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

with Stunden. The migrants introduced both practices to Gnadenfeld. 35 In his memoirs one of the participants, Jacob Bekker, notes that the conferences were held "every Saturday afternoon during full moon so that people from other villages could drive home in the moonlight." 36 Bekker also writes that he often "traveled together with Pastor Wuest in wagons loaded with people," 37 en route to a missions conference. Apparently there was frequent contact between Wuest and this extension of his Berdyansk ministry. More and more Mennonite names were gradually added to a 33 diffuse group of individuals known as the "Wuest brotherhood." They agreed with the content of Wuest's preaching and were attracted by the lively style of his meetings. In the Molotschna villages there were men like Heinrich Schmidt of Pastwa, Friedrich Lange of Gnadenfeld, Abraham Matthies of Rudnerweide, and the Gnadenfeld minister Nikolai Schmidt. In the city of Berdyansk Wuest counted Jakob Buhler and Leonhard Sudermann among his supporters. P.M. Friesen prints a long list of names associated with the Gnadenfeld congregation, all of whom belonged to the Wuest fraternity as late as 1 858-1 859. 38 Among these there were the "children of grace," Johann Claassen, Jakob Reimer and Wilhelm Bartel. 39 When visiting the Gnadenfeld area, Reimer's house usually served as Wuest's headquarters. 40 At first Wuest's itinerant ministry placed him behind Mennonite pulpits. When this was forbidden by the elders he resorted to home visitation. In this setting there was Wuest the revivalist and preacher of free grace, Wuest the mission's advocate, and after 1850 Wuest the teacher of discipleship. Within the Gnadenfeld constituency Wuest's legacy remained intact until 1860. Was it possible that while Wuest was preaching his followers sat too close to the front and were overwhelmed by his rich full voice? Were there not many Gnadenfeld brothers and sisters who, thanks to a long-standing pietistic heritage, already knew something of grace and justification? Maybe Wuest preached too categorically. His demand for a dramatic penitential agony climaxing in a secure knowledge of divine indwelling and continuous joy possibly made the older Gnadenfeld piety, though very similar in form, appear a trifle obsolete. Later oral tradition affirmed that Wuest's preaching brought Lutherans, Mennonites and Wuerttembergers together in Gnadenfeld not only for fellowship but also for communion celebrations. By 1860 ecclesiastical authorities no longer tolerated such practices. Communion participation was not only limited to Gnadenfeld church members but accompanied by the sacrosanct notion that it could only be administered by church leaders. Wuest's Mennonite disciples apparently desired more frequent communion and even suggested it be held in various homes. Some believed the service should not include those members of the community whose religious commit