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

promise of religious liberty promised to you and your descendants, whereby you may observe your doctrines and ecclesiastical practices unencumbered.’ And b) regarding the recognition by the entire Council of Church Leaders, we reply: that Mennonites have never 185 held to a consistorial system of church government. Especially that we should now need the recognition of the elders of the local churches for our existence as a church, we find neither in the Old nor New Testament. Rather it is written in the Old Testament: ‘If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.’ Jeremiah 15:19. And in the New Testament it is written: ‘Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them’ (Eph. 5:11). In short, with regard to our right to establish a church, we have set forth our arguments in the Promemoria to His Royal Majesty, the most gracious monarch. Menno Simons’ Foundation, Book 1, Page 148 speaks ‘Of the commissioning of ministers’ [Cf. #172c, above], which Claassen clearly explained in answering the summons of the Area Administrative Office. We preached the Word of God, and through the preaching of the Gospel an evangelical chinch has come into being, which according to the Word of God has teachers, deacons, helpers and rulers. Eph. 4:11; I Cor. 12:28. f) Believers who have been baptized into one body upon confession of their faith by immersion in water, who have judged themselves so that they be not judged, receive the Lord’s Supper. Marriages take place in the Lord, according to the Word of God, as stated in the Confession of Faith of the Anabaptist Mennonite Church, Article 10, on Marriage [cf. #108a. Harder’s Document of November 12, 1862], g) Hereby we think we have proved that our church is founded on a biblical basis, not on one of our own choosing, corresponding precisely with the foundations of Menno Simons and consequently 186 with the Word of God. Thus the elders have nothing to fear on our part, other than that their ungodly and shameless actions will be brought to light by us. We believe and Documentary Supplements 409 recognize that we are Mennonites to whom the privileges pertain and who live according to the rights granted to us. h) Therefore the Area Administrative Office and the Council of Church Leaders referred to must consider that it is not in their power, and is an amazing presumption on their part, to declare that marriages performed in our church are invalid, and that the children born to the same are to be regarded as illegitimate by the village administrations. 1) But that this explanation was an arbitrary action on the part of the church council, and that the Area Administrative Office circulated an order in all the villages of the Molotschna District, completely contrary to our rig