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

tiate themselves from the rural churches in a few things. They have organs [which were then absent in the rural churches but are now to be found nearly everywhere]. b) Let us now turn to our church services. In all of our churches there is only one service on Sundays and holidays. 50 In all the rural congregations the preparatory church service for the communion service takes place a week before, while the thanksgiving sermon takes place a week later. Only in Danzig does the preparatory service take place the Prussia 69 afternoon before, and the thanksgiving sermon the same afternoon as the communion service. [The same is still true of the Mennonite Church of Russia.] c) In the rural congregations the church service begins between 9 and 10 a.m. Usually three songs are sung at the beginning during which the congregation, whose members often live miles away and have to traverse difficult roads, gather. The current song leader [Vorsaenger] determines the choice of songs, announces, and intones the number. Each congregation has a number of these song leaders who are chosen from its midst and who serve in sequence. At the close of the third song, often the well-known: “Jesus Christ, we are here” [or: “Dearest Jesus, we are here”], or sometimes before if the elder deems it appropriate, he, together with the minis ters and deacons, enter the church from their room and greet the congregation upon entry with the words: "Peace be with you!” Having arrived at their places, they kneel down for prayer, the one delivering the prayer kneeling before the chair closest to the pulpit. After they stand up and the singing ends the sermon begins. The Biblical selections of the Lutheran Church are very often used as the text, most often the Gospels; the epistle of the Sunday is also often discussed in the introduction. However, this is not a hard and fast rule, and the choice of text is left to the speaker. Between the introduction and the reading of the text, the minister summons the congregation to a silent prayer on its knees; a similar prayer is performed after the congregational or church prayer [our earlier Russian Mennonite “Thanksgiving”: a beautiful compilation of Psalms, verses of songs, and petitions, etc.] and the Lord’s Prayer. The benediction is spoken at the conclusion and the service closed with a few verses. In many churches the benediction is spoken only after the last verse has been sung by the departing congregation. The sermon rotates in a regular sequence between the elder and the rest of the ministers of the church. . . . The services in the urban congregations are similar. Appendix 3b Conference activities, Home and Foreign Missions of the Menno- nites in Germany. According to Rev. H. G. Mannhardt’s Jahrbuch (Yearbook), etc. of 1888, among others: a) ”... In many congregations one finds . . . the hospital or poor house next to the church, in which the old, the frail and those church mem