No. 1 - Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches

MENNONITE
BROTHERS IN DEED TO BROTHERS IN NEED
.
A ~ c rapb oo k about Mennonite immigrants
from Russia from 1870~85 Compiled and
edited by Clarence Hiebert
Clolh ollly - $20
IN THE FUllNESS OF TIME
150 years of Mennonite
sojourn in Ru ss ia ~
over a thousand pho~
tos - in German or
English texl - by Waiter
Quiring
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THE MENNONITES OF WESTERN CANADA
By Gerhard Lohrenz. A concise , illuminating
account of the Mennonite story in western
Canada.
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HARVEST
An1h ology of Men nonite writing in Canada,
published by the Centennial Committee of the
Mennonite Historical Society of Manitoba.
Cloth only - $3.50
A story about a young Mennonite immigrant
girl, who came to Man itoba from
Russia in the 1870's_ $2.50
LOST IN THE STEPPE
By Arnold Dyck. translated by Henry D.
Dyck . Cloth on ly $9.95
ANABAPTISM: NEITHER CATHOLIC OR
PROTESTANT
By Walter Klaassen
Cloth $4.95 Paper $2.95
TWELVE BECOMING
By C. J. Dyck . Biographies of Mennonite
disciples from Ihe 161h century to the 20th
century.
Cloth only - $4.50 Leader's guide - $2
the whole ma tter in God's hand s and get on
with the building of God's Kingdom.
Partly beca use of this debate, and hi s
gen tie man ner, t here were tho se who
attributed to Rev. Enns a somewha t sentimenta
l understanding of the Christia n faith,
not grounded firmly in scripture. I think
this impressio n is mostly, though not entirely,
wrong. I have already indicated that
under tha t gentle exterior there existed
a forceful and tough personality. He beli
eved not in a se ntimental God but in a very
powerfu l one and he was optimisti c in the
face of evil not beca use he had romantic
illusions about e vi I but because he be li eved
that in the end no ev il was more powerful
than God. His position was ve ry close to that
of Karl Barth, or John Calvin. I t was also
deeply grounded in scripture. In his years of
re tire ment he spent many mornings in the
Church library translating large sections of
the New T estament directl y from the Greek
in to Germa n_ He once said to me: "It is God,
not I, who tells me to love my enemies, and
since God asks me to do it I am certain
that He does it as well."
We disagreed consistently, however, on one
point, and that is why I say that the impression
described above is not entirely
wrong. I felt that his view of evil was
li m ited too much to the personal dimension.
He was dismayed,' but not surprised, whe n
he encountered evil in individuals. He was
surprised, however, when I suggested to him
occasiona lly that whole institutions co.uld
have an evil bent to them, includ'1ng
law courts, parliamentary cabinets and
business corporations. I be lieve that he,
li ke many other people of his generation,
desi red law and order so much after the
upheavals of the Russian Revolution, that he
rejected such criticism as hopeless cynicism.
Heseemed to assume that a decision of a court
,was almost automatically just, that a corpo
ration president must be acting in the best
interest of his employees , and that apart
from unscrupulous politicians, major
government bodies must be acting in the
best interests of the people. I t was in this
'area that we had our most vigorous disagreemen
ts, and it is possible that at ti mes I
judged him to be more reactionary than he
was, while he assumed that my criticisms
meant that I was more opposed to our
preva iling institutions than was actually the
case. In this one area I felt that a broader
and more critica l vision was ne cessary.
In other respects I, and nume rolls o ther
individuals Whose lives he touched , o we him
a tremendous debt. I t was hi s positive and
yet powerful vision of the C hristi an faith
which more than anything el se promp ted me
a nd hundreds of others to commit oursel ve s
to a life of Christian discipleship. I
fee l deepl y honored that I was baptil ed by
him and t hat I had the priv ilege of being
hi s co-worker for a number of years. Wh a t
impressed me more than anything else was
the daily reminder that Rev. I. H. Enns,
more than almost any individual o r minister
I have known, acted in response to hi s
personal rea ding and thoug ht and not in
response to o ther people's ex pecta tions of
him. He li stened to a different drummer a nd
those of us w hose lives have bee n spiritually
enriched by him have no doubt about the
Source of that unique beat.
mm
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* RUSSIA plus Holland and
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July 6 - 27.
* ROUND THE GLOBE
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REMNANTS
FABRICS
A STRATEGY FOR PEACE
By Frank H. Epp. Reflections of a Christian
pacifist
Paper only - $2.45
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10/ mennonite mirror / october 1974