with the Mennonite Brethren Conference. On the conference level, however, there were some serious obstacles to union, especially in connection with the missions program of the Krimmer Mennonite Brethren. As noted earlier, this program was carried on under the auspices of a number of other mission boards. How could such a program be integrated with that of the Mennonite Brethren Conference? Through patience, persistence and continued negotiations these problems were all solved eventually. In 1949 the Committee of Reference and Counsel of the Mennonite Brethren Conference took the initiative to reactivate negotiations and implement the merger by making concrete overtures to the K.M.B. Conference in session at Yale, South Dakota, in October of that year. This proposal was followed in 1951 by an invitation of the General Conference of the M.B. Church of North America to the K.M.B. Conference "to consider jointly the possibility of uniting their spiritual forces into one general conference for the sake of advancing the cause of Christ and for our mutual strengthening in the Lord."" The initial response of the K.M.B. Conference to these overtures was negative. In 1952 and again in 1953 the merger proposal was not acceptable to the majority of the delegates attending these conferences.''" The withdrawal of the Gnadenau church in 1954 (mentioned earlier) added a new dimension of urgency to the merger-question. In 1956 important agreements were reached by the K.M.B. Merger Committee and the Board of Reference and Counsel of the Mennonite Brethren Conference. On October 8, 1957, the churches of the K.M.B. Conference voted by a two-thirds majority to merge with the General Conference of the Mennonite Brethren Church." The official response of