USA > Pennsylvania > Change and challenge: a history of the Church of the Brethren in the southern district of Pennsylvania, 1940-1972 > Part 13
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The first of a series of four family workshops was held in March, 1962 in the Chambersburg Church. A Family Life Committee was ap- pointed by the District Christian Education Commission to sponsor family education. The committee consisted of Mary Volland, chairman, Kathryn Grim, John Herr, Earl K. Ziegler and Kenneth L. Miller. Other five-day workshops were conducted in Carlisle (March, 1963), Hanover (November, 1963) and Gettysburg (1965). A fifth family life conference, conducted for one day, was held in the New Fairview congregation on November 6, 1966 with Dr. Tibor Chikes as leader. Dr. Chikes was professor of pastoral care at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D. C.
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MISSION TWELVE
The Christian Church has experimented with forms new of leadership training and witness in recent decades. Richard Niebuhr said in 1960 that the church cannot meet the needs of the day by becoming more liberal or more orthodox, more Biblical or more liturgical. Instead, it must find the forms and symbols which will communicate to all people the reality of the individual's existence before God. Before men can share, they must find something to share. Before they can be convincing, they themselves must be convinced.
In 1955-1956, many congregations of the Southern District shared in a National Christian Teaching Mission to revitalize the Christian Educa- tion program of the church. The Fellowship of Growth Plan had been fostered by the brotherhood to encourage personal growth among chil- dren's workers. The program promoted study and service as a means of personal growth. In 1961, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania began to experiment with new areas of fellowship within the church itself. By 1962, the Christian Education Commission of the General Brotherhood Board introduced the concept of Mission Twelve.
There were at least four factors contributing to the rise of this new Christian Education approach. In the first place, the program has been described as "a new approach to a revitalized leadership within the church".5 There was a growing conviction that Christian service must amount to something more than ushering at church on Sunday morning or planning the annual picnic. There was an increasing need for mature Christian leaders in the face of the urgent problems of the world.
Again, there was the awareness that the total church life must be revitalized. It is the Judaeo-Christian belief that man must love God with his total being. One of the purposes of Mission Twelve was the involvement of both individuals and congregations in releasing their potential for effective Christian living and witnessing.
In the third place, a mass society threatened the identity of individuals. A society which stressed sameness and standardization tended to rob individuals of their distinctiveness. Mission Twelve was designed to develop within individuals a sense of personal worth and a new appreciation of the worth of others. The teaching of Martin Buber on openness and on dealing honestly with each other, and the need to "meet the world with the fulness of your being" in order to meet God, played important roles in developing the philosophy of Mission Twelve. Buber's book, I-Thou (1942), was one of the reference volumes for the Mission Twelve participants.
Associated with the development of personal worth was the fostering of small-group life. In the later 1950s, small communities were recognized as "the seedbed of civilization". Virginia S. Fisher observed:
"Each congregation should study how it can enlist the loyalty of all of its members. This can be done through an approach to the in- dividual through small redemptive groups or fellowships."6
Finally, the development of sensitivity training as early as the late 1940s played an important role in the fostering of D-Groups in Mission Twelve. Encounter sessions, known as D-groups, were formed in short- term experiences to stimulate individuals to expose their beliefs and feelings. Leaders of D-groups tried to encourage participants to explore in depth their own feelings and motivations. The aim has been openness and honesty and the elimination of defensiveness. The individual is helped to respond with greater freedom to his calling to join with God in his work in his world.
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In its first five years (1963-1968) in the brotherhood, Mission Twelve involved 500 congregations and 4500 individuals. Up until 1972, there were seven Mission Twelve experiences in the Southern District. Some congregations have participated as often as two and three times. A total of sixteen churches of Southern Pennsylvania have been involved since the beginnings of the program. A number of district personnel have also been used as resource leaders in the Mission Twelve retreats at New Windsor, Maryland.
Mission Twelve is designed as a creative group experience aimed at individual and congregational renewal. The weekend retreats at New Windsor usually involve from seventy to one hundred individuals in the kind of fellowship and sharing experiences which have changed life for many participants. These training sessions focus on self-discovery, self- acceptance, openness toward others and congregational involvement as a responsible member of the Body of Christ.
There has been a changing emphasis away from dependence on district and brotherhood leadership to the use of congregational leadership. The philosophy of Mission Twelve began to infiltrate church life to the extent that many congregations have developed their own leadership programs. Congregations began to realize that there is a leadership potential close at hand if only they took the trouble to look for it.
WOMEN'S WORK IN THE DISTRICT
Recognition for women in the life of the denomination was slow in arriving, just as it was late in arriving in the nation. Women were permitted to work long hours in factories, but they were not permitted to practice law, medicine or the Christian ministry. Even as late as 1912, intelligent Americans were gravely prophesying the disintegration of society and the collapse of morality if women were so much as permitted to vote.
It was not until 1891 that the Annual Conference concluded that the Scriptures did not prohibit sisters from leading or rising to speak in social meetings.7 In 1899, women were first given the right to represent a congregation at a District Meeting. Women were not permitted to be licensed to the ministry until 1922 and they were not permitted to be ordained to the full ministry until 1958. Many decades passed in the life of the church before women were granted a place beyond the home.
Women's Fellowships developed in the Church of the Brethren, and in other denominations, because women had been denied a voice in the affairs of the church. They served the churches by preparing foods for church suppers. In most instances, these were primarily covered-dish events (1900). It was September 22, 1885 when the Women's Work group began in the Church of the Brethren. The first Sisters' Aid Society met at the home of Mrs. H. B. Brumbaugh at Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Eleanor J. Brumbaugh was the first president and Elizabeth Howe Bru- baker its first secretary. Although this society sent a report and a dona- tion to the 1886 Annual Conference, the work of the society received very little recognition.
An 1895 query to the Annual Conference stated:
"We ask the District Meeting to ask Annual Meeting whether it is right, according to the spirit of the Gospel, to have serving socie- ties in the church?
Ans .- Yes! If the sisters labor in union with the church, as expressed in the council, and according to the principles of the Gospel."8
Sisters' Aid Societies were not formally recognized by the Annual Confer- ence until 1917.
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The first permanent organization of the Sisters' Aid Society was effected at the Winona Lake Annual Meeting (1910). In 1915, the Society began the Mary N. Quinter Memorial Fund. In 1916, this fund was en- larged to create a hospital in India in honor of the noted missionary, Mary N. Quinter. The Society pioneered in the mission movement, in sewing circles and in mission study groups. The growth of this movement was rapid. In 1911, there were 119 societies across the brotherhood with 2,580 members. By 1920, the number of societies had grown to 441 with 8,563 members.
In 1925, Florence Murphy organized a Council of Women in the First Church of the Brethren of Philadelphia. This local pilot project soon set the stage for new groups in other congregations. In 1929, in her absence, Florence Murphy was elected national president of the Sisters' Aid Society. At this time there was a deficit in the brotherhood budget. The women of the brotherhood labored earnestly to raise funds to clear the deficit. By 1939, the deficit had not only been cleared, but there was also an estab- lished organization to underwrite brotherhood budgets, projects and programs.9
At its annual spring luncheon on March 30, 1957, the Church of the Brethren Women's Fellowship of Southern Pennsylvania observed its twenty-fifth anniversary. In 1931, the name "Sisters' Aid Society" was superseded by the new name, "Women's Work". Organizations for Wo- men's Work were effected at regional and district levels. Zola Detweiler served for ten years as the chairman of the regional Women's Work organization and served for six years on the Pennsylvania United Council of Church Women.
A Women's Work Conference met in the York First Church of the Brethren on July 15, 16, 1943. At this meeting, Zola Detweiler appealed to the General Board of Christian Education for a graded unit on temper- ance and a unit on mission work for children's work in all departments. At a similar conference in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Zola Detweiler pre- sided at a meeting which displayed a number of projects which related to the clothing needs of the world.
During the 1940s and 1950s, District Women's Organizations responded to the appeals of Brethren Service for relief and rehabilitation goods. The response the women made to this emergency appeal was equivalent to the response earlier Women's Groups made on behalf of the mission movement.10 Florence Murphy sat with the American Friends Service Committee meetings in Philadelphia (1937-1947), and reported to the brotherhood the volume of goods being shipped abroad. Women were in- volved in this relief ministry by converting old felt hats into small shoes for children. Others cut garments or sewed blankets, quilts and clothing. Many congregational groups went to New Windsor for work days on established yearly schedules.
The Women's Fellowship regularly sponsored spring luncheons and camp retreats. The first camp retreat was held at Camp Swatara on August 30 to September 1, 1949. Mrs. J. I. Thomas was the chairlady and Mary Volland was responsible for the program. Guest leaders for this camp were Helena Kruger, Velva Jane Dick and Mrs. A. C. Baugher. An offering for $90 was contributed toward the purchase of screens for the camp's auditorium.
When Camp Eder was officially established, the District Women's Fellowship began to meet regularly for women's camps each July. The organization pledged and gave $10,000 for the improvement of the kitchen at the camp.
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The 1949 constitution of the district organization indicated the pur- pose of Women's Fellowship: to promote fellowship among the women of the church; to promote interest in missions; to promote spiritual growth and the welfare of the family; and to deepen the spiritual life of the individual through Bible study and the use of devotional literature. Many Women's Work Groups devoted themselves to the reading of such volumes as The Seed and the Soil and For All of Life.
At the Annual Conference of 1960, the Women's Organization observed the seventy-fifth anniversary of "organized women's work in the Church of the Brethren". In preparation for this notable event, Anna Mow pre- pared an anthology entitled, His Pen in Her Hand, and Inez Long pre- pared a filmstrip called, The Radiant Treasure. Available at this confer- ence was a silver thimble to commemorate the early years of Sisters' Sewing Circles. Florence Murphy was honored at this conference and Zola Detweiler was in charge of the service of installation for the newly- elected members of the Women's Fellowship.
In 1962, Inez Long published a volume, Faces Among The Faithful. Twenty-eight Brethren women were selected for their biographical accounts from the total range of the history of the denomination. Among those chosen from the district were Florence Murphy, recognized as "the organ- izer of women's work."
In 1969, the Women's Work Organizations throughout the brother- hood experienced reorganization. Men's and Women's organizations at district and congregational levels were merged into Adult Councils. Joint rallies and banquets here held. The change in organization was made at the time emphasis was being placed on adult education.
The women who have served as presidents of the District Women's Fellowship since its organization are: Mrs. Levi K. Ziegler (1932-1935), Miss Ora Good (1935-1947), Mrs. J. I. Thomas (1947-1952), Mary Nelson (1952-1953), Mary Volland (1953-1959), Mrs. J. Vernon Grim (1960-1962), L. Anna Schwenk (1962-1965) and Vivian Ziegler (1966-1969).
When the denomination was observing its 250th anniversary, the women of the district issued a statement concerning the nature of the Church of the Brethren. This statement described the role of the Church of the Brethren in society:
"The genius of the Brethren consists in relating religion to life, belief to action, theology to ethics, resulting in a demonstrative Christianity. The church . .. extends a ministry to the world which offers redemption to the sinners, relief to the needy, assurance to the hungry of heart, joy and harmony to the home and family, love and brotherhood to the church and peace, justice and neighborliness to the world." (1958).
MEN'S WORK IN THE DISTRICT
Interest in Men's Work in the brotherhood took its rise with the lay- men's movement. In fact, during the depression era (1929-1935), the Men's Work Organization of the brotherhood made an appeal for men to become involved in the renewal of the church. At a time when "the work of the church (was) suffering severely", and when the depression left serious stewardship problems, brotherhood men were appealing for laymen to become involved in personal evangelism, Christian stewardship, missions, Christian Education and social service.11
Men's Work in the district has been active for the past several decades. The presidents who have served with the district cabinets are: John N. Fitz (1951), Mark Roth (1952), John N. Fitz (1953), Frank Heckman (1954), Ronald H. Rowland (1955), Ralph H. Clopper (1956), John N.
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Fitz (1957), Cyrus G. Bucher (1958), Paul S. Burkholder (1959), Edwin Eigenbrode (1960), D. Merle Baughman (1961), Harry L. Berkey (1962), Clarence E. Shaffer (1963), William A. Replogle (1964), Glenn M. Stouffer (1965) and David E. Roth (1966, 1967).
In 1952, Ronald H. Rowland was elected a councilman to the Brother- hood Men's Work Organization. He served as chairman of the national body from 1954 until 1956. He also served as vice-president of the Board of Managers of the United Church Men (1960-1961). In August, 1961, he attended a lay gathering in Berlin, Germany, the famous German Kirch- entag, a lay gathering of more than 100,000 persons. He was present just several weeks before the Russians hastily built the infamous Berlin Wall. Ron returned to the states with pictures of this lay gathering and other German scenes. He not only shared these with district congregations but also with a lay gathering in Toronto, Canada in 1962.
The men of the district aided the Brethren Service projects by spon- soring a "Sale For Relief" Day at the Silver Springs Auction grounds in Cumberland County (1947). The entire day of December 16th was desig- nated Brethren Day and many groups of the district joined to sell articles for the support of Brethren Service. The proceeds of this sale amounted to $5,111.63. Nearly one thousand persons attended to buy such items as household goods, a heifer, hogs, goats and poultry. A fertilizer manufacturer donated sixty bags of fertilizer. Someone else donated a hundred turkeys.
The idea for Auction For Relief was born in Elkhart County, Indiana. Here a number of Brethren groups secured a local sales barn to sponsor the first auction.
In 1946, Men's Groups from Eastern and Southern Pennsylvania met at Elizabethtown College for a rally. Dr. Robert Mohler of McPherson College met with seven hundred men from the several districts to encour- age them to action (October 5).
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The Men's Work Cabinet has spon- sored a series of useful and interesting projects over the past several decades. It has been given regular support to the Brethren Home and the Children's Aid Society. It has raised funds for recrea- tional equipment for migrant workers in Pennsylvania (1963). The organization has also sold road markers bearing the name and location of congregations within the district (1966).
BEDKERIAM CINCI OF BRETHREN Ya MILE The men of the district have been closely allied with projects at Camp Eder. In 1959, the organization sponsored a Camp Men's Work Sign Leadership Training program at the Gettys- burg Church with Robert Byerly and Ed Crill as resource leaders. They also sponsored a second leadership train- ing session at the Bethel Mennonite Church near Gettysburg in Decem- ber, 1961. The Men's Work Organization paid for the bull-dozing of the swimming area at the camp (January 11, 1960). Work groups from many congregations have joined in removing or replacing the tarpaulins on the covered wagons and shelters at the camp site.
One of the interesting projects involved the men of the district in church extension. In 1960, some volunteer workers made a survey of the Knobsville community, visiting 210 homes to determine the degree
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of interest in a church for the community. In 1963, some men of the district returned to the Knobsville area to interview the owner of the land on which the Knobsville church now stands. Harry Berkey, Edwin Eigenbrode and William Replogle secured an option on the land for the District Mission Board. In 1961, the men of the district also conducted a survey of the Dry Run community, surveying 149 homes concerning their religious interests.
The Men's Work Organization regularly conducts spring and fall rallies. It has also sponsored Men's Work camps at Camp Swatara and Camp Eder. In 1953, Clyde Meadows addressed a very large rally of Brethren men in the Gettysburg Church. In 1966, the Men and the Women of the district began to meet in joint rallies. The merger of the Men's Work and the Women's Work Organizations created the Adult Cabinet by 1969.
These work organizations of the Church of the Brethren continue the pietistic and pragmatic traditions into the present. These people symbolize and strengthen a tradition which has existed from the beginnings of the Christian Church. In the past, this desire to be of service in redemp- tive fashions has shown itself in barn-building in the face of emergencies, or in agricultural missions or Tractor Operators in China (1946) and in the "sea-going cowboys" on cattle boats.
YOUTH ACTIVITIES
A strong youth program was begun by the Church of the Brethren at the brotherhood level in 1920. At this time, C. H. Shamberger was appointed the national director of youth work. In 1930, Dan West assumed the responsibilities. He was succeeded in turn by Leland Brubaker (1936) and by Raymond R. Peters (1940).
In the 1940s, the district youth were organized into circuits or zones. The program of the district operated under a district youth cabinet with an advisor. The district cabinet would meet to establish annual goals. For example, the objectives for 1941 were:
1 .- To enlist our young pople in Christian growth and service; and 2 .- To engage in a systematic study of peace in every congrega- tion.
The youth of the 1940s were active in their opposition to war and spent time in educating themselves in the ways of peace.
The youth of the 1950s in America were frequently described as "the silent generation". They were portrayed as inactive and uncommitted. This is not an accurate portrayal of the youth of the Church of the Brethren. The record of activities in Southern Pennsylvania shows they were involved in a wide range of interests. Beginning in 1952, there were Appalachain Trail hikes with leaders to counsel and discuss issues as the groups walked and camped along the trail. These hikes, which were sponsored annually into the middle of the 1960s, often followed the Appa- lachain Trail from Caledonia to Mont Alto.
In 1954, forty youth of the brotherhood engaged in a Youth Movement for Evangelism. Under the direction of Edward K. Ziegler, these youth conducted community religious surveys and assisted in evangelistic services in various communities throughout the brotherhood. In the Southern District, the youth cabinet formed visiting teams to stimulate interest in youth departments at the congregational levels (1955-1956). Other youth became involved in district-wide choruses which met in the Carlisle Church for rehearsals (1954). The district youth also visited the Children's Home in Carlisle in September, 1959, and gave to each child a back-to- school gift.
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The 1950s marked the beginnings of National Youth Conferences. Mrs. Virginia S. Fisher was a member of the committee which helped to plan these conferences. On August 23-27, 1954, more than 2400 youth of the Church of the Brethren met at Anderson, Indiana. All the national youth directors were present for this event. Nearly one-third of the youth listed in the youth departments of the Church of the Brethren were present. Kirby Page directed a Bible Hour for each day of the conference.
Similar conferences within the regions had been held before this major national conference. The first Youth Conference for the total Eastern Region was held at the First Church of the Brethren in York on September 12-14, 1947. Don M. Snider, who had been to the Second World Youth Conference at Oslo, Norway, was a guest speaker. Other speakers in- cluded Ralph W. Schlosser, Wilbur Neff, M. Guy West and Alvin F. Brightbill.
When the revolutionary Sixties arrived, there were notable changes in the youth program. This was a period of counter-culture behavior in which youth adopted unusual dress and long hair for both boys and girls. It was also a period of the questioning of traditions. A Brethren Student Christian Movement Conference on the campus of Elizabethtown College in November, 1961, raised the question, "What's Unique About Christianity?" Dr. Edmund Perry, of Northwestern University, and Dr. Sao Hinuit Win, Buddhist Study director at Rangoon, Burma, were guest leaders.
By the time the fourth National Youth Conference was held at Cornell University, nearly 3,300 youth met under the theme, "You In The World". The pattern of the conference was markedly different from that of the first conference. Folk songs were used instead of traditional hymns. One of the 150 youth from the Southern District said:
"The folk songs spoke much more in specifics as to where the spirit of Christ is found in the world. It is so easy to sing our hymns and not relate them to mankind today".12
In the district itself, youth activities were characterized by skating parties, seminars, speech and drama contests. In 1963, Doris Cleaver, of the Huntsdale Church, won the annual district speech contest with an oration entitled, "To Fill The Emptiness." A number of congregational youth departments prepared dramas for annual contests. In 1966, six congregations participated in the contest in the Chambersburg Church. The youth also began to sponsor an annual Hilltop event in the spring of the year. Early in the 1960s, they conducted fall rallies with several hundred in attendance. In 1964, the youth sponsored a historical tour to the Harper's Ferry area and the Dunker Church in the Antietam battlefield.
The Hilltop event became a major event of the year for district youth. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, these events began to reflect the changing patterns in Christian Education. The Hanover Hilltop (1970) resorted to the use of audio-visual aids as the major program thrust. The program represented a break with book-culture and emphasized the stimulation of the imagination and the feelings by the use of tapes, films, recordings and lighting effects.
The Gettysburg Hilltop event of 1972 emphasized the nature of fel- lowship. This program combined discussion with action, music with silence, sensitivity sessions with worship periods. New forms of expres- sion for thought and feeling were gradually superseding the old reliance upon words. The three-mile walk from the Gettysburg square to the Gettysburg Church on a Sunday morning accented the concern of the youth for action about social problems. The subscriptions they raised by the march were presented by youth representatives to the Fund For the Americas.
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