2025 500th Anniversary Lecture
On January 29th, 7pm, at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church, John D. Roth will give a lecture entitled “They Went Out From Us, But They Were Not of Us:” The Gift and the Challenge of Church Unity in the Anabaptist Tradition. Professor Roth’s talk will focus on the challenge of unity and schism across the 500 years of our tradition, with a view to making sense of the "unraveling" of the denominational forms of church that we seem to be experiencing in the 21st century. A question and answer session will follow the presentation.
John D. Roth is professor emeritus of history at Goshen College, and formerly served as editor of Mennonite Quarterly Review and director of the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism at Goshen College. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago. Roth’s many books include Choosing Against War: A Christian View, Beliefs: Mennonite Faith and Practice, Stories: How Mennonites Came to Be, and Practices: Mennonite Worship and Witness. Roth lives in Goshen, Indiana.
Congregational singing, led by Nathan May, will open and close the evening. A freewill offering will be taken.
2021 Lecture Series: Brethren and Mennonite Hymns, Past and Present
The Brethren & Mennonite Heritage Center’s 2021 fall lecture series was held Sunday, September 26, 4-7 pm, at the Bridgewater Church of the Brethren, and featured two presentations on hymnody.
The first presentation, given by Sam Funkhouser, will explored the early English-language hymnbooks of the Brethren, beginning with the first of these books, The Christians Duty (1791). Special attention was given to the sources utilized in the compilation of The Christians Duty and the questions that they raise about Brethren worship, doctrine, and inter-denominational relations at the turn of the nineteenth century. This discussion of The Christians Duty was then followed by an overview of the ways in which the hymns contained in The Christians Duty were retained, modified, or discarded in subsequent Brethren hymn books and hymnals, up to and including the books published by the Old German Baptist Church and the Brethren Church shortly after the divisions of the early 1880s.
Sam Funkhouser is the Executive Director of the Brethren & Mennonite Heritage Center and a member of the Old German Baptist Brethren Church, New Conference. He has been a regular writer and presenter on Brethren history and theology, and his book on early Brethren hymnody serves as the basis for this lecture.
In the second presentation, Benjamin Bergey explored the new Mennonite hymnal, Voices Together. Bergey provided background information, insights, and innovations of the new collection while allowing participants to experience many songs through singing together, focusing on the Anabaptist contributions included.
Benjamin Bergey is an active song leader and conductor. He is assistant professor of music at Eastern Mennonite University, where he conducts the choirs and orchestra and teaches music theory and conducting. He also advises the new Music and Peacebuilding major. In addition to serving as music editor for Voices Together, he is director of music at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church and conducts the Rapidan Orchestra.