A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

ressed some concerns about student conduct in Tabor College." This gradual polarization in educational efforts, and especially in theological training, was reinforced by the language problem. Whereas the transition from German to English was almost ended in the Mennonite Brethren churches in the United States by 1940, the transition in Canada came more than twenty years later, largely as the result of large-scale immigration from Europe and South America. Most Canadian M. B. churches during this period demanded that their ministers, Sunday school teachers, and other church workers be able to communicate in German as well as English. Thus the Bible College in Winnipeg emphasized bilingualism in its teaching program during the first ten years of its existence. That the preservation of the German language was considered of vital importance for the spiritual life of the brotherhood is evidenced by the fact that in 1950 the Committee of Reference and Counsel of the Canadian Conference recommended the creation of a committee for the nurture (Pflege) of the German language in the churches." This cultural and language difference between North and South had a tendency, for a while at least, to become an obstacle in closer cooperation between the Canadian Conference and the General Conference, the latter largely being identified with institutions and concerns of the brotherhood in the United States. Even in foreign missions a tendency toward an independent effort manifested itself in the organization of the Africa Mission Society \Afrika Missionsverein). The members of this society were Mennonite Brethren and the financial support for the work of the society came largely from Canadian M. B. churches. In 1932 Brother and Sister Henry G. Bartsch were commissioned by the society to go to the Belgian Congo (Zaire). Here they established a work among the Dengese people at Bololo, in the northern Congo. The society, through its Board of Directors, presented several petitions (in November, 1936; October, I9I3S: and March 1943) to the Board of Foreign Missions to accept the 208 HISTORY OF THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH Bololo field as a work of the General Conference of Mennonite Brethren. This desire was realized at the General Conference sessions in Buhler in May, 1943."' This helped to unite North and South more fully in the cause of missions, and provided new service opportunities for an ever-increasing number of missionary candidates, especially from Canada. With the acquisition of the Christian Press, and the establishment of its own publishing house in Winnipeg, the Canadian Conference had taken a further step in the direction of decentralization of conference activities. In response to a report by P. H. Berg, (manager of the M.B. Publishing House), at the Canadian Conference in 1944, A. H. Unruh raised the question of a Canadian publishing center. 46 At the conference in 1946 B. B. Janz reported th