Kleine Gemeinde Mennonites in Belize

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A Kleine Gemeinde church building in Spanish Lookout

History
  In the early 19th century, a small group stepped out of the much larger and traditional Mennonite church in southern Russia. They established a new church, labelled as Kleine Gemeinde (small church) which grew slowly but steadily. Towards the end of the 19th century the Kleine Gemeinde, along with thousands of Old Colony Mennonites, migrated to Canada and the US. In the middle of the 20th century, Kleine Gemeinde families moved to northern Mexico. A decade later, in 1958, a group migrated to central Belize which at that time was still a colony of Britain and known as British Honduras. Several Old Colony families migrated here at that time but separated and settled in the north of the country.
  The first 10 years in Belize were extremely rough for both groups of Mennonites as they faced hot humid jungles, floodings, acres of mud, people with dark skin and foreign ways, incessant rain, very little motorized transportation, much of the country in poor condition with hardly any proper roads. Spanish Lookout, the main community of Kleine Gemeinde, began to prosper in the 1970's according to Gerhard Koop, a Mennonite historian. Click on Part 1 and Part 2 of video documentaries from 1958 until 2008, the 50th anniversary of their arrival; here is another video which features the Kleine Gemeinde as well as other types of Mennonites.



Religion
  Like most other Anabaptist followers of Menno Simons, the Kleine Gemeinde believe in plain clothing, non-resistance, excommunication, forbidding the use of tobacco and alcoholic drinks, abstaining from politics, non-conformity to the world, use of headcovering for baptized females, male leadership in spiritual matters, and church membership via affusion baptism. Back in Russia, their ancestors had left the Old Colony church because many of these doctrines had become relaxed and in some cases there were young men who left to join the war against Napoleon.

Divisions in Belize
  The Kleine Gemeinde in Belize isolated themselves from the Mestizo and Creole cultures around them. They traveled outside their colony to sell their products and bring in supplies, but for the most part the majority did not believe it right to accept other cultures into their faith. At the end of the 1960's some families who felt the KG were becoming too worldly moved across the river, a few miles south of Spanish Lookout and started an ultra conservative colony named Lower Barton Creek. The 1970's brought the Holdeman Mennonite missionaries from North America to Spanish Lookout; they succeeded in drawing away quite a number of KG families who eventually all migrated to Canada due to the fact that Holdeman Mennonites embraced people of any color, culture and race while KG members strongly opposed this. Also because of the racial issue and "worldliness", some KG families moved to Costa Rica where they laid aside their "Russian" Mennonite culture and blended in with Beachy Amish Mennonites and other non-Mennonite locals. Here in Belize there are a few KG families who have joined the Conservative and Beachy church through intermarriage. Before the year 2000 the very liberal EMMC church had been established in Blue Creek and Spanish Lookout; whereas the Holdeman Mennonite mission did not survive here, the EMMC although "worldly" by KG standards, thrived. The beginning of the 21st century saw the birth of charismatic and evangelical church groups which stepped out of the KG, leaving behind the Anabaptist beliefs of non-resistance, non-conformity to the world, not seeking higher education, political involvement, women's headcoverings; this created divisions within families. Even though these groups and the EMMC were ex-KG, they have retained their colony membership and live with, work with, and manage the community with the KG for 6 days a week except on Sunday mornings when each family attends its respective church. These splits and mergings are still happening among the KG.




Kleine Gemeinde Now
  There are still some families that cling to a conservative lifestyle but for the most part the KG have now become much more modern in housing and transportation; no doubt in part due to materialism; certainly not to the extent of the EMMC and the charismatics but definitely a drastic difference when compared to 20 years ago. Instead of single piece home-made dresses, some of the women have switched over to store bought polo shirts and knee-length skirts. Many young men no longer use cotton slacks and button down shirts but now wear jeans and T shirts. Musical instruments such as violins and acoustic guitars are played at home. Late model computer screens decorate the homes of some. Sleek and powerful Dodges, Chevrolets, and GMC's fill up the parking lot of KG churches on Sunday mornings. They have also opened up mission schools where they teach non-Mennonite Mestizo children from surrounding villages as well as a special school for deaf people from across the country and have become more accepting of people from other colors attending their church services.

Language
  Their primary language is still Plautdietsch, a form of Low German which came from Russia. However English is beginning to eclipse this dialect as the millenial generation has mixed in many English words into the Plautdietsch. In fact, children of those who left the KG church now speak mostly English.

Congregations and Schools
  Spanish Lookout has five KG congregations with one-room school houses for church members children scattered across the community where English and High German are taught. Education remains on a primary level since they frown on higher education. Teachers are young men and women from the church; the schools are funded entirely by the congregations and are held from August to March. Those who have left the KG have their own separate schools.
  Blue Creek in the northwest has a much smaller KG church, where they also live together with those who joined the EMMC.

A Kleine Gemeinde schoolhouse. The building has been relocated.

Some of these Kleine Gemeinde school buildings date from the 1960's.






    
                                                      A. Mendoza

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