The Andreasfeld Mennonite Brethren Church was located in the village of Andreasfeld about seventeen miles (28 km) east of Chortitza, district of Alexandrovsk, province of Ekaterinoslav, South Russia (now Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine). It was organized in 1870 as a branch of the Einlage (Kitchkas) Mennonite Brethern Church, the main congregation of the denomination in the Old Colony. There were twelve families and a membership of sixty. It had its own church edifice, which was also the place of worship of the Einlage congregation for some time. The leased village of Ebenfeld and the landowners of Blumenau belonged to other congregations. A system of local education was under church control. Aron Lepp, elder of the Einlage congregation, and John Siemens, noted evangelist and Bible expositor, were the leading ministers. August Liebig, Baptist evangelist, resided at Andreasfeld in the 1870s. For some time it appeared that the Baptist influence would gain the upper hand in the congregation, since the first ministers were ordained by Baptist preachers; however, under the leadership of Lepp the church soon steadied itself to a positive evangelical ministry on Mennonite Brethren principles. As a result the church prospered and exerted a wholesome influence on the other branch churches in the Old Colony. Historically the Andreasfeld church is noted as the site of the first Mennonite Brethren conference (Bundeskonferenz) in 1872 and several thereafter. The resignation of Elder Lepp as leader of the Einlage Mennonite Brethren Church in 1903, and the subsequent transfer of these headquarters to Einlage, and the emigration of several members, caused a decline in membership and a loss of its importance in the Old Colony group. This church found its end after the withdrawal of the German occupation army from the Ukraine in 1943.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 121. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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