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

r, H. Huebert and others, the Mennonite brethren celebrated their first private communion service. Elder Lenzmann, in the letter of March 16, 1863, cited above, relates: “. . . After I had rejected the request of a few of my church members, 'to extend to them, and those whom they would designate as believers, the holy communion separately and as often as they should desire it,’ as an inadmissible innovation which had, to my knowledge, never taken place in a Mennonite congregation, and which would only further spiritual pride and destroy the unity of the congregation, they, together with a few members of other [Mennonite] congregations, began to celebrate the holy communion among themselves in private, contending that, according to the Holy Scriptures and their own consciences, they could no longer participate in it with the unbelievers in the congrega- tion. . . The Gnadenfeld Chronicle relates that the brethren had wanted communion to be celebrated every Sunday. 24 The brethren probably hoped, by this means, eventually to be able to celebrate holy communion amongst the believers with the least trouble, since the members of the congregation who thought differently only attended communion services at certain specific, widely separated times. The fact that they approached Lenzmann with this request is proof, firstly, that, in spite of his emerging coolness toward them (cf. H 51 and 52: “Brotherhood” and “Brotherhood School”) they regarded him as a bishop and brother in Christ, and, secondly, that they did not readily leave the established congregations. b) Jakob Reimer of Gnadenfeld relates the following: “As our fellowship established itself more firmly on the Word of God, there arose in us the desire to celebrate the Lord’s Supper more often, and we asked our Elder Lenzmann to break bread more often, even if this had to be done Alliance and Communion Fellowship 229 here and there in the homes, as they did in the Acts of the Apostles 2:46-47. But that was not allowed us. Thus it happened in the fall of 1859, two weeks after St. Martin’s, as a few brothers and sisters were gathered together in Elizabethal in the home of K. W. [Cornelius Wiens], that they broke bread 25 together in all simplicity and childlikeness, observing the teaching of Paul in I Cor. 11:23. As soon as this became known a great commotion arose in the churches, and the elders were accused of not excommunicating the [participating] members of their congregations soon enough. In the other congregations they were simply placed in the ban [a little while later this was combined with a complete civil ostracism, which ruined many economically]. The Gnadenfeld congregation proceeded in a somewhat [much!] more mild manner. . . . Six brothers and sisters, some of whom were young [who had participated in Elizabethtal], were called before the ministers and forced to give cm account of their actions. They were admonished and promised to su