When the Mennonites came to Waterloo County from Pennsylvania, the vast majority belonged to a unified Mennonite Church. They had the same faith and practice and worshipped together in a growing number of meeting houses as the community spread up through the county. And their core beliefs came down over several hundred years from the old Anabaptists, from Menno Simons.
The early Anabaptists and Mennonites believed in a radical discipleship to Jesus, as exemplified in his teachings (the Sermon on the Mount, for example) and his dealings with people. Fundamental were his humility and his service to others: he fed the hungry multitudes, he washed his disciples’ feet, he gave himself as a sacrifice to others. He called his followers to self-sacrifice, brotherhood, and communal service.
Donald Martin, a historian of the Old Order Mennonites and a distant relative of mine, suggests that their faith is grounded in the concept of Gelassenheit, which he defines as “an attitude that is ready to yield, abandon, or surrender personal desires before God and the community” or “non-assertive humility.” He argues that this principle shapes the understanding not only of religion, but of every aspect of daily life.
The community of the believers was at the core of everything, and to follow Jesus was to serve and submit to the community, to maintain peace and serenity. Also important was the notion of living a plain and non-ostentatious life, to get the work done without drawing attention to oneself or the community. This was, perhaps, a reaction against the revolutionary activities of some early Anabaptists, such as those in Münster, but it was also an interpretation of Jesus’ mission and ministry.
The church organization was remarkably democratic for the age. A community of Mennonites would meet together for simple worship in a home or a meeting house, with (admittedly only male) deacons, ministers, and bishops nominated from the membership of baptized believers and chosen by lottery (with the belief that God’s designated choice would be selected).
The fellowships held communion (with foot-washing and other rituals of humility and service) only a few times a year, but before communion there was always a service of preparation, in which individual members could voice concerns and troubles to the ministers of the church. If there was dissension or conflict within the community, communion was cancelled, and the ministers held conferences to address the concerns and to try to find agreement, compromise, and peace. If peace couldn’t be reached in the local community, the issues were taken to a conference of the ministry from the entire region, in order to access the wisdom of a broader community. In all of this discussion, the over-riding principle was humility and submission to the teachings and example of Jesus and the consensus of the community.
Andrew C. Martin (a 4th cousin and friend of mine) has studied and written extensively about traditional and Old Order Mennonite theology and spirituality. He calls traditional Mennonite religion an “embodied spirituality” and argues that it is very similar to medieval Benedictine monasticism in its attempt to manifest faith through discipleship in a simple life of humility, submission, pacifism, quiet worship, and service. It is a non-cloistered and non-celibate monasticism, but the focus, spirit, and intention are the same: to follow Jesus in humility, discipline, and service to others in a community of like-minded believers.
When the Mennonites came to Canada and for decades afterwards, they worked hard, dressed plainly, used simple technologies, and worshipped in simple buildings. The Mennonites didn’t really stand out from anybody else of that period: all pioneer women wore bonnets and simple long dresses, all pioneer men wore simple sturdy clothing, nobody wore neckties, and everybody drove horses and buggies and helped their neighbours. But the Mennonites stuck together (mostly marrying only within the church), built meeting-houses, worshipped and worked together, helped each other on their farms and in their businesses.
There were in fact two groups of immigrants who were separate from the main body of Mennonites:
1) The Tunkers (or River Brethren) believed in baptism by immersion (rather than sprinkling or pouring) and were already heavily influenced by Methodist revivalism in Pennsylvania in the 1780s. They stressed a crisis conversion, personal holiness, baptism by the holy spirit, and aggressive personal evangelism. Otherwise, their beliefs and practice were similar to the Mennonites. This group was very successful in the Niagara region and drew many members away from the main Mennonite Church; in Waterloo, they always had a presence, but their growth was much slower. After 1863, they became known as the Brethren in Christ; in 2018, they changed their name to Be in Christ Church Canada. For more information on the Tunkers, see “River Brethren / Tunkers / Be in Christ“.)
2) The Reformed Mennonites were a group that separated from the main body of Mennonites in Pennsylvania in 1812 and subsequently immigrated, first to Niagara, then to Waterloo County. This is a conservative group that has strong notions about what defines separation from the world and stresses the ban and shunning. Because they think they are the “true” church, they avoid all interaction with other Mennonites. They practice no sort of evangelism and wear plain clothing, but have adopted cars, electricity, and telephones. In 1948, there were 6 congregations in Ontario, with 3 in the Waterloo area: New Hamburg, Wellesley, and North Easthope. Today, only Stephensville (in Welland Township) and North Easthope are still functioning. The North Easthope congregation was organized in 1844; their meeting house is on Erbs Road east of Amulree.
It isn’t clear how devout the majority of the early Mennonite settlers were, how seriously they took or even understood their Anabaptist faith. What comes down to us are the various judgements from later groups with different emphases. The “awakened” Mennonite Church in the later nineteenth century deemed their forebears to be lax in their devotion and spirituality, focusing on legalistic lifestyle issues rather than personal piety and religious devotion. The Old Orders, on the other hand, thought the earlier immigrants were lax in church discipline, allowing members to become too worldly both in lifestyle and in religious beliefs.
We do know, however, that the first meeting house (Eby’s) was built in what is now Kitchener in 1813, and the second (Hagey’s) in Preston in 1814: before this, congregations met in homes. Our ancestor Joseph Bechtel was ordained minister in Preston in 1804 (when there were still only a few families in the community) and Benjamin Eby was ordained minister in Berlin in 1807 (at the beginning of the great wave of people who arrived after the German Company purchase); he was ordained bishop in 1812.
In 1831, the Martin’s meeting house was built on land donated by Henry Z Martin, son of old Peter Martin. Our ancestor John W Weber was ordained the first minister of the congregation in 1833, and Samuel Weber was the third minister. Our ancestor Peter Burkhard, who was the first deacon, donated the New Testament that was kept in the pulpit and is still in the possession of the congregation.
By 1837, when the Wanner meeting house was built on ancestor Henry Wanner’s land near Hespeler, there were congregations, if not meeting houses, throughout Waterloo and Woolwich, with a roster of deacons and ministers and bishops to lead worship services and minister to the membership.
Worship services weren’t held in every area every week, but sometimes only once a month or once every 6 weeks, in a regular rotation. It seems this was a pragmatic necessity, as ministers were few, communities and farms were scattered through the forests, and roads were non-existent in the beginning and pretty poor throughout the early decades. Families were expected to “go visiting” on weeks when there weren’t meetings in their area. (Nowadays, when their home congregation doesn’t have services, Old Order families frequently attend services in another meeting house and visit their relatives who are members of that congregation).
Worship services were simple, ritualized, and in High German. We have to remember that all the ministers of the church were simple farmers with only rudimentary education. By all indications, preaching consisted of practical homilies of encouragement in hard times or exhortations to live simply and humbly, based on a selected biblical text. Close biblical study (exegesis), theorization about God (theology), and precise definitions of abstract beliefs (doctrine) were not in their repertoire. There was no instrumental accompaniment to the singing and no four-part harmony (which the Mennonites have become famous for). It seems the few hymns were sung very slowly, with a designated song leader choosing the tunes to be used. The prayers were silent meditations, rather than spoken aloud by the minister.
Sources:
Martin, Andrew C. “Humility and Gelassenheit: Old Order Mennonite Spirituality in Monastic Perspective.” Journal of Mennonite Studies, volume 31 (2013).
Martin, Donald. Old Order Mennonites of Ontario: Gelassenheit, Discipleship, Brotherhood. Kitchener: Pandora Press, 2003.
500 Years of Migration 