Recently my contributions to the Wikipedia article on deceased New Apostolic District "Apostle" Michael Kraus were deleted by an overzealous admin going by the nym Discospinster (Lisa Di Valentino). I decided to post my own article on the NACBoard as well as here, just because. Wikipedia can go to hell, I have no further use for it if quoting a letter that Kraus himself wrote is deleted as "opinion" and "vandalism" by an idiot who never actually knew him. They can continue to use anonymous know-it-all admins which will only continue to hurt their credibility. I'll keep the links to Wikipedia in the article just for the sake of completeness.
Michael Kraus (Minister, New Apostolic Church) From NACBoardpedia, the free, accurate encyclopedia!
Michael Kraus (March 26, 1908 - November 16, 2003) was a Canadian immigrant, entrepreneur and lay minister in the New Apostolic Church.
Immigrant
Mihail Krauss was the eldest son of a tavern-owning farmer in Meeburg, a village of 950 German-speaking Lutheran Saxons in the Transylvania region of Romania. According to Canadian immigration records, in 1926 at age 18 he boarded the Canadian Pacific ship Minnedosa and emigrated to Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. He often described his arrival by saying, "I had only ten cents in my pocket, didn't speak a word of English, didn't know a soul; not even the dogs barked at me." At some point he changed his name to Michael Kraus - it is not clear when this change occurred.
At 22 years of age, Kraus married Hilda Loscher. The couple had 2 children, Nelson and Anneleen.
Entrepreneur
Kraus's humble beginnings included washing dishes and working as a laborer in the 1930s for the Baetz Furniture Co. in Kitchener. After hours he worked with his brother Andrew and other New Apostolic members building small apartments. He later formed Lancaster Weaving Mills of Kitchener in partnership with Carl Woll, whom he sold the business to after about 10 years. In 1941, Kraus began importing fabrics to Canada. In 1946 he formed a partnership to manufacture fabric. Initially adopting fabric looms to manufacture carpet, he founded Kraus Carpet Mills in 1959. He expanded into fiber extrusion, founding Strudex Fibres in 1971. By his death in 2003, Kraus companies employed over 900 people at facilities across Canada, in the United States and in Australia. However, at the time of this writing, The Kraus Group had sold majority shares to a British company named Hilco UK, a private equity firm. On March 13, 2013 the Kraus Group announced the appointment of a new CEO.
Minister
Michael Kraus joined the New Apostolic Church in 1932 and was ordained into the ministry one year later. Like other lay ministers in the New Apostolic Church, he served in a voluntary capacity, initially as an assistant local minister and later in various regional commissions. In 1955 he was ordained as an apostle and, in Zurich on June 21, 1958, he was ordained as a District Apostle and national leader of the New Apostolic Church Canada. He traveled extensively and sent fellow missionaries to establish the New Apostolic Church in over 70 countries, where church membership grew to over 4 million by his retirement in 1994. He organized the construction of thousands of church buildings in developing countries. His impact on the worldwide growth of the New Apostolic Church was so great that at his funeral Chief Apostle Richard Fehr compared it to the missionary work of the Apostle Paul of biblical times.
However, not all New Apostolics saw Kraus in a positive light. For instance, it is interesting to note that Kraus didn't build his carpet mill, nor did he become a millionaire, until one year after he became District Apostle and thus gained control of the finances of the New Apostolic Church of North America. Steve Pathmann, a lay minister in the church in Chicago, claimed that Kraus gave himself a 50-year interest-free loan.
Some thought Kraus was a megalomaniac who insisted that his petty, legalistic rules should be followed without question. The following is an excerpt from a 6-page letter Kraus sent out to all New Apostolic members in North America:
Note the use of ALL CAPS as though shouting at the members, the use of the "royal We" (nosism), and how he equates his opinion with the "will of God". Note also how he confuses "autocracy" with "theocracy". The condescending tone of this letter and the belligerent notion that anyone who disagreed with him was a "fool" were de rigeuer for New Apostolics for the 36 years that he reigned as a "District Apostle" in the church.
References
* Scans of the original letter written by Kraus and hosted on the NACBoard - http://nacboard.yuku.com/sreply/69203/DA-Kraus-Letter-of-32289
* New Apostolic Church International News. District Apostle Michael Kraus: A quite exceptional servant of God entered into eternity!, November 17, 2003
* Floor Daily: Kraus Carpet Founder Dies, November 19, 2003
* "Kraus Carpet founder also was church leader", The Kitchener-Waterloo Record, November 19, 2003
* "Kraus Carpet founder dies", The Guelph Daily Mercury, November 19, 2003
* "A Twentieth-Century Paul. Funeral Service for District Apostle Michael Kraus", Our Family: The Magazine of the New Apostolic Church, January 2004
* "Obituary: Michael Kraus", The Kitchener-Waterloo Record, November 21, 2003:
* "A Letter to New Apostolic Church Members from Michael Kraus", The NACBoard, March 22, 1989
* "Michael Kraus (minister)", Wikipedia article unfairly edited and sanitized by idiot admin Lisa Di Valentino a.k.a. "Discospinster", May 17, 2013
Michael Kraus (March 26, 1908 - November 16, 2003) was a Canadian immigrant, entrepreneur and lay minister in the New Apostolic Church.
Immigrant
Mihail Krauss was the eldest son of a tavern-owning farmer in Meeburg, a village of 950 German-speaking Lutheran Saxons in the Transylvania region of Romania. According to Canadian immigration records, in 1926 at age 18 he boarded the Canadian Pacific ship Minnedosa and emigrated to Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. He often described his arrival by saying, "I had only ten cents in my pocket, didn't speak a word of English, didn't know a soul; not even the dogs barked at me." At some point he changed his name to Michael Kraus - it is not clear when this change occurred.
At 22 years of age, Kraus married Hilda Loscher. The couple had 2 children, Nelson and Anneleen.
Entrepreneur
Kraus's humble beginnings included washing dishes and working as a laborer in the 1930s for the Baetz Furniture Co. in Kitchener. After hours he worked with his brother Andrew and other New Apostolic members building small apartments. He later formed Lancaster Weaving Mills of Kitchener in partnership with Carl Woll, whom he sold the business to after about 10 years. In 1941, Kraus began importing fabrics to Canada. In 1946 he formed a partnership to manufacture fabric. Initially adopting fabric looms to manufacture carpet, he founded Kraus Carpet Mills in 1959. He expanded into fiber extrusion, founding Strudex Fibres in 1971. By his death in 2003, Kraus companies employed over 900 people at facilities across Canada, in the United States and in Australia. However, at the time of this writing, The Kraus Group had sold majority shares to a British company named Hilco UK, a private equity firm. On March 13, 2013 the Kraus Group announced the appointment of a new CEO.
Minister
Michael Kraus joined the New Apostolic Church in 1932 and was ordained into the ministry one year later. Like other lay ministers in the New Apostolic Church, he served in a voluntary capacity, initially as an assistant local minister and later in various regional commissions. In 1955 he was ordained as an apostle and, in Zurich on June 21, 1958, he was ordained as a District Apostle and national leader of the New Apostolic Church Canada. He traveled extensively and sent fellow missionaries to establish the New Apostolic Church in over 70 countries, where church membership grew to over 4 million by his retirement in 1994. He organized the construction of thousands of church buildings in developing countries. His impact on the worldwide growth of the New Apostolic Church was so great that at his funeral Chief Apostle Richard Fehr compared it to the missionary work of the Apostle Paul of biblical times.
However, not all New Apostolics saw Kraus in a positive light. For instance, it is interesting to note that Kraus didn't build his carpet mill, nor did he become a millionaire, until one year after he became District Apostle and thus gained control of the finances of the New Apostolic Church of North America. Steve Pathmann, a lay minister in the church in Chicago, claimed that Kraus gave himself a 50-year interest-free loan.
Some thought Kraus was a megalomaniac who insisted that his petty, legalistic rules should be followed without question. The following is an excerpt from a 6-page letter Kraus sent out to all New Apostolic members in North America:
A New Apostolic member, a so-called scholar for the royal highness that waits for him, has only one thing to fulfill and that is: TO DO WHAT HE IS TOLD. HE HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SAY.
... The opposite of DEMOCRACY, which brought a mass confusion in our time, is AUTOCRACY. We looked it up in the dictionary and there the word AUTOCRACY is described as THE DIVINE WILL. This divine will reigns in the godly undertaking in our Church, and is protected by our Chief Apostle to the highest degree, which we support with all our life. The will of man is poison toward the will of God, and we have no room for poison in our Church.
To those who do not agree with the above, I can only say that the Lord Jesus congregated them into a group by themselves and He gave them a special name; He called them FOOLS.
... So remember: The future Kings and Priests, while they go through their learning period and are scholars here on earth on their way of life, ONLY HAVE TO OBEY AND DO WHAT THEY ARE TOLD, AND THEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SAY IN THIS GODLY OPERATION. THEY SHOULD FOLLOW IN UNCONDITIONAL OBEDIENCE OF FAITH.
Note the use of ALL CAPS as though shouting at the members, the use of the "royal We" (nosism), and how he equates his opinion with the "will of God". Note also how he confuses "autocracy" with "theocracy". The condescending tone of this letter and the belligerent notion that anyone who disagreed with him was a "fool" were de rigeuer for New Apostolics for the 36 years that he reigned as a "District Apostle" in the church.
References
* Scans of the original letter written by Kraus and hosted on the NACBoard - http://nacboard.yuku.com/sreply/69203/DA-Kraus-Letter-of-32289
* New Apostolic Church International News. District Apostle Michael Kraus: A quite exceptional servant of God entered into eternity!, November 17, 2003
* Floor Daily: Kraus Carpet Founder Dies, November 19, 2003
* "Kraus Carpet founder also was church leader", The Kitchener-Waterloo Record, November 19, 2003
* "Kraus Carpet founder dies", The Guelph Daily Mercury, November 19, 2003
* "A Twentieth-Century Paul. Funeral Service for District Apostle Michael Kraus", Our Family: The Magazine of the New Apostolic Church, January 2004
* "Obituary: Michael Kraus", The Kitchener-Waterloo Record, November 21, 2003:
* "A Letter to New Apostolic Church Members from Michael Kraus", The NACBoard, March 22, 1989
* "Michael Kraus (minister)", Wikipedia article unfairly edited and sanitized by idiot admin Lisa Di Valentino a.k.a. "Discospinster", May 17, 2013
