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Archiver > BRETHREN > 1998-04 > 0893462318


From: "Merle C. Rummel" <>
Subject: Re: The Brethren
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 16:58:38


It was suggested that I didn't include all our church history -- NOPE, I
Didn't! But one more paragraph should be added -- so let me try again!

(after all -- I just don't work much with modern history of a century ago!
= 3rd C or 5th C or even 19th C, but RECENT HISTORY! -and I Do have kin and
friends in the other Branches of the Brethren. Thats why I usually go back
to our nickname and call us all "Dunkers", and forget about the differences!)

The Dunkers

About 1680, a Revival started from the University of Halle, in
Germany. Its intent was to bring the "Old" Churches back to living
what the Bible teaches. Two phrases were common: "Primitive
Christianity" - the example of the 1st Century Church (Acts); and
"Imitation of Christ" -for personal living. Two churches came out
of it in Germany: the Moravian Brethren -eastern Germany; and the
German Baptist Brethren (1708)(Dunkers) -western Germany. Alexander
Mack, a miller, is considered our founder. We try to practice
literally what Jesus taught us to do. John Wesley went down to the
Moravian Brethren, and similarly went back to England with a
"Method" of living -the Methodist.

Persecution was fierce -and the Dunkers fled. First they hid among
the Anabaptist/Mennonites in Germany, then they followed the
Mennonites to Germantown PA. The first shipload was 1719. Our
Anabaptist heritage resulted in us being one of the "Plain People"
and "Pennsylvania Dutch". In 1803, a Universalist Preacher said
that we are God's People on Earth, that we SHOW in our life, what
we SAY we Believe.

The Brethren quickly spread out into Berks and Lancaster Counties.
For more than a century, the Brethren were on the far frontier in
America. They went to middle Pennsylvania: Morrisons Cove, and
farther west -Brothers Valley (Somerset Co PA). Our people founded
a migration route across E. Maryland, along the Monocacy River,
crossed the Potomac at Harpers Ferry and down the Valley of
Virginia, to the Carolinas and Tennessee, with many churches still
in these areas. The Brethren settler was one of the very first
into many areas, like the Boones in Kentucky, later whole
communities following the first families. My Church, east of
Cincinnati (1795), was the start of movement up into the Northwest
Territory. A large Brethren Community of many churches is around
Dayton OH (1805), another in Northern and Western Indiana (1835)
and Northern Illinois. Colonies were started in Iowa (1855),
Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas. Brethren went on the Oregon Trail
to the Northwest in the 1840s, and a large settlement is in
Southern California. We were German speaking peoples, among the
German settlers, the Methodists and soon the Baptists were right
with us, among the English peoples.

Following the Civil War and the expansion west to the Pacific, the
Industrial Revolution hit the church hard. There was considerable
disagreement over what the meaning of relation to (or separation
from) the World should mean. About 1880 the result was a 3-way
split. The Old German Baptist Brethren retain the old ways of
life, including church worship and dress. I love what Bro Flory,
Elder at the Prices Creek GBB Church (OH) said, in response to my
question about the Plain Garb: "It forces me to Always Remember
that I am different from this world!" The Church of the Brethren
began community and world service as witness of our Savior's
teachings of Love, and our opposition to Force and War. This has
become an important demonstration of our Christian Life. The First
Brethren led into "modern" concepts of Sunday Schools and Revivals,
but are very fundamental in the practice and belief of the New
Testament Faith. The three denominations have themselves suffered
division and splits, but one theme seems the same -Jesus said it -
We are all BRETHREN!

In the modern world, we give our witness in many ways. The Brethren
have been the origin of many assistance and relief groups. The
Peace Corps copied, and use for its leaders, our Brethren Volunteer
Service youth. We formed Brethren Service to help needy people
around the world, and Church World Service uses our facility at New
Windsor MD -for shipping medicine, clothing, emergency aid.
Heifers for Relief was started by the Brethren. CROP, Christian
Rural Overseas Project, is another of our beginnings. It was said,
following World War II, that the Brethren were better known in
devastated Europe, than we were in our own United States. I myself
heard Martin Luther King speak at the March on Washington, 1963
(his "I Have a Dream"). Our Brethren Volunteers work in the Inner
City -in settlement houses, with slum cleanup, and kindergartens.
We are in retirement homes, to the Indian Reservations, in the
Kentucky Mountains - there are Volunteers and Missions overseas.
We believe in "helping our neighbor" where-ever he is - here and
away. We believe we are responsible to SHOW Jesus -in US.

Rev. Merle C. Rummel
Stonelick Church of the Brethren

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