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

c.) 2. The election took place in Jakob Reimer’s home in Gnadenfeld. On June 2, Heinrich Huebert, in the name of the church, informed all the elders of the election in writing, appending the election list to his letter. At the same time all of the elders were invited for June 5 to the home of Jakob Reimer where "we want to raise our hearts and hands to invoke the blessing of our God and Lord and our eternal Rock, who has come to save sinners, upon our ministers.” (According to Pastor Dobbert and Jakob Reimer of Gnadenfeld.) In spite of the fact that no elder, not even the one from Ohrloff, followed this invitation, 41 the confirmation of the first spiritual leader of the M.B. Church had nevertheless in principle taken place publicly before the whole Mennonite brotherhood through this act. Exactly how the “confirmation” of the first ministers took place, is not known to us with any certainty. We have been told that the old Brother Franz Klassen of Elizabethtal, probably the oldest member of the fellowship, who was soon afterwards confirmed as deacon, laid hands upon the candidates on behalf of the congregation amidst his prayers and those of the congregation. Twenty-seven brothers were registered as voters. Claassen, Cornelssen and Koop are not even mentioned. With the consent of the congregation, these imposed a penance upon themselves, to judge themselves quite in accordance with Claassen’s character, publicly, for their false move taken on February 10. (However, see the critical footnote to the election list, §157). 3. The Office of Elder in the M.B. Church. Among the four candidates: Jakob Becker of Rudnerweide, Heinrich Huebert of Liebenau, August Srauss of Waldheim and Adreas Voth 42 of Pastva, the votes were divided as follows: Huebert, twenty-four, Election of Ministers 243 Becker, sixteen, Strauss, three and Voth, eleven. Every voter, therefore, had voted twice. Even the candidates themselves had voted. According to Reimer’s diary, Huebert and Becker were “accepted as their ministers from the hand of the Lord.” It also stated that Brother Becker stepped down from his office in August of 1863 on the advice of the brethren, probably as a consequence of the aberrations of the “free” movement, which we will describe in greater detail below, and, with Brother Simon Harms, was elected as an “administrator” (in accordance with I Cor. 12:28), very likely for the purpose of organizing the emigration to the Kuban which was then just beginning. Thereupon Brother Jakob Reimer of Gnadenfeld was made Brother Huebert’s assistant, as was Brother Bernhard Penner of Gnadenfeld later (now, after many vagaries, an Adventist). Heinrich Huebert was considered the first minis ter or “elder” and was formally given the title of "elder” considerably later through a subsequent solemn prayer of dedication by the congregation under the leadership and laying on of hands of the later Brother Johann Johann Fast of R