There is a lot to take in on this photomontage of the Mennonite Brethren Church Choir from Badamsha, Kazakhstan—in Soviet parlance, a “closed city”—in 1971. Individual portraits of choir members, identified by first initial and last name, are grouped around an image of a modest building, presumably the “prayer house,” they had just received permission from the Soviet authorities to register as a legal church. Across the top is inscribed a German verse that must have expressed their collective sentiment: “Sing to the Lord a new song.”
For more historical photos in the Mennonite Archival Image Database, see archives.mhsc.ca.
More moments from yesterday:
Ron J. Sider
David K. Jantzi
Queen in Manitoba
Amish bicentennial
Zollikon church
(Photo: Mennonite Archives of Ontario)
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