A Yellow Brick Journey Through Life

Use of this site

2010-09-24T19:08:00.003-04:00

A Yellow Brick Road is primarily made up of daily entries during the Church of the Brethren 300th Anniversary Year in 2008. You will find some earlier entries and a few entries in 2009.

While this blog is no longer receiving regular posts,
it has been left up and you may find some interesting information about the Church of the Brethren and related personalities.

While you are welcome to read this blog day by day,
it might be most helpful to use the search bar to search for articles on particular subjects or personalities (ie. Dan West).

Prayer Before Reading the Bible

2009-01-12T09:37:00.002-05:00

Saint Jerome is a saint in the Catholic Church, best known as a scholar who translated the scriptures from their original languages into Latin. His version of the Bible is still considered an important translation in the history of the early church.

The following prayer is considered his prayer for use before reading the Bible:

O Lord, you have given us your word
for a light to shine upon our path;
grant us to to meditate on that word,
and to follow its teaching,
that we may find in it the light
that shines more and more
until the perfect day;
through Jesus Christ out Lord.

Ruth Duck

2009-01-09T06:56:00.002-05:00

Ruth C. Duck is professor of worship at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois, and a widely-published author of hymn texts.
She has written and edited several books of worship resources.

In a 1981 book entitled Bread for the Journey, published by The Pilgrim Press, she includes these thoughts in the book's Introduction:

The image of life as a journey is another way of saying that faith and worship grow out of our stories and the story of God's people moving through time. This approach to faith and worship assumes that the experiences out of which they grow are important.
She later adds the following comment: From scripture one is reminded of the manna from heaven, which fed the Exodus sojourners in the wilderness. At this time in the life of the church, there are burdens to be borne and struggles to be endured for the sake of justice and peace and the wholeness that comes from incorporating all sorts of people into our life.

In the book she offers this prayer for the season of Epiphany:

O Spirit that flows through all of life, you were powerfully present in the life and ministry of Jesus. Yet many of his contemporaries were looking for something more dramatic, someone less simple. Like them, we do not always recognize your presence. Give us spirits that respond to you Spirit as an instrument resounds to a musician's touch, that we may glorify your name in Christ Jesus. Amen.

May that prayer go with you on this, another day on your journey through life.

Rabbi Hillel

2009-01-08T07:15:00.001-05:00

Rabbi Hillel was one of the great heroes of the Jewish People. He served in a position that combined religious and secular leadership, and was the highest position of leadership in Jewish Society during the several centuries preceding and several centuries following the destruction of the Second Temple. Hillel himself lived at the beginning of the century preceding the Destruction.

In addition to his contributions to the understanding of Jewish Law, he is famous for a number of incidents in his personal life, and "ethical" pronouncements that he made:

Most famous perhaps is the incident which occurred before his rise to leadership, when he was not yet a scholar, but had a burning desire to study Torah. At that time, Torah study was tightly controlled and limited only to those of the highest caliber and to those who could pay for it. Hillel, working then as a woodchopper, did not have enough money to pay for entry into the Beit Midrash. On a freezing cold snowy day, he climbed onto the roof of the Study Hall, and lay at the "skylight" listening to the lecture, until he froze. When the scholars below observed his form above, they retrieved him, and changed the policy such that anyone who wished to study Torah could come in and do so.

A certain non-Jewish "wise-guy" came to scoff at the Torah, first to the home of Shammai, then to the home of Hillel. He said, "Teach me the Torah while I am standing on one foot." Shammai, sensing his true intention, had him thrown out forthwith.

When the individual came to the home of Hillel with the same request, Hillel responded. "No problem! The main idea of the Torah is 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Everything else is commentary. Now, if you're really interested, go and study the commentary." So impressed with Hillel's response, according to Jewish Tradition, was the visitor, that he took Hillel up on his instructions, began to study the Torah seriously, and became a Jew.
Source: http://rabbihillel.com/
This final quote which grows out of the same theme:

"What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow;
that is the whole Law; all the rest is interpretation."

A Prayer for You

2009-01-07T08:58:00.002-05:00

Each of us, as we journey through life, need prayers. We need to know that others are praying for us in our time of need and we need to remember others in our own prayers. Here, from an unknown author, is a prayer for you today.

I Said A Prayer For You Today

I said a prayer for you today,
And know God must have heard;
I felt the answer in my heart,
Altho He spoke no word.

I didn't ask for wealth or fame,
I knew you wouldn't mind;
I asked Him to send treasure
Of a far more lasting kind.

I asked that He'd be near you
At the start of each new day;
To grant you health and blessings
And friends to share your way.

I asked for happiness for you,
In all things great and small;
But it was for his loving care,
I prayed for most of all.

May God bless you today on your journey through life.

Eugene Peterson

2009-01-06T06:14:00.001-05:00

Eugene Peterson is most known for his contemporary paraphrase of the Bible known as The Message. In this fresh paraphrase of Scripture, Peterson's exegetical abilities are strengthened by his way with speaking in the language of today, forged by some thirty years of pastoring.

"The pastorate," says Peterson, "is one of the few places in our society where you can live a truly creative life." Indeed, this man has been creative. With eighteen books, numerous contributions to others, and dozens of journal and magazine articles to his credit, his writing career has been nothing short of prolific. No minor accomplishment for a man who at the same time pastored Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland, for twenty-nine years before retiring from the pastorate in 1991.

Among Peterson's books are several designed from one pastor to other pastors. In his book, Under the Unpredictable Plant, Peterson used the story of Jonah to speak to the vocation of being a pastor. Two brief quotations follow from this book:

I want to study God’s word long and carefully

so that when I stand before you and preach and teach

I will be accurate.

I want to pray, slowly and lovingly,

so that my relation with God will be inward and honest.

And I want to be with you, often and leisurely,

so that we can recognize each other as companions

on the way of the cross and

be available for counsel and encouragement to each other.

I want to be a pastor.

I want to lead people in worship each Lord’s Day

in such a way that they will be brought

into something large and beautiful -

into God and his salvation (not reduced and demeaned).

And I want to be with them through the days of the week

at those times when they need verification

or clarification

of God’s continuing work and will in their lives

(not promoting sure-fire moral schemes,

not bullying them into churchly conformity)

so that they can live orginally and praisingly.

Few of us will take the time or consider ourselves qualified to re-write scriptures in contemporary language...

but consider the possibility that your lifestyle

may be someone's introduction to God's Message for the world today.

You may not be called to be a pastor...

but is that any reason not to study God's word

long and faithfully

so that you may be prepared

to share it accurately when the occasion presents itself;

or to pray slowly and lovingly

to maintain an inward and meaningful

relationship with God;

or to be available to others

for counseling and encouragement.

May your Journey this day lead you inwardly to God and outwardly to others.

Howard Thurman

2009-01-05T06:57:00.001-05:00

In 1944, Dr. Howard Thurman helped found the first intentionally interracial church in this country, where he served as co-pastor with a white clergyman. A professor as well as a pastor, he became the spiritual advisor to the next generation, including Martin Luther King, Jr.

This African-American pastor and poet,

wrote these words in a poem called

“The Work of Christmas”—

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the Kings and Princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flocks,

The work of Christmas begins.

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry

To release the prisoner,

To teach the nations,

To bring Christ to all,

To make music in the heart.

As the season of Christmas and New Year's Day vacations come to an end, as you presumably find yourself returning to a more normal routine, and the Christmas tree and decoration have been put away until next year - may you also find that the work of Christmas begins.

On your Journey through Life, look for opportunity to keep Christmas alive each day.

Creation Stories

2009-01-04T07:01:00.002-05:00

Today's Gospel Lectionary reading comes from the 1st chapter of John and begins with John's Creation Story:

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through him,

and without him not one thing came into being.

What has come into being in him was life,

and the life was the light of all people.
The light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness did not overcome it.

The Bible includes two additional Creation Stories from the Hebrew tradition:

Genesis 2:4 -3:24 from the Yahwehist tradition, and

Genesis 1:1 - 2:3 from the Elohist tradition.

Other Creation Stories from Around the World may be found here.

One of my favorite stories comes from the Potawatomi Indian tradition. It begins with the "Earthmaker" creating the earth and all within it except for humans. In this tradition, Earthmaker three times scoops clay which is baked to create a figure - white, black and red. The story continues with wars and the creation of peace. Read this Creation Story.

We are beginning a new year - 2009. It is a time of beginnings and as the various Creation Stories attest, "In the beginning God..." As you journey into this new year, may you find God in your beginnings.

Beethoven

2009-01-03T06:37:00.003-05:00

Ludwig van Beethoven is a well-known German composer who remains one of the acclaimed and influential musicians of all time. As a young man he began to lose his hearing with a ringing in his ears that made it difficult for him to hear and appreciate music. Nevertheless, he became one of the great composers.

The story is told that in his later years Beethoven would spend hours playing a broken harpsichord. The instrument was worthless. Keys were missing. Strings were stretched. It was out of tune, harsh on the ears. Nonetheless the great pianist would play till tears came down his cheeks. To look at him, you'd think he was hearing the sublime. He was. For he was deaf. Beethover was hearing the sound the instrument should make, not the one it did make!

-told by Max Lucado

What makes your heart sing as we move into this new year? Do you hear only the "Out of tune" sounds coming the world press today? Are you burdened by the sounds that are harsh to the human ear? Or are you able to hear the music that God means for us to hear in our lives and relationships with others? Are you able to hear what God intends rather than what is?

May this be a day in which you hear the sound of music all around you on your journey of life.

Mayberry USA

2009-01-02T06:15:00.003-05:00

In a book titled, Coming Home: Timeless Wisdom for Families, Dr. James Dobson begins one chapter with these words:

When it comes to family-related matters,

I'm known as a traditionalist.

In fact, there are some who think I would like

to take the American family back to the days of

Ozzie and Harriet.

But that criticism is preposterous.

I don't want to go back to Ozzie and Harriet.

I want to go back to Mayberry -

with Sheriff Andy Taylor and the gang.

I loved it when Barney Fife said,

"My whole body's a weapon!"

Obviously, I know that Mayberry never existed -

that Aunt Bea and Opie were figments

of the writers' imagination.

But there is validity to the theme of that sitcom....

Here I have found something that Dr. Dobson and I agree about. While Mayberry never existed as small-town America, it remains for many of us as a figment of our imagination as well as that of the writers of the sitcom. Mayberry becomes the place where living is simple, peaceful, and built on the relationships that draw us together. Even the issues that arose were never too difficult to be overcome within thirty minutes.

2009 is a different kind of place than is found in Mayberry 1959. And yet ... are we not called to use our imagination to build the kind of world in which we want to live? Can we not begin to build a community within the world where we can live ... peacefully, simply, together?

This remains my hope for this coming year. May your journey today down the yellow brick road take you through the Mayberry of your imagination.

Dag Hammarskjold

2009-01-01T06:53:00.003-05:00

A New Year brings a new direction for this web site. During 2008 we focused on the 300th Anniversary of the Church of the Brethren. We recalled individuals of the church who preceded us on this Journey through Life.

In 2009 we hope to take a wider look at Life's Journey as seen through the eyes and thoughts of other travelers on the Yellow Brick Journey. Today we begin with Dag Hammarskjold who served as Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1953 until 1961. Many of his private thoughts were later published in a book titled simply Markings.

Dag Hammarskjold was born in Sweden in 1905 and died on September 18, 1961, in an air crash will flying to Northern Rhodesia to negotiate a cease fire.

I have long valued the phrase with which he begins one writing in 1950:

The longest journey

Is the journey inwards.

I pray that 2009 might for many of us be a journey to our inner life as we become more in touch with who we are as a child of God. I believe that this longer journey will help us to better understand who we might yet become.

Again, in 1952, Hammarskjold wrote these words:

How long the road is.

But, for all the time the journey

has already taken,

how you have needed

every second of it

in order to learn

what the road passes - by.

I pray that during this coming year you may value each moment of journey as you keep all your senses open to learn as you continue your journey down this yellow brick road of life.

Reflections on the Close of the Year

2008-12-31T06:29:00.000-05:00

The following words come from John Kline's Diary - entry of December 31, 1838:

This evening closes the work of another year. The record of this year is now nearly complete. Have I any idea of that record? I think I have. Of one thing I feel sure. It has not been kept with paper, pen and ink. Neither has it been written in the skies. Each one's yearly record is written by no hand but his own, and upon no tablet but that of his own heart.

Each one's LIFE, therefore, is his record. This, before God and the angels, is a faithful transcript of his mind and heart within. "A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things; likewise an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things."

The good things of the one and the evil things of the other constitute the life record of every man. This makes character, and character is the basis on which men make up their opinions of one another; but the HEART, out of which the character grows, is the BOOK that will be opened before the throne, out of which everyone will be judged. A good heart is each redeemed saint's BOOK OF LIFE: and an evil heart is each lost soul's book of condemnation.

Hence we are told by our Lord "that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment:" and that "whatsoever is spoken in the ear in the closet shall be proclaimed upon the housetop." Good words leave the lines of their light upon the heart's love-tablet; but evil words leave their shadows in the chambers of the soul, and deepen the darkness there.

Source: Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, Benjamin Funk

Coming to the end

2008-12-30T06:54:00.002-05:00

Throughout this 300th anniversary year of the Brethren, it has been our intent to provide daily stories and reflections about the Brethren. Much has been recorded over the years and we are indeed grateful to the historians and writers who have kept alive the stories and information about the church in their era. We hope our effort has helped in some small way to help keep the writings of others alive for a while longer. Tomorrow's entry will be the final entry in this series - coming from the December 31 journal entry of John Kline which we believe will bring fitting closure.

But for today we turn to words written by J.H. Moore at the conclusion of his 1929 book, Some Brethren Pathfinders. In the Preface to the book, Moore described how the chapters had been written for the Gospel Messenger to keep the stories alive for boys and girls of that generation. Demand led to the publication of the stories in book form and is a tribute of respect to the religious heroes of the wilderness.

Moore's book ends with a paragraph titled simply: The End.

To all things there must be an end, and here ends my story, not because the material at our disposal is exhausted ... but we think enough has been told to show that in the generations gone by we had a band of devout and efficient leaders worthy of any honor that we might possibly be able to confer upon them. All honor to the noble heroes of the cross and heroes of the wilderness. They blazed the way for present and future generations and we shall do well to keep their achievements in mind, and profit by their devotion, experiences and sacrifices.

Source: Some Brethren Pathfinders, J.H. Moore

Tomorrow: a year-end entry from John Kline's Diary

White Christmas

2008-12-29T06:11:00.002-05:00

Brethren missionaries in the Far East faced grave danger in the face of the Japanese war of aggression that led to United States involvement in World War II. Some escaped through harrowing circumstances, but others, such as Lloyd and Ellen Cunningham, were captured and interned by the Japanese during the war.

The Cunninghams, along with their then two and a half year old son Lloyd, Jr., were in the Philippines after Pearl Harbor. They had been serving as missionaries in China since 1938, but they had moved to the Philippines for advanced language study in 1941. On December 29 of that year the three were imprisoned, and were not liberated until February 3, 1945.

It was over 32 years later that Ellen Edmister Cunningham decided to write down some of her memories of that era. Her account of her imprisonment is filled with stories of hunger and want. At one point, she wrote, "Our calories dropped to about 600 per day. Breakfast consisted of a cup or two of very bad tea. The natives pointed out some wild greens that were edible so we spent hours picking and cleaning these leaves that grew in the back of the compound. Those mixed with a little oil and lots of water furnished our noon meal of soup."

Through the latter part of her imprisonment she relates that on more than one occasion the rumors of an Allied advance were tempered with the fears that they would be killed by the Japanese to prevent their liberation.

On their last day of imprisonment they heard American tanks and wondered if this would also be their last day on earth. But their Japanese captors had fled. Even so they had a difficult time convincing their liberators they were Americans, who thought that all the prisoners of war had already been set free.

Their son, who by that time was five, had never seen a loaf of bread and asked what it was. Then Ellen asked one of the American soldiers if World War II had produced any memorable songs like the previous world war.

"The soldier with whom I was talking thought a moment and then he said, 'I don't think of any war songs, but have you heard White Christmas?' Of course we hadn't, so he called one of his buddies over and had him sing it for us. I thought it was such a beautiful song and even yet I get goose bumps when I hear it and it brings back memories of that long ago night."

Source: Frank Ramirez, Tercentennial Minutes for December 28, 2008

"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song whose lyrics reminisce about White Christmases. The morning after he wrote the song — Berlin usually stayed up all night writing — the songwriter went to his office and told his musical secretary, "Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I've ever written ... the best song that anybody's ever written!"

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

Just like the ones I used to know

Where the treetops glisten,

and children listen

To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

With every Christmas card I write

May your days be merry and bright

And may all your Christmases be white

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

With every Christmas card I write

May your days be merry and bright

And may all your Christmases be white

Dan West: The Brethren in the Future

2008-12-28T06:01:00.000-05:00

Writing in 1947, Dan West suggested that "in the last third of a century we [the Church of the Brethren] have moved so far and so fast that were my own father to return he would not likely recognize the same church to which he belonged."

Many of these changes, Dan believed, had demonstrated the genius of the Brethren in action. ... Dan concluded that the future was "uncertain as yet but potentially far beyond anything in our history."

According to him the question was, and still is, whether the Brethren would continue to develop their social policy as rapidly as they had done in the past fifty years, or whether they had reached the point where an inevitable leveling-off would take place.

Perhaps Dan would say today, as he wrote in the family's Christmas newsletter in 1944:

God is still in his heaven ...

and here on earth too

trying to help us floundering mortals

to learn how we ought to live

in homes, in churches, in communities,

and in the world.

He shouldn't have to wait so long on us!

Source: Passing on the Gift, Glee Yoder

Called to Serve

2008-12-27T06:26:00.002-05:00

The Lord Calls Us to Serve

The Lord calls us to serve our present age. He speaks through our heritage to those of us in new communities where our neighbors, uprooted from former church homes, may easily drift away from religion to be counted among the vast unchurched. He speaks to those of us in urban communities where neighborhoods are changing in class and in color, and we must either serve or die. He speaks to those of us in rural churches where the community is so stable that rigid boundaries have long been drawn between the churched and the unchurched, the Brethren and the non-Brethren.

This is what our heritage says to me: "You have a vision of what the church can become – a fellowship of disciples, learning, growing, and following the Master together. You have the New Testament as an authority out of which your practice, your faith, and your approach should continue to grow. You have a plan that is sound: a keen interest in family living and an appreciation of what this basic unit of society can do to shape the world’s tomorrows. Your respect for conscience and for the religious experiences of others gives you the attitude for service. All this finds its final and dramatic challenge in the ordinance of feet-washing."

These are things which the Church of the Brethren holds dear. And since we do, we must share them or we shall lose them. A church that will risk losing its life in the service of a community will discover it has new life in its Lord. It was a wise brother who said, "If we have reason for existing, we have reason for serving."

Source: "To Serve the Present Age," Robert N. Miller, Brethren Life and Thought, Winter 1956

Christ-centered

2008-12-26T06:50:00.002-05:00

It is the love experienced

when Christ is at the center of one's life,

that draws us into unity.

We do not create unity or fellowship.

They are gifts.

When our lives are Christ-centered,

we can disagree

without being bitter or divisive.

It is a mark of the working of the Holy Spirit

that we can hold one another

in love and fellowship

even though

there is diversity among us.

Source: Biblical Inspiration and Authority

1979 Annual Conference Statement

First Brethren Baptism in America

2008-12-25T06:00:00.002-05:00

In August of 1723 a rumor spread that famed preacher Christian Liebe had come from Germany to the Colonies to preach in Philadelphia. The rumor was false, but it caused some of the scattered Brethren who had emigrated to Pennsylvania to get back in touch with each other after four years in America.

In 1719 the Brethren in Europe, penniless after having been hounded from sanctuary to sanctuary because of their religious beliefs, faced dissension from within as the group split over the question of whether one could only marry within the fellowship. Exhausted and hurt, some emigrated to Germantown, under the leadership of Peter Becker.

For the next four years they established farms and businesses, while sending back glowing letters describing the unlimited opportunities in William Penn's colony, which was the home of an experiment in religious liberty. Though the Liebe rumor proved false the Brethren realized they missed worshipping together. Peter Becker, who had a great reputation for singing, was named their first minister in America.

A baptism was arranged at the edge of the Wissahickon Creek on Christmas Day of 1723. The ice was broken, and six new members were dunked three times forward. Twenty-three adults gathered afterward at the Gumre home on the top of the nearby hill. With everyone dried off and warmed both outwardly and inwardly, the Brethren shared their Love Feast.

They felt so good afterwards they decided that the following fall all the men would go forward in a great evangelistic trip, one that would result in the founding of new churches that are still in existence today.

Christmas Day, 1723 - one of the most important dates in Brethren history.

Source: Frank Ramirez, Tricentennial Minute for December 23, 2007

Christmas Eve 1940 - Kenneth Morse

2008-12-24T05:54:00.002-05:00

In 1943, Kenneth Morse began a thirty-five year tenure on the denominational staff. He edited youth publications from 1943-1950 and became as editor of The Gospel Messenger in 1950. In 1965 he and his staff radically changed the magazine's appearance and the name was changed to Messenger. In 1971 he became book editor for Brethren Press but continued as associate editor of Messenger until his retirement in 1978.

Morse was noted as a poet and hymn writer (including "Move in Our Midst"). A book of his hymns, poems and prayers, Listen to the Sunrise, was published in 1991. The earliest of the poems is a meditation for Christmas Eve, 1940, when our country was preparing to conscript its young men to serve in a war that came a year later. It seems appropriate for this day as well.

Christmas Eve, 1940

Will the angels sing on the hills tonight
When the world is weary with war?
Will they sing again of peace on earth?
Will the shepherds hear them once more?

Will the wise men see the star tonight
While the fires of hate burn high?
Will they bring to the child their gifts of love?
Will they find his star in the sky?

Will the Lord God intervene tonight
To halt the hatred of men?
Or will this night of horror spread
To cripple the world again?

To the ears of faith the angels sing,
To the eyes of hope the star leads on;
To the hearts who wait the Lord God speaks;
To the world he gives his son.

Sources: The Brethren Encyclopedia
Listen to the Sunrise, Kenneth I. Morse

An Incarnation of God's Reconciling and Redeeming Love

2008-12-23T05:56:00.000-05:00

We who are the body of Christ,

an incarnation of God's

reconciling and redeeming love

in the world,

are called to be a channel of God's loving justice.

Wherever brokenness among people exists,

we are called to participate

in God's work of healing;

Wherever people suffer from oppression,

we are to work

for God's act of liberation; and

Wherever people are deprived of basic

human needs and opportunities,

we are called

to God's work of humanization.

Source: Justice and Nonviolence

1977 Annual Conference Statement

Bill and SueZann Bosler

2008-12-22T06:22:00.002-05:00

Bill Bosler was pastor in Miami, Florida's First Church of the Brethren. He went about his work largely unnoticed by our denomination or by the city where he worked. He served in a racially troubled neighborhood. Under his leadership, the Miami congregation grew from 12 to 70: Salvadorians, Haitians, Puerto Ricans, Jamaicans, whites, American blacks and others. The poor, the alienated, the struggling, the young were among those he served.

Bill Bosler died the way he lived: reaching out to a young stranger in a poor, high-crime area filled with violence and danger. At 2 p.m. on December 22, 1986, he was murdered at the parsonage by someone who came to his home asking for help. He died with love toward the young man who attacked him.

SueZann Bosler, Bill Bosler's daughter, walked into the room where he father lay dying from knife wounds. His killer turned on SueZann, slashing her three times in the back and twice on her skull. Pretending to be dead, her life was spared. When the man left, she called for help.

It took months for SueZann to recover from the physical and emotional trauma she had suffered. Her lifelong opposition to the death penalty was put to the strongest possible test. Her father's convictions about the sacredness of life helped sustain her during that time. Several Bible passages strengthened her view that "only God has the right to take a human life."

The intruder, James Bernard Campbell, was arrested and convicted. The judge sentanced him to die in the electric chair. SueZann went to the judge to plead that the killer's life be spared. Since that time she has become an outspoken opponent of the death penalty, telling her story and appealing as a witness to the way of Christ, a way that advocates mercy in place of vengence.

"I want to give James Campbell something," she told Annual Conference in an emotional appearance. "I want him to have a Bible."

Source: To Follow in Jesus' Steps, C. Wayne Zunkel

Dan West: The Word Became Flesh

2008-12-21T06:10:00.000-05:00

Dan West lived what he believed.

Thurl Metzger said of Dan, "Dan refused to eat cake until all could have daily bread."

Kermit Eby wrote: "Heifers, unlike bombs, are personal, particularly if you bring them up or sacrifice for them. Before they mature and become cows (giving their new host not only milk but the beginnings of a dairy herd) they become pets. Sent away to help the needy, a part of you goes along. Received by fellowmen in need, the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man is reaffirmed.

"And so once more the word becomes flesh; and brotherhood takes on meaning because first a simple Brethren dreamer and than a church realized that brotherhood knew no boundaries."

Source: Passing on the Gift, Glee Yoder

On Earth Peace

2008-12-20T06:24:00.003-05:00

On December 20, 1974, M.R. Zigler invited approximately thirty-five persons to join him for dinner at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, MD. That evening twenty-seven persons met and launched the On Earth Peace Conference. This initial meeting included one member of the Brethren Church and twenty-six members of the Church of the Brethren.

The goal of the OEPC was "...to implement the proclamation that came into the world when Jesus was born." (Luke 2:14)

On Earth Peace has helped fund several books and assisted in the early stages of the Brethren Encyclopedia.

Since the OEPC movement was initially made up of largely Church of the Brethren members, the decision was reached that OEPC should affiliate with the ... Church of the Brethren. That formal affiliation occurred in September 1976. In August 1981, OEPC was incorporated as an independent body.

More information about On Earth Peace today may be found at their web site: http://www.onearthpeace.org/

Source: The Brethren Encyclopedia

The Sword

2008-12-19T06:17:00.002-05:00

Now we see that Christ always,

in all his sufferings,

endured them,

and that with great patience,

and never resisted

or defended himself.

we can not see or find

any liberty

to use any (carnal) sword,

but only the sword of the Spirit,

which is the word of God.

Source: 1785 Annual Meeting Minutes

Anticipating Christmas

2008-12-18T05:40:00.002-05:00

Editorial
December 1918

Once more the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child
awakens the world to a new appreciation of that priceless Gift,
sent from heaven by the great loving Father.
And once more, in that name, we wish you
the happiest season that you have ever experienced.

Fitting indeed it is that we celebrate Christ's birth this year.
Pile up the wood a little higher on the hearth,
allow the smile to return to the mouth,
the twinkle to the eye,
the deepest gratitude to the heart.
For the message of the angels, proclaiming peace,
two thousand years ago,
finds renewed expression at this glad time,
when the Great War is over.

The peace which has suddenly come to "all mankind"
is but an imperfect type of that ineffable joy and peace and rest
which will come when a world of sorrow and sin
is made willing to lay every burden at His feet.

Once more the stocking will be hung on the mantelpiece,
the roaring fire will crackle up the chimney;
stories of winter snows and reindeer and sleighs
and Kriss Kringle will gladden the happy little hearts of all lands,
bursting with joy; and why not!
All the elements of mystery and enchantment and imagery
surrounding the story of the Babe of Bethlehem
are due the child in this happy Christmas celebration.
We almost wish we were children again.

Source: The Missionary Visitor, December 1918

Elder Landon West

2008-12-17T06:18:00.002-05:00

A native of Ohio, Landon West studied at the New Vienna Academy operated by James Quinter and taught public school for several years. He was called to the ministry in 1864, the same year he was married at the age of 23.

Although progressive in many ways, Landon West remained with the German Baptist Church (Church of the Brethren) in the 1881-83 division. He was a strong advocate of the Sunday school movement and mission work among blacks in southern Ohio.

Poor health forced Landon West to end his extensive travel and preaching around 1887 although he continued his writing, including frequent contributions to church periodicals. In 1900 the family moved to Miami County, Ohio near Pleasant Hill. He had eight children, among them his son Dan West.

Among his many writings, perhaps his most original work was "Eden's Land and Garden with Their Marks Yet to be Seen" (1908). He received wide recognition for his carefully presented theory that the Great Serpent Mound near his boyhood home in Adams County was the site of the biblical Garden of Eden.

West's theory differed markedly from the notions of archeologists who visited Serpent Mound after it was first surveyed in 1849. The mound is about one thousand feet long, in the form of a serpent whose bent body and curled tail extend along a hilltop. The serpent's jaws are opened wide as if ready to devour an oval shaped object.

West believed that the mound was created by the hand of God as a lesson to the world, that its forms were symbols of Satan and of the forbidden fruit with which the serpent tempted Eve. West is reported to have said, "This figure is the most ancient record of history known to exist. It shows first sin and its immediate results as Moses also records them.... [It] supports the written or inspired history of the human race."

According to archeologists, Serpent Mound is one of many "effigy" mounds built by American Indians around 1000 BC. Some were used for burial purposes; others may have been intended for religious rituals.

Source: The Brethren Encyclopedia

Lafiya

2008-12-16T06:22:00.002-05:00

In the West African Hausa language the "lafiya" greeting means "health and well-being." It became the name given to a medical program begun by the Church of the Brethren in 1971.

Lafiya was directed by J. Roger Schrock, medical coordinator for Brethren mission work in Nigeria. The program comprised three areas: education, village outreach, and construction projects. It began with the training of Nigerian doctors, nurses, midwives, and para-medical workers and an interim program to train four teams of Nigerian medical personnel to conduct clinics for prenatal care and monthly "under-five" child welfare clinics in the villages. Hospitals at Lassa and Garkida were remodeled and enlarged and a training center was constructed at Garkida for a rural health center.

The rural health program directed by John Horning emphasized maximum local praticipation and the utilization of village health workers. It provided a three-month course in simple curative medicine, health education, and disease prevention using innovative mthods to teach rural people about health and preventative medicine.

Source: The Brethren Encyclopedia

Katharine Drexel

2008-12-15T06:37:00.004-05:00

On October 1, 2000 Pope John Paul II canonized Katharine Mary Drexel who became only the second recognized American-born saint in the Roman Catholic Church - and the only official saint with a Brethren mother.

And now for the rest of the story.

A young Brethren woman, Hannah Jane Langstroth, was raised and baptized by the German Baptist Brethren in 1850. She married into the wealthy Drexel family of Philadelphia to Francis Drexel, a banker and partner of J.P. Morgan. In 1858 Hannah Jane Langstroth Drexel gave birth to their second daughter Mary Katharine. Thirty-four days later Hannah Jane died and was buried in the Germantown Brethren cemetary. She would not live to see the wonderful ministry of her infant daughter.

Although Katharine never knew her mother and was devoted to her step-mother. According to one biographer, Katharine and her sister Elizabeth regularly visited in the home of their mother's family in Germantown where they played with their cousins and learned to crochet from their grandmother, who wore the Brethren plain dress. Who knows what else they learned from the Brethren side of their heritage.

At the age of thirty, Katharine gave up her social position as the member of a prominent family and chose a religious vocation. She founded the Blessed Sacrament Sisters for Indians and Colored People. For many years she chose to live on less than a dollar a day while she poured more than a thousand dollars a day into the charitable and educational projects she initiated and supported. Over a period of sixty-four years, she contributed to these causes between twelve and seventeen million dollars from her inheritance.

Katharine traveled widely in order to know personally the living conditions of American Indians in the West and blacks in the South. Her contributions helped in the establishment of Xavier U., an institution in New Orleans aiding the education of blacks.

While Katherine was often called saintly, an official petition that she be regarded as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church was introduced in 1964 by Cardinal Krol of Philadelphia, less than ten years after her death. When canonization finally came on October 1, 2000, Katherine became the first official saint with a Brethren mother.

Sources: The Brethren Encylopedia

Wikipedia

Dan West: Faith

2008-12-14T06:00:00.002-05:00

Dan was periodically known to write down a brief outline of his faith beliefs, adding "here is the outline (incomplete) of my best interpretation now. In a few more years it ought to be better and fuller."

A note written by Dan on an envelope ... postmarked January 27, 1961, expressed his continuous search for truth: "Sometimes I wonder if I am out of it for clinging to such things as hope, faith, and love. Camus in The Stranger (1946) would say that I am. But my life is too much grounded in facts of love. This I know. Deep as these doubts are that Camus helps me to see within me, my present direction - is faith!"

Source: Passing on the Gift, Glee Yoder

Anna Mow - writing on faith

2008-12-13T06:41:00.003-05:00

In the introduction of her book, Springs of Love, Anna Mow shares the following thoughts which grow out of her many years of mission work in India:

A young minister asked me, "What do you think of Zen Buddhism?"

I said, "I have been interested in Zen Buddhism and other mysticisms of the East for years, but have you heard about the Holy Spirit?"

Americans who have never taken God's promises seriously and have been undisciplined in their lives, of course, find great benefit from seriously practicing quiet times and accepting disciplines for their lives. A guru from India is reported to be persuading 30,000 converts a month to his method of finding inner peace. He promises relaxation with alertness, decreased blood pressure, decreased anxiety, increased individual self-esteem and capacity for intimate contact, increased creativity and personal satisfaction in life and work.

On the other hand, I know many Hindus who were previously devout in the faith they inherited but later found it inadequate. When these people found the reality of Christianity they gladly accepted the new truth even when it meant disinheritance and persecution. We need not be frightened about the inroads of foreign faiths, if we know what we really have in Christ.

Source: Springs of Love, Anna Mow

Anna Mow - writing on wives and husbands

2008-12-12T06:00:00.003-05:00

Anna Mow in her teaching in the church often touched upon the subject of wives and husbands.
Wives, submit yourselves to your husband as to the Lord. (Eph. 5:22)

This is one of the most misinterpreted verses in Scripture. The verb is not even repeated in the original Greek, and this is only a participial phrase added on to verse 21. The verb is in the previous verse where it is given as a law for all human relationships. Whatever basic attitude is required for a wife toward her husband is also, therefore required of a man in all his relationships.

I think the Apostle Paul applied this statement to wives first because he thought that women who were created to be mothers would be the first to understand what quality of life he was talking about.

... I know some Christian women who have been told they must "obey" even non-Christian husbands because a woman must obey a man! That is easy to answer if he asks her to do something wrong because the relationship is to be "in the Lord." There is no difficulty in the woman-man relationship if both are truly committed to the Lord. ...

"For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head
of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior." (Eph. 5:23)

Many Bible people talk about the "order of command": God, Christ, man, woman. I have no objection to the order, but the use of the word command is not Christ-thinking. Especially as it is usually defined in this instance.

... In 1 Corinthians 7:4, Paul made them partners. Aristotle, 300 years before Paul, said that man is superior and woman is inferior, that man was made to rule and woman to be ruled. It is particularly relevant that in that social context Paul made them partners.

Then man's headship is described as the same as Christ's headship. And Jesus said He did not come to be ministered unto but to minister (Matt. 20:27,28, KJV). He also said, "Whosoever would be great among you must be your servant." (Matt. 20:26) So European theologians in 1952 came to the conclusion that a husband is the head of his wife when he is her servant!

Authority for the Christian is power for the benefit of others and never power over them. If we can find this secret in the closest human relationship, we will be able to live it in all of life.

Source: Springs of Love, Anna Mow

Anna Mow - writing on "being subject to"

2008-12-11T06:36:00.003-05:00

Anna Mow was loved and appreciated in the Church of the Brethren for her teaching - in hundreds of churches and in her books. The following teaching on Ephesians 5:21 is excerpted from her 1979 book, Springs of Love. "Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ."

When relationship to another person is called "being subject" to that person, it really his hard. No one wants to be anyone's doormat. The fact is that there is nothing in all the Bible which says that anyone is to be another person's doormat. ... So what does it mean to be "subject to another?"

The Greek verb tanslated "be subject to" ... means "to arrange under" or "to put yourself under." The important thing in this is that a choice is implied. It does mean "take anything that happens to you." It is not passive, docile resignation; it is not cringing self-effacement or mere complaisance. It is choosing the best welfare of the other one.

...

We do not have two areas in our hearts for our relationships - one for God and another for other persons. We act according to what we are in the depths of our being. No person, man or woman, can be humble and reverent toward God and then act or feel arrogantly toward any human being.

So the ability to love and respect another person depends upon our relationship to God. This is the reason that true fulfillment comes first of all out of one's commitment to God. Because of this God relationship we can see all people as God sees them. ...

We usually call this having respect for one another. Even children need to be respected. When we see God's love for every individual it is also easier to have respect for ourselves.

Source: Springs of Love, Anna Mow

continued tomorrow

Anna Beahm Mow

2008-12-10T06:09:00.000-05:00

Anna Beahm was born in Virginia and educated at Hebron Seminary (1909-14), Bethany Bible School, Manchester College (A.B. 1918), and Bethany Biblical Seminary (B.D. 1921; M.R.E. 1941; Th.M. 1943). During her first term at Bethany, A.C. Wieand actively recruited her for the faculty in spite of her well-known intention to become a missionary to India.

From 1923 to 1940, Mow served as a missionary in India where she established close ties with Vijaya Pandit, sister of Nehru and later president of the United Nations, and E. Stanley Jones, noted Methodist missionary and evangelist.

After joining the Bethany faculty where she served until 1958, Mow taught courses in Christian education and the devotional life and sponsored the popular Thursday night student prayer meetings for many years. Deeply committed to Keswick Higher Life spirituality, like her brother William Beahm, she believed that the primary human problems were spiritual and that "secular service , which is merely human goodwill, is not enough."

In a pointed 1947 essay, "The Surrendered Life," Mow observed that surrender "to missions, service, even Brethren service, to temperance, to peace ... even to prayer" was not what God required. As she noted, "The surrender must be to God as revealed in Jesus Christ, our Lord. It is not a commitment to a cause or an institution, it is a commitment to a Person, the divine Person, first of all."

If people respected Mow for her deep spirituality, they loved her for her humor and common sense. When a young pastor's wife with three small children confided to Anna that, given the great needs of the world, she felt she had no right to own an automatic washer and dryer, Anna informed her that there was far greater simplicity in the ownership of such devices than in a life of slavery to the basic necessities of life.

Not ordained until 1960, Mow's greatest contribution to the church was as an author and speaker. From the late 1950s until the early 1980s, she developed a virtual celebrity status, extending far beyond the Church of the Brethren. Immensely popular in evangelical circles, she averaged ten "revival" or evangelistic engagements a year by the mid-1960s and authored a series of widely read books.

In response to the 1960s' Charismatic movement, Mow dryly noted that since Brethren had a "special dip in baptism for the Holy Spirit," they ought to be in the forefront of the movement. Insisting that the mission of the church was reconciliation, in the late 1960s Mow stood with a young man who had burned his draft card on the floor of Annual Conference, admiring his courage although she personally opposed such actions. As she noted in the midst of the turbulence of the late 1960s, "Being conservative or liberal is not the important matter at all. The question is always, "What is Christ-like?"

Her calm in the midst of the passions of youth, whether inspired by the charismatic renewal or social radicalism, greatly reassured a troubled church. People marveled at the ease with which she bridged the so-called generation gap.

Source: Bethany Theological Seminary: A Centennial History

by William Kostlevy

William Beahm at Bethany

2008-12-09T06:03:00.003-05:00

Note: Earlier references to William Beahm may be found on April 13 and 16.

William Beahm was the son of noted Brethren evangelist, educator, and theological conservative I.N.H. Beahm. He served as a Church of the Brethren missionary in Nigeria from 1924 to 1937. Upon his return from Nigeria, he began the pursuit of a PH.D. at the University of Chicago. His return came at the same time that Rufus Bowman was named president of Bethany Seminary. One of Bowman's first acts as president was to name Beahm as professor of theology and missions. In 1944 Beahm was named as dean at Bethany where he served until his retirement in 1962.

William Beahm was truly an unforgettable figure, noted as a "connoisseur of words and idioms." He combined his famous dry sense of humor with a remarkable ability to remember names and faces. In addition to his heavy responsibilities at dean, Beahm served the Church as secretary of Annual Conference from 1942-1953, and as Moderator in 1954 and 1959.

Beahm was deeply committed to the church. As a theological moderate, he often criticized both liberals and evangelicals for failing to see that the church was an end in itself. As he noted, the Social Gospel tradition's tendency to reduce the mission of the church to the promotion of a particular social agenda had the same deadening effect upon the institutional church as Fundamentalism's tendency to push the kingdom entirely into the future. He wrote in 1947: "The church is not self-centered but God-centered when she nurtures and perpetuates her inner life. This inner life, by the same token, is nurtured by God."

In a time when many emphasized service to the exclusion of evangelism and mission, Beahm remained a traditionalist. Standing squarely in the tradition of A.C. Wieand, he emphasized both the reality of sin and the transforming power of the gospel. Although he frequently quoted liberals, Beahm believed that humanity's central problem was sin and Christ was "our savior because he saves us from sin." In one of his notable quotes, "Sin is a raspberry seed under God's denture."

Beahm died in April 1964.Earle Fike noted in his funeral sermon, "In the Bible, it is of paramount importance to know who you are, and to do this you must know from whence you came and to whom you belong. Brother William knew to whom he belonged ... and therefore he knew the One to whom all rightly belong. In Beahm's words, everyone is a person "for whom Christ died."

Source: Bethany Theological Seminary: A Centennial History

by William Kostlevy

An English Traveler in Indiana

2008-12-08T06:01:00.002-05:00

Of the foreign visitors who published accounts of their travels in the USA, the English author Harriet Martineau (1802-76) was one of the most noted. Her comments were often caustic. She had nothing but praise, however, for members of a Brethren family living between Laporte and Michigan City, Indiana, whom she met in 1836 when her stagecoach was blocked by poor roads and bad weather:

"A family lived at hand, who hospitably offered to receive us; and we were only too ready to accept their kindness ... We perceived by a glance at the beard and costume of our host, that there was something remarkable about him. He was of the Tunker sect of Baptists, ... a very peculiar sect of religionists. He explained without any reserve, his faith, and the reasons on which it was founded. ... His wife won our hearts by the beauty of her countenance, set off by the neat plain dress of her sect. She was ill, but they made us thoroughly comfortable, without apparently discomposing themselves. Sixteen out of seventeen children were living; of whom two sons and five daughters were absent, and six sons and three daughters at home; the youngest was three years old.

"Their estate consists of eight hundred acres, a large portion of which is not yet broken up .... He has thus become worth 40,000 dollars in the three years which have elapsed since he came out of Ohio. ... The house, log-built, consisted of three rooms; two under one roof; and another apparently added afterwards. There were also out-houses. In one of these three rooms, the cooking and eating went on; another was given to us ladies, with a few of the little children; and in the other, the rest of the family, the gentlemen of our party, and another weatherbound traveller, slept.

"Huge fires of logs blazed in the chimneys; two or three of the little ones were offered us as handmaidens; and the entire abode was as clean as could be imagined. Here was comfort! ... Our sleep amid the luxury of cleanliness and hospitality, was most refreshing. ... When it had come to saying farewell, our hostess put her hands on my shoulders, kissed me on each cheek, and said she had hoped for the pleasure of our company for yet another day. For my own part, I would willingly take her at her word, if my destiny should ever carry me near the great lakes again."

Source: Don Durnbaugh in the Brethren Encyclopedia

from H. Martineau, Society in America (1837)

Dan West: Heifer Project

2008-12-07T06:05:00.003-05:00

A Gift of Life is A Gift of Love

These words, printed in large letters, greet you as you drive up the road to the entrance of HPI. They ring true as you tour the ranch and talk with its dedicated staff. As one member confessed: I formerly looked at our help merely as providing animals for those in need. Recently, I've come to see more - it also gives new meaning to life for those of who share with others through the giving of the animals.

The Dan West Education Fund, established as a memorial to the founder of HPI, is to be used to support volunteers who manifest his spirit and who are able to give training in animal husbandry to recipients of HPI livestock. Thurl Metzger said of these volunteers: [They] have an overwhelming opportunity and responsibility. They must gain the confidence of the poor and the respect of the powerful. In addition to being technically qualified they should reflect 'the fruits of the spirit which are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance' plus a good sense of humor.

These qualities "manifest Dan's spirit," whose gentle voice was rarely raised except when he talked about the accomplishment of HPI. Then he got really excited. "Too much has already been said as if I were responsible for this. The credit belongs to God and should be given to him. It was God in the hearts of farmers who actually raised the heifers and in the hearts of the many, many people who have helped."

"Yes," responded an interviewer, "and God in the heart of a man who listened for the voice of God in the whispering grass and the wailing babies and the sobbing mothers."

Source: Passing on the Gift, Glee Yoder

Thurl Metzger

2008-12-06T06:37:00.002-05:00

While Dan West supplied the idea for Heifer Project International, Thurl Metzger supplied the hands that made it a worldwide success.

Born near Sidney, Indiana, he taught school from 1938 to 1942 while graduating from Manchester College in 1941. Drafted into the army in 1942, Metzger registered as a conscientious objector and was sent to a camp in Michigan. He later went to work in an agricultural unit at the University of Minnesota.

Unable to find a teaching job after the war because of his conscientious objector stance, Metzger began working with Heifer Project and became the organization's representive in Europe. When Ben Bushong retired as executive director in 1951, Dan West asked Metzger to take over the job.

Metzger immediately launched a campaign to increase support for HPI and guided its incorporation as an independent, nonprofit corporation in 1953. From an office in North Manchester, he successfully guided HPI during years of tremendous growth. He travelled extensively from the very beginning.

He also wrote extensively, and his stories were often published in Messenger. He wrote of his dismay that cheese, butter, and grain were piling up in warehouses in the U.S. while much of the world was still hungry. He appealed for more understanding of the problems in Latin America and urged Brethren to share food to build peace as a positive way to demonstrate the will of God.

HPI's impact under Metzger's direction has been felt around the world. In the late 1970s, the Korean Minister of Agriculture stated that half the chickens in his country were offspring from HPI chickens sent after the Korean War.

Metzger finally retired in 1981 after guiding HPI for 30 years. During a farewell address at his retirement, Metzger said, "The road to development is very long, it is filled with frustrations, and it is, in fact, more of a pilgrimage than a plan ... A sense of destiny requires that we have a firm belief that this is what God wants us to do ... and that we are willing to take risks, with God as our final evaluator."

Source: Planting the Faith in a New Land: Church of the Brethren in Indiana

John Eberly

2008-12-05T06:21:00.002-05:00

The success of thousands of student exchanges between the United States and other countries can be directly traced to one man - Indiana native John Eberly.

Eberly was born near North Webster, Indiana in 1904. His parents saw no need for any of their 13 children to have much education, so John literally ran away from home to attend and graduate from high school. With help from the North Webster Church of the Brethren, Otho Winger, and high school teachers Glen and Viola Whitehead, he graduated from Manchester College in 1929 and earned a master's degree from Indiana University in 1932.

While serving as president of the Northern Indiana Youth Cabinet, he met Ollie Heaston who was president of the Middle Indiana Youth Cabinet. They were married in 1925.

Eberly taught school and served as a pastor in Indiana from 1927 to 1948. He was one of the principle founders of Camp Mack, along with L.W. Shultz and others.

In 1948 Eberly accepted an assignment to Italy with the Brethren Service Commission. One of his duties was to distribute breeding stock being shipped to Europe by Heifer Project.

He pioneered the Brethren Student Exchange program in 1949-50. Two groups of teen-agers from Germany were brought to the U.S. to live with farm families and attend local high schools. Fifty were chosen from refugee camps and another 40 from a rural youth group in southern Germany. His first effort was so successful that 400 students were approved in 1950.

Eberly returned to the United States in 1950 to become director of the Brethren Service/Church World Service Center at New Windsor, MD. He continued as administrator of the student exchange program which in 1957 received interdenominational support and became known as International Christian Youth Exchange.

In 1964 Eberly became the Church of the Brethren representative in Washington D.C. where he regularly testified before Senate and House committees on behalf of the church.

He retired to Indiana in 1970 and remained there until his death in 1985.

Source: Planting the Church in a New Land

Jacob M. Blough

2008-12-04T06:52:00.002-05:00

As Sarah Barndt Blough looked into the face of her newborn son on a December day in 1876, what dreams for his future did she cherish in her heart? We wonder if the dreams came up to what afterwards became a reality for Jacob Blough, missionary and church leader.

During his fifteenth year he accepted Christ, and soon began to teach a Sunday-school class and two years later he led his first Bible class and offered his first public prayer. After completing the equivalent of a high school course and nine weeks of teacher training he became a teacher, using his earnings to secure further education. Shortly after graduating from college in 1903, he married Anna Z. Detweiler, who remained his inspiration and willing helper through 46 years of joyful missionary service. They sailed for India that fall.

Their home in India became noted for its generous hospitality. Everyone was welcome. Thousands of cups of tea were served to government officials, friends who came for social visits, casual callers, humble villagers seeking counsel and guidance, and ordinary beggars. Their home was dedicated to God and the service of all persons.

Most of Brother Blough's years in India were spent at Vyara and Bulsar, although he took charge of the work at Anklesvar and Ahwa for shorter periods. He was at Ahwa during the severe flu epidemic of 1917-1918, at which time a fourth of the people died. The Bloughs gave out medicine and ministered to the sick until he, too, fell ill. Though near death, he was spared.

During his first furlough Brother Blough solicited funds for the building of Bulsar Bible School. A profound and devoted Bible student, he made the message of the Word clear to his hearers and inspired them to obey it. An Indian leader said, "No other Bible teacher has so influenced the students in devotion and loyalty to Christ and the church."

Source: Brethren Builders in our Century, 1952

Medford Nehrer

2008-12-03T06:14:00.002-05:00

Medford Nehrer was a Church of the Brethren pastor with a special artistic gift. He is best known for having painted the 12-panel Mural History of the Church of the Brethren which is displayed at Camp Mack, Milford, Indiana.

Neher was born in Radnor, Indiana on July 25, 1892. His education took place at Rochester College, Manchester College, and Bethany Seminary. He was called to the ministry in 1914 and married in 1919. He served as pastor of the Eastwood and East Akron (N Ohio) congregations from 1927 to 1933 in the free ministry. He went on to pastor at Defiance, Poplar Ridge churches in Northern Ohio, Peoria, IL, and Michigan City, Indiana. From 1958-1961 he served in Pompano Beach, Florida where he retired to give all his time to Christian art which he began studying in 1929.

His long-cherished project - a series of murals depicting the history of the Church of the Brethren - became a reality in 1949 at Camp Mack. He had been commissioned to the project by the Regional Youth during a camping experience. It required four years to complete. He later collaborated with Lawrence Shultz to publish the murals and a written account in A Mural History of the Church of the Brethren.

In addition to this lasting tribute, his work lives on in a number of congregations where he also painted murals - often as a backdrop for the baptistry.

Source: The Church of the Brethren in Northeastern Ohio, Edgar G. Diehm

Adam Paine

2008-12-02T06:57:00.002-05:00

Adam Paine was a frontier preacher who came from Ohio to Illinois during the frontier period. He had served as a private in George Rogers Clark's army (1778-79) and thus was eligible for land in the area after the Revolutionary War. In the early 19th century he was known as an itinerant Dunkard preacher among the white settlers and a missionary to the Indians of northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin.

He was a striking personality and was described as "tall and large with a high forehead, piercing black eyes, and a black beard which hung in clusters over his breast." It is said his beard was over two feet in length. He was said to possess a "wonderful voice and tremendous energy." He was not only an eloquent speaker, but a good singer!

In 1830, at a council of Indians, he spoke as the council was about ready to open. His plea for peace carried and the council rejected the proposal made by Black Hawk for a federation of war against the white settlers.

Later, Paine would go on to preach in the tiny village that was then Chicago. He died in 1832 while traveling in Kendall County where he was killed by Indians.

Source: A Mural History of the Church of the Brethren

The Brethren Encyclopedia

Lemuel Hillery

2008-12-01T06:24:00.001-05:00

Lemuel Hillery was born in Frederick County, Maryland in 1843 and moved to Illinois at the age of 13. He was wounded and partially disabled as a soldier in the Civil War. He was a member of a Brethren congregation only six months before he was chosen a minister at Marshalltown, Iowa in 1865. Like other Brethren ministers of the time, Hillery was a "free minister" meaning he served his congregation without a salary.

Hillery helped to organize scattered Brethren into congregations in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, and Indiana. Stories and legends about his preaching skills are numerous. One such story is recounted in The Brethren Encyclopedia.

Brethren free ministers were expected to preach without notes. Some were so skilled at this art that they could deliver an excellent sermon extemporaneously when there was no opportunity to prepare in advance. Lemuel Hillery sometimes asked his listeners to suggest a Bible text for this sort of on-the-spot sermon.

On one such occasion, a minister from another denomination tried to embarrass Hillery by calling out a phrase from Numbers 22:21: "And Balaam saddled his ass." Hillery expertly parried the thrust. His sermon, constructed around a three-point outline, informed his listeners that (a) the other minister was Balaam; (b) the other minister's salary was Balaam's saddle; and (c) the congregation which paid the other's minister's salary was Balaam's ass.

Although not all Brethren approved of Hillery's (mis)application of the text, most could not resist admiration for his wit.

Source: The Brethren Encyclopedia

Dan West: Prayer

2008-11-30T06:44:00.002-05:00

The following is a prayer offered by Dan West in a 1948 Peace Workshop:

Our Father, we thank thee that we are living now in thy troubled world.

We thank thee for the hard problems we don't know how to solve yet.

We thank thee for the faith that dares to try to solve them.

We thank thee for our Lord and Master, thy Son, who can show us the way.

Wilt thou look on all we have done and bless whatever is good;

And wilt thou help us to antidote what is not good;

And wilt thou make of us more profitable servants

for Jesus' sake. Amen.

Source: Passing on the Gift: The Story of Dan West, Glee Yoder

Dan West: World Traveler

2008-11-29T06:20:00.002-05:00

In 1959, Dan and Lucy West and son Steve took a trip around the world after Dan's retirement. They traveled some 43,000 miles to 30 countries in about ten months. Steve earned his own money and Dan sold a portion of his farm to a neighbor in order to finance the trip. From a tape made at a reunion in 1960, we have some comments on this around-the-world trip.

"We found good people everywhere we went and some of our friends and some Brethren. ... Glad we have people carrying the Gospel in their own way. Wish we had more doing that."

"Couldn't get permission to go into China and it might not have been the healthiest for everyone if we had gone. However, I do not think we can continue to insist that China does not exist. What to do next is not clear, but I think we have not recognized them officially sometimes. I'd like to see the Heifer Project put some cattle in there and help them.... I think the common people are to be trusted under everybody's government, and I think we had better make friends with those people or otherwise we'll kill each other off."

Dan's charisma was evident everywhere they went. The whole trip was full of people and places, not just people one meets as a tourist, but farmer and peasant types who genuinely appreciate the help of the Heifer Project International.

In a letter Dan wrote to a friend, he reported, "It was a good trip we three took around the world, but like a cow out on heavy pasture I need some time to chew my cud and digest it. That is happening, and it brings new meaning to some events on the trip. But it makes me both grateful and critical of what we have and have not done in the USA. My job now is to keep my home base on our farm (and do a little work to keep fit) but also to reach out to a world in the making."

Source: Passing on the Gift: The story of Dan West, Glee Yoder

Dan West: Hunger

2008-11-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

If we love our neighbors as ourselves, as Jesus commanded, Dan West asked in a Christian Century article (January 18, 1950), "Can We Feed This Hungry World?" After discussing issues of surpluses and distribution, Dan suggested it is fundamentally a religious problem as much as an economic issue.

1. If we love our neighbors as ourselves, we will set as one of our main goals feeding the hungry world as much, as well, and as soon as we can. That includes those we call communists, in spite of what they think and do and want.

2. If we love our neighbors as ourselves, we will determine to produce more food and to move our surplus as fast as it accumulates, whether we make money on the transaction or not....

3. If we love our neighbors as ourselves, we will spread these dollars around, through investment in foreign agriculture and industries, so that the little people can have seed and tools and know-how....

4. Further, if we love our neighbors as ourselves, we shall stretch our loyalties until we belong more to the world than to our own nation. A man without a country is in bad shape, but a man whose loyalty is frozen at national boundaries is out of date now....

5. If we love our neighbors as ourselves, we will put a ceiling on our wants, ration ourselves down to the point of physical efficiency - and then share with the hungry majority....

6. Finally, if we love our neighbors as ourselves, we will not stop with being critical at inappropriate policy or action on the surplus problem....

"We North Americans are for the time being living in the most favored place in the world. ... We can move the hungry world - toward peace!"

Source: Passing on the Gift, Glee Yoder

Thanksgiving Day

2008-11-27T06:23:00.001-05:00

As you give thanks this day, with family and friends, to God for the blessings of life. Don't forget your brothers and sisters who are not so fortunate this day. You may wish to reflect on these words put into a song by Kenneth Morse.

Brothers and sisters of mine are the hungry,

who sigh in their sorrow

and weep in their pain.

Sisters and brothers of mine are the homeless,

who sit without shelter

from wind and from rain.

Strangers and neighbors,

they claim my attention.

They sleep by my doorstep,

they sit by my bed.

Neighbors and strangers,

their anguish concerns me,

and I must not feast

till the hungry are fed.

Source: Let Our Joys Be Known

Rufus P. Bucher

2008-11-26T06:09:00.002-05:00

Rufus P. Bucher was a Brethren minister, evangelist, and farmer. He served for 55 years as a free minister, elder, and pastor of the Mechanic Grove congregation in Pennsylvania. In addition he was the presiding elder of six other congregations, moderator of district meeting ten times and Annual Conference in 1946. He served on the district mission board for forty years. The extent of his evangelistic work was impressive - more than 200 series of meetings resulting in almost three thousand accessions to the church.

On his return from one such meeting he encountered a young stranger in a railway depot who handed him a tract entitled "Brother, Are You Saved?" When the young man put the same question to Bucher, he replied, "That is a good question and deserves an answer. I think, however, that I might be prejudiced in my own behalf. You'd better go down to Quarryville and ask George Hensel, the hardware merchant, what he thinks about it. Or you might go to the Machanic Grove grocer or to one of my neighbors in Unicorn. While there you might ask my wife and children. I'll be ready to let their answers stand as my own."

Source: The Brethren Encyclopedia

1972 Brethren Evangelism Statement

2008-11-25T06:00:00.002-05:00

Throughout the twentieth century, evangelism on the national level has been lodged with a succession of home mission boards and commissions. At times there has been a specific department or office for evangelism or Annual Conference Statements such as the following excerpt from the 1972 Annual Conference Statement on Evangelism.

Christians have too often been tongue-tied,

hesitant or apologetic when they have had

natural opportunities to tell the good news of God.

...But our confidence is not in ourselves:

it is in Christ whose examples and teachings,

whose life and death still speak with authority....

If we experience the love of Christ,

like Peter and John,

"we cannot but speak of what we

have seen and heard."

Source: Let Our Joys Be Known

Manley Deeter

2008-11-24T06:48:00.000-05:00

This story has to do with a Brethren minister who purchased a house trailer and went camping.

Manley Deeter was born near Pleasant Hill, Ohio in 1865. His father William was preparing for a teaching career when he was called to ministry and gave up teaching to focus on ministry. In 1881 the Deeter family moved to Milford, Indiana where William became a church leader. In 1925 the W.R. Deeter cabin was named for him and was the first building constructed at Camp Mack.

Manley was baptized by his father in January 1884 and became a member of the Bethel congregation in Milford where he was chosen as a deacon in 1896 and called to the ministry in 1897. For many years he served with his father in the ministry of the Bethel congregation. He also served on a committee to establish a Brethren camp for youth that led to Camp Mack.

He very early became interested in Manchester College as a factor of a better educated ministry of the church. He served as a trustee of the college from 1909 to 1915 and later as a field representative among the churches of Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan raising thousands of dollars for improvements at the college.

His wife Ida died in January 1939 after nearly 55 years of marriage. Manley was 74 years of age but rather than retiring he became interested in carrying the Gospel message to out-of-the-way places. He began in upper Michigan where he organized a new church. After returning to Northern Indiana, he decided to travel and camp in the hills of Kentucky for a season. At the age of 77, in the autumn of 1942, he left his friends and brethren around New Paris, Indiana and set out with his house trailer in search of a community not served by any organized church.

In Clay County, Kentucky he got in touch with a man known as "Preacher Adams" on Big Creek who directed him to the post-office town of Creekville. The Postmaster of that town gave him permission to park his car and house trailer under an ash tree across the road from the post office and general store. The post office had no mail routes so all the mountaineers came to that place to receive their mail and purchase supplies.

Brother Deeter, the "kindly man with the beard," talked to the people on their way to or from the country store. He also learned that they were very kind but suspicious of newcomers.

He never neglected his daily devotions alone in his house trailer. One night, as he was praying aloud, two men were passing by and heard him. They heard him praying to His Heavenly Father to open the hearts of the people. Those two silent listeners soon spread the word among their kinfolk and friends that "we need not be afraid of this stranger, as he has come to help us."

Brother Deeter labored and preached to the people he met but being in his seventy-eighth year realized the task was too great for a man of that age. He appealed to the General Mission Board and they requested the Mission Board of Southern Ohio to assume the supervision of this mission point. The Flat Rock Church was soon organized with Brother Ferdie Roher as pastor and Elder Manley Deeter as moderator.

One year after the church was organized, sentiment was expressed for the need of a church building. The lumber for this church building was a gift of more than 100 logs from the Ford Motor Company, which were taken to a saw mill and sawed to specifications for the structure. The labor was supplied by the local people as well as the two ministers. Brother Deeter at that time had passed his eightieth year.

Source: Lest We Forget and Tales of Yester-Years, Vol. III, Rolland F. Flory

Brethren and the Great Commission

2008-11-23T06:52:00.002-05:00

One of the earliest calls for mission work was the following query and answer to the 1852 Annual Meeting. Annual Meeting agreed but made no effort to organize for missions.

Query: Whether the commission of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

... does not require of the church to send brethren to

preach the gospel, where the name of Christ is not known?

Answer: Considered, that the Brethren acknowledge the great commission

of Christ to its full extent, and that it is the duty of the church,

the ministers, and every private member,

to do all that is in their power to fulfill that commission

in accordance with apostolic practice.

Source: Let our Joys Be Known

Nettie Senger

2008-11-22T06:00:00.002-05:00

Steve Bowers, in the book Planting the Faith in a New Land, includes a section devoted to the women from Indiana who were involved in mission work. Among those listed are: Winnie Cripe, Josephine Powell, Lillian Grisso, Minerva Metzger, Laura Shock, Ella Miller Brubaker, Anna Warstler, Josephine Keever Flory, Velma Ober, Ruby Frantz Rhoades, Marguerite Burke, Alice Eby, and Nettie Senger.

Unlike most of the others who served with their husbands, Nettie was an exception. A native of Fort Wayne, she went to China in 1916 as a single woman. She had studied the Chinese language for about a year when she started developing a closer relationship with the villagers in her area of Shansai Province.

Nettie established special ties to the women of the villages and accepted Chinese customs as a way of getting closer to the people. She began wearing native Chinese dress and always carried knitting with her so she could join in the informal conversations among small groups of women.

A number of senior missionaries repeatedly admonished Nettie to stop identifying so closely with the Chinese people because she was demeaning the dignity of a Chinese missionary. She ignored the warnings and moved ahead with projects she felt were important. She established a school for young mothers and wrote textbooks that were used in many schools all across China. During her years in the country, she earned a master's degree in Chinese philosophy and a doctorate studying the impact of Chinese civilization on women.

Nettie was forced to leave China in 1939 with the coming of war and revolution. She returned to Fort Wayne where she continued to be active as a Bible teacher and church worker. She was one of the charter members when the Beacon Heights Church was established in 1952 and remained active in the congregation until her death in 1969.

One of Nettie's hobbies was collecting old and rare Bibles. She gave her collection to Beacon Heights, and the church in 1975 turned over the collection to Bethany Theological Seminary. Among the many valuable items in the collection was one of the original Bibles printed in German by Christopher Sauer.

Source: Planting the Faith in a New Land

Adam and Alice Eby

2008-11-21T06:41:00.002-05:00

Adam and Alice (King) Eby were two Indiana pioneers in the foreign mission field

Adam Eby was born August 12, 1866 near Wawaka, Indiana, the fifth of 14 children of Cornelius and Susan Eby. He later studied in Mount Morris for two years and was called to the ministry in 1896. He continued his education at Manchester College from 1896 to 1899.

Alice King was born to Daniel and Mary King near Laketon, Indiana on November 11, 1871. She also attended Mount Morris College and then became one of the first students at Manchester College in 1895. She became an assistant to Professor E.S. Young in Bible and also attended the University of Chicago one year, 1899-1900.

While Adam was a student at Manchester, Alice was one of his teachers. They were both interested in missions and were married in September 1900 and sailed for India in October.

While in India, Brother Eby engaged in the varied activities of a pioneer missionary - educational work, evangelism, and medical aid. Sister Eby had charge of a training school and did much evangelistic work. She also wrote commentaries in English for the Sunday School lessons which native scholars translated into Indian languages. They also became the parents of 8 children.

When Adam's health failed in 1931, they returned to the United States and lived in North Manchester where he remained active in preaching and she in teaching. Adam died in 1939 and Alice, with her heart still in India, returned to India in 1945 for two more years of work.

Source: History of the Church of the Brethren in Indiana, 1952

Henry Neff, Sr.

2008-11-20T06:02:00.002-05:00

While the "Neff" name is very common in Elkhart and Kosciusko Counties of Indiana, Henry Neff, Sr. was the father of one family of Neffs noted for its number of preachers given to the church.

Henry was born in Botetourt County, Virginia in April 1798. He was married there to Anna Frantz and moved to southern Indiana about 1833. In 1840 he moved to Elkhart County where he raised a family of six sons and three daughters. Henry had been elected to the ministry in Virginia but took a great interest in the work of the church in Indiana.

Henry worked with Elder John Leatherman in the oversight of the Turkey Creek church where he did much to build up the church. When the Union Center congregation was organized in 1859 from the Turkey Creek church, Elder Henry Neff, Sr. had charge working with John Anglemyer and John Burkholder as ministers.

A large brick church building was built at Union Center in 1867. It was here that Henry died suddenly on November 20, 1868 just a few minutes after preaching a sermon.

Two of Henry's sons became ministers in the Church of the Brethren as well as his three son-in-laws and a number of grandsons.

Source: History of the Church of the Brethren in Indiana, 1952

A.C. Wieand Quote

2008-11-19T06:41:00.001-05:00

The Gospel Messenger of November 19, 1904 carried this self-descriptive comment by A.C. Wieand who, along with E.B. Hoff, would open the doors of Bethany Bible School the next fall.

I am fundamentally opposed to every change

in the faith and practice of the church

that will takes us farther away

from the Bible.

That's how conservative and orthodox I am.

But I am always in favor of any change

that will bring us closer in faith and life

to the Word of God.

That is how progressive I am ....

Just as fast as we get new light on

the Word and Will of God

we must change our practices

to suit it more fully.

Source: Let Our Joys Be Known,

A Brethren Heritage Curriculum

Richard B. Gardner and Kenneth M. Shaffer

Turkey Creek

2008-11-18T06:36:00.000-05:00

Turkey Creek was the third church established in the Northern Indiana District when it was organized in 1838. The historic church building, located at Gravelton four miles east of Nappanee, dates from 1878.

Elder John Leatherman is credited with organizing the Turkey Creek District. He was born in Maryland in 1776 and moved to Ohio as a young man before moving to Elkhart County, Indiana in 1836 where he became a part of the church in the Elkhart District (now West Goshen) only seven years after its beginning.

Turkey Creek was the local church sponsor of Annual Meeting in 1852 when it was held at Baintertown and was also a sponsor for Annual Conference in 1882 held at Arnold's Grove, located southeast of the intersection of US 6 and SR 15. It was at this conference that a major denominational division occurred which led to the formation of what is now the (Ashland) Brethren.

About a fourth of the Turkey Creek membership left with the Progessives when the split occurred, although some later returned to the congregation.

Early minutes of the congregation (dating from 1884) are complete with disciplinary actions taken. The minutes are brief but use the full names of the individuals. Among the disciplinary actions are those taken for misconduct, hunting on Sunday, using bad language, attending a saloon, ladies wearing hats, having two living companions, and wearing a mustache without wearing the full beard.

Source: Planting the Faith in a New Land
Turkey Creek Church of the Brethren 160 Years - 1838-1998

Clyde E. Weaver - forerunner to Brethren Bloggers

2008-11-17T06:37:00.001-05:00

In the Introduction to a small booklet titled "Plumb Line" published by Brethren Press in 1980, Fred Swartz introduces Clyde Weaver with these words:

There are some people who may call Clyde Weaver a "jack of all trades" and their evaluation is not entirely unfounded. He has "packed a lot" into his five short decades of life, including vocational journeys into food service and processing, seminary teaching, marriage and family life counseling, automobile dealership, and Christian publishing and marketing.

Some of us will remember the years when Clyde was Director of Marketing for the Church of the Brethren. In that role he was able to introduce us to new Brethren books each year at Annual Conference. His brief "advertisements" were always creative and interesting and often ended with the remark that "those who do not read are no better off than those who cannot read."

Clyde believed that one's life needed to be consistent with one's beliefs. Part of his own method of evangelism was his own orientation toward people - tolerant, caring, empathetic. But he also was a master of humor and used the pun to expose the truth. For a time in the late 1970s, he was searching for a way to make a personal witness to his peace convictions and decided to invest in a periodic ad in the local newspaper. Today, he might have chosen to blog. For one year Clyde bought space for "Plumb Line" in his local newspaper biweekly. Some of these brief meditations were then published by Brethren Press. One example follows:

OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM

Each of us was once a child. We played spontaneously, loved anything warm and cuddly, thought wallpaper was a blackboard, enjoyed the feel of oozing mud and delighted in the intrigue of a sandpile. We learned by experimenting, laughed easily, and were fascinated with anything that moved. We held grudges for two minutes or less, loved stories, ate at the wrong times and occasionally enjoyed watching our parents trying to figure us out. We were the emerging generation and happy in not knowing it.

How sad that in our preoccupation with the sophistication of adulthood we forget to reflect upon these beginnings. Was not Jesus alluding to the same values as he indicated how difficult it would be to make it into the Kingdom unless we become like children. In our fear of being childish we forget to be childlike. Indeed, we can never be whole persons without nourishing the child that dwells within us. Could it be that by starving the child within us we become desperate, fearful and unloving adults? "And a little child shall lead them."

Source: Plumb Line: Straight Talk for Christians and Other Sinners, Clyde E. Weaver

Priesthood of All Believers

2008-11-16T06:01:00.003-05:00

God's Spirit and life calls

all those who are baptized

to be Jesus' disciples.

All who belong to God in Christ

are priests, participating in Jesus' calling

to be God's very life in the world.

This priesthood of all believers

is basic to our understanding of ministry.

Membership in Jesus Christ

is enrollment into the ministry

of the priesthood of all disciples.

Source: Leadership Needs and Ministry Issues,

1985 Annual Conference statement

Everyone who becomes a servant of God has something to contribute to the work of the body of Christ. Every believer is a priest with a ministry. Because we are all equal, decisions are made by the community, not by a hierarchy. Our meetinghouses are simple, without a raised dais to symbolize our equality. People who feel called to a certain ministry seek affirmation from the community to see whether others sense the same calling for him or her. In some cases the church looks for talents in its members and calls them out for service.

Source: Let Our Joys Be Known, Gardner and Shaffer

A Brethren Heritage Curriculum for Adults

William E. Stafford

2008-11-15T06:28:00.000-05:00

William E. Stafford (1914-1993) became known later in his life as one of America's foremost poets. As a writer he authored 67 volumes. In 1962 his Traveling Through the Dark won the National Book Award for Poetry. During the 1970-71 year he served as consultant in poetry for the Library of Congress. Most of his career was spent on the English faculty at Lewis & Clark College where he taught from 1948 until his retirement.

His first book, Down in My Heart, was published by Brethren Press in 1947 and tells of his experiences in Brethren Civilian Public Service camps from 1942-1946.

In the Introduction to that book, Stafford writes: During the war years we who openly objected and refused to participate often felt alone, and said good-by and went away to camp or to prison. Some twelve thousand of us of draft age went into the alternative service program called Civilian Public Service; some five thousand were sent to prison.... I went to a Civilian Public Service camp for religious objectors in January of 1942 and came out four camps later in January of 1946. ... It might aid the reader's understanding of our situation, our family arrangements and daily worries, to know that we received no pay. The peace churches, primarily the Brethren, the Friends, and the Mennonites, paid our upkeep and furnished our spending money - $2.50 a month.

In one chapter titled "The Battle of Anapamu Creek," where he served in a camp with the Forest Service, he relates the following story:

The Forest Service was going to send a spike camp of about a dozen men back into the chaparral, into the back country; and the foreman was to be Eric Kloppenburg, a big, rough, tough hater of Germans, Japanese and CO's.

...At first some of the Forest Service men had talked largely, among themselves when some of our men had happened to overhear, about their enmity for CO's; and I myself had overheard one man, later our friend, say in the ranger station, "I wish I was superintendent of that camp; I'd line 'em up and uh-uh-uh-uh" - he made the sound of a machine gun. I went ahead with my clerical work, and regaled the boys with the story that night.

The situation was, nevertheless, not funny. One superintendent had patrolled the camp after dark with a shotgun; one had reached for his pistol and shouted, during those first days at the camp, at a lagging CO, "Don't run, or I'll shoot!" In our late sessions in the barracks, over a pot of coffee or some cookies from home, we had laughed at the incidents. One Forest Service man had told me with great seriousness that he had gone out with a gang and killed a "German" within twenty miles of our camp one night just after the beginning of the war.

"But," I protested, "that's unconstitutional; the man was living her; that's downright fascistic."

"Son," he said, impressively lowering his voice, "when it's a matter of defending my country I'll do anything - law or not."

Source: down in my heart by William E. Stafford
Additional information: http://www.lclark.edu/~krs/archive.html

Paul LePrad and Civil Rights

2008-11-14T06:40:00.003-05:00

During the civil rights struggle in the 1960s in the United States, a white student at Manchester College, decided that he wanted to study a year at Fisk University, a black school of higher education. During the first weeks there, Paul LePrad, the Brethren student, was quiet, almost unnoticed. He went about his studies and stayed pretty much to himself.

In the South at that time black people were not served at lunch counters designated for whites. A handful of black students at Fisk went to a local drugstore lunch counter and sat there waiting to be served. They were so poor that if they had been served they might not have had money to pay for it. They were largely ignored.

One Saturday, as the handful of blacks sat at the counter, Paul showed up and went to the counter and sat with them. The whites in the drugstore were furious. They began to swear at LePrad and call him names. Paul said nothing. He simply sat there with his hands folded on the counter. This made them even more angry. One man held a burning cigarette against the back of LePrad's neck. Still he said nothing, made no response, only sat there.

Some of the people pulled Paul from his lunch counter stool and began to beat and kick him. A Newsweek magazine photographer was there and took a series of photographs. Those photographs went around the world.

The president of Fisk University told Earl Garver, the dean of Manchester College, that up until that time the sit-in efforts in the South had been largely unsuccessful. Tiny groups of students had gone without widespread support. But at that point things changed. The fact that a white student would voluntarily go and sit with them and take upon himself the hatred and violence meant for them suddenly aroused them. Suddenly black students began to turn out in large numbers. The sit-in movement caught on across the south.

Source: To Follow in Jesus' Steps, C. Wayne Zunkel

Elizabethtown College

2008-11-13T06:17:00.002-05:00

On November 17, 1898, Jay G. Francis, a minister in the Green Tree, PA congregation wrote a card inviting the elders of the German Baptist Brethren churches in Eastern Pennsylvania to attend a meeting to consider the practicality of establishing a Brethren school in Eastern Pennsylvania. The favorable sentiment of this meeting resulted in the appointment of a location committee which recommended that a school be organized in Elizabethtown.

The college officially opened on November 13, 1900. Formal opening exercises were attended by about one hundred people, including the six students. In 1917 by action of the district meeting of Eastern Pennsylvania the ownership and control of the college was transferred to the district. In 1920, the charter was amended and ownership and control of the college was given to Brethren congregations of the Eastern and Southern Districts of Pennsylvania.

In the early years of the college the instruction offered was on the high school level. It aided teachers in advancing their certificates and offered to students an opportunity to complete high school work. The academy was discontinued in 1926.

Today the college is located on an 110-acre campus with fifteen major buildings and 1600 fulltime students.

Source: The Brethren Encyclopedia

Sarah Major Quote

2008-11-12T06:08:00.002-05:00

I conceive it would be very inconsistent

in an apostle,

who has laid his hands

on men and women,

and pray'd over them,

that they might receive the Holy Ghost,

to quench the gift

of the Spirit of God,

because it was given

to a woman.

God always gave his gifts freely

where they were willing

to use them, and

I believe

in Christ Jesus

male and female are one,

just as Jew and Gentile

are made one.

Source: Sarah Righter Major

(from a letter dated April 1, 1835)

Jacob Neff

2008-11-11T06:06:00.002-05:00

Some Brethren moved west along the old Forbes Road from the Philadelphia area to the Morrison's Cove region around the year 1755. Brethren, indeed, formed the majority of the population in that region. They quickly purchased large tracts of land and settled in what was a fertile valley.

However they suffered a great deal during the Indian wars. Figures are hard to come by, but it seems that on several occasions Brethren were killed, abducted or sent packing. On one occasion five members of the Martin family were murdered and six were abducted. Shortly afterward another child, who proved too young to move fast enough to suit the Indian captors, was also murdered on Sideling Hill. There is a record of a petition from John Martin, who lost his wife and five children as a result of the raid, asking officials for help in recovering his other children.

This happened on more than one occasion. One of the worst, in 1777, became know as the Dunkard massacre. More than thirty Brethren were killed, in part because they refused to resist because of their faith.

Jacob Neff, another Brethren, stands in stark contrast. He operated the mill near Roaring Spring and always kept a loaded rifle nearby. When he spotted two Indians lurking in a small wood about a hundred yards below the mill he picked up his rifle without thinking and shot the older of the two. Neff ran out of the mill with his rifle when the younger Indian took aim at him and fired, but missed him. According to the story the two stood forty yards apart and both began to reload their rifles. Neff proved the quicker, but when he raised his weapon the Indian began to gyrate his body in a series of contortions, finally throwing himself to the ground, in an effort to throw Neff off his aim. This did not work. When the Indian rose to his feet Neff shot him through the head. The then ran off for help, but when he returned the mill was in ashes.

The non-Brethren version of the story is that the Brethren shunned him for defending himself, and refused to patronize his mill. However, James Sell, writing about the incident, tells a different story. Sell states that Neff did not own the mill, he only worked there. He also says that Neff admitted he was wrong to take a human life and that he was excused by the members of the church.

He was not excommunicated until he took to bragging about his exploits. Repeatedly. Over and over again. After many warnings he was expelled from the Brethren. Neff did not move away from the region. Records show that he continued to live and work in the area.

Source: A Tercentennial Minute by Frank Ramirez

The "Gotswiltahns"

2008-11-10T06:45:00.002-05:00

Brethren in the American colonies were at times confronted with serious tests of their nonresistant principles. An unfriendly chronicler of the Revolutionary War in the Morrisons Cove area described the Brethren response to frontier warfare.

The alarm was spread among the inhabitants [November 1777] and they fled to the nearest forts with all dispatch; and on this first expedition they (the Indians) would have had few scalps to grace their belts, had the Dunkards taken the advise of the more sagacious people, and fled too; this, however, they would not do. They would follow but half of Cromwell's advise: -- They were willing to put their 'trust in God,' but they would not 'keep their powder dry.' In short, it was a compound they did not use at all.

The savages swept down through the Cove with all the ferocity with which a pack of wolves would descend from the mountains upon a flock of sheep. Some few of the Dunkards, who evidently had a latent love of life, hid themselves away; but by far the most of them stood by and witnessed the butchery of their wives and children, merely saying, 'Gottes Wille sei gethan [May God's will be done].' How many Dunkard scalps they carried to Detroit cannot now be, and probably never has been, clearly ascertained, - not less than thirty, according to the best authority.

The 19th century historian added in an explanatory footnote that the phrase Gottes Wille sei gethan "was so frequently repeated by the Dunkards during the massacre, that the Indians must have retained a vivid recollection of it. During the late war with Great Britain [1812-1815] the older Indians on the frontier were anxious to know of the Huntingdon volunteers whether the 'Gotswiltahns' still resided in the Cove."

Source: Donald Durnbaugh in The Brethren Encyclopedia

from U.J. Jones, History of the Early Settlements of the Juniata Valley (1855)

Floyd Mallott - part 3 of 3

2008-11-09T06:06:00.002-05:00

In 1980, Dale Brown wrote an interpretive essay about Floyd Mallott. We begin with excerpts related to Mallott's decision to be re-baptized into the German Baptist Church after 50+ years of membership in the Church of the Brethren and 35 years as a faculty member at Bethany.

Why did one who had been a missionary to Nigeria, a part-time pastor, and a teacher at Bethany leave the Church of the Brethren at the time of his retirement?

Mallott was never a good organizational man. He may have feared that had he retired in a Church of the Brethren community all kinds of things might be expected of him. Such pressures would have interfered with the kind of retirement he coveted, one of having great freedom to meditate, to reflect, to read, and to be with his dogs in nature.

More appropriate, however than such conjectures is to take him at his word as he describes his baptism at the thirteeenth year of life .... [see Apologia entry yesterday]
...
In my only visit to Mallott in Southern Ohio following his retirement ... He ... proceeded to tell me that in no way did he want to sever his relationship with the Church of the Brethren. Although his baptism may be taken as a sign of his protest against many of the trends of the largest body of Brethren, he stated in the Apologia on the banks of the stream his deep feelings about the sense of continuity he wished to maintain with the denomination he was leaving.....
....
Mallott retired just a few miles from Eaton where Ellis Guthrie has been pastor for many years. Ellis reports that the last time he visited him in the hospital the conversation turned to the Church of the Brethren. Ellis voiced his concern and diasappointment at some trends in the church. But to his surprise, Mallott gently rebuked him and stated his confidence and respect for the Church of the Brethren and the church at large. And the professor witnessed again as he had so many times before that he really believed the Lord of the Church who promised: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

Brown adds the following statement about Mallott: Mallott taught that one of the major philosophical ingredients of Pietism was simply the assumption: to be religious was to be good. This ethical humanitarian concern was translated into the Christian context in the simple affirmation: to be Christian is to be like Jesus.

Brown writes: In his last personal letter to me, he concluded with a statement he had sometimes shared in the classroom: "Said old Elder Joel Montgomery, ‘We believe that God has a people and is doing something for our world. We don’t presume to say how many people God has nor exactly what He is doing (Deut 29:29) but we believe we are of God’s people and we believe this Brotherhood of our will endure until Jesus comes.’ I have never found a better viewpoint from which to read Church History."

Generation of Brethren ministers who attended Bethany from 1927 to 1962 appreciated the teaching of Floyd Mallott.

Source: Dale Brown, "Floyd Mallot", Brethren Life and Thought Spring 1980

Floyd Mallott - part 2 of 3

2008-11-08T05:53:00.002-05:00

After 50+ years as a member of the Church of the Brethren and a 35-year teaching career at Bethany, Floyd Mallott retired in 1962. On July 10, 1962, Mallott was re-baptized and received into membership in the Bear Creek congregation of the German Baptist Church in Southern Ohio. On that occasion, Floyd Mallott prepared a written statement which he read to the gathered congregation. This statement ""Apologia" was later printed in the Spring 1965 issue of Brethren Life and Thought. Excerpts are printed below:

In my thirteenth year of life [description of his baptism]. I remember it as clearly as if it were yesterday. I stood before the congregation and the elder said to me publicly: "Today you present yourself to join a company of people with no other doctrine or law save the New Testament. The New Testament is our creed. If anyone asks you for a copy of your creed you can do nothing better than to hand him a copy of the New Testament. I counsel you that if you ever find a people who are keeping closer to the precepts of the New Testament than the Brethren, go and join them." The step I am now taking is in obedience to the counsel of the elder from whom I first received instruction in Christ.
...
The step I now take is in obedience to my conscience and under the impulsion of a sense of duty. What I do now is no more a repudiation of that which is good, holy, true, and beautiful in my former association than the Apostle Paul’s following his vision of Jesus, the Messiah, was a repudiation of Israel and his brethren, the Israelites.
...
I witness this to my friends and the many whom I have tried to instruct. I would that my witness and my protest against the present course of the Church of the Brethren could be understood as an action of love after prolonged self-examination. My years in the Church of the Brethren almost exactly correspond to the period in which the church was drawn into the wake of nineteenth century religious and social liberalism. I have been associated with, or have known, most of the church’s leaders of this period. .... I wish to record my judgment that the only path of return for the Church of the Brethren from the verge of absorption into humanism is to return to the ideal of a New Testament church, with the apostolic writings as authoritative law, norm, and guide.
...
For myself, I believe the Spirit spoke at Schwartzenau, and I believe that the biblical party of the Anabaptist wing of the Reformation represents in our century the clearest line of God’s speaking. I wish to record my conclusion that much of the nominal "church work" of the past century has not been an extension of God’s Kingdom as such, but primarily the attempt to bring religious-minded people into some predetermined attitude toward the economic-political-social order of our Western capitalistic world.
...
I wish a church fellowship founded in a loyal biblicism. As a safeguard against biblicism becoming a shelter for a too-extreme individualism, the historical Dunker remedy was the collective counsel of the Brethren. Such counsel, willingly accepted in love, becomes a most useful witness and a most useful method of developing the inner spiritual life. One of the errors of our times is that the inner may be separated from the outer and still exist.
...
As I look back across the years I am humiliated and penitent at my failures, and it is no idle mouthing of Scripture to say that I have been an unprofitable servant. I am astonished at how many moods, whims, fads, fancies, and tangents I have participated in. I have here read a judgment of the Church of the Brethren - and it is my clearest judgment - but I am under the judgment too, for why were not my words effective in averting the perils I so deplore? I have earned the praise of men as a teacher, but seldom have I been able to communicate the deep conviction by which I lived.

Source: "Apologia" by Floyd Mallott, Brethren Life and Thought, Spring 1965

Floyd Mallott - part 1 of 3

2008-11-07T07:15:00.003-05:00

Floyd Mallott (1897-1971) served the Church of the Brethren as a missionary, pastor, teacher, and author. He was born near the Deshler, Ohio congregation where he was baptized at the age of 13. He graduated from Manchester College in 1917 and after a year of teaching high school, taught at Blue Ridge College from 1918-1920. He attended Bethany Bible School and the University of Chicago. He was married to Ruth Blocker in 1921 and their son was born in 1922. The Mallotts served as Missionaries in Nigeria from 1924 to 1927.

After returning to the USA, he became professor of church history and Old Testament at Bethany Biblical Seminary at the age of 30. He taught at Bethany for 35 years until his retirement in 1962. He was a beloved and colorful teacher, characterized by his great enthusiasm, delightful mannerisms, skilled storytelling, and reputed absentmindedness.

Dale Brown, in an interpretive essay about Mallott, wrote in Brethren Life and Thought: "There is another gift which made him a great teacher. He was a great storyteller. ... Mallott told stories to illuminate insights in reference to personalities, movements, and basic doctrines.
The contemporary Jewish sage, Elie Wiesel, has suggested that God made us because he loves stories. Here we can note that Floyd Mallott told stories because he loved God."

One of Mallott's often ree-told stories is of the Dunker couple who first climbed into their Model T Ford and started down the highway. It was not long before the broadbrim hat flew off, then the bonnet, followed by the remainder of the distinctive attire, them many of their peculiar practices, and finally the non-resistant peace testimony.

Mallott loved the history and traditions of the church and frequently interpreted Brethren ordinances. From 1939 to 1942, Mallott edited Schwartzenau, the first scholarly periodical in Brethren circles. In the lead article of the July 1939 issue, Rufus Bowman, President of Bethany Biblical Seminary, explains the choosing of the name:

This is a sacred name in Brethren history. The different bodies of Brethren people all go back to "Schwarzenau." The backward look is valuable for at Schwarzenau we see the great principles that bind us together. The name wins us because of the spirit of those eight pious souls who met on the banks of the Eder. Schwarzenau was the official birthday of Brethren history. The name has become a symbol for the great first principles upon which our Church was founded: the New Testament as our rule of faith and practice, the ordinances as a means of grace, no exercise of force in religion, religious freedom even at the cost of suffering, the simple spiritual life, peace according to the spirit and teachings of Jesus.

...Dr. Floyd E. Mallott, head of the Church History department of Bethany Biblical Seminary is a man who believes in the destiny of the Church of the Brethren and loves her traditions. For the last few years, Dr. Mallott with a few of his companions has been dreaming dreams of the creation of a Journal of Dunker History for the preservation of historical dataHe loved the history of the church and its traditions.

Upon his retirement in 1962, Mallott moved to Southern Ohio and surprised many by his decision to be re-baptized into the Bear Creek congregation of the Old German Baptist Church. That will be our focus tomorrow.

Source: The Brethren Encyclopedia

Dale Brown, "Floyd Mallott" in Brethren Life and Thought, Spring 1980

Brethren Petition to the Territory of Oregon, 1856

2008-11-06T06:32:00.001-05:00

Church of the Brethren Petition, 1856

Transcript of original document:

To the Honorable The Legislative Assembly of the Teritory of Oregon We the undersigned Respectfully represent to your Honerable Body that at a Church Meeting of the Church of Brethren (commonly called German Baptists or Tunkards) held on the first nunday of September 1856 at the Hamilton Creek School house in Lyn County that the undersigned (members and brethren of the Church aforesaid) were chosen a committe and instructed to present to your Honerable Body the following petition

Aaron Hardman Wm B Carly

We your petitioners Respectfully request of youre Honerable Body that where as by the presant Military Law we are compelled to do violence to our consience by bearing Arms to be trained in the art of killing our fellow men or pay an exhorbitant fine and where as we are taught in the gospel to be obedient to the Laws their remains no alternative but to submit and pay the fine- therefore our request is that you shold take our case in to faivorable concideration and so amend the aforesaid Military Law as to permit us to Laibor on the highway that portion of time that we are by the presant Law commanded to bear arms and we you petitioners as in duty bound do pray &c Signed each and everymember of the Church aforesaid

Passed by a unanimous vote

Background

Members of the Church of the Brethren came to Oregon from settlements in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. Their practices included simple dress, refusal to swear oaths, and pacifism. These beliefs often caused suspicion and hostility among outsiders. This petition requests the territorial legislature to exempt members of the Church from the provisions of the militia law. The petitioners offer to work on the roads in lieu of militia service. The following year the legislature decided to allow religious exemptions from the militia act.

Source: Oregon State Archives

John H. Moore

2008-11-05T06:31:00.002-05:00

J.H. Moore had a strong urge to write. Probably his greatest contribution to the Brethren was his long-time association with Brethren publishing interests. He was editor of Gospel Messenger twenty-five years and author of several books on Brethren history and doctrine. His library and a portion of his files formed the nucleus of the Brethren Historical Library and Archives.

Those who have become truly regenerated,

and are new creatures in Christ Jesus

...should be known by their manner of living,

their dealings with ... one another,

by the evils they shun,

the good deeds they do,

and their well-studied efforts to avoid things

that have even the appearance of evil.

Their character and deportment in life,

in the interest of nonconformity,

ought to be well enough defined

to make them as a separate people.

Sources: The Brethren Encyclopedia

and Let Our Joys Be Known

1988 Annual Conference Resolution

2008-11-04T04:07:00.002-05:00

Responsible Citizenship in an Election Year

In 1967, the Annual Conference adopted a statement on "The Church, the State, and Christian Citizenship." That statement has served well to give us guidance and counsel since the time of its adoption. One specific principle from the statement declared that a Christian should be "an informed citizen, go to the polls regularly," and vote for candidates and measures "most likely to approximate Christian standards." An election year provides an opportune time to reflect further upon being Christian citizens in an electoral process.

We believe elections can be a time of service and witness for the Body of Christ. The service comes in assisting in the process of selecting officials who embody and promote the commonweal . The witness comes in identifying and advocating courses of action in issues that determine peace and justice.

We believe there are certain guidelines for the church and for Christians at the time of elections that can maintain for the church a sense of God's sovereignty and can uphold for both church and state the principle of institutional separation. Among these guidelines are the following:

The church as a corporate body should avoid endorsing a particular party or candidate. Election activity by the church should avoid partisanship; an exception may occur in votes on specific issues or programs.
The church should approach elections and candidates with a view to total qualifications and character of the persons involved, not with a "single issue" approach.
The church as congregation or other organized structure can be an important source of information not only for its own members but also to the larger community. The church is uniquely qualified to bring morality into the public political debate. Ways of information sharing include candidate forums and debates, interviews, responses to questionnaires, the publishing of voting records on selected issues of concern, and the publishing of the positions of candidates compared with the position of the Church of the Brethren as reflected in Annual Conference or General Board statements and resolutions.
The church as individuals is encouraged to become involved in the political process: as candidates, with an opportunity to perform public service and to embody their faith in public office; campaigning for candidates; or assisting in such procedures as election day work in a polling precinct.
The church should see elections as only the beginning of its responsibility in government. Beyond the election there is need to uphold in prayer those who are chosen for public service, and to be in regular communication with those elected, registering our opinion on issues as we are informed by our faith.
We believe that government ("God's servant," Romans 13:4) can be strengthened by participation of its entire citizenry. Therefore, we urge voting by all of our members and we support steps by our government to recognize the full enfranchisement of all of our citizens.

Source: 1988 Annual Conference Resolution - "Responsible Citizenship in an Election Year"

Early Brethren Thoughts on Voting

2008-11-03T06:33:00.001-05:00

The Minutes of the 1864 Annual Meeting (during the very divisive time of the Civil War) include this statement regarding voting: We have been led to think that at all times it would be best and most consistent with our profession, and especially most proper and safe in the present critical state of things, to have nothing at all to do with politics, and entirely abstain from voting.

Such an attitude toward voting was not entirely due to problems which the Brethren faced during the Civil War. As early as 1813, and several times thereafter, the Annual Meeting took a negative stand on the question of voting. Sometimes in conjunction with this negative stance, the Brethren were called to pray for the government and its elections.

At the 1865 Annual Meeting, voting was made a test of fellowship by stating that those who continued to vote were to be treated according to Matthew 18. The next year, however, the test was revoked, and those who did not vote (the majority) were advised to act with forbearance toward the members who chose to vote.

By the beginning of World War I, most Brethren were voting, according to Rufus Bowman, and a few had been elected to positions in the government. The most notable example of a Brethren in an elected position was Martin G. Brumbaugh, who was governor of Pennsylvania from 1915 to 1919.

Source: "On Church and State," Texts in Transit II

Tomorrow: 1988 Resolution: Guidelines for

Responsible Citizenship in an Election Year

Kingdom Hope

2008-11-02T06:37:00.001-05:00

Dale Brown shares the following story about kingdom hope.

"Shortly before his death from cancer, I had the privilege to visit Harold Row, architect of several Church World Service projects. He shared with me that spiritually he was ready to die. At the same time he dreamed of many ways he could serve his Lord in the future if his health would be restored.

"I have come to see the logic in this contradiction. As Christians, we should live courageously and prophetically in the face of continual bad news of possible destruction of our world. At the same time we are called to live and plan as if our world will continue for a long time. Ours is an apocalyptic hope, a hope that refuses to be buried in evidence pointing to disaster.

"It is a hope that inspires us to watch, pray, serve, and make peace. We know neither the day nor the hour when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord."

Source: Biblical Pacifism, Dale W. Brown

Thrilling Music at Ephrata

2008-11-01T06:50:00.002-04:00

Those who visited Ephrata during its active period were impressed by many things but perhaps most of all by the unusual singing. A graphic description was penned by an Anglican clergyman, Jacob Duche, of Philadelphia. His letter was written in 1772 and originally published in a newspaper, the Pennnsylvania Packet.

I shall at present remark but one thing more, with respect to the Dunkers, and that is, the peculiarity of their music. Upon a hint given by my friend, the sisters invited us into their chapel, and, seating themselves in order, began to sing one of their devout hymns. The music and little or no air or melody, but consisted of simple, long notes, combined in the richest harmony. The counter, treble, tenor, and bass were all sung by women, with sweet, shrill, and small voices, but with a truth and exactness in the time and intonation that was admirable.

It is impossible to describe to your Lordship my feelings upon this occasion. The performers sat with their heads reclined, their countenances solemn and dejected, their faces pale and emaciated from their manner of living, their clothing exceedingly white and quite picturesque, and their music such as thrilled to the very soul. I almost began to think myself in the world of the spirits, and that the objects before me were ethereal.

In short, the impression this scene made upon my mind continued strong for many days, and I believe, will never be wholly obliterated.

Source: The Brethren Encyclopedia

Ephrata Cloisters

2008-10-31T06:19:00.002-04:00

In Ephrata, Pennsylvania, stand the remaining buildings - now a historical park - of a religious society which brought considerable pain and self-examination to the Brethen between 1725 and 1768. It was founded in 1732 by Johann Conrad Beissel, after his separation from the Brethren.

As it grew, the Ephrata Community eventually comprised three categories of members: celibate sisters, celibate brothers, and married householders. The sisters and brothers lived in separate buildings built specifically for them, while the householders lived in scattered farmhouses near enough to be summoned by a bell. The latter joined the celibates for worship. By 1750 all land within five miles of Ephrata had been deeded to persons loyal to Beissel. By 1750 Ephrata had a population of about 300.

The beliefs of the Ephrata Community were quite similar to those of the Brethren. They had no formal creed, considering the entire Bible as their code, members were permitted to preach during meetings. Celibacy was advocated as the ideal state for all persons, but it was not made manditory although some married persons separated and joined the celibate orders. A number of ordinances were observed, including believers baptism, the love feast, and feetwashing.

Confessions were written and handed to Beissel, who then read them publicly for the edification of all. Discipline was considered to be a method of keeping oneself in tune with God's will. It involved a meager diet, constant prayer and worship, little sleep, hard work, and no luxuries.

A printing press, a productive farm and orchard, a grist mill, a saw mill, a flax seed oil mill, a fulling mill, a paper mill, and a bark mill were all established. A tannery was set up and the sisters operated looms and made cloth. The economic and religious impact on the surrounding area was considerable.

Educational contributions were made by Ephrata in two ways. A classical academy, attended by students from as far away as Philadelphia and Baltimore, was begun in 1740. The Sabbath-school was also begun around 1740. There was a steady stream of visitors, both famous and obscure, who came through the doors of the cloisture. American government officials and travelers from foreign countries had all heard of the people of Ephrata with the curious customs.

Following Ephrata's peak period, the decline in numbers was steady and seemingly inexorable. From 250 residents in 1759 to no more than 135 persons in 1770. In the late 18th century, a daughter community at Snow Hill was established which outlasted its parent. The celibate orders at Ephrata legally ended in 1814. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania acquired the property and several major and minor buildings have been restored since 1941. The site is now a tourist attraction with thousands of persons touring the grounds annually.

Sources: The Brethren Encyclopedia

Heritage and Promise, Bittinger

Conrad Beissel

2008-10-30T06:52:00.002-04:00

Conrad Beissel was a convert to the Brethren baptized by Peter Beckerin 1724 at the age of 33. Becker then placed him in charge of the new Conestoga congregation. For the next few years enthusiastic evangelists from Conestoga continued to gain new converts. However, things did not go smoothly for the isolated congregation. Beissel soon indicated that he was observing the Saturday Sabbath as a matter of personal conviction, although he was not preaching it.

However in December 1728, Beissel made a complete break with the Brethren. The Conestoga congregation divided and Beissel moved to Ephrata. Beissel began to teach radical doctrines and to build up a following. He was a powerful preacher, a disciplined ascetic, and a driving taskmaster. Not all of those attracted to him were able to endure, but many did. From those he welded together a prosperous and self-supporting monastic community which came to be know as the Ephrata Cloisters. (More on this tomorrow)

Around 1745, Beissel and his associates established a printing press which sent a flood of devotional and religious materials into the homes of the German-speaking people throughout the colonies. Among the principles Beissel taught was the superiority of celibacy over marriage, communal property, mysticism, and the seventh day as the true Sabbath. He was tireless in proselyting. Among his converts were many Brethren, including Alexander Mack, Jr., and a number of other persons from the Germantown church. Beissel's power lay in his personality and in his ability to appeal to the Pietistic leanings of the Brethren. Also, he met them on their own ground of obedience to the Word.

Beissel rules the Ephrata Society with an iron hand. He banished those who did not yield to his regime. He introduced many monastic customs and gave comfort to all sorts of symbolism in Biblical interpretation. The result was an increased departure from the plain Gospel tenets of the people with whom he was for a time identified.

Sources: Heritage and Promise, Bittinger

The Brethren Encyclopedia

A History of the Brethren, Brumbaugh

Wilhelm Knepper

2008-10-29T06:19:00.002-04:00

Wilhelm Knepper was an early member of the Brethren and a hymnwriter. A weaver in Solingen, Germany, he joined the Brethren about 1716 and in 1717 was one of six Brethren sentanced to hard labor for life. While in prison Knepper wrote some four hundred hymns.

Our hearts and voices let us raise,

committed now to give God praise

in each and every hour.

Let loosened tongues our lips now fill

with talk of love and God's goodwill,

and thus acclaim God's power.

(1720)

Source: Let Our Joys Be Known

A Brethren Heritage Curriculum

Richard Gardner and Kenneth Shaffer

Jacob and Sarah Berkey

2008-10-28T06:34:00.002-04:00

Elder Jacob Berkey was born in Somerset County, Pa. and moved to Indiana in 1848. He and Sarah were the parents of eight children. The Berkeys settled on a quarter section of land located across the road from the present site of the Rock Run Church east of Goshen.

When they arrived in Elkhart County, the closest congregation was Elkhart (West Goshen). The Berkeys soon began to actively organize a new congregation closer to their home. Rock Run was organized in 1850 and Jacob Berkey was elected to the ministry and placed in charge of the congregation. He became widely known for his preaching, both in German and in English.

Jacob Berkey was described as a man without fear who was not afraid to confront sin. He was strongly opposed to the use of tobacco and whiskey and one of the earliest Dunker temperence lecturers. He was often considered progressive in his thinking, advocating the single mode of washing feet at love feast and the formation of Sunday schools. One of the first protracted (revival) meetings was held at Rock Run under his leadership.

His wife was well known for her hard work in keeping the Berkey household intact while her husband was often traveling for the church. She was largely responsible for the home and the farm while her husband was gone for days at a time.

The story is told that when the Rock Run congregation began talking about building a meeting house, some of the members objected on the grounds that they would have to wait to eat their noon meal until they had traveled all the way back home instead of having a fellowship meal. Elder Berkey reportedly volunteered to feed anyone in his home who felt this was a problem. There is no record that Sister Sarah raised any objection to this offer.

About 1879, Jacob and Sarah moved to northeast Texas where he was instrumental in establishing several congregations. In the spring of 1881, he was called to conduct an anointing service. His route required him to cross a rain-swollen stream near Gainsville. A man on the other side warned him not to cross, but Elder Berkey waded into the water on horseback and was swept away. His body was recovered the following day. The judge and lawyers of the county, who had been impressed by his preaching, paid for his burial outfit. Sarah lived until October 26, 1888.

Source: Planting the Faith in a New Land

Ida Shumaker

2008-10-27T06:24:00.002-04:00

Ida Cora Shumaker was born on October 27, 1873. From her girlhood days she loved the church and taught a Sunday-school class even before her baptism at the age of fourteen. After graduation from high school, she began to teach school which came naturally to her. For twenty-one years she taught in Pennsylvania's public schools.

Then came the conviction that she should serve in India. For about two years this consciousness increased and at last she laid her feeling of unworthiness, her desire for a home of her own, and also the question of her health upon the Lord and promised that she would serve Him wherever He led. Approved for India at the Winona Lake Conference in 1910, in October of the same year she sailed from New York. One month later she reached Bulsar and was given a hearty welcome.

As in America she had spent much of her time in the schoolroom, so also in India she soon found that teaching was her chief activity, whether in Sunday school or day school, inside a classroom or out under the spreading branches of a banyan tree. Her classes being always filled with children, she had the opportunity of giving full expression to her love for them.

Miss Ida had the gift of storytelling. It made no difference whether she stood before a crowd of hill-tribe boys and girls, surrounded by a circle of missionary children, or in front of a great Annual Conference audience. Her messages and her characters were real and animated.

Her life was full and happy. She would have been the last one to call her efforts a sacrifice. She had an alert sense of humor which helped her to appreciate the fun in nearly every situation. This redeeming characteristic helped her over many rough places and through misunderstanding and persecution.

In 1940 - at the age of 67 - she came home to stay, but the desire to return to India was too strong. After four years she went back to India and had the joy of being with her beloved friends for another fifteen months. She died on February 16, 1946 at Bulsar.

Source: Anetta Mow in Brethren Builders in Our Century, 1952

Closed Churches

2008-10-26T06:41:00.003-04:00

Yesterday's post showed the original 1866 congregations when Northern Indiana became a district and a list of 1882 churches with their memberships. Some of those churches have continued to the present day and others have closed. Here is a bit of information of the churches from 1882 which have since closed.

Columbia City with 40 members in 1882 was disorganized in 1927. A new congregation was formed in Columbia City in 1961.
Elkhart Church became West Goshen
Flat Rock (Dekalb County) with 35 members in 1882 was disorganized in 1901.
Little St. Joe - organized from a division of Cedar Creek in 1873 - with 35 members in 1882 was disorganized in 1914.
Pleasant Hill became Agape
Pleasant Ridge became Wawaka
Pigeon River in Steuben County was organized in 1865 from English Prairie, had 88 members in 1882, and was disorganized in 1910.
Portage organized in 1831 as the second congregation and the first building in Northern Indiana, later organized four other congregations from 1853 to 1870. Some members left with the Progressives in 1882 and was disorganized in 1921.
Solomon's Creek became Bethany.
Shipshewana with 107 members in 1882 was disorganized in 1938.
St. Joseph disorganized in 1921.
Springfield combined with Wawaka
Tippecanoe with 140 members in 1882 moved to North Webster in 1922 and changed its name in 1929.
Van Buren with 46 members in 1882 was located in LaGrange County. Closure uncertain.
Washington with 162 members in 1882 changed its name to North Winona in 1919.
Yellow River with 100 members in 1882 became Mount Pleasant.

Source: Planting the Faith in a New Land, Appendix 1

Indiana Divides Into Districts

2008-10-25T06:52:00.002-04:00

On October 25, 1866 representatives from Indiana congregations met in the Antioch congregation in Andrews, Indiana for the purpose of dividing into three districts. This special State Conference was in accordance with a recommendation from the Annual Conference.

Officers for this special meeting were George Hoover, moderator; Jacob Miller, foreman; Hiel Hamilton, clerk; and Daniel Miller, assistant. The work of suggesting a division of churches had been assigned to a committee of six which reported on their work. Eighteen congregations were assigned to the Southern Indiana district and another eighteen to the Middle Indiana district. The following nineteen congregations were assigned to the Northern Indiana District: Portage, Baugo, South Bend, Bremen, Pine Creek, Union, Yellow Creek, Elkhart, Turkey Creek, Union Center, Solomon's Creek, Rock Run, Springfield, Shipshewana, Washington, Cedar Creek, Tippecanoe, Pigeon River, Fawn River (English Prairie).

The Northern Indiana District of Indiana also included the southern part of Michigan. We do not have the membership of those early churches but by 1882 we have a report of the churches that shows the number of congregations had grown to 34 with the following memberships totaling over 3,800: Baugo (110); Blue River (100); Bremen (55); Cedar Lake (64); Camp Creek (50); Cedar Creek (36); Columbia City (40); Elkhart (275); English Prairie (147); Elkhart Valley (91); Flat Rock, Dekalb County (35); Laporte (76); Little St. Joe (35); Pleasant Hill (40); Pleasant Valley (30); Pleasant Ridge - now Wawaka (32); Pine Creek (320); Pigeon River (88); Portage (102); Rock Run (240); Solomon's Creek (260); Shipshewana (107); St. Joseph (140); Springfield (32); South Bend (175); Tippecanoe (140); Turkey Creek (125); Union (175); Union Center (200); Van Buren (46); Walnut (62); Washington (162); Yellow River (100); Yellow Creek (90).

Source: History of the Church of the Brethren in Indiana, Otho Winger - 1917

Alexander Mack Quotes

2008-10-24T06:01:00.003-04:00

Two important quotations from Alexander Mack:

"Count well the cost," Christ Jesus says,

"when you lay the foundation."

Are you resolved, though all seem lost,

to risk your reputation,

your self,

your wealth,

for Christ the Lord

as you now give your solemn word?

---------

The Son of God wished to found and ordain a water bath

for his entire church,

that it should be an efficacious seal

and outward symbol

of all those who would believe in him.

Thus, the Son of God ...

made a beginning of water baptism

...as a mighty example in which

we should follow him.

Source: Let Our Joys Be Known

A Brethren Heritage Curriculum

Richard Gardner and Kenneth Shaffer

Alexander Mack - Letter on Disagreement

2008-10-23T06:18:00.002-04:00

Alexander Mack, Jr. held very strong opinions but he had an even stronger love for Christian love and patience.

Abraham Harley Cassel not only had the largest collection of books among the early Brethren, he also preserved some early correspondance which provides insight into the early Brethren. Among the letters in his collection was one written on October 23, 1798 - 210 years ago today! The letter was written by Mack at the age of 86 in which he addresses a biblical disagreement he had with John Preisz, the elder of the Indian Creek congregation and a friend whom Mack had baptized twenty-five years earlier. The two men regarded each other warmly and never hesitated to disagree with each other.

In this letter, Mack addresses Preisz as "Tenderly beloved brother, dear and well esteemed fellow pilgrim," and opened, "With a heartfelt greeting and salutation of the kiss in the spirit of sincere brotherly love..."

Regarding their disagreement, Mack wrote, "Though I have read thy letter again and again with diligence and in the fear of the Lord, I cannot say that all those scripture passages referred to by you did produce such an impression, as I understand they have produced in you. But what shall I say? The flowers in the garden are still and peaceful, though one clothed in blue, the other in red, and the other...in white. They praise quietly their Creator, and shew forth in entire concord the manifold wisdom of the supreme Being."

Though they were in disagreement, Mack said, in a postscript, "I have told no person in our neighborhood, that there was a dispute between me and you, nor have I permitted any person to see your letter. The Lord has called me into peace. May that same peace, which passeth all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen. Amen."

Perhaps one reason they were able to keep their disagreements in perspective was because they kept first things first. In one tender and poignant paragraph, Mack tells Preisz: "Last night the youngest child of my youngest daughter has left the body of death, and is gone from the land of mortality over the stream, which has no bridge, into the land of the living. This child has performed its whole journey in 13 months, and I have traveled now already 86 years and 7 months, and have not yet passed over Jordon. But what our God doeth, is done well."

And that's the way it was - 210 years ago today - from the perspective of Alexander Mack, Jr.

Source: Frank Ramirez' Tercentennial Minute for October 19, 2008

Philip Younce

2008-10-22T06:02:00.002-04:00

Philip Younce was born in Ashe County, North Carolina in 1775. At 19 years of age, he volunteered in General Anthony Wayne's march against the Indians. His march with General Wayne through the Northwest Territory made him aware of the advantages of a wilderness home there. On his return home and with a determination for an adventurous life in the wilderness, he set forth on that mission. At the age of 38 he was married to Margaret Byrket whose parents were of the Dunker faith.

As was the common practice among the early Dunker families, the younger generation, after marriage, united with the church. Philip was called to the ministry while still in North Carolina, before he set out on his trek to establish his wilderness home.

After a short sojourn in Kentucky he moved northwestward and in 1813 reached Miama County, Ohio where he made his final earthly home. He entered into his ministerial calling with vigor and the early growth of the Brethren Churches in Miami and Darke Counties was chiefly the result of his ministry.

The following story is told by a Brother David Stauffer:

Elder Younce had regular appointments in the neighborhood where the Painter Creek Church now stands. The incessant rains that spring had made the woods very bad and Painter Creek was out of its banks. On the Saturday before Brother Younce's appointment on Sunday, Jacob Stauffer took his son David (then about ten years old) with him and went to the point of the crossing of Painter Creek to warn Brother Younce that the creek was beyond the fording point.

As they approached the creek, they soon discovered Brother Younce coming on his famous horse "Barney," which had carried him safely over hundreds of miles through swamps of mud and water in Ohio. As Brother Philip approached the banks, Brother Stauffer with his strong voice sent the message across Painter Creek, "the creek is past the point of fording."

Brother Younce returned the message, "Barney is a good swimmer," and the seemingly dangerous trip was at once commenced. They had not gone far until Barney had to swim. With his strong limbs Barney made regular strokes and surprisingly he made almost a straight course through the rapid current to where Brother Stauffer and son David were standing. Brother Philip was clad with rubber leggings and by drawing his limbs up closely, he did not get very wet and these were soon dried by their big log fire.

He preached the next day, after which he returned as he came.

Source: Lest We Forget and Tales of Yester-Years, Vol. III, Rolland F. Flory

Mark Schrock

2008-10-21T06:23:00.002-04:00

Mark Schrock (1904-1968) was born in Elkhart County, Indiana and a graduate of Manchester College and Bethany Seminary. He was ordained in the Middlebury congregation in 1927. He served as pastor of churches in Illinois, Idaho, Washington, Michigan, as well as Northern Indiana. During World War II he directed a Civilian Public Service camp in Oregon and was area supervisor (West) for the Church of the Brethren CPS program.

He served for fourteen years (1948-1962) as Executive Secretary for the Northern Indiana district and from 1963-1966 as executive of the Central Region.

On this date, October 21, 1968 he died in a farm accident northeast of Goshen while building a new stone bridge across a creek to replace an old plank bridge. In many ways he served his church for many years as a "bridge-builder" until his death on this date forty years ago today.

A Letter from Peter Shaver

2008-10-20T06:02:00.003-04:00

The following letter was written by Peter Shaver from Bremen, Kentucky on February 6, 1861. The State of Virginia (the state of his birth) had not yet joined the Confederacy and at that time it appeared it would not do so. The letter was addressed to his oldest son, Benjamin Shaver, who at that time was representing Muhlenberg County in the State Legislature at Frankfurt.

I find the people in this part of the county ... for the union but all that we can hear appears to be gloomy and doubtful. I still hope that a settlement of the difficulties will be reached. It seems to me that the Southern Aristocratic Democrats have neither reason or judgment. I cannot see what they expect to win. But when a people are doomed they are blind and will work out their own destruction. I think that when they feel the heavy taxes that will fall on them they will revolt and return to the Union.

I am proud Virginia has taken such a noble stand. (Virginia it appeared at that time was not going to join the Confederacy.) She always was brave and patriotic. She has great influence and I hope that her plan will be successful and that peace and harmony may be restored.

I am astounded that there are so many disunionists in our State. I perceive that a goodly number are in the Legislature. If the Union must be dissolved, will we not be in a worse condition than Mexico? If this Union is divided, Kentucky will go with the Southern division. Times are hard now but they are nothing whatever to what they will be if this rupture takes place.

There is no class of citizens that have contributed more to cause this distracted state than the clergy of the North. Their influence is great. They have gendered every hate, strife and bitterness in society, whereas their Master, whom they pretend to serve, taught nothing but peace and good will to all people. As a nation we have been the most happy and prosperous in the world. Perhaps we have grown too rich, too proud and corrupt and that we need some chastisement to bring us to our senses; then we will do what is right again.

Dear son, you complain of the great responsibility that rests upon you. All that I can advise you is to have confidence in your judgment and be swayed by no man's opinion without mature consideration. I hope the people of Kentucky will pause and consider what they will do before it is too late.

A reform is certainly wanting in the Federal Government, too many officers, an empty treasury and a large debt have accumulated in time of peace. I hope all the States will return to the Union, and if South Carolina will not, she will be no loss to the government. She has never done any good; a perverse member she always was.

Now all I can say, fall on what side we may, let us be loyal citizens, so that we may lead peaceful and quiet lives. For myself, I have nothing to lose or gain; it is for posterity that I feel interested. My prayer is for peace and prosperity and the Union forever.

Your most affectionate father,

P. Shaver

Source: Lest We Forget and Tales of Yester-Years, Vol. III, Rolland F. Flory

Peter Shaver

2008-10-19T06:10:00.002-04:00

Peter Shaver was the eldest son of Andrew Shaver, Sr., and the older brother of Andrew, Jr. who died of smallpox while providing hospitality to strangers (see yesterday's post).

Peter was considered one of the best educated men in the "Dutch Settlement." He was a progressive farmer and wielded the axe, the hammer, and the pen with equal grace. He served as a deacon and clerk for the Muhlenberg Dunker Church.

His initials "P.S." appear on the document outlining the beliefs and practices of the churches of Tennessee and Kentucky which begins:

First: The church to be governed by the Gospel of Jesus.
Second: We believe in the ordinance of baptism to be administered by immersing the candidate three times forward in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.
Third: We believe in the Holy Communion to be administered in the night, and the washing of one another's feet, Jno. 13:4-6. We also believe in the Holy Kiss, recorded five times in the Gospel---.

Tomorrow: A letter to his son from Peter Shaver

Source: Lest We Forget and Tales of Yester-Years, Vol. III, Rolland F. Flory

Andrew Shaver of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky

2008-10-18T06:37:00.003-04:00

Andrew Shaver, Sr. came to Virginia from Bremen, Germany, a short time after the American Revolution. His wife and five sons moved to Kentucky and the "Dutch Settlement" in 1815. Three sons soon moved to Ohio but Andrew, Jr. and Peter chose to remain in the "Dutch Settlement." Out of respect for their father, they were instrumental in renaming the settlement, as it is now known as the Bremen Country.

Andrew Shaver, Jr. was married to Susan Bower in Virginia, and was a very successful farmer in the Bremen country. Andrew's life was cut short due to his pioneer and Christian hospitality.

One evening two strangers coming through the Bremen country stopped at his home and asked for supper and a night's lodging. Their request was granted but they later complained of being ill and their hospitality continued for several days. Their illness proved to be the dreaded smallpox. Andrew nursed them through their seige but contracted the disease itself, which proved fatal. He died at the age of forty-four years. His wife, Susan survived him another thirty years. They were the parents of eight children.

Tomorrow: Peter Shaver, older brother of Andrew

Source: Lest We Forget and Tales of Yester-Years, Vol. III, Rolland F. Flory

Henry Rhoads

2008-10-17T06:11:00.003-04:00

Henry Rhoads was probably the first among the early pioneers who settled in what was then known as Logan County in Western Kentucky. Born in Germany in 1739, he came with his father, Henry Sr., and landed in Philadelphia in 1750. His family was among the first to move across the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania to Brothers Valley in what is now Somerset County.

Henry, Sr. was a minister in the German Baptist Church and built the first meetinghouse in the Brothers Valley on high ground in a clearing belonging to his son, Henry, Jr.

Henry, Jr. was married to Elizabeth Stoner on October 9, 1760. He received his education in the Cloister School at Ephrata, where he received much training in the Bible, which aided him greatly as a minister in Kentucky. In 1774, he and several other young men joined the Brothers Valley militia to protect the pioneer families against the Indian marauders. This action led to the disfellowship of Henry and the other young members.

After further military service during the Revolutionary War, he became eligible for free land in the Kentucky wilderness. At the urging of his wife, he returned to the faith of his fathers after the war had ended. Meanwhile three Rhoads families began the move to Kentucky, settling in what was then called Severns Valley. The settlement at Severns Valley was later renamed Elizabethtown in honor of Henry's wife Elizabeth and has kept that name to the present day.

Henry eventually moved to Logan County where he obtained 2500 acres of military land upon which he first built his log cabin, which was replaced by his two-story plantation home built in 1792 and still in a fairly good state of preservation. It continues in the possession of the Rhoads family.

Henry was a minister, or at least he preached the Gospel to his neighbors, preaching in both German and English. His Bible was of the 2nd edition of Sauers Bible. Henry passed away on March 16, 1814 just a few months before the Muhlenberg County Church of the German Baptist Brethren was organized on June 18 in the so-called "Dutch Settlement."

Source: Lest We Forget and Tales of Yester-Years, Vol. III, Rolland F. Flory

Brethren Serving from New Windsor

2008-10-16T06:01:00.000-04:00

The philosophy of service that found concrete expression at New Windsor was set forth quite clearly and simply in the familiar New Testament passage that Brethren had already chosen, in the Annual Conference of 1941, as the charter for their newly authorized Brethren Service Commission. The words come from Matthew 25:31-46. The setting is Jesus' parable of the separation of the sheep and goats on the day of judgment, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory.

Here are the significant words that were quoted to outline the function of the Brethren Service Committee: I was hungry and you gave me to eat; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came unto me. Inasmuch as you did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, you did it unto me."

By the end of World War II, the New Windsor campus had become a bustling center of service activities. The former college buildings were being adapted to a program that would expedite the sending of food and clothing to several areas of the world.

The Brethren were motivated by several factors: an awareness of need; a tradition of caring; a philosophy of service growing out of the New Testament; and a willingness to cooperate with other Christian denominations and agencies to get the job done.

Source: New Windsor Center, Kenneth Morse

A College in New Windsor

2008-10-15T06:31:00.000-04:00

The campus which is now home to the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Maryland, was purchased in 1849 by Andrew Baker as land on which to build a college campus for a school that was already flourishing under his direction in town.

The academic tradition in New Windsor must have been well established by the mid-nineteenth century. Not only was there a lovely setting for a college on the hill, but local educators were working vigorously to provide quality training and worthwhile experiences for Maryland youth. In 1850 the college was known as Calvert College and was incorporated and operated under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church until financial difficulties forced its closure in 1866.

A few years later the school was purchased by a Presbyterian minister and the name changed to New Windsor College. The college continued to face financial problems until 1913 when the Church of the Brethren purchased the property and moved Blue Ridge College from Union Bridge a few miles away.

The Brethren were aggressive in building for the future. They remodeled Old Main, built Windsor Hall in 1914, a gymnasium-auditorium in 1915; and in 1920 they added Becker Hall to provide classrooms and a men's dormitory. But such efforts, along with movements to improve the educational program, could not assure the permanent endowment resources the school needed to meet the economic challenges of World War I and the depression years that would follow. Also Church of the Brethren congregations in the East were already helping to support three church-related colleges within a few hundred miles of New Windsor. In 1927 Blue Ridge College became a junior college but even that change could not guarantee its survival.

In 1937, the college was sold to a private group of educators from New Jersey and New York, who hoped to expand and enlarge the college while retaining the name. But the future for the college was hardly promising and the college closed its doors in 1942 and the property returned to the Brethren trustees. A public auction was scheduled for September 6, 1944.

But the utilization of the facilities for other purposes had already occurred to some Brethren. L.W. Schultz, a member of the first Brethren Service Committee, would later recall the day in 1944 when BSC met in New Windsor and purchased the property for a service center. M.R. Zigler, the staff executive for BSC who negotiated the purchase for an amount that would at least cover the indebtedness for the former college, later stated: We didn't really know what we were doing, but we were convinced that Brethren Service was a long-range program.

Tomorrow: more on the Service Center.

Source: New Windsor Center, Kenneth Morse

Brethren Service Center - New Windsor, MD

2008-10-14T06:14:00.000-04:00

It happens often. Visitors from overseas arrive in the United States and are puzzled because the first persons they meet here have never heard of New Windsor, Maryland. Later they understand - when they finally locate the small town on a road map or find their way to the quiet village tucked away in the Maryland hills. How does it happen that a town of only a thousand residents has a worldwide reputation?

The explanation rests with a cluster of buildings on a former college campus at the edge of New Windsor - the service center operated by the Church of the Brethren and utilized by Church World Service, Lutheran World Relief, and many other world service agencies.

Don't be surprised if overseas visitors are confused. They may have lived in Europe in the harsh years after World War II when food and clothing given by Americans came by way of New Windsor and the town name appeared on bales and packages. A daughter or son may have participated in an international youth exchange that began with orientation in the Maryland town. The medical supplies so important for a missionary doctor or nurse likely reached their overseas recipients by way of a warehouse in New Windsor. Refugee families often found the Service Center a temporary home while waiting to be received in American communities. For many artisans and craft persons overseas the New Windsor address is their doorway to a market for their "self-help" products in international gift shops.

Americans with a little elementary geography do not expect New Windsor to be as conspicuous as Baltimore; but they, too, marvel that such a modest country town welcomes around 35,000 visitors each year. Some come as volunteers to help in the humanitarian programs at the Center, others to participate in retreats, and many as tourists attracted by its unique gift shop.

More about the Brethren Service Center tomorrow.

Source: "Introduction" to New Windsor Center by Kenneth Morse, 1979

October 13, 1940 - Chinese Brethren Martyred

2008-10-13T06:41:00.002-04:00

The Brethren sent misionaries to China in 1908 who worked at spreading the gospel, baptizing and introducing the love feast, while improving the lives of ordinary Chinese - many of whom lived in absolute misery. All this came to a crashing end with the Japanese invasion of China.

In comparison to the murder of thousands of people by the armies, the deaths of three Brethren missionaries and thirteen Chinese Brethren are not, perhaps, significant on the world stage. That makes it all the more imperative for Brethren to remember.

Little is known about the fate of Minnerva J. Neher, Alva C. Harsh, and Mary Hykes Harsh. The three Brethren missionaries were stationed in Show Yang. Around 7:30 in the evening on December 2, 1937, a little girl came to ask them to come and help a dispute. They left together and were never seen again. Rumors about their fate flew, but nothing was learned either then or after the war when Brethren missionaries returned to China.

More is known about what happened to the thirteen Chinese Brethren at Liao Chou who were martyred for their faith in 1940. Liao Chou was organized as a Brethren congregation in 1912. When war broke out Brethren remained behind to feed the children and keep the Bible school open.

In August of 1940 the Japanese arrested seven Brethren. They were tortured and forced to sign false confessions that they were Communists and released. Six more women were arrested in October. On October 13, 1940, three were stabbed to death with swords. The other three were raped and released.

On October 13 the eight previously arrested were rounded up and shot. Later, on November 16, two cooks were shot as well. Most of them were leaders in the church.

After the war Brethren attempted to investigate to learn more. Little could be learned beyond the brutal fact that they had been martyred because of their Christian faith. Today we pause to remember the terrible sacrifice of these Chinese Brethren martyrs on this date in 1940.

Source: Adapted from Frank Ramirez Tercentennial Minute for October 12, 2008

Landa U. Kreider

2008-10-12T06:58:00.002-04:00

Among the Brethren participating in the colonization in Cuba in the early 1900s (see yesterday's entry) was Landa U. Kreider and family. He was born September 14, 1874 in South Whitley, Indiana and received his education in the rural schools of Whitley County. He was married to Emma Blanche Snell of Sidney, Indiana in 1894 and together the family farmed until 1906.

Brother Kreider was called to the ministry in 1901 by the Sugar Creek Church and in 1906 he took over the ministerial work in the new colony in Cuba. After serving six years in Cuba, he returned to Indiana in the spring of 1912. They returned to the Kreider homestead until 1918 when he moved to Michigan to serve as pastor of the Sugar Ridge Church of the Brethren.

He returned to Indiana to serve the following churches: North Winona (1921-1925). In 1925 he moved to Columbia City, where he served as both pastor and elder of the Blue River congregation until his retirement in 1948.

A son and a daughter died in Cuba and are numbered among the nineteen buried at Omaja. His wife Emma Blanche died in 1913 and he later remarried a second wife also named Emma.

Source: Lest We Forget and Tales of Yester-Years, Rolland C. Flory

Brethren Colony in Cuba

2008-10-11T14:28:00.002-04:00

While the Brethren work has included missions in numerous countries over the past 300 years, many Brethren today might not know that the Brethren once established a church in Cuba a century ago.

Cuba received its indepence from Spain after the United States intervened in the Spanish American War. After four years under the United States, the government was turned over to the Cuban people on May 20, 1902 as the democratic Cuban Republic.

Inducements were made to the people of the United States to settle and help establish a stable government. The first Brethren to go to Cuba were George and Curtis Bowman, a widowed father and son. They settled in an underdeveloped town of Omaja. In 1906 they were joined by the Kreider and Snell families. In 1907 Elder Ira Eby and family joined the Brethren and a church was organized. In December 2007 they asked the General Mission Board that a missionary be sent to assist them in their church work. They also received authorization to solicit the Brethren in the States for up to $500 to build a church building.

In the spring of 1908 the Mahan family joined the group. Brother Mahan had served on the editorial staff of the Gospel Messenger and was moved to assist the new church in Cuba. In 1909 the church at Omaja, Cuba sent a letter of Greetings to the Annual Conference and received a response from the Conference officers which stated in part: We extend to you the love of Christian fellowship and greetings, commending you to the goodness and guidance of him who careth for you, that you may be blessed and ever be a blessing in his service.

A list of colonists who also went to Omaja include two individuals from Canada, several from Illinois, Missouri, Virginia, and Ohio. The largest number of colonist families were from Indiana. Possibly the Omaja Church never numbered more than thirty. The cause of the decline of the membership was the collapse of the economic system and the return of the American families to the States.

A silent reminder of the Brethren colony in Omaja is the once Brethren cemetary, where lie the remains of nineteen bodies from Brethren families who worked and died there. The Omaja Church remained somewhat active until 1937, when Brother Charles Nye reported to Brother Grant Mahan that the church building was sold and thus ended the work of Brethren colonization in Cuba.

Source: summarized from Lest We Forget and Tales of Yester-Years, Vol. III, by Rolland F. Flory

Non-resistance

2008-10-10T06:47:00.003-04:00

In answer to the question: Why Brethren Are Pacifists?; Rolland Flory writes, The Christian Church of Believers are committed to pacifism because God had commanded, "Thou shalt not kill."

This teaching continued in some places among Christians over the years while being dismissed by others as the church came under the protection and control of the government. Some Christian sufferers of the inquisition fled to the Alps in northern Italy where a remnant survived.

The following story comes from an early issue of the Gospel Visitor:

It is related that a company of soldiers were ordered at a certain time to march into a small town and take it. From the description of the persons and circumstances connected with the incident, it is believed that it took place in the Tyrol, a province of Austrian dominion in the southwest frontier of Germany. However, it was settled by a colony who believed the Gospel of Christ and proved their faith by their works.

As it is customary in such cases, a neighboring village, appraised of the fact, sent a messenger in haste to inform the inhabitants that troops were advancing to their town. They quietly answered, "If they will take it, they must."

Soldiers soon came riding in with colors flying, fifes piping their advance. They looked around - saw the farmer at his plow, the blacksmith at his anvil, and the women at their chores and spinning wheels. Babies crowded to hear the music and the boys ran out to see the trainers with feathers and bright ribbons. Of course none of these were in a proper position to be shot at.

"Where are your soldiers?" they asked. "We have none," was the brief reply. "But we have come to take this town." "Well, friends, it lies before you." "But is there nobody here to fight?" "None, we are all Christians."

Here was the condition of things wholly unexpected. The sort of resistance which no bullet could hit. The Commander was perplexed. "If there is nobody to fight with, of course we cannot fight," said he. "It is impossible to take such a town." So he ordered the horses' heads to be turned around and the soldiers passed quietly out of the village.

This simple incident, whether true or not, in every particular shows how easy it would be to dispense with armies and navies if men only had faith in the religion they profess to believe.

Source: Lest We Forget and Tales of Yester-Years, Vol. III, Rolland F. Flory

Marriage

2008-10-09T06:22:00.002-04:00

The early Brethren were very much opposed to members marrying one who was not a member of the Brethren. This was based on a very literal interpretation of 2 Corinthians 6:4, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Rolland F. Flory in his book Lest We Forget and Tales of Yester-Years, Volume III, recalls the following story of his brother Samuel.

My father, Elder John Flory, was a strong believer in this for members of the church and especially for members of his own household. Samuel, my older brother, was keeping company with a young lady who was not a member of the church. On one Monday morning I remember quite well that a final ultimatum was given by father to either drop his relationship with the young lady or seek another place of residence.

Brother Samuel complied and soon went to Manchester College for a winter term. Here he became acquainted with a member of the church. Their acquaintanceship led them, after several months, into marriage and together they live a happy married life for over fifty years. Both contributed much to the welfare of the church.

About the time of this incident, Elder William R. Guthrie was conducting services.... I remember quite well a conversation that took place at the morning meal when, after the morning devotions, Brother Guthrie remarked, "John, you should not be too harsh on Samuel. You no doubt know that when I was married my bride was not a member of the church but she became a member soon after our marriage and has become a faithful Dunker preacher's helpmate."

Flory then adds this postscript to the story: The young lady who was rejected as the wife of Samuel later became the wife of his first cousin, united with the church and became a true and faithful member of her adopted church.

Source: Lest We Forget and Tales of Yester-Years, Vol. III, Rolland F. Flory

Bethany at Hastings Street

2008-10-08T06:53:00.002-04:00

Bethany Bible School opened its doors in a large house on Hastings Street in Chicago in October 1905. "We were a group of country people who had never seen Chicago and were going into that city alone." Nettie Senger was speaking for mose of the 160 students who came to Bethany Bible School during its adventurous years on Hastings Street (1905-09).

Sixty years later a number of them, in response to a letter from Ernestine Hoff Emrick, recalled their experiences.

We had to keep the front door locked but did not have eight keys. So we decided on a password.
We had a bathroom, cold as Greenland, with running water - ice water in winter.
Classrooms were small, a bit on the dingy side.
Sacrifices were the order of the day. The teachers set the pattern.
I worked ... in the Loop one day a week and got $1.25 a day ... I walked 2.5 miles to save carfare.
Bethany's being in the city didn't bother us; we were closer to our practical work. I was asked to take a class of street boys ... They knew all the tricks of the trade.

Source: The Brethren Encylopedia

Bethany Bible School Opens

2008-10-07T06:29:00.002-04:00

In October 1905, Bethany Bible School opened its doors in a large house on Hastings Street in Chicago with twelve students. It marked the beginning of the fulfillment of a dream held by E.B. Hoff and A.C. Wieand.

The Chicago location, however, was in doubt until nearly the last moment. Both Wieand and Hoff had deep reservations about locating their school in Chicago. A decade later the honest Wieand would write, "Personally, I hated Chicago. I dreaded to come to the big city, with all its rush and sin. My heart would sink every time I would approach the place and see the black pale of smoke."

In fact, both men would have preferred to open their school in Elgin, Illinois. In 1903, Wieand wrote Hoff, "how about the place ... Shall it be Elgin or Chicago ... I still believe Elgin is the place to begin." In 1903, Elgin seemed an ideal location. As home to the Brethren Publishing House, it was rapidly become the de facto denominational headquarters. Unfortuneatly, Elgin had one major drawback: it was located near Mount Morris College and there was fear of trying to locate the two schools so near each other.

Despite the feelings toward Chicago, Hoff would eventually acquire a large house across the street from the Hastings Street Mission where he was in charge. The students embraced the city, at least judging by Bethany's rapid growth. Beginning with 12 students, there were 22 by the end of the first term and 33 by the end of the second term.

In 1908 Bethany would move to the West Van Buren campus and in 1963 would move to the western suburbs at Oak Brook. Here it would remain until its last move to Richmond, Indiana in 1994.

Source: Bethany Theological Seminary: A Centennial History, Kostlevy

A.C. Wieand Visits the Holy Land

2008-10-06T06:16:00.002-04:00

V.F. Schwalm, in his biography of A.C. Wieand, tells the following story of a visit A.C. Wieand and his wife Katherine made to the Holy Land in 1910.

The Wieands, along with seven other tourists, were on a trip they hoped would encircle the entire Dead Sea area. However, at Kerak, the capital of ancient Moab, they were caught in an insurrection of Arabs against the Turks. Thinking they were protected by friendly guards, the tourists sought to return to Jerusalem, but on the way they were kidnapped by a hostile band of Arabs.

Their money and equipment were taken at gunpoint, and they were threatened with death. The bandits tried to divert them from the main road into a swamp, but the travelers after a time were able to continue on the right path. Finally, after many harrowing adventures, they were rescued by friendly Arabs.

Schwalm wrote: It seems the good Lord certainly had his arms around our friends. When they approached Jerusalem they could say ... "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people, henceforth and evermore."

Source: The Brethren Encylopedia

Andrew Cordier and the Brethren Love Feast

2008-10-05T07:01:00.002-04:00

Andrew W. Cordier, who helped draft the charter of the United Nations and who for seventeen years served as one of its top officials, once told an interviewer that he received his first world view at the Brethren Love Feast.

Inez Long quoted Cordier as saying in 1960 that "utter sincerity, utter fairness, and utter integrity are basic to communication, and I first learned them as prior conditions to coming to the love feast tables. At these tables, after applying the rules of Matthew 18, the Brethren dramatize the idea of brotherhood under God.

"I saw these concepts acted out before my eyes by people I loved and trusted, from the time I could remember. The ideas stayed with me ... such concepts of brotherhood at the conference table of the United Nations give peace a fighting chance."

M. R. Zigler recalled an occasion when "in the presence of Dag Hammarskjold, a visiting delegation of the World Council of Churches Central Committee, and representatives of the United Nations, he [Cordier] said he found that his basic teaching came from what is known as the "love feast" of the Church of the Brethren to which he belonged."

Source: The Brethren Encyclopedia

A.C. Wieand

2008-10-04T07:34:00.001-04:00

Albert Cassel Wieand was born near Wadsworth, Ohio in 1871 and united with the Chippewa congregation in 1884. He later attended and graduated from Juniata College before teaching at McPherson College from 1892 to 1900.

In the summer of 1893, the chronically ill Wieand read an article in the Gospel Messenger written by Gertrude Flory who contended that the only real hindrance for those seeking divine healing was lack of faith. Following Flory's instruction, Wieand found an elder who would anoint him. As he remembered years later, "I realized that without an absolute consecration of my life to God, I could not hope for healing thru the anointing."

In 1895, as Wieand became fixated on the idea of a Bible school for the German Baptist Brethren Church, he became so sick that he could not continue his planned course of study. Committing himself fully to the work of creating a Bible School, Wieand's health was restored. With his destiny settled, he began preparation for his career in advanced religious education. He received his Ph.B degree from the University of Chicago in 1901.

While studying in Chicago, he often lived with the family of E.B. Hoff whom he had met earlier in McPherson. In 1901-02, he and Hoff traveled to the Holy Land. Overlooking the village of Bethany from the Mount of Olives, they chose the name Bethany Bible School for the school they hoped to found.

At both the University of Chicago and Columbia University in New York City, Wieand encountered and embraced the emerging progressive educational theories of the time. While teaching at New York's Bible Teachers' Training School from 1903-1905, he discovered a useable model for the Bible School that he hoped would serve Brethren needs for the new century. There he would borrow two "cardinal principles" underlying the course of study at Bethany: the development of "spiritual power" and "the mastery of sacred scripture."

In the fall of 1905, after twelve years of study, Wieand was finally ready to join his increasingly impatient colleague E.B. Hoff in their joint mission to bring theological training to the Brethren.

Tomorrow: The Brethren Love Feast
Coming: The beginnings of Bethany Bible School

Source: Bethany Theological Seminary: A Centenial History, William Kostlevy