Resource Leaders: 2010
Mennonite Heritage Cruise
Paul Toews and Rudy
Friesen are founding & continuing leaders of the cruise
Additional Resource Leaders: Alan Peters is the leading Mennonite genealogist
John Martens is a retired
agonomist and agricultural expert
Rudy Friesen in the Mennonite Villages - 1996
- a gathering of serious reseachers
(link to Rudy's Web Site)
The two Wiebe brothers (left)
helped their historian sister Leona (Gislason) to the definitive
Rueckenau history, Medical Doctor & genealogist Tim Janzen
(just right of Friesen) has since significantly added to the Mennonite
archival record in Crimea and other places.
Rudy Friesen is a practising and award-winning
architect in
Winnipeg. His parents immigrated to Canada from Russia in 1926. He
received his architectural training at the University of Manitoba and
has been active in numerous
professional organizations.
Rudy Friesen is the author of the
important 1996 Mennonite book, INTO THE PAST: Buildings of the
Mennonite
Commonwealth. An even more popular version of the book BUILDING ON THE
PAST was
published
in Spring,
2004. It is currently being translated into Ukrainian. He has written
over a hundred articles on Russian
Mennonite architecture and visits to the area for Der Bote. On the most
recent cruises Rudy presented a series of definitive illustrated
lectures on northern European Mennonite architecture, having also
traveled to the Netherlands and Poland. He has since
given versions of these lectures to various Mennonite Colleges and
Universities in Canada and the USA. He is a founding board member
of the Friends of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine, having himself
supervised the renovation of the historic schoolhouse which houses the
centre.
Along with historian Paul Toews and genealogist
Alan Peters, Rudy Friesen has helped create the international prestige
and reputation of the cruise. Rudy Friesen is a founding member of the
cruise and has participated in all of the cruises.
Historian
Dr. Paul Toews
Paul Toews (link to Center
for M B
Studies)
Paul Toews is Professor of History, Fresno Pacific University. He is
also Director of the Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies, Mennonite
Brethren Biblical Seminary and Fresno Pacific University. He is the
author of many articles and books on diverse aspects of Mennonite
History including Mennonites in American Society,
1930-1970: Modernity and the Persistance of Religious Community,
published in 1996. Like other leading Mennonite scholars today, he is
involved in archival research projects in Ukraine
and Russia. Currently he is leader of the international team which is
creating the new Siberia Mennonite Archive and will supervise a major
international scholarly symposium in Siberia in 2010, in association
with the Russian Academy of Sciences. He has spent a
year in
Ukraine as a Fullbright exchange
scholar. Dr. Toews gives four major illustrated lectures and
hosts other significant cruise events. His presence on the cruise is
much respected
and
universally loved. Passengers often comment that he uniquely symbolizes
the spirit and excellence of the cruise.
Alan
Peters and the
genealogical laptop - a cruise resource specialist since 1996
.
Alan Peters is the master
Mennonite genealogist. He is acknowledged by his peers in the
genealogical world as having done more work in tracking the
Dutch/Prussian/Russian/North American Mennonite stream than anyone
else. The GRANDMA
project,
officially sponsored by the California Mennonite Historical Society and
Fresno MB Biblical Seminary, is
based
on his work. That project alone now includes genealogical
information
on nearly a million people out of this northern European Mennonite
strand.
In addition to researching in Mennonite records Alan has worked in the
civil
records and state church records of Prussia/Poland and Russia/Ukraine.
Alan
brings his laptop computer on the ship and presents family trees to
passengers
who have requested genealogical researches.
On the last eight cruises Alan has presented computer-assisted
seminars on genealogy that had passengers riveted for two hours, thanks
to his
profound knowledge of Mennonite genealogy and familiarity with
genealogical
software. Alan is an accomplished litanist and has helped shape many of
the reflective occasions on the cruise. Genealogy has become a
mainstream interest for many people and Alan has always been "ahead of
the wave".
Having retired after a distinguished career in California Social
Services, Alan is much sought after for workshops in genealogy.
John
Martens explaining the Eichenfeld massacre on site in 1998
John Martens is a retired agronomist and
agriculture expert, having worked in various parts of the world. He has
unique knowledge of the Khortitsa and Yazykovo villages. His family was
prominent in Schlachtin-Baratov and Krivoi Rog. He has also served
faithfully
as a backstage cruise administrative assistant and fixer.
Ukrainian Cruise Team Members on the
ship in October 2006
Volodymyr
Kuzyk,
videographer; Olga Shmakina, sr.
guide Lyudmilla
Karyaka, sr. guide; Irina Kuzyk, videographer; Larissa Goryacheva, trip
mgr; Galyna Zadorowska, cruise director
The success of the Mennonite Heritage Cruise has depended largely on
the excellence of its Ukrainian partners. Here key members are on the
ship sundeck as it sailed from Odessa on the Black Sea in early October
2006. Along with colleagues, they have all been involved in the cruise
since its inception back in 1995.
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