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

Comies and others, and with the highest colonial authorities, the Supervisory Co mmis sion in Odessa. This resulted in the removal of, 10 or more correctly stated, the enforced resignation or withdrawal, of two of their elders, Warkentin and later Heinrich Wiens. However, the church still remained functional and later organized itself under three elders, and is known today as the combined churches of Lichtenau-Petershagen, Margenau, Schoensee, Pordenau and Alexanderkrone. 11 Originally it was as orthodox as the Kleine Gemeinde, which remained wholly Flemish in its teaching and church polity, whereas Bernhard Fast’s congregation in Ohrloff was considered to be bent on innovation and apostasy from the true Christian-Mennonite faith of the fathers. Rigid orthodoxy, aversion to education, opposition to cultural improvement and the absence of a deep piety had long been the distinguishing characteristics of the masses of this large church. Today the intellectual and spiritual boundaries have been largely displaced and erased. Consequently this verdict is no longer applicable, or at best only conditionally so. (Cf. “Documentary Supplement,” #59 & 61.) 4. Bernhard Fast’s very small congregation in Ohrloff thus became the progressive congregation both in cultural and partly also in religious matters, for a long time working closely with the Rudnerweide and Alexanderwohl congregations (#59 & 69). However, the fact that its members occupied positions of highest responsibility in the offices of the colony for many years during the time of Johann Comies, thus exercising a strong influence on the higher authorities, led to difficulties. However, the Ohrloff Elder Bernhard Fast, ordinarily a congenial, godly and intelligent man, often evidenced tendencies favoring ecclesiastical politics and a strong hierarchy, thus alienating the Frisian congregation of Rudnerweide, the old Flemish Alexanderwohl congregation as well as Gnadenfeld later on, so that these eventually gave more support to the 96 IN RUSSIA 1789-1860 “large congregation” in matters pertaining to the colony, where affairs of the church and local politics always tended to become intermingled. §39 5. It is Ohrloff’s great merit to have decisively worked toward progress in church and school, fostering a new vitality even before the Gnadenfeld congregation exerted its leading role in those areas in 1835-40. The founding of the Ohrloff Association School in the early 1820s was one of the first energetic efforts undertaken to improve the education of the Mennonites in Russia. §40 6. Tobias Voth, son of a minister in the Brenkenhofswalde-Franztal Mennonite congregation near Driesen in Mark Brandenburg (later “Gnadenfeld” in Russia), had, through his own efforts, become a well-qualified teacher and held a very desirable teaching position in a West Prussian city. In the early 1820s he was called by the "Ohrloff School Society” to open its new pr