Worship

Early Anabaptism

One of the defining marks of Late Medieval society was that ritual embraced every aspect of life. There were repeated attempts by the Catholic Church to purify practices connected to the Mass and other forms of public worship. Yet we learn from the writing and practice of most Anabaptists that their experience of worship while they were still Catholics had focused on externalities that were not life-giving. Once the hold of Catholic authority over their lives was broken, the radicals reacted against the multitude of religious forms by creating simple patterns like the ones they found in the New Testament, which came to life through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Their worship had room for rational as well as ecstatic expression.

In keeping with its central emphasis on the initiative of the Holy Spirit in conversion and discipleship, Anabaptism relied on the immediate inspiration of the Spirit as it is portrayed in I Corinthians 12-14. For most types of Anabaptism, preaching from the Bible was the human counterpart to the Spirit's leading. As was the case in their communal life overall, so also in worship, the challenge that faced most Anabaptist communities was to hold Spirit and Scripture together.

Because their lives were insecure, their worship was often improvised, e.g., meeting in houses or forests by night. Keeping written records of what was done would have endangered worshippers. With rare exceptions, there was no interest in fixed, printed liturgical forms. However, this is not to say that Anabaptist worship was without pattern or order. Testimonies given in courts of law, theological apologies, and congregational orders place surprising weight on a correct understanding and practice, e.g., of baptism and the Lord's Supper. By the second decade of the movement elders, ministers, and deacons were set apart and given roles in presiding at the congregation's ceremonies.

We know that singing, praying (kneeling and often silent), Bible reading, and preaching followed by inspired responses from members of the congregation, was a common pattern in different streams of Anabaptism. Early on there was frequent Communion but after the first generation, people returned to the Catholic practice in which worshippers took Communion only once or twice a year after an individual's confession of sin. This is hard for Protestants to understand. In the Mass the climax is the consecration of the elements. In pre-20th century Catholicism, this was what constituted the Eucharist. By contrast, what constituted the Eucharist in Protestantism (especially in Anabaptism) was the sharing of bread and wine in the congregation on the basis of a communal confession of sin.

Let us look at early Anabaptist worship by region. Among the Swiss Brethren, Conrad Grebel's Programmatic Letter I of September 1524 to Thomas Müntzer is illustrative. Its focus was not merely the ascetic negation of singing and other conventional forms of worship; the letter advanced liturgical principles for the reform of public worship, which Grebel and his fellow radicals shared with Ulrich Zwingli. But when Grebel, Manz and their sympathizers broke with the official reformation in Zurich they were no longer interested in reforming the public worship of the official church. Yet they retained a commitment to the reconstitution of worship on the example of the New Testament era church.

The contrast between these two orientations may be seen in Balthasar Hubmaier's liturgical reform. Hubmaier emerged out of the Swiss Brethren but tried to establish Anabaptism as an official church, and as was the case with the magisterial Reformers, he needed public worship forms that whole populations could enter into. He retained the structure of the Mass and some of its prayers but substituted the Words of Institution and simple prayers of thanks for the bread and cup for the traditional Eucharistic Prayer and the embellishments that had grown up around it. "A Form for Water Baptism" and "A Form for Christ's Supper" are Hubmaier's principal reformed liturgies.

Lutherans, Reformed, and Anglicans all wanted to imitate the forms and spirit of the primitive church. All of them favored the revival of preaching and the active participation of the congregation. Other than Hubmaier however, the Anabaptists were the most radical in reforming or overthrowing mediaeval church practices in favor of what they believed were those of the apostolic church. Their most radical reform was of baptism, keeping the practice but offering it only to believers. Of equal importance was their retention and reform of the Lord's Supper, often including footwashing.

Allowing for differences of culture, temperament, and spirituality, this charismatic primitivism was true not only of the Swiss but also of the Marpeck Circle and other South Germans, the Hutterites, and the Dutch-North Germans. The most extensive writing on what happens in worship comes from Pilgram Marpeck. He grounded the life of the church and its worship in a theology of the incarnation, creating Spirit-based ceremonies that affirmed a real presence of Christ in baptism and the Supper. The Hutterites moved the quickest from charismatic to routinized worship; their emphasis was less on the vertical in the ceremonies and more on the horizontal, focusing on the community as the body of Christ. The Dutch, under the leadership of Menno Simons and Dirk Philips, placed more weight on the regenerated individual believer who is the agent rather than the recipient of grace in the ceremonies, but made room for a mystical encounter with Christ in Communion.

This survey of early Anabaptist worship would be incomplete without mentioning the defining place congregational singing held. Martyr ballads were composed by Swiss believers already in the 1530s. Peter Riedemann, the great mid-century Hutterite leader, composed hundreds of hymns in the course of his ministry which became the mainstay of Hutterite congregations. In addition, hymn texts and tunes from other Reformation movements as well as from Catholic tradition became part of the musical repertoire. By the mid-1560s two Dutch and two German Mennonite hymnals were in print. The centrality of hymn singing as the congregation's primary form of participation in worship has continued through the centuries. Of all the arts, music was the only one that was widely blessed as suitable for offering praise to God.

17th- and 18th-Century Mennonitism

By 1600 the forms and spirit of Mennonite worship had undergone significant change. The transformation began in the Netherlands. Here Mennonites were already a tolerated denomination moving toward a settled existence. Later, as life became more routinized for Mennonites in German-speaking Europe similar changes to those discussed below happened to their worship.

The clearest evidence for a shift in Dutch Mennonite worship is the appearance of books of sermons, prayers, and orders of service, especially for the breaking of bread. Debate has continued as to whether the appearance of fixed prayers and printed sermons emerged from the abandonment of a charismatic and radical spirituality or from an attempt to perpetuate it. One outstanding collection of sermons, prayers, and orders of service in this era comes from Jan Gerrits and Hans de Ries (Five Suitable Sermons) in 1610. A second volume, Eighteen Prayers of 1625, authored by Leonhard Clock, was prayed in Mennonite congregations from the Alsace to Russia and then America. The prayers intended for public worship most often conclude with the Lord's Prayer.

Simeon Rues, a German Lutheran minister toured the various groupings of Dutch Mennonite congregations in 1743 to report on their way of worshipping. A sampling of his observations shows the similarities and differences in worship at the time. Mention is made of a "Bekantnis predigt," (confessional sermon) held before baptism and communion to expound the church's confession of faith. Only elders are ordained; ministers and deacons are elected and without further ritual begin their service. Weddings are conducted at the conclusion of regular Sunday worship. Texts for sermons are freely chosen. Sermons are preached without notes. In contrast to the normal Sunday service, baptism, the Lord's Supper, ordination, and the reception of banned members follow a fixed and elaborate order of service. The form of baptism varies. In some groups the elder dips his hands into a bowl, sprinkling the candidate's head; in others the water is poured thrice over the candidate's head.

19th-Century Mennonitism

In 1807 Valentin Dahlem compiled the most elaborate minister’s manual on record, Allgemeines und Vollstaendiges Formularbuch. He was a South German Mennonite minister who preserved traditional worship patterns and formulas, as well as adding whole new services for all the rites of congregational life, adapted from the service book of the official Lutheran church. Typically Lutheran sacramental terms are used to describe baptism, e.g, the washing away of sin, and Communion. A seasonal prayer for every Sunday from Christmas to Pentecost is included. Strikingly, no attempt is made to synthesize the two streams of tradition.

The traditional South German worship patterns were brought to North America in the 18th century and compiled into a variety of Mennonite and Amish formularies. Contrary to popular assumption, the forms of Mennonite worship were not static: there was a creative tension between old and new ways of coming before God. A similar process took place in Prussia and Russia. The Old Order and Old Colony groups have preserved these patterns, and the German language which protects them, into the present. Innovation takes place in these traditionalist groups very gradually so that the historic forms remain. By contrast, the Mennonite Brethren reform movement, originating in Russia, made rapid changes in forms of worship, simplifying the practice of the highly ritualized occasions, like the Lord's Supper, and importing popular contemporary music.

20th-Century Mennonitism

By the end of the 19th century Mennonites in Europe and America had become missionary-minded again. This changed awareness affected how they worshiped in several ways. The impulse toward mission came from outside sources like Pietism. Preaching and praying became intense and urgent. Those who were sent into other cultures soon realized that their way of coming before God did not speak to new settings. At the same time, missionaries brought their improvisations back to their home settings. This momentum increased when people realized that the mandate of mission was also to one's immediate neighbors, and not only to distant countries. When they invited seekers to church they learned that their long-cherished practices were inaccessible to outsiders.

In North America this led to the gradual giving up German as the language of worship, and with it, hymnals and prayer books that had shaped communities for centuries. More liberal Mennonites borrowed resources from mainline churches like Presbyterians. More conservative ones borrowed from evangelical churches like Baptists. At the same time Native Americans, African Americans, and Hispanics were becoming Mennonite, looking for worship that made room for the ecstatic dimension of spirituality, which they shared with the world of the New Testament, to come to expression. One of the first ways of worshipping that was carried over from Black to white churches was Negro Spirituals.

By the time of the first Mennonite World Conference in 1925 Mennonite churches in Indonesia, India, and Congo were coming into their own – crafting worship patterns out of elements of their culture combined with Euro-American ways of singing, praying, and preaching. Because "Presbyterian" and "Baptist" models of worship, now influencing North American Mennonites seemed less esoteric and more modern, little of traditional Mennonite worship sensibility was carried over to the new churches. But since ritual practice was inherent to these traditional cultures, occasions like the Lord’s Supper, baptism, weddings, and funerals received great attention.

The changing cultural currents in both North and South encountered one another most dramatically at the Mennonite World Conference of 1978 in Wichita, Kansas. For the first time the music, languages, and cultures of the South were honored at a global level. This conference turned out to be the symbolic turning point in which Mennonite communities around the world were recognized as equals through the sharing of their worship life. Mainstream Mennonites in North America and Europe started incorporating hymnody from other cultures into their worship life and resources, receiving, at least in token form, from fellow churches in the South rather than imposing Euro-American ways on them.

Another point of liturgical encounter for the world Mennonite community was the growth of charismatic spirituality in North America in general, including among Mennonites. Belatedly and ironically this phenomenon also created bonds between Anglos, Native Americans, Hispanics, Blacks, and other cultures like Ethiopian and Hmong, that had become resident in Canada and the United States.

A significant minority of Anglo congregations in North America have found revitalization in the liturgical movement of the mainline churches. They have incorporated a moderately more ordered way of worship, with enriched use of the church calendar and the lectionary. At the same time, many of these churches have made room in Sunday worship for spontaneity by inviting responses to the sermon and in raising joys and concerns for prayer.

Conclusions

What can be said in summary regarding worship in Mennonite tradition? The creative tension between Scripture and Spirit that characterized early Anabaptism has continued to recur in times of renewal, especially in the present global charismatic era. When the inner and outer life of the church demanded new inbreakings of the Spirit in Mennonite communities in the North Atlantic world, they were willing to set aside tradition for the sake of mission. The early innovators in this trend were the Mennonite Brethren. They have found a home in the world of mega churches and popular culture. The worship resources offered by Mennonite Church Canada and USA have tended toward a more liturgical style and music. The smaller Mennonite conferences are spread across this spectrum.

Mennonites have a rich heritage of Scripture based prayer and ritual life. It is not surprising that a distinctive understanding of Gospel and church would be expressed in distinctive worship. Some of its traits are: a creative tension between form and freedom and Scripture and Spirit, simplicity of expression, oneness of word and deed. It is sometimes thought that the early 17th-century formalization of worship expressed a waning of spirituality. On the contrary, it was the intention of leaders like De Ries and Clock that the use of model forms would be a means of spiritual renewal. That Clock’s worship resources were used across the Mennonite and Amish world for three centuries is a tribute to their vitality. It could be said that the persistent flaw in the Mennonite practice of worship has not been the tension between form and freedom as such but wisdom as to when to innovate and when to conserve. In the past, European-background Mennonites have tended to conserve until a rupture brought unbridled innovation. Perhaps the churches in the Global South, with their rich theology of the Holy Spirit, will lead us beyond that flaw.

The enduring characteristic of Mennonite worship is the ebb and flow between form and freedom. This flow was engendered by local innovations that then caught on more broadly, e.g., when one compares baptismal and prayer practices. Especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, there was a vast literature of sermon and prayer books, spiritual writing, and minister’s manuals that show adaptations but also shared beliefs and practices concerning worship. Over time they have fostered enough unity that different congregations and conferences recognize something of their own identity when they worship with other Mennonite communities.

It is instructive to place Mennonite practice within the context of the church in the first four centuries. Form and freedom, pattern and improvisation are already evident in the New Testament church. The implication of Paul’s teaching in I Corinthians 12-14 is that faithful worship has a number of elements that create a loose structure that makes room for spontaneous expression. At the same time, as the church grew and spread enough order was needed to assure that the core elements of the Gospel were always enacted in worship. The Lord’s Supper itself was the primal re-enactment of God’s work in Christ. In Europe, the concern for order reached its peak with the invention of the printing press. Its expression today is the church bulletin. It leaves little room for improvisation.

Is there a bridge between form and freedom, oral and written tradition? Charismatically inclined Mennonite communities might ask themselves if they are including all the elements of faithful worship, e.g., a Trinitarian way of addressing God. Order inclined Mennonite communities might ask themselves if they are willing to trust the Holy Spirit’s promptings, e.g., a word from God that breaks open routine practice. Both approaches need each other.

See also the earlier Mennonite Encyclopedia articles: Worship, Public; Worship, Private.

This article was originally published in 2012 in German for the Mennonitisches Lexikon (MennLex) and has been made available to GAMEO with permission. The German version of this article is available at https://www.mennlex.de/doku.php?id=top:gottesdienst.

Bibliography

Sources

Dahlem, Valentin. Allgemeines und vollständiges Formularbuch für die gottedinstlichen Handlungen in denen Taufgesinnten Evangelisch Mennonitengemeinden .... Neuwied, 1807.

Eby, Benjamin. Kurzgefasste Kirchen Geschichte und Glaubenslehre der Taufgesinnten-Christen oder Mennoniten., Berlin (Kanada): Heinrich Eby, 1841. English translation: A concise ecclesiastical history and doctrinal theology of the Baptists or Mennonites [Elkhart, Ind., 1901]

Rues, Simeon Friedrich. Aufrichtige Nachrichten von dem gegenwärtigen Zustande der Mennoniten oder Taufgesinnten wie auch der Collegianten oder Reinsburger .... Jena: Joh. Rud. Crökers Wittwe, 1743.

Sittert, T. T., Hrsg. Christliche glaubensbekentnus der waffenlosen und fürneymlich in den Niederländern (unter dem namen der Mennoniten) wohlbekanten Christen .... Amsterdam: Iohan. Paskovium, 1664. (Clock's Formulier etlichen christlichen Gebaethe)

Die Lieder der Hutterischen Brüder. Cayley, Alberta, 1962.

Handbuch zum Gebrauch bei gottesdienstlichen Handlungen zunächst für die Aeltesten und Prediger der Mennoniten-Gemeinden in Russland. Berdjansk: H. A. Ediger, 1911.

Mennonite World Conference. International songbook = Internationales Liederbuch = Cancionero Internacional = Recueil International de Chants. Lombard, Ill.: Mennonite World Conference, 1978.

Mennonitisches Gesangbuch. München: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Mennonitischer Gemeinden in Deutschland, 2004.

Worship Together. Fresno, Calif.: Board of Faith and Life, General Conference of the Mennonite Brethren Churches, 1995.

Literature

Beachy, Alvin J. Worship as Celebration of Covenant and Incarnation. Newton, Kan.: Faith and Life Press, 1968.

Golterman, W. J. "Onze eredienst." Toerusting en Opbouw, Henk B. Kossen, red. Zeist: Gemeenschap voor Doopsgezind Broederschapswerk, 1963-1966. 2e Jaargang.

Kreider, Eleanor. Enter His Gates London (UK): Marshall Pickering, 1989.

Kreider, Eleanor and Alan Kreider, Worship and Mission after Christendom. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2011.

Mast, Russell L. Preach the Word. Newton, Kan.: Faith and Life Press, 1968.

Neufeld, Bernie, ed. Music in Worship: a Mennonite perspective. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1998.

Rempel, John D. "Mennonites." in G. Wainwright, K. Westerfield Tucker, eds., The Oxford History of Christian Worship. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006: 545-559.

Rempel, John D. Recapturing an Enchanted World: Ritual and Sacrament in the Free Church Tradition. Downer’s Grove: IVP Academic, 2020.

Siegrist, Anthony G. Participating Witness: An Anabaptist Theology of Baptism and the Sacramental Character of the church., Eugene, Ore.: Pickwick Publications, 2013.

Take Our Moments and Our Days: an Anabaptist Prayerbook, vol. I & II, Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2010.

"Worship" (theme of this Issue). Vision (Fall 2005).

Yoder, June Alliman, Marlene Kropf, and Rebecca Slough. Preparing Sunday Dinner: A collaborative Approach to Worship and Preaching. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2005.

Mennonite Minister's Manuals

Bakker, W, and G.G Hoekema. De Gemeente Komt Samen: Dienstboek Ten Behoeve Van Doopsgezinde Gemeenten. Zoetermeer: Boekencentrum, 1998. (Dutch)

Guide Pratique pour la Vie dans L’Assemblée. Montbeliard: Éditions mennonites, 1983. (French)

Leitfaden zum Gebrauch bei gottesdienstlichen Handlungen für die Ältesten und Prediger des Verbandes bad.-württ.-bayer. Mennoniten-Gemeinden e.V. [Germany]: [Verband badisch-württembergisch-bayerischer Mennoniten-Gemeinden], 1957. (German)

Rempel, John D., ed., Minister’s Manual. Newton, Kan.: Faith and Life Press, 1998. (United States and Canada)

Author(s)	John D Rempel
Date Published	May 2022

Cite This Article

MLA style

Rempel, John D. "Worship." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. May 2022. Web. 18 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Worship&oldid=173825.

APA style

Rempel, John D. (May 2022). Worship. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 18 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Worship&oldid=173825.

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