Group Maintenance

Canadian Mennonites in rural and urban areas have been fairly successful in maintaining their group identity. They think of themselves as Mennonites, and society around them sees them as such, both ethnically and religiously. Sociologists have shown that Mennonites have been able to maintain their identity largely because they have transplanted rural community values and practices to the urban environment. These values and practices surround them from the cradle to grave, forming a protective shield between themselves and their urban way of life.

Mennonite survival as a community in Canadian urban centres has been ensured in a number of ways. In some cities, Mennonites have established areas where they live closely together. In Winnipeg, for example, North Kildonan is known as a Mennonite suburb. Other cities, including St Catharines, Kitchener-Waterloo, Saskatoon, and Vancouver, have similar pockets. Mennonites also maintain their faith and culture through their institutions: churches, schools, business establishments, German and English publications, and musical and theatre groups. Winnipeg, which boasts the largest concentration of Mennonites in the world (some 25,000), has two Mennonite high schools, two Bible colleges, about forty-five churches, a hospital, numerous businesses and industries, credit unions, some five papers, and programs at the University of Winnipeg. Many Mennonites listen to religious programs and community news on CFAM, a Mennonite radio station in southern Manitoba.

There is no doubt that their Germanic languages and culture have helped Canadian Mennonites to maintain their traditions. Had it not been for the successive waves of German-speaking immigrants to Canada, assimilation would have progressed more rapidly. Further, although Mennonites increasingly marry non-Mennonites, most still prefer partners from within their own group. They also tend to socialize among themselves. Travel agencies plan trips to destinations with large Mennonite concentrations, and there are communities in Canada’s cottage regions and in Florida, California, and elsewhere.

Canada’s multicultural policy, begun under the Trudeau government in 1971, has contributed significantly to the maintenance of group identity. Mennonites have taken full advantage of their ethnic status. They have received government grants for cultural, artistic, and educational endeavours and, together with other groups, they have lobbied government departments to promote their ethnocultural interests. Individuals who have joined the Mennonites by choice or through marriage are often more committed to the faith and community than those who were born into Mennonite families. These newcomers add to and strengthen group identity. They demonstrate that it is not necessarily tied to German culture and language and that there will be Mennonites long after they have forgotten how to speak German or prepare traditional dishes.

Mennonites began as a group defined by a particular religious faith, but they developed into a distinct people. As the forces of assimilation continue, it is likely that they will lose many of their ethnocultural traits and revert to the status of a religious denomination. The new non-Germanic congregations in Canada and the mission churches abroad certainly point in that direction. These “new” Mennonites are sometimes referred to as nonethnic Mennonites, since they are members by faith only. At present, many Canadians feel that they are Mennonite because of their birth, regardless of whether they accept the faith. Others, however, believe that accidents of birth do not preclude an individual’s decision to become or to remain a Mennonite. As the thirty contributors to Why I Am a Mennonite (1988) indicate, to be or to become a Mennonite is more a matter of choice than of birth.

In spite of assimilation and urbanization, Mennonites, especially the more educated professionals, are becoming increasingly aware of their Anabaptist heritage. It has been argued that those who are strongly conscious of this heritage are best able to withstand the negative forces of urbanization, and that those who emphasize religious orthodoxy and fundamentalism are more easily assimilated into evangelical society. An Anabaptist orientation, it is said, best synthesizes a transcendental relationship to God and an immanent relationship with one’s fellow human beings.

Until the mid-twentieth century there was little talk among Canadian Mennonites about Anabaptism. In the 1940s, however, Harold S. Bender of Goshen, Indiana, proclaimed his “Anabaptist vision,” urging Mennonites to return to the religious principles of their spiritual forebears. Anabaptism was identified by an insistence on following Jesus as the essence of Christianity, on the church as a community, and on an ethic of love and nonresistance. In the face of liberalism, modernism, and evangelical-fundamentalist inroads, an Anabaptist emphasis seemed the answer for Mennonite survival in modern society. Although the evangelical-fundamentalist forces continue to encroach on Mennonite community and church life, the teaching of Anabaptist principles in schools and churches suggests that Mennonite faith and life will survive into the twenty-first century.

Mennonites committed to an Anabaptist faith will continue to stress community, and they will witness to love, peace, justice, and the following of Jesus in practical life. These emphases, however, will be seen as religious values rather than as part of their ethnocultural tradition. In a sense, they always have been, but in the past such values were often intertwined with Mennonite ethnicity. But religion, rather than ethnicity, has been what held Mennonites together as a people. When they were persecuted and they moved from country to country, it was their faith that helped them to survive and that defined them. As Canadian Mennonites become more urbanized and “modern,” it is again their religion and their religious institutions that will enable them to maintain their identity, though the issue of religion and ethnicity is an area of considerable debate. Mennonite survival as a community ultimately depends on how committed individual members are to their religious faith and values. Despite urbanization and integration into Canadian society, Mennonites in Canada have been moderately successful in maintaining their faith, their values, and their identity as a people.