Mennonite Genealogy with Michael Penner

Cornelius M. Penner

Cornelius M. Penner was born on June 3, 1894 as the youngest son of Reverend Martin Penner and Aganetha nee Toews. He was raised on the family's farm in Greenland.

Cornelius married in 1916 to Mary D. Penner. They had three children: Edward, Margaret, and Peter. After Mary passed away in 1923, Cornelius married Annie Bartel and they had ten children. Cornelius passed away in 1965 at the age of 68.

 

Obituary of Cornelius M. Penner

Sonntagabend, den 11 April, verschied an Herzschlag, ganz ploetzlich, Freund Cornelius M. Penner, Greenland, im Alter von 70 Jahren und etwa 10 Monaten. Er war wohl nur Donnerstag, von Arkansow, U.S.A., heimgekommen. Freitag fuhr er nach dem Concordia Hospital in Winnipeg und besuchte noch Freund Abram C. Penner, der dort wegen Schlaganfall weilt. Sonnabend nachmittags traf ich ihn in Steinbach im I.G.A. Laden. Er setzte sich noch bei mir auf den Stuhl und wir durften uns noch verschiedenes austauschen. Seitdem wir beide als Kaesefabrik Direcktoren im Amt waren, datiert unsere engere Bekanntschaft.

Verschiedene Male ist er auch in unser bescheidenes Heim eingekehrt. Als in den dreissiger Jahren  eine Depression einsetzte war Herr Penner einer der ersten, der mit dem Bau einer Kaesefabrik in Landmark zu wirken anfing. Er wurde wohl auch der erste Praesident der Fabrik und zu einer Zeit wurde er als Verkauefer von Kaese von allen Fabriken der Ostreserve ernannt.

Noch ehe die grosse Landmark Kaesefabrik ihre Taetigkeit beendete, in den juengeren Jahren, fing Freund Penner an sich mehr missionarish zu betaetigen. Ich denke, es ist kaum jemand in der Ostreserve, der mehr Hausbesuche gemacht hat. Er machte bei reich oder arm in der Hinsicht keinen Unterschied. Vor einigen Jahren trat

Cornelius M. Penner (1894-1965)

er aus der Gemeinde in Greenland aus und hielt selbst Versammlungen in seinem Hause ab.

Er wird ueberlebt von der zweiten Gattin, 8 Soehnen und 5 Toechtern, wohl alle verheiratet, ausser der juengste Sohn Joe, noch daheim. Ausserdem ueberleben ihn etwas ueber 50 Grosskinder, zwei Brueder, Jakob und Johann M. Penner und eine Schwester, Frau Abram Eidse.

Das Begraebnis war Freitagnachmittag, den 16 April. Zuerst kamen viele Teilnehmer nach ihrem Heim, wo der Verstorbene geboren und seine uebrige Wohlfahrt verlebt hat. Dann fuhren die dort versammelten nach dem Greenland Versammlungshaus, wo die Leiche auf dem Friedhof bestattet wurde. Nachher fand hier noch ein TrauerGottesdienst statt, wo das stattliche Gotteshaus noch ganz angefuellt war mit Teilnehmern.

- Steinbach Post, April 20, 1965, p. 10

 

 

In 1964, shortly before his death, Cornelius published the below pamphlet addressing his disagreement with the Holdeman Church. A copy of the pamphlet can be found at the Mennonite Heritage Centre, volume 5231, file 35.

 

A Biography of C. M. Penner and his Faith in God and His Word

     Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. Prov. 14:34. God is a righteous God and hates sin with a perfect hatred and no sin will enter heaven. Therefore He sent His only begotten Son into this world to be offered up for the souls of men, since there is no other way for us to be freed of sin except by and through the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. And all those that have found remission of the sins in the blood of Jesus Christ are such that are called the Children of the most high God and are a witness for the righteousness of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ and are building on his temple or church here on earth as long as they live and are under this grace. So also I want to be and am a witness for this Kingdom and have felt led from time to time to write something of my experience and light for the benefit of all salvation-seeking souls here on earth. As it is wisely hid from us when this world will come to an end or when we will be taken from this sin-cursed world. My parents, Martin Penners, landed here in Manitoba in 1874, coming from Southern Russia with the so-called Kleine Gemeinde which had been organized in Russia in 1820 as a separation from the Mennonite Church which was subsequently called the Grosze Gemeinde (or large church).

     History tells us that the Kleine Gemeinde was the most conservative or careful of the Russian Mennonite churches to be a separate people from the world and especially In education kept itself back as also to be defenseless but yet in all, my parents with many others did not have the spiritual life that they felt and understood the Word of God that a Christian should have. And they prayed and sought for a way to be saved.

     Since the leader, Peter Toews, a minister of the Kleine Gemeinde, was also among the seeking souls they heard of and later got in touch with John Holdeman, who as we read in his book, The Mirror of Truth, and some of his other books. found forgiveness in the blood of Jesus and was baptized into a body called the Old Mennonites which he and we now believe had the lineage of the Church of God, as Jesus says “and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” (St. John 10:16). After this conversion he found that this church was in decay and after reading, enquiring, and meditating, God called upon him directly to propagate this fold or Church. With many trials and fears and as it is inevitable, with us sinful mortals, he made many mistakes. As he himself writes he went out with three others that were willing to bear the cross and propagated the People or Church of God.

     As the ministers, John Holdeman and Marcus Seiler came to Manitoba, my parents with many others felt and saw that God had sent them his messenger as Children of God and members of the body of Christ or His Church. They accepted the message for the benefit of their souls, confessed their sins and found forgiveness in the blood of Jesus Christ, and were baptized with water into the fellowship of the saints. This happened in 1882 after being here in Manitoba for 8 years of enduring hardship in their pioneer life. This must also have been a help to them in finding salvation since they did this for the sake of their faith. I believe we can employ the words of Jesus here, “but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” (Luke 9:24). And of course when my parents related their experiences on the way of the cross they also confessed with tears that they made many mistakes and often misjudged themselves, and came through many a trial, as did also their fellow brethren. My mother often related how that had been, in her blessing and laying on of the hands of the elder, that through many a trial she would go into the Kingdom of God. And as Jesus Himself said to His disciples that the spirit is willing but the flesh weak.

     I was born in 1894 and brought up under their care and was often admonished by them to repent, but I wanted in my own way, which has caused a lot of grief, especially in taking a wife without first asking the Lord. But Mary, my first wife, was sooner ready to seek the Lord than I was and she was really a help for me to find salvation for my soul. And of course, while seeking salvation I still wanted this and that my way. There was especially the wearing of the beard which I could not understand that it was necessary, but God gave me no peace until I broke down completely with my own ways and said to the Lord, not mine, but Thy will be done.

     Then a sweet peace entered my heart, which I cannot forget. It was in the summer of 1917 and I had to tend the cattle often all alone. I cannot forget the wonderful fellowship that I could enjoy through the mercy of the Lord. But then also while seeking in the Word of God and what our forefathers wrote that also were in the lineage, I found many a thing that was lacking with me and the Church here in Manitoba, and with many a mistake labored with myself and others to come and be on the ground of salvation.

     My wife and I were examined by the ministers and were baptized by Min. Fred Fricke when he was still so humble to wear a black shirt and black hat, which were standard wear with the ministers in those days.

     After my conversation, I started to read more in the Bible, often having the English and German side by side so as to also learn more in the English and other books like M. Mirror, Menno Simons and John Holdeman’s writings.

     It was somewhat a custom to prepare for and have communion about once a year and I remember one minister working for an implement dealer in town and also selling cars. But he himself said and confessed that he did not feel at home on this job, and one year after another confessed before communion that it was not the right place, as a Christian, to work in such an occupation, but year after year he continued to do so, which to me now appears as a mockery but the church had drifted so far from the right path—myself included—that it could not be separated from the Church. I myself feel ashamed that I did not more in love take a definite Gospel stand.

     The programs had started in Kleefeld, Rosenort and later in Steinbach which right from the beginning were a hindrance to Gospel Church discipline. The true prophets witnessed against it, but it was kept on until at Rosenort, as one minister expressed himself, “we killed that thing.” It was declared as sinful here in Greenland from the pulpit until in 1932 or thereabouts, it all at once was by majority put in. And there is where I have felt myself especially in debt. I should have in humbleness said if that can be changed from sin to a God-fearing thing, then all at once water baptism could be changed from a Godly command to omitting it altogether. I have witnessed against the programs and stayed away from it mostly, but as I see it now in the light of God’s Holy Word, too lukewarm and not in the sense of the Gospel, as it forbids us to take part in false doctrine.

     I feel led to relate one instance that happened in Kleefeld when the programs were more or less sin yet here in Greenland. I was on the point of going into the meeting house to attend such a program when God shifted a dark cloud between me and the meeting. I drew back and kept out of the program meeting and never again attempted to attend those meetings.

     I feel led to relate one more difficulty that we had here in the Greenland congregation in the years centering around 1925, when the public school got too small and a new one was supposed to be built. Then some were for splitting the district and others wanted to have a two-room school in the center of the district, whereupon quite a dissention arose, and wherein I myself feel especially in debt even while meaning it so well. As I see it now our greatest hindrance and trouble was that we wanted to do it ourselves as the children of Israel often wanted to fight the enemy with their own weapons without asking God first. We as members voted in and had our own school board which was the root of the trouble, as Jesus says that “My kingdom is not of this world.” And M. Simons explains this passage as meaning to not take part in any government office. Other ministers were called to help us out of our difficulties, but none was able at that time to point out to us the root of the trouble. I have now repented of it and confessed to the proper parties that God has showed me not to vote for neither be in the school board.

     Perhaps I should also remark here that Jesus says “By their fruits ye shall know them.” And for a salvation-seeking honest soul it is now openly seen where the low-German people have landed that have voted for and been in the school boards. There are only a very few here in Manitoba that do not allow their children to attend High Schools. In the south, in Kansas, Oklahoma, etc., it was prohibited by the Holdeman Church to elect and be on the public school boards until not so very long ago, but here in Manitoba it has in my light so lowly started to manage the public school that it was always practised.

     I remember well as a boy the year when putting up the flag at the public school was commanded by the Dept. of Education, and that then two of the home ministers were alarmed, but in my light also did not go to the bottom of the matter. As I see it now the two ministers were on the right track to be alarmed but the grace of the unity was not there to tear the weeds out with the root. And so we here in Greenland tried to fight and keep out sin but miserably failed. To hoist the flag of Canada at the school would be almost comparable to putting on the uniform of a soldier. As I have found it in the service of God, education is so dangerous for a Christian that it becomes a serious question how far a Christian father and mother can allow their dear children to attend the country public schools.

     During the depression years between the two World Wars a cheese factory was started here in our community and I was the writer was voted in a director, and for many years was the manager of the affair. It was never incorporated under the laws of the province, but got to be a bigger affair and I wound out later that I sought honour in helping provide more money for the patrons, and as Jesus says, “Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to salvation.” I have let myself be caught on a way that was not the way of the cross and have repented with tears until I felt that the Lord has forgiven me.

     It got to be the custom that two outside ministers were called once a year to hold revival meetings and then have communion. I often got into trouble because of not being able to go along with such a lukewarm way as the Church of the Living God had drifted into. Wedding feasts were arranged in a worldly way. For instance the groom and bride with attendants had to sit together before the official marriage was performed, which in time past was prohibited. The funerals went the ways of the world and later on choirs had to sing on it as the world does, which was prohibited in time past. More voiced singing was practised and allowed.

     Yet in all, while allowing such worldly affairs and arranging it themselves, the ministers had a wonderful time. It happened one year that when so-called revival meetings were going on here in Greenland, that one of the visiting ministers, Jesse Johnson by name, was at our place and told of how the Manitoba ministers had been together at some place, and he being there too as also one of the ministers that had sold cars for an implement dealer and confessed about it once and again, but continued to do it year after year; and he claimed in rosy terms what a blessed time they had had among themselves. And I, proving it different, came out with what I then believed, and still do to be the truth. Then he must have complained to the other ministers and apparently, said that so it could not go with me. So a delegation of the ministers met me and my wife—as she was in agreement with me on this—and we were duly warned that this matter would have to be brought before the council. As we did not budge, we were denounced by all the ministers present, which would have been in order from their side, if they had obeyed the Gospel.

     But when I started to explain myself in council, I was cut off and more or less told to shut up, and here is where I feel led to confess that I did not do what God would have wanted me to do. Tobias Unruh said that as the ministers in the old, decayed Church had silenced him he had said that then he was freed to leave.

     Oh, may God in his mercy give the length, and width, the breadth, and the depth, or in other words the right measure in writing this and whatever needs to be done. God was not to blame, but I was to blame that I was not ready to say, well then if you can’t give me a chance to express myself, then my duty is done here. I had once and again warned the member, with tears, to keep away from idolatry and worldliness and also false doctrine. Many a dangerous thing is not only worldly, but idolatry and false doctrine. So what should we do? We know now what we should have done, namely to keep away from people that go so far away from the gospel path that they were on the path to banish the God-fearing and allow the ungodly. But we lingered on as if we were willing to give them all the rope that we could, and we actually once more after that took part in communion with them as things had been tried to patch up.

     Then it happened that there was a break away in California, and one in Kansas and we tried to work with them together on the true ground of the gospel, but we found out that the gate and the road is so narrow to heaven that we not only had to leave the God-forsaken church but repent of going along so far as we had. So that it came to the point, as Jesus says, that only if we lose our life we shall gain it.

     But the time came that we said goodbye to the fallen church and in weakness had our own meetings and communion, with the help from above building on the ark of the covenant, and now in 1964 have fellowship as five members and invite any and all to come to the ark of safety. Jesus says that as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be when the son of men shall be revealed. As the door of the ark was all at once closed by God himself, so will the door of the fold be closed forever. There are members that left the so-called Holdeman Church in California, in Kansas on two places, and in Arkansas as well as in Pennsylvania.

     Sad to say there are so few that are willing and able to surrender all, that it appears at this writing as if the others will not be able to make the grade or have the grace to do all that God’s holy will requires. It has created fear and trembling in my heart, and tears by day and by night, just this part in itself that there are so few and those that seemingly were are vanishing away. We have sought them once and again and tried to give them all the rope that possibly we could, and perhaps sometimes too much, but of no apparent avail. God knows and in Him I want to put my trust. I made my vow to him once and again to now allow nor forbid any thing besides his glorious word. We read how Jesus and the apostles have warned us of the later time wherein we now live, as many do admit and apparently believe. God is not mocked; whatever He as given, that He will require of us.

     Well then in about 1951 or 52, as we started to work on the gospel ground beside the so-called Holdemans, we were taken into work so as to say, At first I was set on repentance and when the two delegates were here to announce it to me, I said that is just what I intended to do with the help of God where I had not yet repented. And it really took more than I had expected to repent of going along with pride. Then later my wife was put on repentance. By the way, I should insert here that putting a member on repentance must have come up in the so-called Holdeman Church, as we read of it nowhere in the Bible, nor in the writings of the God-sent forefathers. I imagine it came up in search of an easier way for the flesh.

     Then first I was expelled by the so-called Holdemans and next my wife. Just as Jesus says in Luke 6:22 we feel sorry for the blinded members but otherwise are rather expelled from proud people that go along with them.

     Long before this one of my natural brothers was expelled because he got off the right track and even married out of the Church. One of the ministers asked me privately what should be done with him, and I said later to him that having false doctrine, then those members that allow it would not be commissioned to expel anybody. But I was dumb enough to go along and say yes to him being expelled, as we poor mortals are so that we rather go with the majority. This has caused me much pain and as I believe I had to and did repent of going along with such an unscriptural act.

     So also one of our sons Bernhard could not go along with the so-called Holdemans and was set on repentance and later expelled. As he was not strong physically, and being persecuted by his wife, and her relatives and as the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Tim. 2:1-5, that we shall turn away from pride, so he was in trouble that it was not a place for him to save his soul. Once and again he said to us that he would have to leave his home for the gospel’s sake. His mother and I did advise him to stay but all at once we had to change our minds and he fled here to our home to live and stay here, as it was also a mockery. They wanted him to bring up the children in a Godly way but took away all power and authority from him insofar that I as the grandfather was called a thief and a robber by her parents, and also by his own daughter.

     Brother Peter B. Reimer was also not at home with the pride and idolatry going on with the so-called Holdemans but we could not really persuade him to leave them. But they in their pride could convince him, by coming to him, worldly dressed, by tows and threes in a nice new car to invite him to their meetings.

     We find that M. Simons, John Holdeman and other reformers took far too long to leave the false places of worship. So also have we taken far too long to leave.

     I must make mention here of one more thing that happened while Peter B. Reimer was being worked at. One of the members in the so-called Holdeman Church owned him about a hundred dollars for four years without him having made arrangements to keep it so long. When Peter said this to me I investigated this matter from both sides, and found it so that this member had been negligent in paying or arranging his account. Then something was done from their side and it was eventually paid. Then Peter lost that cheque, and applied for a new one, but it took another four months before he got that money. There was no haste in the members’ mind to satisfy Peter, since he went on a visiting trip in between. But what I wanted to bring out here was the fact that as this dishonest member attended their meetings and Peter did not, brother Peter was expelled and this member was in their sight unblameable. The worst for Peter was that he attended meetings with us and that was one of the greatest reasons for expelling him. If we were heretics as they call us it would have been a valid reason. But John Holdeman in his writings explains what a heretic is: one that tries to or does bring false doctrine into the Church of God. And that is just what we intended to and did keep out of the Church of the Living God. We can and we would have to prove that among the so-called Holdemans once and again a member was not even prompted or demanded to settle his natural accounts.

     We believe that John Holdeman left the Old Mennonites on a Gospel ground as he explains it so clearly and propagated the Church of the living God in 1859, and so we have left what now are the so-called Holdemans, because they have taken on false doctrine as Paul writes in 1 Cor. 5:6 “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” John Holdeman writes on page 164 and 165 of the Mirror of Truth (German edition), that if a Church deviates so far from the Word of God, that a person becomes a transgressor by staying in such a Church, because she is not willing to repent, then a member can only become obedient by being willing to leave or separate from them. We would have to admit that it has caused us grief and sorrow to leave you but as Peter said to the Jews who had fallen from grace, they had to obey God before they could obey men. Just as John Holdeman said of leaving the Old Mennonites, so do we say it is not necessarily the reason of the false doctrine that is with you, but rather that they have not the power and will to repent.

     We were at the conference at Lonetree in 1950 and I warned the membership there, and it happened as it often happens with a sick man that he gets help and revives somewhat, but it had no lasting effect as it often is with a natural man on his death bed. I truly believe today that the choir singing that was allowed on that conference leavened the whole conference so that without repentance they made void even the good resolutions.

     Repentance is the ground of our Christian life and that is just what is lost with the so-called Holdemans. With this my poor message I warned as John the Baptist and also Jesus said starting their ministries here on earth: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” There were six reasons that John Holdeman gave for the fall of the Old Mennonites and so there were six reasons that I warned the so-called Holdemans on the 1950 conference.

     If anyone is able to show me where I am not laboring in the footsteps of John Holdeman I will amend and would call it a pleasure to do so. We are admonished to obey the teachers sent by God (Heb. 13:17), and with God there is no respect of one person. So whosoever reads this and finds that it does not agree with the Gospel let him be humble and willing to remind me. It more or less has been explained how it went and where the so-called Holdemans got into, that many a thing that was sin once was all at once with the majority rule voted in without reference to the Gospel, e.g., choir singing, more voiced singing, and the programs.

     I will now come to a close with this writing committing it into the hands of an all-seeing God whom I feel has prompted me to do so and into the hands of an honest and impartial reader. It took a considerably long time for me to be willing to write this so that the reader can read it. Finished July 16, 1964 at Ste. Anne P.O. in Manitoba.

     I feel led to add also a pamphlet that was printed a few years ago to give the reader more of an understanding of how things went and what happened here as also in California. We are in agreement with the reasons given by them for leaving the so-called Holdemans. We read of Noah, that he found grace in the sight of God to build the ark in obedience to the commands of an all-knowing God.

- C. M. Penner

 

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