[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Faiths of the Volhynian Germans

[Jerry Frank]

At 09:22 PM 18/11/2004, Donna Baxmeyer wrote:
>    Do you have time and space to explain more about the Moravian 
> Brethren, and the Baptist researchers?  Any help is greatly appreciated.
>Warm regards,
>Donna Baxmeyer
>torhaus at telus.net

Here is a very brief primer on the faiths of our Volhynian German 
ancestors.  I would encourage others to add to various components as they 
see fit.

Lutheran
I would guestimate that 95% or more of the Germans in Volhynia were 
Lutheran.  It is the group for which the most records are available.  For 
those of you with ancestors in the other faiths, you should be interested 
in following up on the Lutherans as well.  The reason is that most of those 
in the other faiths in Volhynia were converts from Lutheran.

Moravian Brethren
We had several presentations on this group at our 2003 convention in 
Edmonton.  As I understand it, they were historically a mission group 
before evolving into denomination status of today.  Today we might use the 
term, para-church organization to describe what they used to be like.  They 
tried to work within established churches to improve the spirituality of 
the people and their relationship to God.  They were accepted, perhaps 
grudgingly, by Lutherans in some areas (e.g. the Gabin region of Russian 
Poland).  In other areas like Volhynia, there was greater 
conflict.  Several dozen families officially removed themselves from the 
roll of the Lutheran Church in Volhynia.

Baptist
I don't know the detailed history of the Baptists in Volhynia.  I don't 
know if a group of them came to Volhynia or if they evolved as the result 
of the mission work of a single person.  They were scattered in various 
locations in Volhynia but were centred in the region to the east of Heimtal.

Church of God
I know nothing of this history as applied to Volhynia except to say that 
numbers of Volhynian Germans attended this church upon arrival in 
Canada.  If Ed Sonnenberg is reading this, perhaps he can expand a little 
on their history.

Reformed Church
There was a small Reformed Church component in western Volhynia.  I have 
never seen an inquiry about them there nor have I heard of any 
connections.  We only know about them through the existence of record books 
in the Reformed Church Consistory which are held in a Lithuanian Archive 
and which have been microfilmed by the LDS.  They are written in Russian 
Cyrillic so no research that I am aware of has been done in this material.

Catholic
In 18 years, I have only seen one or two queries about Catholic Germans in 
Volhynia.  They are generally unusual circumstances, associated with 
residence in cities or remote parts of Volhynia where other Germans did not 
live.  I am surprised that there were not more Catholic Germans who might 
have migrated in from Galicia.

Mennonite
There were a few Mennonite villages in Volhynia but their history is 
sporadic as people from this "nomadic" group often moved on to other parts 
of Russia rather than laying down firm roots in Volhynia.

If I've made any errors in this description, I apologize and would 
encourage you to correct them as required.  Feel free to create new threads 
specific to one group or another - so long as the discussion is related to 
the faith of our ancestors.  No theological debates, please.




Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca