USA > Ohio > Church of the Brethren in southern Ohio > Part 4
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2. Do Results from the Home Department Justify Us for the Efforts?
3. What Are the Merits of the Twentieth Century Record System?
4. How Long Should S. S. Officers Be Retained?
5. What Do Our Sunday-Schools Need Most?
6. By What Standard Shall Our Sunday-School Teachers be Se- lected?
7. What Are Sunday-School Ruts?
8. What Should Be the Length of a Recitation?
9. Is it Wise to Have Written Tests Occasionally?
10. What Constitutes an Ideal Sunday-School? Bring your "Song Praises"
Mina Hollinger, Chorister
Wm. Minnich, Moderator Jesse Noffsinger Catherine Hollinger Chas. L. Flory, Secretary Committee
The institutes were held annually until 1931, when they were discontinued by the Board of Religious Education and there was substituted a leadership training school in connection with the summer assembly. The courses of study were to be such as to give teacher-training credits to those who desired them. At the same time this board appointed key workers to serve the age-group leaders and teachers of the district, namely, a director of children's work, a director of young people's work, and a director of adult work. The leadership training schools never were in essence discontinued, a part of the function being carried by the superintendents' con- ferences and later by the annual workers' conference. The first superintendents' conference of record was held at Covington on November 2, 1926. There is record of these conferences up to 1949.
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PART ONE: ORGANIZATIONS AND FUNCTIONS
Place
Date
Speakers Galen B. Royer
Covington November 2, 1926
West Charleston
November 15, 1927
Salem
April 24, 1928
M. J. Brougher
Sugar Grove
September 28, 1928
M. J. Brougher
Brookville April 23, 1929
West Milton
October 29, 1929
J. A. Buffenmyer
Dan West
Oakland
November 6, 1930
J. O. Click
Salem June 28, 1932
Happy Corner
May 5, 1933
D. W. Kurtz
West Charleston
October 26, 1933
R. H. Nicodemus
West Milton
May 8, 1934
J. Perry Prather
Oakland October 30, 1934
G. L. Wine H. H. Helman
Trotwood
October 29, 1935
R. N. Leatherman
Covington
May 12, 1936
Ray O. Shank
Mack Memorial
October 20, 1936
Frank Slutz
Bradford
May 11, 1937
Roy K. Miller
Pitsburg
October 12, 1937
G. L. Wine Galen Royer H. H. Helman
Beaver Creek
April 26, 1938
Brookville
October 26, 1938
N. B. Wine
Gratis
May 1, 1939
M. J. Brougher
New Carlisle
November 1, 1939
F. C. Hollingshead
Bradford
April 30, 1940
Galen B. Royer
Happy Corner
November 12, 1940
Bear Creek
October 28, 1941
Oakland
October 28, 1941
H. L. Hartsough
Prices Creek
October 13, 1942
W. Glenn McFadden
Trotwood
October 26, 1943
Salem
October 24, 1944
Pleasant Hill
November 7, 1945
Lower Miami
November 11, 1946
C. D. Bonsack
Happy Corner
April 8, 1947
Russell V. Bollinger
New Carlisle
April 22, 1930
C. F. McKee
New Carlisle
May 14, 1935
Roy B. Teach
S. S. Blough J. Perry Prather August M. Hintz
John Grimley Roy D. Boaz
Raymond R. Peters John Long
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CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN IN SOUTHERN OHIO
Brookville November 4, 1947
Harold Miller
Paul Halladay
Pleasant Hill
November 2, 1948
Charles Zunkel
Covington May 3, 1949
Norman Gutrie
Brookville October 31, 1949
James Renz
By this time there were fifty-three Sunday schools in the district with an enrollment of seven thousand nine hundred eight-one, including seven hundred nineteen officers and teachers. The offerings totaled $16,977.71. Schools were listed as Standard, Honor, and Banner.
Reports of local school average attendance for the years 1898, 1908, 1918, 1928, 1938, and 1948 will give a fair picture of the schools at ten-year intervals.
Church
Average Attendance
1898
1908
1918
1928
1938
1948
Bear Creek
100
100
118
176
214
176
Beaver Creek
43
60
98
122
149
Beech Grove
53
56
71
88
113
110
Bethany
Bethel
100
128
192
260
288
297
Brookville
60
157
207
190
214
Castine
50
40
80
95
70
102
Cedar Grove
41
27
37
30
25
50
Charleston
50
27
Cincinnati
28
60
70
52
Circleville
14
67
70
100
84
Columbus
62
56
Constance
38
37
35
66
55
Covington
80
142
342
300
211
235
Donnels Creek
40
82
85
79
88
104
East Dayton
43
45
76
132
238
240
Eaton
69
114
167
Eversole
63
89
118
113
138
Fort McKinley
106
84
152
177
168
Gratis
39
39
100
75
Greenville
102
117
143
149
139
Hamilton
29
82
Happy Corner
90
130
166
Harris Creek
159
140
112
110
104
67
Lower Miami
54
80
100
94
118
108
Mack Memorial
124
132
131
254
188
108
Marble Furnace
18
32
22
32
31
35
Middle District
40
40
40
82
123
67
25
22
Bradford
95
118
116
158
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PART ONE: ORGANIZATIONS AND FUNCTIONS
Middletown
25
53
63
79
98
New Carlisle
40
57
148
229
202
195
Oakland
154
100
120
150
185
169
Painter Creek
140
137
107
130
172
132
Piqua
117
145
163
162
Pitsburg
80
114
100
130
144
173
Pleasant Hill
75
145
143
155
180
212
Pleasant Valley
53
44
51
90
67
44
Poplar Grove
90
104
97
88
85
90
Potsdam
80
61
92
153
175
183
Prices Creek
58
87
101
107
125
165
Red River
109
63
72
67
40
62
Sidney
55
83
120
150
120
159
Springfield
60
100
129
165
Stonelick
27
26
25
Strait Creek
26
20
24
32
10
30
Trotwood
85
119
245
231
233
Troy
31
63
134
163
Union City
40
65
70
143
147
138
West Alexandria
123
107
113
West Charleston
50
112
61
75
70
West Milton
85
100
134
165
166
-
In 1902 a call came to district meeting to ask Annual Meeting to provide for the publishing of special Brethren lessons. It was lost but it is indicative of the thinking of the members on the problem of adequate Christian education. In 1903 the matter of having the Sunday schools support a mis- sionary came before district meeting and carried.
It will be noted above that when the Sunday-school committee was appointed one member was made secretary for a period of five years. Those who served, as revealed by the records available, were: Levi Minnich, 1899-1909; Charles Flory, 1909-10; Edward Miller, 1910-13; John Eikenberry, 1913-16; Ira Blocher, 1916-21; Cyrus Funderburg, 1921-24.
In 1923 the Board of Religious Education secured the part-time services of John Robinson to act as director of religious education. This office absorbed the work of the Sunday-school secretary in 1924. On March 1, 1925, Brother Robinson became the full-time director; he served until De- cember 1929. Difficulty in financing the work was given as the reason for discontinuing it.
Norman B. Wine became the part-time director in 1930.
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CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN IN SOUTHERN OHIO
In that year came the appointment of age-group directors as noted above. Norman Wine was director of adult work; Mrs. Orion Erbaugh, director of children's work; Mark Shellhaas, director of young people. These were to serve as associate members of the Board of Religious Education. In 1932 Joe M. Wise was appointed director of adult work; he served until 1950, being succeeded by Drue D. Funderburg, who still serves, but now as director of leadership training.
The sequence of functional organizations to serve Christian education seems to have been in this order: Sunday-school meeting; Sunday-school institute; leadership training school; superintendents' conference; workers' conference; school of Christian living.
The school of Christian living is but a few years old, but it is one of the district activities that is meeting with wide approval and success.
Following are the program and the instructors for the school of 1953:
School of Christian Living February 2, 9, 16, 25, March 2, 1953
Monday evenings 7:30
Salem Church of the Brethren
Bible Course, The Book of Acts James M. Moore
The Christian Family Rev. and Mrs. Kenneth Long
Teaching Methods Russell Helstern
Church Music P. L. Huffaker
Two fifty minute sessions
In 1954 the same Mondays were used, and it was held at the Troy church. The courses were:
Today's Rural Christian Community Ross Noffsinger
How to Become a More Effective
Church School Teacher Russell V. Bollinger
Paul's Letters to the Corinthians R. H. Miller Learning to Pray T. Wayne Rieman
The original Sunday-school Committee later became known as the Sunday-school Board, then the Board of Re- ligious Education, which, in turn, became the Board of Christian Education. In the organization of the District Board,
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PART ONE: ORGANIZATIONS AND FUNCTIONS
created in 1952, the work of Christian education is directed by the Commission on Christian Education.
The scope of these functional boards has varied through the years. It has included temperance education, vacation Bible schools, welfare work, relief work, peace education, men's work, Brethren Service, camping, youth work, service to conscientious objectors, and the publication of the Southern Ohio Herald.
For three and a half years the board sponsored a daily- devotion booklet, Walking With God Today, which reached a circulation of six thousand five hundred and went to all parts of the Brotherhood. It was discontinued in 1946 and the Gospel Messenger took over this function.
Records of the holding of vacation Bible schools are lacking, but the first schools were perhaps in 1920 at Poplar Grove and Arlington, another following at Bear Creek the same year, after which they became rather common through- out the district.
Burton Metzler was the leader in these named, assisted by Ruth Blocher Mallott and Alice Lehman Hershey.
The Herald was begun in 1925 with John A. Robinson acting as editor and business manager. The editors to date have been:
J. A. Robinson 1925-29
H. H. Helman 1935-46
G. E. Yoder 1930 Virginia Stoner 1946-47
N. B. Wine 1931 E. R. Risher . 6 months 1947
G. E. Yoder 1932-33
J. O. Click 1933-34
J. Perry
Prather .. . 6 months 1935
Mrs. Lowell
Noffsinger 1948-51
Etoile Sargent 1952-54
Moyne Landis 1954- -
From January 1, 1935, to the present time Joe M. Wise has been business manager. The Herald is published quarterly and has varied from four to eight pages through the years. It is sent to the Sunday schools by subscription and has had a circulation up to two thousand three hundred copies.
5. BRETHREN SERVICE
Ivan Eikenberry served as the first director of Brethren Service in the district. In the minutes of district conference of 1942 he is listed as the representative of the General Boards and Brethren Service, with the term of his office expiring in 1945. However, in 1941 the officers of the conference re- ported the action of a special district conference, held at West Milton on January 20, 1941, as follows:
(1) That we approve the efforts of the Brethren Service Commit- tee to care for the conscientious objectors and vote full cooperation with the committee in every way.
That E. R. Fisher be the district secretary representing this work in Southern Ohio.
In 1951 district conference authorized the formation of a Brethren Service Committee to work with the director. This committee was composed of the Brethren Service director, the Women's Work peace director, a Men's Work representa- tive, a CBYF representative, and any members of the Brethren Service Commission of the General Brotherhood Board residing in the district. This committee functioned for just over a year, and was replaced by the Brethren Service Com- mission under the District Board in the reorganization of the district work in 1952.
For a number of years Everett Fisher served as peace director for the district. In this capacity he reported to the district conference of 1942: "In March the Brethren Service representatives of the districts were called to a meeting at Ft. Wayne." This is the first record of the district representing on the Brethren Service program as such. He also reported: "Our district gave since January 1, 1941, $20,174.20 to Brethren Service and relief. This does not reach the goal of two dollars per member. . .. Our district goal for next year should be at least $25,000.00." As noted above, Brother Fisher was also the official representative of the district on Brethren Service.
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PART ONE: ORGANIZATIONS AND FUNCTIONS
The peace director and the Brethren Service director co- operated in many phases of the work, and the functions of the two were later co-ordinated in the Brethren Service Com- mission.
These directors, and other persons as well, represented the district in a number of regional meetings on peace and relief. In 1944 and 1945 such meetings were held at Nappanee, Fort Wayne, and Camp Mack. Early in 1951 the Brethren Service director and George Phillips attended a three-day training conference for peace counselors at Camp Mack.
In 1947 ten persons from Southern Ohio, representing men, women, and youth, attended a peace study conference at New Windsor and spent some time in Washington inter- viewing Congressmen and other officials.
In 1941 nine persons from our district attended a state-wide conference on peace held at Camp Owens, Marietta, Ohio.
A number of district conferences and training sessions were held for relief and peace information and training. In January 1941, sectional conferences on peace and relief were held in the Fort Mckinley, West Dayton, Troy, Eaton, and Greenville churches. The leaders for these conferences were A. Stauffer Curry and Mark Schrock.
All-day training sessions for local peace counselors were held at the Fort Mckinley and Pitsburg churches in April 1951.
During 1951 a series of four conferences were held. At the Potsdam church Don Timmerman and Chalmer Faw presented the general peace principles of the church; at the Salem church the draft was discussed by A. Stauffer Curry; at the Trotwood church Dan West spoke on the philosophy of peace; and at the Brookville church W. Harold Row discussed Brethren Service and relief. Attendance at these conferences averaged above three hundred.
The Brethren Service director repeatedly urged the district to oppose universal military training and conscription by letters and telegrams to Congressmen. In 1941 the district sent L. John Weaver to testify before the House Armed Services Committee of our opposition to universal military training. Others have been sent since then.
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CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN IN SOUTHERN OHIO
The peace director promoted, also, the use of a series of lessons on peace in our Sunday schools.
L. John Weaver, as Brethren Service director and now as chairman of the Commission on Brethren Service, has provided much valuable assistance to many Southern Ohio Brethren young men in their problems arising from the draft -especially those problems encountered in securing a con- scientious objector classification.
The district reorganization in 1952 included the promotion of rural life values with other responsibilities of the Com- mission on Brethren Service. To promote this interest a rural life conference was held in February 1953 with the Reverend J. P. Hendrix, a rural pastor, and the Reverend Clyde Rogers of the Ohio Council of Churches as leaders.
The heifers-for-relief project was first sponsored by the Men's Work, beginning about 1942. In early 1944 an enlarged committee to administer this program was recommended, and as a result the Board of Christian Education approved this first committee: Ira Blocher, Emmett Burnett, Hugh Cloppert, Jacob Couser, Vern Dull, Chester George, Paul Getz, Harry Peters, Jr., Galen Barnhart, and Ivan Eikenberry, the Brethren Service director. Since that time the Brethren Service director has worked with this project and has done much promotion on it. Chester George, Elden Yohe, and Ralph Delk served at various times as the secretary of this project, and at the present time Ralph Hunn is the secretary.
In July 1944 the first two heifers for relief left Southern Ohio. These two heifers, from Brookville and Beech Grove, were sent to Puerto Rico.
In 1945 a shipment of sixteen heifers was made to the sharecroppers in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Ira Blocher and Ivan Patterson accompanied this shipment.
In May and June 1949 two shipments totaling twenty-three heifers were made to Venezuela for the use of European displaced persons resettling there. Elden Yohe and L. John Weaver accompanied these two shipments, which were made by airplane.
Exact figures on the number of heifers sent from Southern Ohio do not seem to be available, but indications are that the
65
PART ONE: ORGANIZATIONS AND FUNCTIONS
total is above five hundred. It was reported to the 1946 con- ference that "over one hundred seventy-seven heifers have left this district."
Southern Ohio has done much in the way of material aid for the needy. In 1944 over eleven thousand cut-out garments were made by the women of the district (one thousand three hundred sixty-four of these by one church). In 1946 the Oakland church alone canned over eighteen thousand cans of food for relief. The district meeting report for 1947 indicates that more than forty-seven thousand three hundred cans of food were sent in the previous year.
In 1945 Southern Ohio was asked to provide thirty tons of wheat flour or cornmeal. Fifteen thousand dollars in money and wheat was given. In 1946 eight carloads of wheat and two carloads of corn were given.
Figures provided by the relief center at Nappanee indicate that during 1950, 1951, and 1952 Southern Ohio sent in to that center more than thirty-two tons of clothing, food, and grease.
A special drive for shoes for relief, growing out of the sectional peace meetings of January 1947, sent eleven thousand pairs of shoes to the Dayton Church World Service center.
The Brethren were responsible for and provided much assistance in the opening of a Church World Service relief center in Dayton in 1945. In the first six weeks of its operation the Brethren people sent in over five tons of clothing. Until this center closed in 1948 Brethren people provided many hours of volunteer labor. Special recognition in this should be given to Walter Denlinger of the Eaton church, who gave more than a month of volunteer labor in setting up and directing the beginnings of the work.
Four auctions-for-relief were held in 1946 and 1947: one in Preble County, one in Darke County, one in Miami County, and one at the Vern Dull farm sponsored by four Montgomery County churches. Reports indicated that the Darke County sale netted $7,000. The Miami County sale, held on February 22, 1947, had an estimated attendance of three thousand. The proceeds of the sale and the lunch stand, cash, and the value of relief goods given through the sale totaled approximately $14,628.
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CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN IN SOUTHERN OHIO
In May 1946 Ray Petersime of the Oakland church accompanied a flight of hatching eggs to Poland. One hundred fifty-eight cases were provided by Northern Indiana, North- eastern Ohio, and Southern Ohio. Seven hundred forty-two dozen of these eggs were from Southern Ohio. UNRRA pro- vided the transportation from the Vandalia airport. The eggs were packed under Mr. Petersime's supervision by members of the Oakland church.
In March 1953 special efforts were made to send glass cans to Greece. The Brethren Service center at Nappanee co- operated by having the truck make two special trips for the cans. Eighteen churches reported sending a total of eleven thousand three hundred forty cans. The truck driver's estimate of the total collection indicates that approximately sixteen thousand cans were sent.
In the summers of 1945 and 1946 the Brethren Service director, working with J. Edward Hershberger and Mrs. Elizabeth Hartman of Dayton, was instrumental in placing approximately sixty Negro children in Brethren homes for a stay of from ten days to two weeks.
Many individuals have served in the relief and service program beyond the borders of Southern Ohio. By the summer of 1945 nine persons had already served as cattle and horse attendants on UNRRA shipments. The number was large through 1946, and still continues, though fewer persons are being used now. The complete list of names will be found elsewhere.
Franklin Wallick and Ivan Patterson spent eighteen months as members of an UNRRA tractor unit in China.
In the summer of 1949 the Pleasant Hill church designated $1,000 from a memorial fund which it administers to be used in rebuilding a church somewhere in Germany. This gift made possible a work camp in Hamburg, and the Pleasant Hill church sent Jean West, one of its young people, to attend the work camp.
In May of 1952 Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe Inman of the Bradford church went to Germany; Mr. Inman supervised the construc- tion of the Kassel House. They expected to be gone "eight months or longer." Their stay lasted twenty months.
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PART ONE: ORGANIZATIONS AND FUNCTIONS
In 1953 C. E. Hunn of the Bear Creek church, a plumber, gave two months of volunteer labor on the Kassel House.
Three young people have completed eighteen-month terms of volunteer service in Europe and several are now there. A still larger group has participated in overseas summer work camps. Elsewhere will be found the list from Southern Ohio who served in Brethren Volunteer Service.
In 1939 the Council of Boards brought the following recommendation to the district conference:
First, that a committee be appointed to study the German refugee problem.
Second, that this committee be authorized to act in conjunction with any action taken by the General Boards or the Annual Conference.
The recommendation was adopted and John Oliver, E. R. Fisher, and Russell Helstern were appointed.
The following year, 1940, the committee made the fol- lowing report:
The General Boards turned the matter of war relief, German refugees, and peace education over to the General Mission Board and the Board of Christian Education. These two boards in turn appointed an executive committee of five members to act for them, which committee is to be called the Brethren's Service Committee. This committee recommends to the brotherhood that the churches raise funds for war relief; that our colleges be challenged to aid refugee students; that individuals, churches, districts or groups of churches consider the placing and aiding of refugee families.
In keeping with these suggestions we have made appeals to the churches of our district to find a vacant house that might be rented for a refugee family. No house was found and this made it impossible to go further. We believe our district ought to continue to seek for such a house. We think the resettlement of some family who is the victim of war would be a fitting way to show our desire to atone for the evils of war and to serve suffering humanity. There is opportunity for assisting the American Friends Service Committee in getting families located for whom they have already signed affidavits of sup- port. In Cuba there are many refugees who will need sponsors waiting for entrance into the United States. There would be some expense involved in this work. However, it is our expectation that these fam- ilies would soon become self-supporting. We hope the way might soon be opened up to do something. Our ancestors were once refugees, driven from their homes. Kindly hands were extended to them to find a new home in America. Surely we should not turn a deaf ear to
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CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN IN SOUTHERN OHIO
these who are now being driven from their homeland. As to the mat- ter of expense we suggest that when the need arises we appeal directly to the churches for help until some more systematic way of aiding them might be worked out.
During the year it was learned that a refugee student at Man- chester College who had been aided during the first of the year by another group would need help for the spring term. The college is giving the tuition to these students. This matter was presented to the Brookville peace meeting in March and $72.08 was raised. The Darke County Refugee Committee gave the remaining amount, $2.92, of the $75.00 needed.
The college now has five students on the campus who are from refugee families. Others could be brought to the college if someone would help in paying board, room and incidental fees. The amount needed would be $225 for the school year.
We, therefore, recommend that our district raise the sum of $225 to support a refugee student at Manchester College next year. We suggest that this money be raised by the churches at the rate of 21/4C per member.
E. R. Fisher, Russell Helstern, John Oliver
The report was accepted and the conference voted to apportion $225, or two and one fourth cents per member, among the churches for student refugees. The committee was continued.
Two Manchester students, German refugees, were presented, and spoke briefly. They were introduced by E. R. Fisher as Miss Ursulla Bundy and Miss Sibine Heller.
The Board of Christian Education strengthened the refugee movement by recommending in its report to the 1940 district conference "that we find a place to locate a refugee family in our district." It was adopted.
The next year the German Refugee Committee made the following report: "During the past year $104.58 was collected from thirty-three churches. This has gone to the support of Stefan Kaufmann, who is a junior at Manchester College."
The committee requested that its work be taken over by the Brethren Service Committee. This was the decision of the conference.
In 1950 the Brethren Service representative, L. John Weaver, reported to conference: "Displaced persons (DP's) deserve wider support. Ray Petersime, of Gettysburg, who has led the nation in assisting DP's, will help with plans .... Each church is challenged to have one family or more."
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