A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

believers communion and scriptural church discipline. This new policy led to serious tensions and to severe criticism of the council on the part of many members. By 1907 Elder Martens and his supporters experienced so much opposition that they withdrew from the church and organized the Evangelical Mennonite Church. 111 Later this church, because of its similarity in faith and practice, established fraternal relations with the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren in the Molotschna. The relationship of both groups with the Mennonite Breth- ren was cordial and warm. In Canada some "Alliance Churches" continued their separate existence for a number of years, but then joined the Mennonite Brethren. 112 In Paraguay, on the contrary, they have continued as a ERA OF PROSPERITY AND PROGRESS (1885-1914) 105 separate group, whereas in Brazil they have joined the General Conference Mennonite Church. The "Alliance movement" (Allianz-Bewegung) rapidly gained ground among the Mennonites of South Russia before World War I, and it is conceivable that a new organizational pattern would have emerged in due time had not the Communist Regime, especially under Stalin, put an end to all organized church life in the 1930's. What happened to the Mennonite Brethren and all Mennonites in Russia in the period between 19 M and 1945 can best be described as "a story of blood and tears." Chapter 8 In the Shadow of Death On June 28, 1914, an event occurred in an obscure city of Bosnia, a dependency of the Auslro-Hungarian Empire, which shook the whole world and resulted in revolutionary changes throughout Europe. The assassination of the Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo on that day triggered off a series of events: war, revolution, terror, famine, emigration, deportation, and suffering unprecedented in modern history. These events also shook the religious and economic foundations of Mennonite life in the Russian Empire. The century of peace and prosperity was followed by a succession of tragedies that led to a complete termination of all organized religious life in the Mennonite colonies. The Imperial Decree of 1870, with its partial abrogation of privileges, and the Revolution of 1905, had been ominous precursors of more radical social and political changes in the reactionary Russian autocracy. But neither the Russian state officials, nor the Mennonites for that matter, were able to discern the "handwriting on the wall." P. M. Friesen, who died in 1914, believed to the end that the Mennonites would continue to enjoy their privileges under the benevolent protection ill ihe Tsars, anil that those who had left Russia in Ihe 1870's had perhaps committed an historical error. Events after 1914, however, confirmed the earlier concerns of elder Abraham Schellenberg, which he had expressed to Friesen on a visit from America in 1886-1887.' The Mennonite Brethren were deeply involved in the events of