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

removal of several walls), and Spat, with an older and smaller structure. The other groups are Annovka (with a school building that serves as a meeting house), Baschlitschna, and Tokultschak. The leadership of this church consisted (about 1905) of the following: Elder David Duerksen (formerly a public school teacher), Abram Klaas Kroeker, Jakob Hiebert, Dietrich Doerksen, Peter Klassen (graduate of the Ohrloff Secondary School, formerly a public school teacher) ; deacons: Jakob Hiebert, Johann Dick, Johann Rahn. VII. The Mennonite Brethren Church of Kotliarevka (i.e. Memrik) Province of Ekaterinoslav, District of Bachmut (Postal Address: Shelannaia, Province of Ekaterinoslav) 1. Our information about the origin and the life of this group of brethren comes from their elder, Br. Isaak Fast, who died in 1909. (He was the son of the well-known Peter Fast, preacher at Taschtschenak, Friedensfeld, who died in Naumenko.) The report was written in February, 1902; we are using the report freely, with some additions from other sources. The mother church of the Molotschna (volosts of Halbstadt §252 558 THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH and Gnadenfeld) purchased property for the landless among them in the District of Bachmut at Memrik. Among the settlers who migrated there were also some twenty-eight families from the Rueckenau M.B. Church. Among these were the brethren Isaak Fast, who two years earlier had been selected as minister of the Word, and Jakob Doerksen (now assistant elder), who had been assigned to the deacon ministry. In the fall of 1885 the brethren Franz Nickel and Wilhelm Loewen, on behalf of Elder David Schellenberg, arranged what was necessary for them to function as an affiliated church group. The brethren Isaak Fast and Jakob Doerksen were confirmed as ministers, Br. Aron Friesen as deacon, and the above-mentioned Isaak Fast was entrusted with the leadership. When in the fall of 1885 each settler had erected his own shelter, the meetings could be held in homes by turn according to a prepared list (as was the custom in the Molotschna) in the ten villages, even though the buildings were rather small. Until then the meetings had been held in sheds and mud huts. The Lord acknowledged His little flock, which lived together in peace and love, and soon it became apparent that God was “building Zion.” Sinners were converted and by baptism were added to the church, so that by New Year’s of 1886 there were already thirty-five members. One year later the number had increased to fifty-two. The year 1887 was one of special blessings, agriculturally, for the District of Bachmut. The homes, the majority of which were small, could not nearly accommodate the congregation at the Sunday services, and many persons were, therefore, forced to stay away. It was generally recognized that a meeting house was necessary if the entire cause was not to suffer. But how to acquire one? That was the important que