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

18 1. During this period it was essentially the brethren Johanfi J. Fast and Abraham Schellenberg who had a formative influence on the church, and, for a time, Christian Schmidt, 285 Philipp Isaak, David Schellenberg and Johann Wieler as well. (Johann Wieler was a teacher in the secondary school at Halbstadt from 1879 to 1883, after which he served as an itinerant minister for several years with the "Petersburg Brethren,” especially with Colonel Paschkov and the Russian evangelicals. He did this without the consent of the M.B. Conference. Later he went to Rumania, where he died in Bucharest in 1890.) Again we make free use of the reminiscences of Br. David Schellenberg and others. Elder Heinrich Huebert, who had lived in Blumenort a number of years, settled in the Kuban permanently in 1873. In his place Br. Abraham Schellenberg, who had become more and more active in teaching and leading since his call to the ministry in 1869, was elected to the position of associate elder. §219 2a. The work of the church thus progressed under the blessing of God for the next six years. Abraham Schellenberg ’s faithful co-workers where Johann J. Fast, Johann Regehr (Klippenfeld), and Johann Poettker (Fuerstenau) as ministers, and Franz Janzen (Pordenau) and Cornelius Neufeld (Neukirch) as deacons, and Philipp Isaak. "During these years there were many difficulties, but also times of great blessings.” In the autumn of 1875 Abraham Schellenberg was elected elder, and in the spring of 1876 Elder Huebert of the Kuban ordained him. §220 2b. The land controversy between those owning little or no land and those having full or partial landholding rights occasioned a great deal of difficulty in the church. "Individual members have suffered in their spiritual life because of this. However, the effects of the controversy were finally overcome within the Mennonite Brethren Church through brotherly, loving admonition and public discussion” and, in the end, through the decision prohibiting any of the brethren anywhere from taking part in the controversy that was causing such deep turmoil in the The M.B. Church 1873-1885 491 entire Mennonite community in the Molotschna. But the issue was committed to the hands of our sovereign Lord on the part of our church, and the difficulty within the Mennonite Brethren Church was overcome. (About 1890 the crisis had passed throughout the Molotschna area.) 3. As we have seen, it was during this period that the question of §221 the relationship of the Mennonite Brethren to the Baptists was raised. “This was occasioned by the beloved Baptist preacher, Br. August Liebig, for a time an itinerant minister, and actually the leading minister in Einlage, who had proved a great blessing by helping our churches in may ways.” “He especially helped us to conduct our deliberations in an orderly manner.” There were serious negotiations, especially at the annual general conference in May, 1876, i