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

in his new homeland and yet of strong Mennonite convictions); and the elder of the "Krimmer M.B. Church” (which had come out of the “Kleine Gemeinde”)— Jakob Wiebe. Although all of these men (in our opinion) set themselves apart from us in their narrow partisan Mennonite tendency, we cannot help but acknowledge their deep and honest piety and the genuine sincerity of their convictions. In a similar way, the emigration was zealously and fanatically propagandized by Abram Thiessen 17 from Neu-Halbstadt in Schoenau who was philosophically a complete stranger to the men just mentioned. Thiessen was a man of great capabilities, but had fallen away from Christianity entirely. He was a child of the "Kleine Gemeinde” which, because of its severe orthodoxy (exco mmuni cation and expulsion with the severest consequences because of a love offering for the Bible Society— factum est!!) had driven him into atheism and materialism. The “Kleine Gemeinde” was later demolished largely by him so that no trace of her is left either in Molotschna or all of Russia. 12. The spiritual leaders for emigration from the Chortitza area §270 were: the elder of the congregation of the “Grand Duke’s land,” Johann Wiebe, 18 and the elder of the Bergtal congregation, Gerhard Wiebe. 13. The following congregations went to America: the whole Bergtal §271 Colony, Jakob Wiebe’s “Krimmer M.B. Gemeinde,” the greatest part of 592 THE STATE §272 the Alexanderwohl congregation with all (?) its ministers and the Hutterite Mennonites. Of the other elders who went along there was Benjamin Ratzlaff, a retired elder in his high eighties from the Rudnerweide congregation. 14. There remained in Russia: the elders, most of the ministers and by far the greatest part of the congregations in Chortitza and Kronsweide, Ohrloff-Halbstadt— Neukirch, Lichtenau— Petershagen, Margenau— Schoensee, Pordenau, Rudnerweide, Gnadenfeld, and the small Waldheim congregation. 15. It was not until 1879 that an elder 19 of the M.B. Church together with quite a few ministers and church members, left. The elder was Abraham Schellenberg from the Molotschna who became instrumental in assembling and organizing the Mennonite Brethren on the other side of the ocean. (See above: “Molotschna M.B. Church 1872-1885.”) 16. As late as 1874 an opponent to the emigration explained its significance as follows: the most extreme element, incapable of a God-willed and God-permitted closer association with Russian society, using the pretense of the inviolability of the religious conscience which the Russian law guaranteed to the Mennonites [naturally only in so far as "religious conscience” does not constitute propaganda in Russia!], and which also hinders its fellow Mennonites in this association, moves away. The Mennonite sheepstall, which is far too low, too narrow, and too confined, is set in motion and ventilated. Those who have left for America have the greatest aversi