Letters to the editor

Mennonite Brethren Herald welcomes your letters on issues relevant to the Mennonite Brethren Church, especially in response to material published in the Herald. Please keep your letters courteous, brief and about one subject only. We will edit letters for length and clarity. We will not publish letters sent anonymously, although we may withhold names from publication at the request of the letter writer and at our discretion. Publication is also subject to space limitations. Because the Letters column is a free forum for discussion, it should be understood that letters represent the position of the letter writer, not necessarily the position of the Herald or the Mennonite Brethren Church. Send letters to: Letters, MB Herald 1310 Taylor Ave. Winnipeg, Man.  R3M 3Z6 or send via e-mail. (Please ensure that your postal address is included in your e-mail correspondence.)

Violence in former Mennonite colony area

I trust that some of the tragic news [hostage-taking in Beslan] has not gone unnoticed by us for another reason. The area now known as Chechnya is connected with the Terek Colonies founded by Mennonites from the Molotschna Settlements in Ukraine, starting in 1901.

These Terek Colonies were for a short period the homeland of several thousand Mennonites. They were in the general vicinity of modern day Chechnya, along the Terek River, which flows into the Caspian Sea, and close to modern Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. Just to the north of this area in Russia’s North Ossetia Province, and specifically in the city of Beslan, so our people, starting in 1901, but also especially in 1918 when they were finally forced out of the area by robber bands and brigands, also suffered major tragedies as their fleeing caravans left the area. My own grandfather was among these people. Many are the stories of suffering and tragedy in this same general area to the north of the Caucasus Mountains. Many stories of murder and brigandage from the local native people who must have resented any intrusion of outsiders were also told in C.P. Toews’s History of the Tereker Colonies (Steinbach, 1945), and now, the story continues.

It is so unfortunate that tragedy like this has to repeat itself – over 300 years of unrest and murder, in this same area, and among innocent and helpless victims, all precipitated by those who themselves perhaps felt victimized by tsars, landowners and Soviet dictators – but in what a gruesome form of retaliation.

As I read of the awful deaths, especially of the poor children held as hostages, and as they died as the result of hatred and revenge, my heart went out to them, and I could better understand how my own ancestors in 1918 must have felt as their loved ones suffered similar fates. Our prayer is that perhaps now the people there, and in all the world, will realize what violence brings about.

Ed Boldt,
Historian, Ont. MB Conference
Kitchener, Ont.

Joyful singing

I recently visited a number of local churches, both MB and others, to observe their worship services.

I have always attended a church where music was an important part of the service. Congregational singing was enthusiastic and mostly in four-part harmony. Almost everyone was singing.

Today, most churches no longer have choirs. They have been replaced with worship teams with guitars, drums, keyboards and other instruments.

One problem I have with music in the churches today is the volume level. Instead of the instruments blending in with the voices they now drown them out.

Whenever the music gets so loud that I can’t hear myself or the congregation, I stop singing. This is true of most of the congregation as well.

Let’s bring hearty congregational singing back to the churches, and truly make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Let’s use both the traditional hymns and contemporary music and blend our voices and instruments to make this joyful noise.

Jake Hiebert,
St. Catharines, Ont.