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

er "Reformers,” who had also only been consecrated as “priest” (presbyters), and not as “bishops,” according to the Roman and Greek rites. As is well-known, the Catholic churches delegate the right and the power of consecration only to the bishops as successors to the apostles, and not to the presbyters. (Most) of the Protestants, especially the Reformed Church, the Presbyterians, Congregationalists (free Presbyterians or Indepen- dents) and the Baptists (which have broken away from the Independents, as these have broken away from the Presbyterians), assert, however, that the office of bishop (overseer) and presbyter (elder) is one and the same office. These churches only differentiate between the office of elder and bishop (as synonymous) and that of deacon (helper) in the church, and the terms, elder, presbyter, minister, pastor, etc., simply designate a rank and are identical with “bishop”; even though one of them may be the presiding officer (that is, the first overseer, first bishop: “primus inter pares”— the first amongst equals). In the document of the Molotschna Mennonite Church Council of Elders (cf. below, #108ff.) the idea is clearly expressed that only the elders are “bishops” and can ordain— as "successors” (heirs) of the apostles— and that the ministers or teachers are not even presbyters in the full Catholic sense of the word, since they can neither baptize nor administer the Lord’s Supper, but only preach, marry and bury. The Mennonite system, therefore, is an “episcopalian” system with three ranks: that of elder (as full bishops), ministers or teachers (not full presbyters) and deacons. (The M.B. Church is more correct in this regard: cf. above, If 4, e). The Mennonites of Swiss and South German descent differentiate between full servant, servant of the Book (or “Word”) and deacon. The American Mennonites readily use the term bishop. What of the importance or meaning of ordination or commissioning? For Menno’s views on this matter, see above, 04, e, footnote, and 015 a and b and footnote; see also "The Old Testament in the Mennonite Brethren Church,” 096 and 198fi. 172 IN RUSSIA 1789-1860 It may be of interest to learn to know the concepts regarding ordination as they are used in the Protestant churches. (The Roman, Greek and other Catholic Churches, as is well known, recognize only one office as having been handed down in a proven manner— by the laying on of hands of one bishop to another in an unbroken line of succession back to the apostles: the "apostolic succession.”) We quote: I. From the strongly denominational Lutheran Church Lexicon by Carl Meusel, Ph.D., vol. 5, Leipzig: Justus Nauman, 1897— page 71: “. . . [It] follows, on the one hand, that the Reformation . . . had to break with the Catholic idea of priestly consecration as a sacrament; on the other hand, however, the various theories regarding ecclesiastical offices and differing views regarding church law, which