Perilous Journey: The Mennonite Brethren in Russia 1860-1910, John B. Toews, 1988

pp, spiritual revival had already begun on the Russian steppes. NOTES 1 David Epp Diary (Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba. 2 The colonists usually used this shortened form. Its full title was "Das Fuersorge Komitee der auslaendischen Kolonisten Sued-Russlands." a David Epp Diary, February 6, 1838. * April 10, 1838. 5 April 17, 1838. 6 April 24, 1838. 7 May 1,1838. H May 8, 1838; May 12, 1838. 9 In the later decades of the nineteenth century it was customary to hear the entire confession of faith two or three times before the baptismal ceremony. Approximately half the document was read each Sunday. Epp's report of six readings probably reflects that practice. 10 May 22,1838. 11 Septembers 1837. 9 12 January 27, 1838. 13 February 27, 1838. 14 Ibid. 15 March 3, 1838. is March 6, 1838. " August 21, 1838. is February 22, 1842. 1 9 July 2, 1842. 20 December 26, 1838. 2! December 31, 1841. 22 December 27, 1842. 2 » December 26, 1837. 24 July 14, 1838. 25 March 26, 1838. 26 November 6, 1841. 27 November 20, 1841. 2 » March 6, 1838; April 28, 1842; September 23, 1842; March 21, 1843. 29 October 22, 1838; October 30, 1838; December 7, 1841; January 10, 1843. •30 February 22, 1842. 31 November 15, 1841. 32 July 2, 1841. On illegitimacy see also April 23, 1839; August 17, 1841. 33 March 5, 1839. 34 August 7, 1841. 35 April 20, 1838; September 14, 1841. 36 July 31,1837. 37 Ibid.. 38 July 18, 1837. 39 Ibid. 40 March 12, 1839. 41 April 5, 1839. 42 February 19, 1842. 43 April 15, 1842. 44 May 3-5, 1842. « July 2, 1842. 46 July 16, 1842. 47 September 23, 1842. 4H September 24, 1842. 49 August 8, 1837. 50 July 31, 1837; August 28, 1837. 51 November 7, 1837; September 7, 1841. 52 September 5, 1837; September 26, 1837. 53 July 15, 1837. 54 January 27, 1838. S« February 27, 1838. 58 March 6, 1838. 57 December 31, 1841. 58 December 27, 1842. 10 CHAPTER II EXPANDING HORIZONS There was a sense of isolation and loneliness associated with David Epp's struggle for faith and discipleship. Villages, not to mention settlements, rarely knew what was happening beyond their borders. Judging from his jottings, Epp was unaware of earlier expressions of Mennonite piety or even of contemporary spiritual aspirations in the nearby Molotschna settlement. 1 There was a sense in which Chortitza, as the oldest Mennonite colony in Russia, clung to a narrower religious-cultural tradition. There appeared to be contentment with what had been and what was. Perhaps it was not so much resistance to change as a conservative view of what it really meant, in the words of St. Augustine, to build the City of God. David Epp was apparently not aware that a group of his co- religionists were taking the City of God very seriously. The Kleine Gemeinde had emerged in the Molotschna settlement in 1812 amid less than auspicious circumstances. 2 Though