The Mennonites
Definition
The Mennonites are a
group of Anabaptist denominations based on the teachings and tradition of Menno
Simons. They are one of the peace churches, which hold to a doctrine of
non-violence and pacifism. Their core beliefs, deriving from Anabaptist
traditions are:
1. Baptism of believers
is understood as threefold: Baptism by the spirit (internal change of heart),
baptism by water (public demonstration of witness), and baptism by blood
(martyrdom and asceticism).
2. Church discipline is
understood as threefold: Confession of Sins, Absolution of Sin, and
Re-admission of Sinner in the church.
3. The Lord's Supper as
Memorial, shared by baptized believers within the discipline of the church.
Mennonites strive to
live the meaning of the Bible as advice on how to conduct one's life rather
than viewing their faith as mere theory. [1]
The 1896 statement
of "Our Common Confession"
states:
The Conference
recognizes and acknowledges the Sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testament
as the Word of God and as the only and infallible rule of faith and life; for
"other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus
Christ." 1 Corinthians 3:11
In the matter of faith
it is therefore required of the congregations which unite with the Conference
that, accepting the above confession, they hold fast to the doctrine of
salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, baptism on
confession of faith, the avoidance of oaths, the Biblical doctrine of
non-resistance, and the practice of a Scriptural church discipline. [2]
During the sixteenth
century, the Mennonites and other Anabaptists were relentlessly persecuted. By
the seventeenth century, some of them joined the state church in the
Netherlands and persuaded the authorities to relent in their attacks. The
Mennonites outside the state church were divided on whether to remain in
communion with their brothers within the state church, and this led to a split.
Those against remaining in communion with them became known as the Amish, after
their founder Jacob Amman. Those who remained in communion with them retained
the name Mennonite.
Other disagreements over
the years have led to other splits; sometimes the reasons were theological,
sometimes practical, sometimes geographical. Mennonites in Canada and other
countries typically have independent denominations due to the practical
considerations of distance and, in some cases, language.
There are more than 20
different Mennonite groupings that are distinguished by a wide range of life
styles and religious practices. Some Mennonite communities conscientiously
reject the use of modern technology, such as electricity or motor transport.
Such Mennonites are often referred to as Old Order Mennonites (although the
term strictly refers to a particular church within that group) in order to
distinguish them from Mennonite denominations that fully accept modern
inventions. Some groups have retained their original German dialect, i.e.,
Plautdietsch.
Mennonites are prominent
among denominations in disaster relief, often being the first to arrive with
aid after hurricanes, floods and other disasters.
There are about one
million Mennonites worldwide, most of them in the United States and Canada.
Settlement in Eastern
Europe
Because of persecution
in their home countries, Anabaptists often had to migrate as the only means of
survival. As early as 1530, Dutch-North German Anabaptists—among them Menno
Simons—migrated to the Vistula Delta in what is today Poland, and from there
the Mennonites moved up along the Vistula River, in time even into Poland.
Until the middle of the 18th century, the surplus population was absorbed in
new settlements along the river. But these migrations had been relatively
small-scale. When Catherine the Great issued her Manifesto in 1763 inviting
farmers from Western countries to settle in the Ukraine, the Mennonites of
Prussia and Danzig were soon attracted, because they were continually
encountering restrictions in their economic and religious life. Later the matter
of exemption from military service became important. The approximate number
that emigrated to Russia in 1787-1870 was 1,907 families, with a total of some
8,000 persons. This constituted a true mass migration of Mennonites in
comparison with previous movements. Of this number about 400 families settled
at Chortitza, some 1,049 at Molotschna, some 438 at Samara, and 20 families
were reported to have gone to Vilna. [3]
Map of the Russian
Mennonite colonies in 1875. Source:
http://home.ica.net/~walterunger/S-Russia.htm
Some of the Swiss-South
German Mennonites—after having being expelled from Switzerland and the
Alsace—went to Galicia in 1784-85, and some later to Volhynia.
Emigration from
Central and Eastern Europe
When the Mennonites in
Russia and Prussia felt that they were losing their exemption from military
service again and encountered economic restrictions, some 18,000 of them left
Russia to settle in the United States and Canada. Although the Chortitza
settlement (Old Colony) was much smaller than the Molotschna settlement, it
furnished almost half of the emigrants; they were unwilling to accept a
compulsory alternative service program and objected to the Russification
inaugurated by the Russian government. Only few Prussian Mennonites joined this
migration whereas all the Swiss Volhynian Mennonites of Polish Russia joined;
half the Swiss Galician Mennonites came to America, and many of the Low German
Mennonites of Poland came to the United States as congregations.
An even larger migration
of Mennonites from Russia occurred after World War I when in 1922-30 some
25,000 Mennonites went to Canada (21,000), Mexico, Brazil, and Paraguay. The
reasons for this mass migration were the threat of complete disintegration of
the religious, cultural, and economic way of life of the Mennonites. A much
larger number would have escaped, had not the Second World War intervened.
During the German occupation of Ukraine in 1941-43 some 35,000 were evacuated
by the German army to be resettled in the Vistula area (Warthegau) where they
had come from some 150 years ago. Because of the outcome of the war, nearly two
thirds were forcibly repatriated by the Russian army in 1945-46, while some
12,000 found their way to Canada and South America. All the Mennonites of
Prussia and Poland fled in 1945 when the Russian army approached. A large
number of the Danzig and Prussian and some of the Galician Mennonites migrated
to Uruguay and Canada between 1948 and 1952.
Settlement in Alberta
Of the early Mennonite
immigrants, few came to Alberta directly. The first major group of Mennonite
settlers originated in Ontario. In 1893, Jacob Y. Shantz of Berlin, Ontario
(Kitchener) selected Didsbury, 80 km north of Calgary, as a suitable location
for a new Mennonite settlement, and in the following year 34 Waterloo County
residents established a colony in the area. In April 1901, Mennonite settlers
of "Old" Mennonite Church background from Waterloo County settled
nearby in the Carstairs-Didsbury area. Other settlers came from northern Iowa,
Indiana, and Michigan.
