A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

ocess. At first the young congregation functioned as a subsidiary of the "mother church," sometimes for a number of years. As soon as it became self-sustaining and self-governing, the new church itself functioned as a center of outreach and established branch-churches in the surrounding area. The itinerant ministry and congregational interdependence were the two basic factors in the successful church-extension of the Mennonite Brethren in Russia, and congregational interdependence were the two basic factors in the successful church-extension of the Mennonite Brethren in Russia. 2. New Frontiers in Cooperation In the areas of general education and public health and welfare the Mennonite Brethren continued to cooperate with the other Mennonite bodies after the secession. In the early sixties, it is true, a number of brethren lost their teaching positions when they joined the M. B. Church (e.g. A. Cornelsen, G. Wieler, D. Fast and others). In the seventies and eighties the situation gradually changed, however, and it would appear 94 HISTORY OF THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHUKCH that a relatively large number of Mennonite Brethren were engaged in the teaching profession — both on an elementary and secondary level. On a secondary level {Zentralschule) the Mennonite Brethren in Ignatjewo founded their own school, but this was probably an exception.'" Educational growth paralleled the economic prosperity especially after 1870. By 1914 the Russian Mennonite settlements had four hundred elementary schools, thirteen secondary or high schools, four girls' schools, two teachers colleges, two four-year trade schools, and one eight-year business college (both trade and business schools required three languages, Russian, German and French or English), one school for the deaf and dumb and one deaconess institution.' 9 Many of the teachers were graduates of universities in Russia, Switzerland or Germany. About two hundred and fifty Mennonite students, moreover, were attending higher Russian institutions and fifty were in seminaries and universities abroad. Aron A. Toews, the author's father, who taught for nineteen years in the Molotschna colony, has expressed the view that practically all teachers in Mennonite schools at the turn of the century were committed Christians. Since "religion" was an integral part of the curriculum, such teachers were in a strategic position to exert a powerful moral and spiritual influence in the community. In the area of health and general welfare the Mennonite Brethren not only cooperated with the other groups, but often gave outstanding leadership. The founder of the orphanage in Grossweide (1906), Abraham Harder, for instance, was a member of the M. B. Church. The various Mennonite groups also cooperated in the establishment and support of homes for the aged and hospitals, including a mental hospital known as "Bethania." A new frontier for cooperation between the Mennonite Br