| The Hagerstown Church of the Brethren |
| Tercentennial Minutes - August 2008 by Pastor Frank Ramirez of the Everett, Pennsylvania congregation |
| Hagerstown Church of the Brethren 15 S. Mulberry Street Hagerstown, MD 21740. Telephone: 301-733-3565. Fax: 301-733-3598. Office hours: Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. - noon & 1:00 –4:00 p.m. |
| MISSION STATEMENT The mission of the Hagerstown Church of the Brethren is to celebrate the love of Jesus Christ and glorify the Lord by striving to live as Christ lived, experiencing the power of God's healing in our lives. We seek to nurture our faith community through prayer, music and the proclaimed Word, while enthusiastically reaching out to others with compassion, respect and love for everyone so that we may grow in faith and commitment together. VISION STATEMENT Journeying with Christ Serving Our Neighbors Uniting at the Master’s Table |
In continuing celebration of 300 years of the Church of the Brethren we are including a “Tercentennial
Minute” in each worship service. Written by Pastor Frank Ramirez of the Everett, Pennsylvania
congregation, these short articles highlight our Brethren history and challenge our deeper discipleship. I
hope you enjoy them as much as I do. We are including them in the Tidings for those who missed and
those who want to hear it again. - Pastor Ed
Minute” in each worship service. Written by Pastor Frank Ramirez of the Everett, Pennsylvania
congregation, these short articles highlight our Brethren history and challenge our deeper discipleship. I
hope you enjoy them as much as I do. We are including them in the Tidings for those who missed and
those who want to hear it again. - Pastor Ed
The First Brethren Baptism
Sunday, August 3, 2008, is the Sunday which designated to celebrate the first Brethren
baptism. It was an act not only of faithfulness, but of great bravery, for it was illegal.
Following the horrific religious wars of the 17th century, in which unspeakable atrocities
were committed by Christians of several stripes in the name of Jesus, the Treaty of
Westphalia established that there were only three official churches in the German states.
You were either Roman Catholic, Lutheran, or Reformed, and the choice was made for you.
You shared the same church as your local prince. If your prince changed churches, for
economic or political reasons, you changed as well.
Against this rather cynical backdrop there were those, known as Pietists, who believed
that it was not the outward observances mandated by the state, but inward belief and
practice according to the Bible, which made one a follower of Jesus. Many of these Pietists
continued to hold membership in the established churches, but some, including the eight
who participated in the first Brethren baptism, decided that scripture gave them no choice
but to separate from them.
Writing sixty-six years later, Alexander Mack, Jr., son of the first Brethren minister,
remembered how it had been described to him. “Finally in the year 1708, eight persons
agreed together to establish a covenant of a good conscience with God, to accept all
ordinances of Jesus Christ as an easy yoke, and thus to follow after their Lord Jesus – their
good and loyal shepherd – as true sheep in joy or sorrow until the blessed end…..”
The group decided that Alexander Mack, Sr., would perform the baptisms, but the
question arose – who would baptize him? After prayer and fasting they decided to cast lots to
determine this.
Mack Jr., said, “They promised one another never to reveal who the first baptizer among
them was, so that no one might have cause to call them by someone’s name. They found
such folly reprimanded already by Paul in his writing to the Corinthians.
“After they were thus prepared, the said eight went out to the water called the Eder in the
solitude of the morning. The brother upon whom the lot had fallen, first baptized that brother
who wished to be baptized by the church of Christ. When the latter was baptized, he baptized
him who had first baptized, and then the other three brethren and the three sisters. Thus all
eight were baptized in an early morning hour. After they had emerged from the water, and
had dressed themselves again, they were all immediately clothed inwardly with great
joyfulness.
“…This happened in the said year, 1708. However, they have left no record of the month
of the year, or the day of the month, or of the week.”
To this day we have no idea who performed the first Brethren baptism, nor when exactly it
took place! It is believed to have been later in the summer. The Brethren did not wish to be
identified by anyone’s name – and since they believed they were restoring the first church,
and not forming a new one, they did not take a name for their group. Ultimately others named
them according to their practice of baptism, Dunkers, and their close family relationship to
each other, Brethren.
And that’s the Tercentennial Minute for Sunday, August 3, 2008.
Spies Give a Report of an Early Brethren Baptism
The earliest Brethren were too busy spreading the gospel to keep the sort of records we
would like today. The group at Schwarzenau grew by leaps and bounds, and it wasn’t long
before Alexander Mack and others traveled on evangelistic missions to spread the gospel.
In 1711 Mack performed a baptism in the Marienborn region, near the village of
Düdelsheim. This baptism led to Mack’s expulsion as well as the mother of the woman who
was baptized. The baptism itself, described by a group of spies, was reported by J.L Winter
and Louis Herman Rosa, a local pastor. Their report to the local councilors, who they
addressed as “Reverend, Honorable, and Dread Sirs,” said,
“We will obediently report without reservation in response to the order received on the
thirty-first of past month about the baptismal act in the water here, which we were diligent to
investigate in detail immediately. We learned that this was carried out on the twenty-first of
August in the Seeme brook in the woods. It was seen by some subjects, named John
Fegebrandt, John Ernest Lüder, John George Nantz, Kristopher Krafft., etc. A person named
Alexander Mack, born at Schriesheim near Heidelberg and usually residing at Schwarzenau
but now staying with Jacob Bossert… performed this act….”,
Brethren witnesses included Martin Lucas and Daniel Ritter as well as their spouses. Eva
Elizabeth Hoffman was baptized, and her sister was also in attendance. The official report
goes on to say:
These are the circumstances of how the baptism was carried out: they knelt around an
oak tree with lifted hands, and prayed. The baptizer, however, went at once into the brook,
measuring the depth with a stick. He then said, “Come in.” The person in question (who
looked as if she did not want to go into the water but was held to it by the others) entered the
water and knelt, resting on her heels. The baptizer then began to question her: “If you are
willing to renounce the world, and the devil and your own flesh, then answer with ‘Yes’.” She
answered , “Yes,.’ He then grasped her braids and dipped her three consecutive times
under the water with these words: “I baptize you in the name of God the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit.” After this he went with her out of the water and said, “Now your spirit and
faith are strengthened.” She went to the tree where the other women held a linen sheet
around her to one side.
When she changed her clothes, they all sang the last verse of the hymn “Lord Jesus
Christ, Turn Toward Us”. After this they kissed one another and when to the house of the
buttonmaker, Martin Lucas.
How much of Eva Elizabeth’s reluctance to be baptized, as observed by the spies, was
wishful thinking on their part is unclear, but eventually her mother and Mack were expelled
by local authorities. Mack returned to perform baptisms on more than one occasion, and it
was from this region that several important Brethren leaders, such as John Naas and Peter
Becker, were converted.
And that’s the Tercentennial minute for Sunday, August 10, 2008
Alexander Mack Defends the Gospel
to Count Charles August of Marienborn
Following the baptism of Eva Elizabeth Hoffmann in Marienborn on August 21, in 1711 an
edict dated September 4 was issued expelling her mother and Alexander Mack from the
district. Mack wrote directly to Count Charles August, who had issued the edict, defending
the act of baptism as biblical. And he wrote:
Now I will freely and publicly confess that my crime is that Jesus Christ, the King of kings
and Lord of lords, desires that we do what we are doing – that the sinner shall repent and
believe in the Lord Jesus and should be baptized in water upon his confession of faith. He
should then seek to carry out everything Jesus had commanded and publicly bequeathed in
His Testament. If we are doing wrong herein, against the revealed word of the Holy
Scriptures, be it in teaching, way of life, or conduct, we would gladly receive instruction. If,
however, no one can prove this on the basis of the Holy Scriptures, and yet persecutes us
despite this, we would gladly suffer and bear it for the sake of the teachings of Jesus
Christ….”
The baptisms continued. A report in November of 1712 noted “Last night the Baptist
Alexander Mack arrived here.” The authorities warned Mack he was not to perform any
baptisms and he is reported to have said that he only came to visit good friends and planned
only to stay overnight. However the report went on to state that he had soon performed four
more baptisms. His expulsion soon followed.
A hearing was ordered and one of the clergy called to take part suggested that “…friendly
and affectionate persuasion will accomplish and avail more against this than harsh methods
or punishment.” Indeed, no severe action was taken against them.
But a year and a half later Mack returned and baptized Peter Becker and his wife,. The
authorities had not consider the matter critical until then. Becker was not one of the settlers
who merely lived in the Marienborn region. He was a subject of the Count. The Brethren
were expelled once and for all, and for most of the remainder of their sojourn in Europe were
economic refugees.
It was in part their poverty that would lead to their immigration to the new world in 1719.
Peter Becker would become the first minister among the Brethren in the Colonies.
And that’s the Tercentennial Minute for Sunday, August 17, 2008
Where Are They Now?
What Happened to the Original Eight Brethren
So what happened to the original eight Brethren? As far as we know, this –
Following the first Brethren baptism Andreas Boni may have made an early trip to
Germantown in 1710, perhaps looking into the possibility of Brethren emigration. In 1714 he
helped free the Brethren minister Christian Liebe from his punishment as a galley slave. He
and his wife emigrated with Alexander Mack in 1729. A decade later Andreas sent
instructions to a cousin in Switzerland on the best way to emigrate, leaving valuable
information about the difficulties of ocean travel in that day. He continued to earn a living in
the New World as a weaver.
Johanna Noethiger Boni relocated with her husband Andreas to the Netherlands in 1720.
She traveled to America in 1729. Her death in the New World was recorded by Alexander
Mack, Jr.
Georg Grebe sold his home in 1720 to follow Mack and the Brethren to the Netherlands,
but after a very public disagreement over the subject of church discipline, he remained
behind in Europe and did not follow the Brethren to the New World.
Johanna and Johannes Kipping both moved to the Colonies with Alexander Mack in 1729,
with two of their children. Their deaths were later recorded by Alexander Mack, Jr.
Anna Margaretha Mack gave birth to three more children following her baptism:
Alexander Mack, Jr., in 1712, Christina in 1714, and another daughter who died as an infant.
Her health deteriorated under the stress of caring for her family while becoming dependant
on charity. After the family moved to the Netherlands she found it difficult to adjust to the
harsh climate and a strange language. In 1720 she and her daughter Christina died within a
week of each other.
Alexander Mack continued to take great risks in the practice of his faith, and over time
spent all his money in caring for the Brethren. One critic of the church predicted that the
movement would end when his cash ran out, but that proved to be untrue. Instead Mack
depended on the charity of others. Mack held the Brethren together through difficult times.
He wrote two tracts, Basic Questions and Rights and Ordinances. The Brethren experienced
a split over the question of whether believers could marry outside the faith. In 1719 the first
group of Brethren sailed for the Colonies under the leadership of Peter Becker. Mack
followed with another group a decade later, and upon his arrival in the New World was
recognized once more as their spiritual leader. However, to his great disappointment he
failed to heal the rift that had developed between the Brethren and the Ephrata Community
which had split away under the leadership of the charismatic Conrad Beissel. It is said that
this contributed to his death in 1735. He was buried in the cemetery of the Germantown
congregation.
Evidently the wife of Lukas Vetter, who was not among the first eight Brethren, chose to
be baptized at a later date. Eventually they sold their property in Schwarzenau in 1715. By
1718 the couple with their four children were living in Krefeld and were listed on the relief
roll. The family emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1731, and their deaths were listed by Alexander
Mack, Jr.
And that’s the Tercentennial Minute for Sunday, August 24, 2008
Twenty Brethren Die in the Plane Crash as
they return from Anniversary Celebrations
The Two-hundred-fiftieth Anniversary celebration of the first Brethren baptism took place
in 1958. One of the most important events was the publication of the sourcebook European
Origins of the Brethren, edited by Donald F. Durnbaugh with substantial assistance from his
spouse Hedwig Durnbaugh. This book helped transform Brethren history from a narrative
based on anecdote and legend to one built on substantial and solid scholarship. There were
many other important publications, along with a hymn and anthem, special Sunday School
materials, and a devotional book.
In addition there was a special celebration in Schwarzenau, Germany, on August 6, 1958,
that included Brethren from the United States, Asia, and Africa, as well as ecumenical
representatives from organizations such as the World Council of Churches. The Brethren
gathered on the shores of the Eder River where that first baptism had taken place two and a
half centuries before.
A week later, however, on August 14, KLM flight 607E went down into the Atlantic on a
flight from Amsterdam to New York, thirty-five minutes after refueling in Ireland. Ninety-nine
lives were lost, including twenty individuals who were part of a Brethren heritage tour.
Thirteen of those were members of the Church of the Brethren. It was the worst commercial
air disaster up to that point.
Initial reports suggested that an explosion had taken place, and that perhaps a bomb had
been on board, but further investigation suggested a problem with the “overspeeding” of
one of the propellers, as a result of “oil pollution after a gear had been damaged when the
supercharger of the corresponding engine was accelerated.” This led to changes in the
design of the plane.
Forty-three other members of that tour group had left for the United States earlier, and
arrived safely.
And that, sadly, is the Tercentennial Minute for Sunday, August 31, 2008.
Sunday, August 3, 2008, is the Sunday which designated to celebrate the first Brethren
baptism. It was an act not only of faithfulness, but of great bravery, for it was illegal.
Following the horrific religious wars of the 17th century, in which unspeakable atrocities
were committed by Christians of several stripes in the name of Jesus, the Treaty of
Westphalia established that there were only three official churches in the German states.
You were either Roman Catholic, Lutheran, or Reformed, and the choice was made for you.
You shared the same church as your local prince. If your prince changed churches, for
economic or political reasons, you changed as well.
Against this rather cynical backdrop there were those, known as Pietists, who believed
that it was not the outward observances mandated by the state, but inward belief and
practice according to the Bible, which made one a follower of Jesus. Many of these Pietists
continued to hold membership in the established churches, but some, including the eight
who participated in the first Brethren baptism, decided that scripture gave them no choice
but to separate from them.
Writing sixty-six years later, Alexander Mack, Jr., son of the first Brethren minister,
remembered how it had been described to him. “Finally in the year 1708, eight persons
agreed together to establish a covenant of a good conscience with God, to accept all
ordinances of Jesus Christ as an easy yoke, and thus to follow after their Lord Jesus – their
good and loyal shepherd – as true sheep in joy or sorrow until the blessed end…..”
The group decided that Alexander Mack, Sr., would perform the baptisms, but the
question arose – who would baptize him? After prayer and fasting they decided to cast lots to
determine this.
Mack Jr., said, “They promised one another never to reveal who the first baptizer among
them was, so that no one might have cause to call them by someone’s name. They found
such folly reprimanded already by Paul in his writing to the Corinthians.
“After they were thus prepared, the said eight went out to the water called the Eder in the
solitude of the morning. The brother upon whom the lot had fallen, first baptized that brother
who wished to be baptized by the church of Christ. When the latter was baptized, he baptized
him who had first baptized, and then the other three brethren and the three sisters. Thus all
eight were baptized in an early morning hour. After they had emerged from the water, and
had dressed themselves again, they were all immediately clothed inwardly with great
joyfulness.
“…This happened in the said year, 1708. However, they have left no record of the month
of the year, or the day of the month, or of the week.”
To this day we have no idea who performed the first Brethren baptism, nor when exactly it
took place! It is believed to have been later in the summer. The Brethren did not wish to be
identified by anyone’s name – and since they believed they were restoring the first church,
and not forming a new one, they did not take a name for their group. Ultimately others named
them according to their practice of baptism, Dunkers, and their close family relationship to
each other, Brethren.
And that’s the Tercentennial Minute for Sunday, August 3, 2008.
Spies Give a Report of an Early Brethren Baptism
The earliest Brethren were too busy spreading the gospel to keep the sort of records we
would like today. The group at Schwarzenau grew by leaps and bounds, and it wasn’t long
before Alexander Mack and others traveled on evangelistic missions to spread the gospel.
In 1711 Mack performed a baptism in the Marienborn region, near the village of
Düdelsheim. This baptism led to Mack’s expulsion as well as the mother of the woman who
was baptized. The baptism itself, described by a group of spies, was reported by J.L Winter
and Louis Herman Rosa, a local pastor. Their report to the local councilors, who they
addressed as “Reverend, Honorable, and Dread Sirs,” said,
“We will obediently report without reservation in response to the order received on the
thirty-first of past month about the baptismal act in the water here, which we were diligent to
investigate in detail immediately. We learned that this was carried out on the twenty-first of
August in the Seeme brook in the woods. It was seen by some subjects, named John
Fegebrandt, John Ernest Lüder, John George Nantz, Kristopher Krafft., etc. A person named
Alexander Mack, born at Schriesheim near Heidelberg and usually residing at Schwarzenau
but now staying with Jacob Bossert… performed this act….”,
Brethren witnesses included Martin Lucas and Daniel Ritter as well as their spouses. Eva
Elizabeth Hoffman was baptized, and her sister was also in attendance. The official report
goes on to say:
These are the circumstances of how the baptism was carried out: they knelt around an
oak tree with lifted hands, and prayed. The baptizer, however, went at once into the brook,
measuring the depth with a stick. He then said, “Come in.” The person in question (who
looked as if she did not want to go into the water but was held to it by the others) entered the
water and knelt, resting on her heels. The baptizer then began to question her: “If you are
willing to renounce the world, and the devil and your own flesh, then answer with ‘Yes’.” She
answered , “Yes,.’ He then grasped her braids and dipped her three consecutive times
under the water with these words: “I baptize you in the name of God the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit.” After this he went with her out of the water and said, “Now your spirit and
faith are strengthened.” She went to the tree where the other women held a linen sheet
around her to one side.
When she changed her clothes, they all sang the last verse of the hymn “Lord Jesus
Christ, Turn Toward Us”. After this they kissed one another and when to the house of the
buttonmaker, Martin Lucas.
How much of Eva Elizabeth’s reluctance to be baptized, as observed by the spies, was
wishful thinking on their part is unclear, but eventually her mother and Mack were expelled
by local authorities. Mack returned to perform baptisms on more than one occasion, and it
was from this region that several important Brethren leaders, such as John Naas and Peter
Becker, were converted.
And that’s the Tercentennial minute for Sunday, August 10, 2008
Alexander Mack Defends the Gospel
to Count Charles August of Marienborn
Following the baptism of Eva Elizabeth Hoffmann in Marienborn on August 21, in 1711 an
edict dated September 4 was issued expelling her mother and Alexander Mack from the
district. Mack wrote directly to Count Charles August, who had issued the edict, defending
the act of baptism as biblical. And he wrote:
Now I will freely and publicly confess that my crime is that Jesus Christ, the King of kings
and Lord of lords, desires that we do what we are doing – that the sinner shall repent and
believe in the Lord Jesus and should be baptized in water upon his confession of faith. He
should then seek to carry out everything Jesus had commanded and publicly bequeathed in
His Testament. If we are doing wrong herein, against the revealed word of the Holy
Scriptures, be it in teaching, way of life, or conduct, we would gladly receive instruction. If,
however, no one can prove this on the basis of the Holy Scriptures, and yet persecutes us
despite this, we would gladly suffer and bear it for the sake of the teachings of Jesus
Christ….”
The baptisms continued. A report in November of 1712 noted “Last night the Baptist
Alexander Mack arrived here.” The authorities warned Mack he was not to perform any
baptisms and he is reported to have said that he only came to visit good friends and planned
only to stay overnight. However the report went on to state that he had soon performed four
more baptisms. His expulsion soon followed.
A hearing was ordered and one of the clergy called to take part suggested that “…friendly
and affectionate persuasion will accomplish and avail more against this than harsh methods
or punishment.” Indeed, no severe action was taken against them.
But a year and a half later Mack returned and baptized Peter Becker and his wife,. The
authorities had not consider the matter critical until then. Becker was not one of the settlers
who merely lived in the Marienborn region. He was a subject of the Count. The Brethren
were expelled once and for all, and for most of the remainder of their sojourn in Europe were
economic refugees.
It was in part their poverty that would lead to their immigration to the new world in 1719.
Peter Becker would become the first minister among the Brethren in the Colonies.
And that’s the Tercentennial Minute for Sunday, August 17, 2008
Where Are They Now?
What Happened to the Original Eight Brethren
So what happened to the original eight Brethren? As far as we know, this –
Following the first Brethren baptism Andreas Boni may have made an early trip to
Germantown in 1710, perhaps looking into the possibility of Brethren emigration. In 1714 he
helped free the Brethren minister Christian Liebe from his punishment as a galley slave. He
and his wife emigrated with Alexander Mack in 1729. A decade later Andreas sent
instructions to a cousin in Switzerland on the best way to emigrate, leaving valuable
information about the difficulties of ocean travel in that day. He continued to earn a living in
the New World as a weaver.
Johanna Noethiger Boni relocated with her husband Andreas to the Netherlands in 1720.
She traveled to America in 1729. Her death in the New World was recorded by Alexander
Mack, Jr.
Georg Grebe sold his home in 1720 to follow Mack and the Brethren to the Netherlands,
but after a very public disagreement over the subject of church discipline, he remained
behind in Europe and did not follow the Brethren to the New World.
Johanna and Johannes Kipping both moved to the Colonies with Alexander Mack in 1729,
with two of their children. Their deaths were later recorded by Alexander Mack, Jr.
Anna Margaretha Mack gave birth to three more children following her baptism:
Alexander Mack, Jr., in 1712, Christina in 1714, and another daughter who died as an infant.
Her health deteriorated under the stress of caring for her family while becoming dependant
on charity. After the family moved to the Netherlands she found it difficult to adjust to the
harsh climate and a strange language. In 1720 she and her daughter Christina died within a
week of each other.
Alexander Mack continued to take great risks in the practice of his faith, and over time
spent all his money in caring for the Brethren. One critic of the church predicted that the
movement would end when his cash ran out, but that proved to be untrue. Instead Mack
depended on the charity of others. Mack held the Brethren together through difficult times.
He wrote two tracts, Basic Questions and Rights and Ordinances. The Brethren experienced
a split over the question of whether believers could marry outside the faith. In 1719 the first
group of Brethren sailed for the Colonies under the leadership of Peter Becker. Mack
followed with another group a decade later, and upon his arrival in the New World was
recognized once more as their spiritual leader. However, to his great disappointment he
failed to heal the rift that had developed between the Brethren and the Ephrata Community
which had split away under the leadership of the charismatic Conrad Beissel. It is said that
this contributed to his death in 1735. He was buried in the cemetery of the Germantown
congregation.
Evidently the wife of Lukas Vetter, who was not among the first eight Brethren, chose to
be baptized at a later date. Eventually they sold their property in Schwarzenau in 1715. By
1718 the couple with their four children were living in Krefeld and were listed on the relief
roll. The family emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1731, and their deaths were listed by Alexander
Mack, Jr.
And that’s the Tercentennial Minute for Sunday, August 24, 2008
Twenty Brethren Die in the Plane Crash as
they return from Anniversary Celebrations
The Two-hundred-fiftieth Anniversary celebration of the first Brethren baptism took place
in 1958. One of the most important events was the publication of the sourcebook European
Origins of the Brethren, edited by Donald F. Durnbaugh with substantial assistance from his
spouse Hedwig Durnbaugh. This book helped transform Brethren history from a narrative
based on anecdote and legend to one built on substantial and solid scholarship. There were
many other important publications, along with a hymn and anthem, special Sunday School
materials, and a devotional book.
In addition there was a special celebration in Schwarzenau, Germany, on August 6, 1958,
that included Brethren from the United States, Asia, and Africa, as well as ecumenical
representatives from organizations such as the World Council of Churches. The Brethren
gathered on the shores of the Eder River where that first baptism had taken place two and a
half centuries before.
A week later, however, on August 14, KLM flight 607E went down into the Atlantic on a
flight from Amsterdam to New York, thirty-five minutes after refueling in Ireland. Ninety-nine
lives were lost, including twenty individuals who were part of a Brethren heritage tour.
Thirteen of those were members of the Church of the Brethren. It was the worst commercial
air disaster up to that point.
Initial reports suggested that an explosion had taken place, and that perhaps a bomb had
been on board, but further investigation suggested a problem with the “overspeeding” of
one of the propellers, as a result of “oil pollution after a gear had been damaged when the
supercharger of the corresponding engine was accelerated.” This led to changes in the
design of the plane.
Forty-three other members of that tour group had left for the United States earlier, and
arrived safely.
And that, sadly, is the Tercentennial Minute for Sunday, August 31, 2008.
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