MCC 75th Anniversary Service in the former Mennonite Church in Chortitza - Sept 1995

We look annually to mount some special occasion on the cruise, but none will likely be as powerful as this event staged in our inaugural cruise in September, 1995. On behalf of Mennonites around the world we were privileged to participate in a service on the exact anniversary date of the first MCC meeting, close to the site where the first MCC soup kitchens were set up. The Mennonite Central Committee, our wonderful global relief agency, was founded to help starving and destitute Mennonites in the Soviet Union. We were back to mark the event and we celebrated in memorable fashion. For the first time in over fifty years, Mennonite voices rang out in the Dom Kultur (Soviet culture palace), the site of the first 1789 Mennonite Church in Chortitza. Conductor Howard Dyck (CBC Choral Concert) had arranged a Prelude on Hymn Tunes which was played by a string quartet from the Zaporozhye Symphony Orchestra. Pastor Frank Dyck of the phoenix-like Mennonite community in Zaporozhye welcomed participants in Russian, German & English. Novelist Al Reimer had rewritten the MCC anniversary year Litany for our occasion. MCC country representative Walter Bergen presented some anniversary funding options and historian Paul Toews had written a special presentation.

See the MCC News Release at the time

We meet this morning to remember an event that took place 75 years ago half-way around the world. On September 27, 1920 five Mennonites met in Chicago: Peter C. Hiebert of Hillsboro, Kansas, H.H. Mellinger of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; D.M. Hofer of Chicago, Maxwell H. Kratz of Philadelphia and Levi Mumaw of Akron Pennsylvania met at the Mennonite mission in what was then already a run-down section of Chicago. Their gathering constituted the first meeting of the Mennonite Central Committee. They met to implement the intentions of a much larger inter-Mennonite meeting that occurred in the Prairie Street Church in Eklhart, Indiana during the previous July--a meeting that had authorized the formation of the Central Committee. On this September morning 75 years ago their first resolution was to "take charge of all gifts for South Russia, to make all purchases of suitable articles for relief work, and to provide for the transportation and the equitable distribution of the same."

The echo of that event was soon heard by Mennonites of the Ukraine and Russia. As reports of the devastations of the First World War and the subsequent Civil War, the dislocation and suffering and now the impending starvation of Russian Mennonites reached far-flung American and Canadian communities a chorus of voices began calling for assistance. In region after region communities began collecting money and supplies to aid their co- religionists.

The reports of the Studienkommission (Study Commission), sent by the Molotoschna colony, helped bring together these various regional efforts into the collaborative union that we today celebrate. A late 1919 general meeting of village representatives from the Molotoschna settlement decided to send a special commission to Europe and North America to seek assistance and to explore emigration possibilities. The four that went were A. A. Friesen, and B. H. Unruh, both teachers in the Halbstadt business college; C. H. Warkentin a merchant in Waldheim and J.J. Esau, then living in Berlin, but formerly a successful businessman and mayor of Ekaterinoslav (now Dnepropretrovsk). Friesen, Unruh and Warkentin left the Ukraine, January 1, 1920, with General Wrangel and the retreating White Army and traveled to Constantinople and then on to Holland and North America, arriving in New York on June 13, 1920.

The desperate conditions that these delegates and others reported on are recorded in many places. B.B. Janz who during the 1920s chaired the foremost Mennonite political organization in the Ukraine--the Union of Descendants of Dutch Lineage--often referred to their condition as "living in the shadow of death." The extent of the human and economic losses were staggering: In the Chortitza district the Mennonite population declined from 18,000 in the fall of 1917 to less than 13,000 in mid-1921. The typhus epidemic of the winter of 1919-1920 alone claimed over 1000 victims. In Chortitza/Rosental at least 100 women and girls were under treatment for syphilis. Predominantly agricultural the Chortitza district was virtually devoid of livestock, agricultural equipment and grain seed. Records for the fall of 1917 list over 400 farms with more than five horses. By 1920 there was only one such farm and by 1922 none.Between October 7 and December 25, 1919 some 2000 horses and 1400 cows had been destroyed in the Nestor Makhno raids and most of the rest was requisitioned by either the white or red army. The village of Alexanderkrone in the Molotoschna, prior to World War I, usually seeded 1,520 dessiatines of grain. In 1920 it seeded 635; in 1922, 372. The decline of farm animals followed a similar pattern. Alexanderkrone's supply of horses 620 (before World War I) dropped to 62 by 1922; the hog supply from 200 to 20; chickens from 3000 to 300 and cows from 400 to 137.

Listen to voices of our ancestors describing their distress and the thanksgiving that followed when MCC arrived.

Anna Berg of Alexanderkrone, Molotoschna:

(reader: Anita Janzen, Toronto - Elkhart Seminary)

January 17, 1922 - "I have heard that a telegram has been sent to B.B. Janz from Mr. Miller with news that the American aid will arrive in a few days. What happy news! One is only not sure whether to trust the rumors, for there is so much talk nowadays, and so many promises. And yet the assistance is needed here. We ourselves still have little to complain about--till now we have had enough to eat which can only be one of God's miracles and perhaps also a blessing from our beloved father. But many people in this village have neither bread nor flour anymore....one sees the stamp of starvation pressed on pale faces. The public kitchens for the hungry have had to close down--their stocks of good are all but depleted....Yes hunger hurts and one isn't too surprised when people grasp in despair for quite unheard of means to keep themselves alive. In some places people are already eating dog and cat meat. It is sickening to hear of such instances. I can sometimes hardly eat my own piece of bread with a clear conscience. Lord, help us not to be other people's debtors. Teach us to know Your purpose."

March 1, 1922 -- "The need is great and many have already fallen victim to the ghost of hunger. About twenty Verst from here, graves were dug in advance because it was feared that people wouldn't have the strength to do it later on. I have heard that some people have even eaten their own children. And how many physically and morally ravaged people wander up and down the countryside begging for a piece of bread. It takes an almost superhuman strength to remain true to oneself and one's principles against such odds and not to succumb to the despair that wells up in the soul."

March 15, 1922. "Thank God for the American kitchen. What a jubilation at noon today! It was almost impossible to restrain the children--as if it were Christmas and they couldn't wait to open their presents. There were dumplings for lunch. Not finely cut ones mixed with milk and noodles, but thin water dumplings with a little milk sauce and vinegar poured over and a piece of rye bread. It tasted like the greatest delicacy in the world."

Or an open letter, April 2, 1922, from Rev. Isaak Dyck, the elder of the Chortitza congregation, which met in this very building, a letter signed by an additional 300 people, a letter sent to MCC:

(reader: Bill Kruger, Osler, Sask)

"When we viewed our very limited crop last all, a sense of fear and anxiety threatened to overwhelm us. The small reserves of food material could at best be sufficient for two or three months. From our neighboring districts, we could expect no help, for they were as badly off as we. Starvation and a miserable death were mercilessly staring us in the face. Then we learned that the report of our hopeless situation had reached our brethren beyond the great ocean, and that they had taken pity and were sending us relief. The very consciousness of the fact that we were not forgotten gave us new courage and saved us from despair.

Through our utmost exertions we have succeeded in keeping the 'monster, death from starvation' largely beyond the limits of our brotherhood. Only a small number have actually died of starvation; but how pale and haggard, how weak and needy was the appearance of our brethren and sisters. Veritable pictures of unspeakable want were before us daily. The agonies of soul which have been experienced no words can describe.

The opening of the first American kitchens to 1400 persons on March 16, which gave to the most needy of the two villages [Chortitza/Rosental] a most palatable and nourishing noon-meal was indeed a help in the utmost need. Since that time they are daily receiving their ration and are happy and grateful to receive what you give, and rejoice to observe how their strength and health is returning. Hundreds more are to-day suffering the pangs of hunger, and need your food.

Dear American brethren [and sisters], you have begun an unmeasurable work of love. Many thousands you have saved from miserable death[,] from starvation. Words can never express our gratefulness; but we feel and are conscious of the fact that you save[d] our lives and therefore our hearts are filled with thanks."

While the MCC relief to southern Russia was motivated by the sufferings of the household of faith the distribution of food and clothing was not limited to Mennonites. MCC has never limited its work by religious affiliation or political ideology. Hear the gratitude of the Chairman and Secretary of the Committee from the Ukrainian village of Marieyevka, Krasno-Shavkai volost also writing to MCC: This is a village that suffered terribly during the famine of 1922-23. About 300 cases of starvation were registered.

(reader: Olga Shmakina, Travel Guide, Zaporozhye)

"The people wandering about on the streets resembled silhouettes wrapped in rags or simply in sacks, only to cover their nakedness. Children did not leave the huts because they did not have any kind of clothing. What would have happened if the A.R.A, [American Relief Administration] and A.M.R. [American Mennonite Relief] had not helped us, cannot be expressed. At present more than half the population is getting its food from the A.M.R. kitchens and from the Red Cross. Considering all this, the Committee of kitchen number 5, at the request of the beneficiaries, transmits to you their sincerest thanks, knowing well that you have saved them from starvation."

Or the voice of J.B. Toews, recalling experiences in Alexandertal, Molotoschna Colony:

(reader: Arnold Baerg, Waterloo, Ontario)

"Two years of civil war had devastated the colonies. The southern part of the Molotoschna had been affected more than the northern villages. The fall and winter of 1921 found us with insufficient food and clothing. The armies had consumed all the reserves....

We would have had enough to last the winter, but Father, forever naive and goodhearted, insisted that the food be shared with the poor who had nothing...The day came when we had consumed our last remnant of bread baked from the flour of corn milled together with corn cobs, not very nutritious but something to fill the stomach. Jacob, eight years my junior, was bloated, a sign of the last stage of starvation. After this last meal we all knelt to pray, the final preparation for death. My father's prayer went something like this: 'We thank you for this hour when we see no way for out survival. Glorify thyself according to thy choosing. You can provide food for us, or you can prepare us to die like many others who died of starvation....'

In November 1921 we heard of help that was to come from America. Would it come before my bother Jacob died? Uncle Benjamin B. Janz, mother's brother, who was in Kharkov to open the way for American relief, knew of our critical condition. When the first shipment of canned milk arrived in Kharkov he thought of our starving family. In January Alvin J. Miller, an American, together with B.B. Janz hired an old army truck to drive through the villages to inspect the conditions and prepare a method for food distribution. We never forgot when that old truck came to Alexandertal, carrying several boxes of canned milk....Jacob, near death, was slowly nourished back to life. Every hour, day and night, the six year old was given two tablespoons of milk....By March, 1922 the American kitchen opened....Spring brought new life. Father's faith had triumphed."

What began that September day in Chicago 75 years ago was of enormous significance. The American Mennonite Feeding operation began in December, 1921 in the Mennonite settlements east of the Volga River. They began in the Ukraine in March, 1922 and continued into August, 1923. In the summer of 1922, at the peak 140 kitchens distributed 38,600 rations daily. All of these rations were carefully weighed to include 778 calories. Each designed to meet the minimum need for one day. Both Mennonites and Ukrainians were fed. During the terrible summer of 1922, in the Halbstadt volost, the Mennonite kitchens fed 58.5 percent of the Mennonite children under fourteen and 64.2 percent of the non-Mennonite children. 4001 of the 13,232 Mennonites and 2,063 of the 4,872 non-Mennonites of the volost were fed. In many villages more than 30% of the population was fed through this MCC effort.

The value in American dollars of American Mennonite Relief was $2,454.246. But its significance can hardly be measured in monetary terms. People in these Mennonite and Ukrainian villages were lost due to the famine. Many Mennonite villages reported 10 to 20 deaths. One Mennonite historian's calculations are that the MCC relief effort spared at least 10,000 lives.

We will never know how many Mennonite and Ukrainian lives were saved. We will never know how many spirits were sustained, how many people were empowered through the MCC presence.

What we do know is that here in the Ukraine the North American Mennonite world began a new chapter in the story of Mennonites meeting human need. The echo of that September 27 meeting in Chicago was not only heard in Russia and the Ukraine. With time the echo would circumvent the globe. And as it traveled it carried a melody that would soon become the distinctive Mennonite melody. It was a melody of assistance, of compassion, of solidarity, of brothers and sisters in deed to brothers and sisters in need. A melody composed of flour, rice, blankets, mended clothes, canned meat, boxed raisins and many other life-sustaining goods. A melody whose refrain is always "In the Name of Christ."

That new melody, birthed by the tragedy of this locale, galvanized a missional and service activism that is today the hallmark of Mennonite faith and identity. Around the world Mennonites are welcomed as bearers of food for the hungry, clothes for the naked, medicines for the sick, and reconciliation for the alienated. In large measure it was here on the Russian steppes that we rediscovered something that has always been at the heart of the Mennonite tradition.

Menno Simons, the founder of our peoplehood, defined it already in the sixteenth century.

"True evangelical faith cannot lie dormant. It clothes the naked, it feeds the hungry, it comforts the sorrowful, it shelters the destitute, it serves those that harm it. It binds up that which is wounded, it has become all things to all men."

May all of us, North American and Ukrainian, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox continue to sing this melody of hope and do it "In the Name of Christ."

Paul Toews

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