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

rary to the fundamental doctrine of Christianity, morals and civil order . . . [The central government has decided this matter without asking the question, which of the two parties were "the real Mennonites,” but accepted both “as Mennonites.” Compare above #105, footnote and “Confession of Faith” 1900/1902, administrative-juridical postscript, “C,” “Statement of the Ministry of Interior," 1880 and 1896.] § 160(2) 5(2) . In respect to the Council of Church Leaders [cf . above, under #15 Prussian Mennonites, “Council of Church Leaders”] Klaus, on page 263, quotes from a memorandum of the “Friends of Jerusalem,” the brethren Lange and others (see #51 and #52) as follows: “In a special document [the church elders] represented themselves to the govern- mental authorities, without the permission and authority of the congregations, as a religious body possessing high authority and the power to direct, rule, and judge the entire brotherhood. Until today [probably an error in translation: ‘until then?’] discussions concerning the general welfare naturally belonged within the sphere of activities of the Council of Church Leaders; their resolutions, however, could not at all be implemented without the prior consent of the congregations. [Today, and for some time already, the practice is again that of the original Anabaptists.] No elder, as the empowered representative of his flock, had the right to grant his consent or signature to a measure which had not previously been approved by the parish church. The Council of Church Leaders, on the contrary, as is evident from its change in name to ‘Kirchenkonvent’ [cf. further documents of 1827 and 1828!], assumed the role of a body independent of the congregations.” The document of 1851, mentioned by Klaus above, does not establish the “Kirchenkonvent”— even the “Comptoir of Foreign Settlers” in Ekaterinoslav writes, on Dec. 9, 1827, to the “Molotschna Mennonite Council of Divines,” and on May 24, 1828, a ‘most respectful’ resolution is conveyed to this "Comptoir” by the same “Molotschna Mennonite Council of Divines”— but merely enlarges its authority in a rather un-Mennonite manner, establishing it in very obscure terms. It was finally given force (according to Franz Isaak, Die Molotschnaer Documentary Supplements 357 Mennoniten, page 122) “after lengthy debates in the church” [therefore not in ‘secret!’], on April 7, 1851, in the following decision of the elders”: “We beseech the Area Administrative Office to present this our submission to His Excellency, the Chairman of the Supervisory Commission, as our answer to their official instruction [!!] of February 6, 1850, under No. 22 [thus more than a year had transpired before there was compliance], with the addition that we now and in the future fully recognize and agree with the Gnadenfeld Mennonite Church [cf. #50], that the churches of the Molotschna Mennonite District abide, in respect to religious cases of