Origin of the Mennonite Brethren Church

Jacob P. Bekker (1828-1908) was one of the principal leaders of the Mennonite Brethren Church that emerged after first beginning to meet in 1857. Becker, a member of the Rudnerweide Mennonite church in the Molotschna settlement in Ukraine, had taken part in revivalist meetings in 1854 and “converted” to the “brethren” renewal movement. On January 6, 1860, the renewal group formally seceded from the Mennonite Church to form their own Mennonite Church, the Mennonite Brethren Church. Bekker was one of the 18 signatories to the document of secession. Later that year, in September 1860, he and others of the new group decided to signify their renewal identity by being “rebaptized” by immersion. From 1857 to 1864, Bekker functioned as secretary for the movement. A decade later, in 1875, Bekker and his family migrated to the United States. Sensing a need to tell his story, in 1890, he took it upon himself to write an account of the origin of the Mennonite Brethren Church based on his recollections and the documents he had collected. This book is the English translation of Bekker’s German manuscript.