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

s, an order dated May 6, 1880, came to the Chortitza Volost §214 480 THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH asking them to inform the authorized individuals 273 of the Einlage M.B. Church that their members would be recognized and treated as Mennonites by birth in the same way as members of the older Mennonite churches. Thereby the enemies of the church had again been humiliated and had not improved their image. “The Molotschna Mennonite officials had acted more wisely on this issue and had perceived the root of the issue more adequately” (Epp). (Cf. Confession of Faith 1900/1902, legal German-Russian Addendum, pp. 56, 57.) b) Since we do not have access to the document from 1880, we will pass over a period of 16 years and quote a German translation of an identical document. 274 §214(2) At the last moment, because of unexpected events concerning the M.B. Church in another province we are able to bring the following document in the original. a) “The Ministry of the Interior of the Ekaterinoslav Provincial Government, Department I, Table 2, March 22, 1880, No. 1074. To the Ekaterinoslav District Police Office. In the process of gathering information concerning the number of Baptists in the Ekaterinoslav Province the Chortitza Volost administration included in the list of Baptists several persons who consider themselves to be Mennonites. As a result of complaints by church leaders about this report Minister Johann Siemens, deacons Peter Friesen, Gerhard Sawatzky and Peter Froese, Elder Aron Lepp and a member of the brotherhood, Abraham Unger, have presented printed copies of their confession of faith, the Hon. Governor of the Province requested on the 14th of January of this year under No. 126 an explanation from the Department of Religious Affairs concerning foreign confessions: ‘Is it proper to recognize such persons as Baptists’? The Department of Religious Affairs upon examining of the aforesaid request of the Hon. Governor of the Province under No. 126 explained in a memorandum No. 936 on the 6th of March of this year that, since the above-mentioned persons, having presented a printed confession of faith in accordance with the teaching of the Mennonite Brethren Church, deny that they belong to the sect of Baptists,— he, therefore, does not find sufficient reason for the transferring of such persons against their will from one tolerated confession 275 to another one ; at the same time he added that religious dissent of the above-mentioned persons from other Mennonites is irrelevant, because according to article 903, Code of Laws, vol. XI, part I Mennonites excercise matters of faith without obstruction according to their church affiliation and customs. “About this the Provincial Government, informing the Police Office of it, orders that the above explanation be communicated to the The M.B. Church 1873-1885 481 Chortitza Volost a dminis tration, and that the above-named persons be notif