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CURRENTLY IN BOOKS
The contentious German-English debate of the mid-20th century

David Giesbrecht

Crossing the Divide: Language Transition Among Canadian Mennonite Brethren: 1940–1970 Gerald C. Ediger. Winnipeg, Man.: Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies, 2001. 236 pp.

Few people seem to pay much attention to the importance of their primary language until it is threatened as it was for many Québécois in the latter half of the 20th century or by Canadian Mennonites in the several decades surrounding mid-century. In Crossing the Divide, Gerald Ediger, who teaches at Canadian Mennonite University, examines the often contentious shift from German to English among Canadian MBs between 1940 and 1970.

In the opening chapters, Ediger sets a historical and cultural context of the language transition, while in the next three he demonstrates how these changes were negotiated in three Manitoba congregations: Winkler, and Elmwood and Portage Avenue in Winnipeg. The author concludes by reflecting on why Canadian MBs so hastily jettisoned the German language in a span of a mere decades when they had diligently clung to it for almost three centuries.

Already early in the 20th century there were signs that the German heritage was slipping. In pursuit of an often “thankless task”, Conference and community leaders proceeded to mount a vigorous defence of their beloved German which blatantly blended language and religion. Writing in a 1920 issue of the Zionsbote, J. Neufeld summed up a widely held feeling that for MBs to surrender the German language their faith was sure to suffer and children would be lost. Owing to pressures of urbanization and the hostile reaction to all things Germans induced by war phobias, the trend towards greater use of English among Mennonites only continued to accelerate so that by 1945 B. B. Janz lamented “the ruin of all that was good.”

The author further examines various attempts “to regulate the situation”. The Committee of Reference and Counsel was formed to control editorial policy of MB media. In 1950, the Canadian Conference Committee for the Preservation of the German Language was mandated to encourage the wide-spread founding of community German-language schools. After all, MBs had not been born into German-speaking families by chance. Rather, the use of German “was the express will of God” as was pointed out by a prominent leader from B.C. All such efforts notwithstanding, including the toleration of two-language service formats, the continued used of English in MB homes, churches and institutions was inexorable. By 1952, many Sunday classes were being taught in English and Conference minutes were published in both German and English. Ten years later, the Conference approved the publication of an English paper, the MB Herald. By 1965, English has become the official language of the Canadian MB Conference.

Ediger’s study reflects significant images of Canadian MB churches and their leaders around mid-century. His attempt to generalize these findings to a national setting might have been strengthened if at least one of his case studies would have included the transition experiences of either the Coaldale, Alta. or Yarrow, B.C. churches. Nevertheless, this book is highly commended to any school that teaches Canadian Mennonite history and certainly will be of interest to all who wish to understand how a Christian community negotiates changes where stakeholders are imbued with strong biblically buttressed passions, not unlike the contemporary debate about worship styles.

David Giesbrecht is a member of Bakerview MB Church in Abbotsford, B.C.

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Last modified July 10, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
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