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

nswer or statement to the issues posed by the Area Administrative Office in its letter of the 5th of this month, No. 1783. During this conversaton we declared to them that a celebration of holy co mmunio n, as some of their members have celebrated it, even presupposing all of them to be true Christians, could not be permitted at all because, were such freedom to be extended them, even the most depraved and vicious sect could demand the same, thereby necessarily creating the greatest disorders. 37 For even if it is not written that only the elder can extend the bread and the wine to the congregation, it is nevertheless written: ‘Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake’ (I Peter 2:13), and in this instance it means that only the elder can extend the elements. They allowed themselves to be corrected in this regard and, in the future, will no longer celebrate it in this manner, as they have already promised the Lord Inspector on the 10th of February of this year. 38 As far as their dissociation from the decadent church is concerned, we have urgently requested and earnestly advised that they should return to the same, to which they have responded with a written statement: [cf. b. below]. “Since all of us will surely be eager to oppose the decay of true Christianity on the basis of the Holy Scriptures, it should be possible, in consequence of this fellowship’s own statement signed by thirty-three of its members, to conclude this matter in a different way. Blumenstein, March 25, 1860. Johann Harder, elder.” b) Statement of the Brethren. "To the Church Council of Ohrloff and Halbstadt: In conformity with the request, we here declare that, as we stated in our letter of January 23 of this year to the honorable Area Administrative Office, each of us would have preferred to have remained in his own congregation. But because the ministers do not act in accordance with God’s Word, as we also said in our letter of January 23 of this year, and are prepared to prove, we found ourselves forced to secede from the church for the sake of our consciences and desire to establish our own church on the basis of the Mennonite confession of faith, as all other Mennonite congregations have. “In response to the statement of the five elders of March 11 of this year we answer: 240 THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH 1) “a. That the elders would not be able to prove to us that we interpret the Holy Scriptures in a one-sided manner and take certain passages out of context— and proofs from the Word of God that we do in fact err, have not been provided to us by them as we requested, b. That we do in fact recognize a church organization in accordance with the Word of God can be clearly seen from our letter of January 6; but the reason why we celebrated communion was that we did not find it sinful, in God’s Word, to do so and could not celebrate it for conscience sake in the company of unbelievers— drunkards