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

. If confrontation occurred at all, the issues were external and minor: closed communion; the Brethren flirtation with the Baptists; marriage across confessional lines; the reluctance of the Brethren to invite ministers from the Old Church. Dialogue finally did take place, but it began in Germany, not Russia. At first it was the Brethren who were primarily involved. The issue was their association with the Blankenburg Allianz conferences in Germany. Mennonite Brethren already attended these conferences in the 1890s and by 1900 some aspects of this theological orientation emerged at the Brethren annual conferences. A dissenting minority raised questions concerning the Brethren insistence that only immersed believers were elegible to share in communion. Some of the liberal elements joined the Allianz or at least cooperated with it. Generally speaking, the influence of the Allianz affected Brethren — Old Church relations positively. It was the Allianz concept of Gemeinschaft (fellowship) in its uniquely German connotation which helped to break down the barriers between the Russian Mennonites. The Allianz, by stressing the inner spirit and minimizing external form allowed like-minded Mennonites to cooperate on many fronts. An awareness of those socially outcast came not only came from F.W. Badeker's preaching tours and his ministry in Russia's northern exile camps and prisons but from the German models of old age homes, orphanages, deaf-mute schools and mental hospitals. In the new setting interested Mennonites joined together in the work of the Molotschna Tract Society, various relief committees, the support of evangelists in both Russian and Mennonite villages, tent missions and the distribution of broadranging devotional literature. After the Brethren joined the All-Mennonite Conference in 1906 they participated in discussions relating to support for foreign missions, Reiseprediger (itinerant preachers), forestry commando chaplaincies, and even discussion concerning a joint seminary to ensure better trained ministers. In 1910 H.J. Braun of the Brethren observed that both groups had identical views on Scripture, divorce, the oath, 86 congregational democracy, nonresistance and adult baptism. 21 It was time to admit that a "true vital Christianity" 22 now existed in the Old Church. When asked to explain Mennonite divisions to a representative of the Ministry of the Interior, the Gnadenfeld elder and veteran missionary Heinrich Dirks explained that the Kirchliche (Old Church) were Old Mennonites, the Brethren, Mennonites and the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren, New Mennonites. They agreed on the basic Christian issues: the new life in Christ and baptism of faith. Minor questions need not hinder unification. 23 Dirk's plea for unity in essentials reflects a rather vigorous discussion of several issues among members of the Old Church. What of the formalism associated with baptism, at times prac