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

the Mennonite Brethren Church in the Molotschna. (Cf. here the special section, "Non-resistance Issue and Emigration.”) a) The time had come, according to David Schellenberg, for the Mennonites of Russia to make a decision concerning service to the state as an alternative to military service. The ensuing restlessness resulted in an emigration movement to America, despite the fact that Adjutant General (later Count) Totleben, sent by the Tsar in highest official capacity, attempted through personal intervention to dissuade the Mennonites from leaving. And so many of the members of the M.B. Church decided to leave the country, that had till then been their father- land, in order to establish new homes across the seas. (It must be mentioned that the reports from the Einlage congregation do not make mention of this matter. Originally fewer members emigrated from there, 292 §225 496 THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH and then none as significant for the life of the church as was the case in the Molotschna.) The pain of parting, both among those going and those remaining, was very great. Many brothers and sisters were especially sorry to see Elder Abraham Schellenberg emigrate. “However, he felt released from his responsibilities here. He attempted to set everything in order as best he could. He was convinced that God had given him another task. When he was asked to justify leaving the church, he intimated that among other things he was comforted by the fact that Br. Johann Regehr (Klippenfeld) and Br. Poettker (Fuerstenau), ministers of the Word, and Franz Janzen (Pordenau) and Cornelius Neufeld (Neukirch), deacons, and a third of the members of the church, were going with him.” 293 To the author, Br. Abraham Schellenberg gave the following reasons for leaving: first, his concern, even conviction, that religious freedom would be taken from all alien church denominations, a view he later declared to have been in error; secondly, that he had “become too heavy a burden to his brethren in his capacity as a leader.” The honorable and dear brother possesses a large measure of energy and ability to dominate. In America he had a similar experience. This he shared with the author in the Kuban area, where they met in 1886-1887 when Schellenberg returned from America for a visit eight years after emigrating. He admitted humbly and with joy that the blossoming of the M.B. Church, especially in Rueckenau, had exceeded all his expectations. He and others would rather be here and would have returned, if their homes, duties and interests had not been in America, and if they could have regained their Mennonite rights (which is impossible). b) The regulating of the spiritual ministry by Abraham Schellenberg before his emigration. Under the leadership of Abraham Schellenberg, a council of brethren met in Rueckenau on December 27, 1878. Br. Johann J. Fast, who had previously lived in Schoenau and Halbstadt and died in R