THE MENNONITE BROTHERHOOD IN RUSSIA (1789 - 1910), P. M. Friesen, 1911

rom Heinrich Franz, Sr’s official Geschichte der Gemeinde und Kolonie Gnadenfeld (History of the Church and Colony of Gnadenfeld). We have all benefitted from these blessings and thank God for this advance against “confessional self-consciousness ’’ by those dear old people of the Neumark! It was really an emerging awareness of the Una Sancta, “the one holy universal Christian Church, the fellowship of saints." 14. According to the Gnadenfeld “chronicle,” a direct result of the influence exercised by such Moravian Brethren as the itinerant preachers Gottlieb Jahr, Niederschuh and others, was a clear under- standing of the Scriptures, a vital Christianity and an understanding of, and love for, missions and education. The practice of this congregation (as of the fathers of the M.B. Church Heinrich Huebert, Jakob Reimer, Johann Claassen, Jakob Becker*— cf. 0171, d) to have small children blessed in the presence of the congregation came as a direct consequence of the counsel of the Moravian Brethren. It should also be mentioned that during W. Lange’s tenure in office the baptism of young people at a very early age (down to about 12 years of age) took place (cf. Elder W. Lange’s baptismal book, kept since 1810). Under Wilhelm Lange the weekly one-hour baptismal instruction in Gnadenfeld was extended over a two-year period. Lange died in Gnadenfeld at the age of 76 in 1841. 15. His successor was his younger relative, Friedrich Wilhelm Lange (1841-49). According to the baptismal record he was baptized in 1837 (probably on the way to Russia), the year of his arrival in Gnadenfeld. In 1838 he was unanimously elected to the position of minister, and in 1841 into the office of elder by a vote of 70 male votes. He was a brilliantly endowed, and as a consequence of his private studies, a thoroughly educated school teacher who had taught in a Prussian * Ed. note: The various spellings of "Becker” have been standardized in this form. 102 IN RUSSIA 1789-1860 Mennonite private school for many years. He was the pedagogical father of Heinrich Franz, Sr. (whose contribution to the educational system of the Russian Mennonites was immense) and other outstanding teachers of the Gnadenfeld congregation, who exercised a very considerable progressive influence upon the Mennonite school system in Russia. 25 Initially, Friedrich Lange’s influence upon his own and the sister congregations was perhaps even greater than that of his predecessor. He was regarded as a brother and shepherd of the flock among the believers (the “brethren”), whose enthusiastic and reverential love he enjoyed. It was during his term of office, in 1845, that the Lutheran Pastor Wuest from Wuerttemberg, who was to play such an important role in the religious awakening of the South Russian Mennonites, especially those of the Molotschna, came to the separatist Lutheran “brotherhood” congregation at Neu-Hoffnung (former Wuerttemberg Pietists) near Ber