A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

Christian church are not morally superior to their pagan neighbors, the Nogaians, indulging in h'ROM BELIEVERS' CHURCH TO PARISH CHURCH 25 "pride, ostentation, vanity, greed for money and lust for wealth, avarice, drunkenness, luxury, vicious life, masquerades, obscene songs, gam- bling, and above all the miserable smoking of tobacco." 12 Later histor- ians" generally confirm this dismal moral picture of many Russian Mennonites in the mid-nineteenth century. Such conditions called for spiritual renewal and moral reform. God, in His gracious providence, raised up men and movements to usher in a new day. Chapter 3 Renewal and Reorientation The "Great Awakening in Russian Mennonitism"' must be studied in the context and against the background of earlier "new life" movements. Even during the darkest decades of spiritual decline God always had His faithful remnant who had not "bowed their knees to Baal" — whether that Baal be a dead orthodoxy or a spirit of secularism and worldliness. There were always those who were concerned about a deeper experience in their personal life and about the spiritual renewal in the church as a whole. Several such channels of renewal shall be considered briefly. Earlier Renewal Movements 1. The Kleine Gemeinde 1 Between 1812 and 1819 a group of dissatisfied members of the Flemish church began to meet for worship in private homes under the leadership of Claas Reimer, an ordained minister of the church. According to Lohrenz, the religious awakening which led to the formation of the Kleine Gemeinde was the result of small prayer circles. 3 These groups also became known for their diligent study of the Bible, the works of Menno Simons and Dirk Philips, and of the Martyrs' Mirror.' Their reform efforts and criticism of contemporary Mennonite society must be interpreted as attempts to return to early Anabaptist principles and practices — even though inadequately understood. The members of this group faulted the laxity of church discipline and the formality of worship services in the Mennonite Church. They especially objected to the use of force in punishing evildoers in the Mennonite community. Although threatened by the elders of both colonies, Molotschna and Chortitza, Reimer with eighteen others seceded from the main body and organized a church of their own. The Mennonite elders put up a strong protest against the move, but the group eventually secured government recognition as a separate ecclesiastical 26 RENEWAL AND REORIENTATION 27 organization. Through the intervention of Johann Comies the elders were compelled by the civil authorities to recognize the Kleine Gemeinde and validate the functions of its unordained elder by a decree of the Supervisory Commission on January 28, 1843. Twenty years later, history had to repeat itself, because neither civil nor ecclesiastical authorities had learned from the earlier experience. Historians h