A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

ding leader and administrator in Mennonite relief and colonization work in Russia, Canada, and Europe, and from 1945 to his death, director of the refugee and resettlement program of the MCC in behalf of the Russian and Danzig refugees. Among the early ministers of this congregation, Abraham Martens, church leader and ordained elder, and Cornelius Klaassen, preacher, who also served as itinerant minister in Orenburg and Siberia, should be mentioned. In the Orenburg settlement the M. B. Church began in 1894 at Kamenka and in the Ufa settlement at Gortschakowo in the same year. By 1900 both colonies had growing and self-sustaining M. B. congregations. 13 (7) In Siberia. Among the Mennonites of Russia, the first decade of the twentieth century is characterized by "Drang nach Osten" (compulsion to move east). The rate and scope of expansion exceed those of any earlier period. By 1914, one hundred and twenty-five villages had been established: in Omsk (58), Slavgorod-Barnaul (51), and Pavlodar (16) in Western Siberia. 14 Although the total Mennonite population in ERA OF PROSPERITY AND PROGRESS (1885-1914) 93 Siberia before World War I was only about fifteen thousand, they owned more than one million acres of land, about one-third of all the land occupied by the Russian Mennonites. Siberia has been described as a "dark chapter in Mennonite research" because the settlements originated just before World War I and were far removed from the cultural centers of the Mennonites in the Ukraine. 15 The first Mennonite Brethren Church was established in the Omsk region in the village of Tschunayevka shortly after 1900. Elder Jacob Wiens served as leader for many years, not only of this congregation, but also of other churches in Western Siberia. In the Barnaul settlement the Mennonite Brethren Church was divided (like the Mennonite Church) into five districts, with meetinghouses in six villages. Elder Jacob Wiens of Omsk assisted the congregations here as well as in Pavlodar in their organization and establishment during the difficult pioneer period. Statistics concerning membership during this period are either unavailable or unreliable. According to one elder, Mennonite Brethren in Siberia may have numbered about 1640 in 1926. " In closing this section on geographical expansion reference should be made to the establishment of the Mennonite Brethren Church at Deutsch-Wymyschle in Russian Poland about 1884. The repeated visits of elder Jacob Jantz (Friedensfeld) were a significant factor in the development of this congregation. Peter Ratzlaff gave effective leadership to this congregation for many years. 11 As one reflects on the expansion of the Mennonite Brethren during this period, a certain pattern emerges. The establishment of congregations in new settlements usually began with a nucleus of M. B. families. Their work and witness were reinforced by itinerant ministers, who played a key role in this pr