Mennonite Brethren
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 300,000 | |
| Founder | |
| Peaceful Anabaptists | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| United States, Canada | |
| Religions | |
| Anabaptist | |
| Scriptures | |
| The Bible |
The Mennonite Brethren Church was established among German-speaking Mennonites in Russia in 1860, and has in more than 20 countries, representing well over 300,000 believers as of 2003.
Originating in the Mennonite movement, they were subsequently influenced by European pietism, which found its way into the Mennonite colonies of the southern Russian Empire. Mennonite immigrants from West Prussia who had been influenced by pietistic leaders transplanted those ideas to the large Molotschna colony. The pastor of a neighboring congregation, Eduard Wüst, reinforced this pietism. Wüst was a revivalist who stressed repentance and Christ as a personal savior, influencing Catholics, Lutherans and Mennonites in the area. He associated with many Mennonite leaders, including Leonhard Sudermann.
In 1859, Joseph Höttmann, a former associate of Wüst met with a group of Mennonites to discuss problems within the main Mennonite body. Their discussion centered on participating in communion with church members who were unholy or not converted and baptism of adults by immersion.
On January 6, 1860, this growing group of Mennonites influenced by a combination of Prussian Mennonite pietism, contacts with Moravian Brethren and indirectly through the influential preaching of Eduard Wüst, met in the village of Elisabeththal, Molotschna and formed the Mennonite Brethren Church. They felt the Mennonites had grown cold and formal, and were seeking greater emphasis on discipline, prayer and Bible study. The group presented a document to the elders of the Molotschna Mennonite Churches which indicated "that the total Mennonite brotherhood has decayed to the extent that we can no more be part of it" and fear the "approach of an unavoidable judgment of God." The immediate catalyst for the new organization was the discipline placed on a body of brethren who met to observe communion in a private home without the elders' sanction. The Mennonite Brethren were also in contact with and influenced by German Baptists J. G. Oncken and August Liebig.
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Wikipedia