A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

built in the more centrally located village of Tiege, so that the church came to be known as the Tiege-Zagradowka Mennonite Brethren Church." (3) On the Don. Along the Don River, in the land of the Cossacks, a relatively large number of German Lutherans and some German Catholics established settlements in the middle of the nineteenth century. Through the ministry of Pfarrer Wuest, a large-scale revival took place. Through contact with the Molotschna Brethren the question of believer's baptism became a live issue and after some time, resulted in a schism. Those who were baptized formed a separate congregation and elected Abraham Cornelsen, the author of the Document of Secession, as CONSOLIDATION AND EXPANSION (1865-1885) 79 their presiding minister and elder. After Cornelsen's emigration to America in 1879, the group that did not want to become "Baptist" followed him to the new world; the others joined the Baptist Union in 1887. Because of their ethnic and religious background they were not permitted to become "Mennonite" in their church affiliation. 26 It should be noted that in addition to these semi-independent centers of Mennonite Brethren church life, the older congregations all had affiliated groups (Filialen) or stations which were under their general supervision. The Molotschna Mennonite Brethren Church during this time counted among its affiliated "stations" Puchtin and Herzenberg, which were both located in another province (Ekaterino- slav). The fellowship at Spat in the Crimea was also for many years a division (Abteilung) of the Molotschna Mennonite Brethren Church." Moreover, in the Molotschna itself, with its more than fifty villages, there was only one Mennonite Brethren Church with Rueckenau as its center. To be sure, there were a number of meeting places where members gathered for worship on "ordinary" Sundays, but organizationally these groups considered themselves one body. The same can be said of the Chortitza (Einlage) Mennonite Brethren Church which had subsidiaries or stations during this period at Andreasfeld, Wiesenfeld, Jasykowo, Sergejewka-Alexandertal, Burwalde and Neplju- jewo. 28 Through the ministry of itinerant preachers and the regular visits of elders these groups maintained the unity of the spirit. From this description of the organizational pattern it seems obvious that the early Brethren did not stress the "autonomy" of the local church. In this respect they followed the earlier Anabaptist (and we might add, the New Testament) pattern of congregational interdependence. The emphasis on the "absolute autonomy" of the local congregation in some Mennonite Brethren churches in later years was the result of exposure to Baptist influence. This influence tends to weaken the concept of the church as a brotherhood independent of geographical location or distance. 2. Expansion to the American Continent The emigration of approximately eighteen thousand Mennonites