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

the spiritual leaders of our Mennonite sister churches refuse to marry the non-baptized. Marriage is only a “church ordinance,” not a command of Christ. By refusing them marriage, they force many people to submit to baptism, which is a command of Christ, under false pretences; and thereby they degrade “God’s command” (command to baptize) and distort its purpose for the benefit and honor of a “bishop’s command” (command to marry), which, in our country, also has the character of a civil act; for unfortunately, there as yet is no possibility for us Protestants of foreign extraction to consummate a legal marriage without the benefit of a legally recognized minister. At a wedding, we ministers are the officials of the Russian State; in the biblical sense we are nothing less than empowered agents of the couple’s parents or their substitutes, i.e., the family of the couple to be married, this the more so among us Mennonites since the community is in fact a very large family through natural descent and legal status. In place of the two families of §137 304 THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH the couple, we speak the blessing over them, to which the praying congregation, acting as the extended family, speaks its amen as a witness to these important proceedings. However, as representatives of the Christian Church, whose children— if not members 104 — these two in fact are, we share a word from the Scriptures with them, indicating how marriage can become marriage “in the Lord” and admonish them to seek their souls’ salvation; that is all. Marriage is sanctified (in the sense of Ephesians 5 and parallel passages) only to the extent that the couple, His children, contract it “in the Lord,’’ or subsequently become Christians and renew the marriage “in the Lord.” The most earnest and honest efforts of our believing Mennonite elders and ministers, and their believing 105 church members, to baptize only upright individuals will never be realized as long as the right to marry is dependent on baptism. According to the author’s conviction, this association of baptism with marriage is in principle the only non-Mennonite, non-evangelical practice in the household of our sister churches and, in a sense, renders them “state churches” in that full civil rights (the right to marry and whatever is connected with it) are made dependent on church membership through baptism. If we had civil marriages, then this approach would not apply, but now it is completely justified. b) Furthermore, it has been said that the marriage of unbaptized individuals is against Russian civil law! It is a known fact to the central civil authorities that the M.B. Church has departed from the practice of the Krimmer Mennonite Church in marrying unbaptized couples. The state has declared through its highest and most competent authority, the Ministry of the Interior, Department for Spiritual Matters, 1880 and 18% (November 25, No. 4731), that “these r