| The Hagerstown Church of the Brethren |
| Tercentennial Minutes - January 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 Goshen Statement
By 1917 the Great War had been raging in Europe for three years with horrific loss of life.
American public opinion was sharply divided about the advisability of entering the fray.
Songs on the hit parade such as “I Didn’t Raise My Son to be a Soldier” represented a large
segment of the population. In that atmosphere Brethren had reason to believe that in the
event of hostilities the government would respect their non-resistant stance.
But any ambivalence disappeared once the United States entered the war. German-
Americans fell under immediate suspicion and many were persecuted, tarred and feathered,
and even lynched. Congress passed the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act to limit free
speech.
Brethren and Mennonites who were drafted were unsure if they should submit to their
government, apply for noncombatant status, or resist any participation at all. Some were
tortured and even murdered in the camps.
The Brethren met on January 9, 1918 at a special Annual Meeting in Goshen, Indiana to
provide guidance to the draftees. The Goshen Statement that resulted professed loyalty to
the United States, but added that the “word and authority of God, however, must be final and
supreme over all.” It called for Brethren to sacrifice even more for the relief of the suffering
and asked the government to assign Brethren to noncombatant service “as will contribute
constructively to the necessity, health and comfort of hungering, suffering humanity, either
here or elsewhere.”
On July 8 of that year the government threatened to arrest Brethren leaders for sedition.
The Goshen Statement was withdrawn and Brethren draftees were told to follow the dictates
of their conscience. The trauma of the situation led future Brethren leaders to work
proactively to establish alternative service for conscientious objectors during the next World
War.
And that’s the Tercentennial Minute for January 6, 2008.
Ernst Christoph Hochmann von Hochenau
Few people were more influential on the early Brethren than the traveling evangelist
Ernst Christoph Hochmann von Hochenau. Born among the nobility in 1670, he was trained in
law but was so moved by the Pietists that he abandoned the organized state church for a life
of poverty, good works, and preaching a gospel of love. He was known for his kind and
generous spirit. However, because he preached that the true church was spiritual, not
institutional, he was often jailed and beaten. It was said of him that “he was so used to
enduring a ‘backful of blows’ for Jesus’ sake, that it did not bother him any more.”
Among those influenced by him was Alexander Mack, who by 1704 was traveling with him
on evangelistic journeys. Hochmann later preached at the Mack Mill. He was in prison,
however, when the first Brethren determined that scripture was calling them to form an
organized church. Hochmann wrote a letter to Mack and Georg Grebe gently suggesting that
the reinstitution of baptism and the Love Feast might lead to sectarianism but the Brethren
interpreted his words as approval.
For a time he and the Brethren were estranged, and according to one witness when
Hochmann visited a Brethren service in Switzerland Mack condemned him publicly as a false
prophet and a hypocrite. When Mack had finished Hochmann responded by embracing and
kissing him, and said, “Dear Brother Mack, when you are in heaven, and see me arrive there
also, then you will rejoice and say, ‘Oh, look! There comes also our dear Brother Hochmann!’”
Hochmann died in January of 1721, having spent his final years in a simple hut in
Schwarzenau that he called his “citadel of peace.”
And that’s the Tercentennial Minute for January 13, 2008.
The Pious Youth
January 1870.
Dear children, I have often thought,
And felt an anxious care,
Lest you in pleasure’s shrine be caught,
In earth’s bewitching snare…
So began the poem “Lines to the Young,” written by Isaiah G. Harley of Philadelphia, for
the first issue of The Pious Youth, the first Brethren magazine for youth. It was published by
Henry Holsinger, an innovator in so many things, who saw the need to compete with the many
secular publications that were designed specifically for the younger market. It cost a dollar a
year and was, according to its masthead “Designed to promote the welfare, and enlarge the
number of the class of persons whose name it bears”.
In the first issue S. B. Furry of Martinsburg, PA, invited children to open their bibles to
Exodus 20:12 to “see what God demands of you,” namely to honor father and mother.
Another contributor told a story about a child who did the math and realized that if his mother
asked for payment for what it cost to care for him he would owe her $1,525. And finally, J.A.
Sell of Tyrone, PA, warned of the danger of doing things “Just for Fun,” telling what may have
been the equivalent of a 19th century urban myth. Sell related the story of a young girl who
decided to run across the railway tracks to grab a pair of gloves “just for fun” despite the
warning of her friends.
‘The engine was so close that she feels his red-hot breath, but her foot passes beyond
the farther rail. Is she safe? Oh no! Her dress is caught; she is dragged under the wheels of
the iron horse and crushed into a shapeless mass. A young, joyous, useful life thrown away
“just for fun.”’
The publication lasted only a couple of years. However it laid the groundwork for
continuing interest and emphasis in Sunday School curriculum, best exemplified by today’s
Gather ‘Round.
And that’s the Tercentennial Minute for January 20, 2008.
William Beery Cheats Death
William Beery cheated death at least twice, and the Church of the Brethren hymnody is the
better for it.
Born on April 8, 1852, near Bremen Ohio, he was the tenth of thirteen children. It is said
that the doctor took one look at the newborn and told his mother that he would not survive.
The prediction proved incorrect. Though he was sickly as a child, survive he did – for nearly
one hundred and four years!
The Brethren experiment in higher education was in its infancy when Beery went to what
became Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. The school had only completed one
year of operation when Beery arrived in 1877, only to see the school closed because of a
smallpox epidemic. Beery was afraid if he went back home he might never return so he and a
couple of classmates when to a deep gorge about fifteen miles away known as Old Forge.
They settled into abandoned dwellings and built tables and chairs with equipment at an old
saw mill. Farm families turned them away out of fear that they might carry contagion –
although a teenaged Martin Grove Brumbaugh walked several miles to bring them milk.
The school reopened for the spring semester. William Beery went on to teach at Juniata,
and later to work at the Brethren Publishing House in Elgin. He wrote over a hundred hymn
tunes, many of them to poems written by his wife, Adaline Hohf Beery. Beery remained active
all his long life, performing on the Chicago TV station WLS on his 103rd birthday. He died on
January 28, 1956. Three of his hymn tunes can be found in Hymnal: A Worship Book – “Take
My Hand and Lead Me Father,” #601, “Savior of My Soul,” #549, and “Lo, A Gleam From
Yonder Heaven.” #591.
And that’s the Tercentennial Minute for January 27, 2008.
By 1917 the Great War had been raging in Europe for three years with horrific loss of life.
American public opinion was sharply divided about the advisability of entering the fray.
Songs on the hit parade such as “I Didn’t Raise My Son to be a Soldier” represented a large
segment of the population. In that atmosphere Brethren had reason to believe that in the
event of hostilities the government would respect their non-resistant stance.
But any ambivalence disappeared once the United States entered the war. German-
Americans fell under immediate suspicion and many were persecuted, tarred and feathered,
and even lynched. Congress passed the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act to limit free
speech.
Brethren and Mennonites who were drafted were unsure if they should submit to their
government, apply for noncombatant status, or resist any participation at all. Some were
tortured and even murdered in the camps.
The Brethren met on January 9, 1918 at a special Annual Meeting in Goshen, Indiana to
provide guidance to the draftees. The Goshen Statement that resulted professed loyalty to
the United States, but added that the “word and authority of God, however, must be final and
supreme over all.” It called for Brethren to sacrifice even more for the relief of the suffering
and asked the government to assign Brethren to noncombatant service “as will contribute
constructively to the necessity, health and comfort of hungering, suffering humanity, either
here or elsewhere.”
On July 8 of that year the government threatened to arrest Brethren leaders for sedition.
The Goshen Statement was withdrawn and Brethren draftees were told to follow the dictates
of their conscience. The trauma of the situation led future Brethren leaders to work
proactively to establish alternative service for conscientious objectors during the next World
War.
And that’s the Tercentennial Minute for January 6, 2008.
Ernst Christoph Hochmann von Hochenau
Few people were more influential on the early Brethren than the traveling evangelist
Ernst Christoph Hochmann von Hochenau. Born among the nobility in 1670, he was trained in
law but was so moved by the Pietists that he abandoned the organized state church for a life
of poverty, good works, and preaching a gospel of love. He was known for his kind and
generous spirit. However, because he preached that the true church was spiritual, not
institutional, he was often jailed and beaten. It was said of him that “he was so used to
enduring a ‘backful of blows’ for Jesus’ sake, that it did not bother him any more.”
Among those influenced by him was Alexander Mack, who by 1704 was traveling with him
on evangelistic journeys. Hochmann later preached at the Mack Mill. He was in prison,
however, when the first Brethren determined that scripture was calling them to form an
organized church. Hochmann wrote a letter to Mack and Georg Grebe gently suggesting that
the reinstitution of baptism and the Love Feast might lead to sectarianism but the Brethren
interpreted his words as approval.
For a time he and the Brethren were estranged, and according to one witness when
Hochmann visited a Brethren service in Switzerland Mack condemned him publicly as a false
prophet and a hypocrite. When Mack had finished Hochmann responded by embracing and
kissing him, and said, “Dear Brother Mack, when you are in heaven, and see me arrive there
also, then you will rejoice and say, ‘Oh, look! There comes also our dear Brother Hochmann!’”
Hochmann died in January of 1721, having spent his final years in a simple hut in
Schwarzenau that he called his “citadel of peace.”
And that’s the Tercentennial Minute for January 13, 2008.
The Pious Youth
January 1870.
Dear children, I have often thought,
And felt an anxious care,
Lest you in pleasure’s shrine be caught,
In earth’s bewitching snare…
So began the poem “Lines to the Young,” written by Isaiah G. Harley of Philadelphia, for
the first issue of The Pious Youth, the first Brethren magazine for youth. It was published by
Henry Holsinger, an innovator in so many things, who saw the need to compete with the many
secular publications that were designed specifically for the younger market. It cost a dollar a
year and was, according to its masthead “Designed to promote the welfare, and enlarge the
number of the class of persons whose name it bears”.
In the first issue S. B. Furry of Martinsburg, PA, invited children to open their bibles to
Exodus 20:12 to “see what God demands of you,” namely to honor father and mother.
Another contributor told a story about a child who did the math and realized that if his mother
asked for payment for what it cost to care for him he would owe her $1,525. And finally, J.A.
Sell of Tyrone, PA, warned of the danger of doing things “Just for Fun,” telling what may have
been the equivalent of a 19th century urban myth. Sell related the story of a young girl who
decided to run across the railway tracks to grab a pair of gloves “just for fun” despite the
warning of her friends.
‘The engine was so close that she feels his red-hot breath, but her foot passes beyond
the farther rail. Is she safe? Oh no! Her dress is caught; she is dragged under the wheels of
the iron horse and crushed into a shapeless mass. A young, joyous, useful life thrown away
“just for fun.”’
The publication lasted only a couple of years. However it laid the groundwork for
continuing interest and emphasis in Sunday School curriculum, best exemplified by today’s
Gather ‘Round.
And that’s the Tercentennial Minute for January 20, 2008.
William Beery Cheats Death
William Beery cheated death at least twice, and the Church of the Brethren hymnody is the
better for it.
Born on April 8, 1852, near Bremen Ohio, he was the tenth of thirteen children. It is said
that the doctor took one look at the newborn and told his mother that he would not survive.
The prediction proved incorrect. Though he was sickly as a child, survive he did – for nearly
one hundred and four years!
The Brethren experiment in higher education was in its infancy when Beery went to what
became Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. The school had only completed one
year of operation when Beery arrived in 1877, only to see the school closed because of a
smallpox epidemic. Beery was afraid if he went back home he might never return so he and a
couple of classmates when to a deep gorge about fifteen miles away known as Old Forge.
They settled into abandoned dwellings and built tables and chairs with equipment at an old
saw mill. Farm families turned them away out of fear that they might carry contagion –
although a teenaged Martin Grove Brumbaugh walked several miles to bring them milk.
The school reopened for the spring semester. William Beery went on to teach at Juniata,
and later to work at the Brethren Publishing House in Elgin. He wrote over a hundred hymn
tunes, many of them to poems written by his wife, Adaline Hohf Beery. Beery remained active
all his long life, performing on the Chicago TV station WLS on his 103rd birthday. He died on
January 28, 1956. Three of his hymn tunes can be found in Hymnal: A Worship Book – “Take
My Hand and Lead Me Father,” #601, “Savior of My Soul,” #549, and “Lo, A Gleam From
Yonder Heaven.” #591.
And that’s the Tercentennial Minute for January 27, 2008.