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

ring the afternoon, and the congregation supported the motion. At two o’clock the congregation was again assembled. After a song and prayer, the chairman asked whether the election should be determined by a majority vote; the suggestion was approved. Br. Benzien and the old Br. Johann Wieler (school teacher, father of Gerhard and Johann Wieler) stepped into a side room in order to receive the votes (an old Mennonite election procedure). After the election, having received a majority of the votes, Br. Abraham Unger was appointed elder. 251 Abraham Unger had received 21 votes, Aron Lepp 9, and Peter Friesen 6. It is evident from this small number of actual votes that a number of brethren still did not participate. “This is how the church was provided with elders and teachers.” But because divergent sentiments and views prevailed among the members, and because the Word of God was being interpreted in various ways, things did not go so well, and the situation still left much to be desired. “But the Lord, who had begun this work, knew also how to carry it further.” 2. Johann Gerhard Oncken a) In 1869 Brother Oncken (founder and elder of the Hamburg Baptist Church) came from Hamburg and visited the Old and New Danzig brethren (cf. #149) in Southern Russia. He sought to unite the brethren who preached the Word in the Einlage Church. Since Aron Lepp had resigned from his office as teacher during Br. Oncken’s stay, the church found it necessary to elect a minister again. But Br. Lepp was elected again. A meeting was scheduled for October 18, 1869, in Einlage, to be held in the home of Br. Unger. Here Br. Oncken ordained the brethren §200 462 THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH Abraham Unger as elder, Aron Lepp as minister, and Cornelius Unger and Benjamin Nickel as deacons for the Einlage M.B. Church (cf. #96); likewise Br. Karl Benzien was ordained as minister for the Baptist Church which, consisting of members of non-Mennonite origin, had been established in the Tschomoglas Colony. Unfortunately, Br. Oncken could stay only ten days among the Einlage and Tschomoglas brethren. The Molotschna brethren wanted to have him in their midst as well, but since winter was at hand and the seventy-year-old man had to make the return journey by water and coach, without a travelling companion, he hurried home “and the church was left to itself and continued to work as well as it could.” b) Oncken ’s account of his journey. Fortunately we have Oncken’s own narrative concerning this visit and his very clear analysis of the relationship between Mennonite Brethren and Baptists, about which false assertions have been made to this very day— either out of ignorance or intentionally. It is very interesting to note, that whereas Liebig was arrested in 1866, Oncken preached in the churches of Chortitza and Schoenwiese in 18691 Oncken writes, in the Missionsblatt der Gemeinde getaufter Christen (1869, page 180ff), as follows: