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

tc., the ministers, if necessary, act as representatives of the elders; and 3) the ‘deacons’ or ministers at matters of church-stewardship and public welfare. “To the articles 14 and 18. 1. Persons who through the holy ordinances have been accepted as prescribed by the Mennonite evangelical doctrine of faith are considered to be church members. 2. Children of church members who have been entered into the birth register of the congregation are considered as ‘adherents of the church’ (standing under spiritual watch-care and instruction-catechumens) and receive full membership only through admission in the prescribed order as given in point one. 3. Membership is lost: a) through a declaration of voluntary withdrawal from the congregation; b) through excommunication on the basis of church discipline, until such time as the one rebuked will mend his ways. 4. The age-level at which members are given the right to participate in the brotherly deliberations of an ecclesiastical-spiritual or ecclesiastical administrative nature, every congregation determines according to its regulations and custom. 5. As representatives of the church before the authorities or in other affairs of the church, members are elected who are not under twenty-five years of age. “To the articles 15, 16, 17. “The brotherhood meetings pertaining to all church-administrative questions are called, whenever necessary, by the elder or his representative, according to the present traditional Mennonite practice. These deliberative assemblies, called according to the established order, are legal, regardless of the number of participants. All questions are decided by a definite majority of members present. "To article 3. Concerning religious communions. The Mennonites would prefer to substitute the designation ‘fellowship’ for ‘society’ since the former is more in keeping with the congregational and spiritual linguistic pattern of the existing translations of the Holy Scriptures. 640 MATTERS OF FAITH [Here it should be mentioned that, upon the investigations of several conference-members of the Conference in Schoensee, the ‘Children’s Worship Services’ 23 have also been incorporated into the list of ‘wishes.’] II ■‘Concerning Church-Registers” (Project) “To His High Excellency, the Minister of the Interior, through the Department of Ecclesiastical Affairs. “From the General Conference of Mennonite Churches in Russia, October, 1910, at Schoensee, District of Berdiansk, Province of Taurida. “Most Humble Submission "In March of this year the authorized representatives of our churches— the Church-Elder Abraham Goerz and the Ministers Heinrich Braun and David Epp— presented themselves to the director of the department for Ecclesiastical Affairs of foreign denominations in matters related to church-registers in Mennonite congregations. Two copies of our church-registers were presented to the Director at that time. It becam