The two most prominent leaders of the church that came to be known as Mennonites were Dietrich (Dirk) Philips of Flanders (now part of Belgium) and Menno Simons of Friesland (northern part of Netherlands). These leaders did not establish a new faith, or a new church, but simply gathered together the remnant of the Waldensians in those regions who had been scattered and discouraged by persecution. From this base they preached the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ and church membership grew rapidly.

Both of these men wrote extensively and their writings are still available today. Because of the large circulation of Menno’s writings the church became known by his name, first Mennists then Mennonites. Other devotional writings produced in the early years of Mennonite history and also a Bible translation that went through at least 90 printings up to 1725. The leading translator of this Bible was Gerrit Brixius, a Mennonite elder of Groningen who was fluent in Greek, Hebrew and Latin as well as Dutch. The first edition of the complete Bible was printed in 1560 in Emden by Nicolas Biestkens, a Mennonite printer of Emden and for this reason this Bible is known as the Biestkens Bible. All of these publications were in the Dutch, or Netherlands, language, the language used in Mennonite worship services.

After the death of Menno and Dirk some divergences in practice began to cause friction between the Flemish and Frisian members. Basically, the Frisians felt the clothing worn by the Flemish was too fancy and the Flemish thought the homes of the Frisians were too fancy. Other factors arose, there were attempts at reconciliation, but eventually there was a division between the more strict part, called Flemish, and the more tolerant part, called Frisians, though the separation was no longer on stricltly ethnic lines.

In 1789 a group of 230 families of the Flemish group, attracted by Catherine II’s offer established a colony on the Chortitza River in Ukraine. Fifteen years later, members of the Frisian group founded a colony on the Molotschna River which soon grew to a population of 10,000.

These colonies, and others established later, were self-governing communities on Ukrainian soil. It felt like freedom, but was it really? In order to have land to farm, or to get employment, one had to be a member of the Mennonite church on that colony. The ministers and elders of the church became both the spiritual leaders and the secular governors. Under these conditions, there was no future for a young man on the colony who was not a church member, which was unthinkable, so baptism became a mere formality. Church members had to be careful what they said so as not to get into trouble with the ministers and elders, who were not accountable to anyone.

Apart from the lands given to foreigners, almost all Germans, there were large estates owned by the nobility and farmed by serfs. In 1762 Catherine owned 500,000 serfs and the Russian state another 2.8 million. Serfs were slaves, living in utter poverty with no possibility of gaining their freedom. In such conditions it was important for the Mennonites to be known as Germans and not to have much to do with Ukrainians. There must have been a great temptation to develop a sense of ethnic pride, though it could be partly covered by an outward humility in relations with their fellow church members.

None of this sounds much like the faith described by Menno and Dirk in their writings. So when a member of the church had a printing made of Menno’s writings the church leaders were alarmed. In August 10, 1835, they wrote a letter demanding that all copies of the book be surrendered and destroyed and that no one was permitted to own a copy. This was signed bu 29 elders and ministers. Their reasoning was that the book might fall into the hands of Russian officials or people of other faiths and cause trouble. It is more likely they were afraid of questions from their own people if the read the book and started to ask questions.

In the diminished spiritual condition of the Mennonite churches in Russia, some members were drawn to the preaching of powerful pietistic preachers from their Lutheran neighbours. In 1860 a group on the Molotschna Colony organized as the Mennonite Brethren church. In 1863 another group organized what became known as the Temple church, with the intention of going to Jerusalem to help rebuild the temple in preparation for the return of Christ. In 1870 Claes Epp began having revelations of the return of Christ and led a group of followers on the Great Trek into Asia where they would meet the Lord. These last two movements suffered many hardships and never achieved their goals.

These are a few brief examples of the sad spiritual state of the people in Ukraine and Russia who called themselves Mennonite on the eve of their departure for North America. That story will come in an upcoming article.