Molotschna church life

One result of there being a limited number of church buildings in Molotschna (only eleven villages out of sixty-five had a church; see here) was that church attendance was apparently not as “regular” as one might have expected of a colony full of Mennonites.

A future post will explore the size and the layouts of several churches in order to estimate how many worshipers could have been accommodated at any given time. At the risk of giving away the end of the story, that analysis will reveal that not all the members of a given church (e.g., Alexanderwohl) could have been regular attenders, for the simple reason that the buildings were not large enough.

For now, we return to Mary Regier’s account (see here for her earlier discussion of the dung bricks) to learn another reason why church attendance less than regular. If you recall, Mary and her family moved to Alexanderkrone when she was ten (1869), so her experience was probably shared by other residents of Alexanderkrone, including Peter P and Sarah, who lived there between 1869 and 1871. Mary writes:

Alexanderwohl church

Church affairs were not as well regulated as they generally are now. Today, it seems to me, people are almost overfed. Many a Sunday we did not go to church at all, for the simple reason that it was too far to go. At times there were services in the school house, or in the school house of a neighboring village. In that case we went. Occasionally father read to us a sermon out of “Hofacker,”* as we ourselves did later on. Sunday schools were not prevalent yet, and they were not necessary. We learned the Bible and the Testament better than is now the case.  (Regier 1941, 88)

Mary’s language deserves special attention: her family did not attend church “many a Sunday” but did attend local worship services “at times” and “occasionally” listened to a sermon read in the home. Clearly, Mary’s family were devout worshipers but not regular church attenders—this was probably the case for many, probably most, other Alexanderkrone residents, as well as any Mennonite family living in a village with no church building.

All that to say: when we ask about which church(es) our Molotschna ancestors were associated with, we need to keep in mind that the question is one of association and not necessarily attendance every Sunday.

Note
* “Hofacker” refers to a collection of sermons first given by a popular preacher named Karl Friedrich Hofacker (1789–1828). Mennonite preachers generally read their Sunday sermons, which were often written by by others. Thus a father reading a Hofacker sermon to his family was a fair substitute for attending a formal church service.

Source

Regier, C. C. 1941.  Childhood Reminiscences of a Russian Mennonite Immigrant Mother 1859–1880. MQR 15:83–94.