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Hats Off wrote:I have found the story of "Change" in Anabaptist churches very interesting but also discouraging. In the late 1800s we experienced a split in the Swiss Mennonite churches of eastern USA and Canada. The plain group reined in their standards and practices to recover ground they had lost while trying to satisfy the more liberal groups. The liberal groups, freed from the plain restraints, went all out until after twenty five years of free fall, they became concerned by the modernist spirit of the time. Fundamentalism seemed a good way of stopping the trend, but eventually, to some, it looked, felt, and acted too much like their Old Order cousins.

Where can I go to read about the 25 years of freefall? I suppose I know that one of the schools (Goshen?) was shut down for a year, but that's about it.

(Conservative Mennonites who've absorbed those 25 years may not be the best place to go...)

Right off the top of my head, I would recommend Beulah S. Hostetler, American Mennonites and Protestant Movements: A Community Paradigm.

I am sure there are other volumes that would be worthwhile. John Ruth, Maintaining the Right Fellowship, would be one of them. I think Ruth's book is now rare and would be expensive to buy. It would deal with Mennonites in the area of the Franconia Conference and the related Eastern District Conference of the General Conference Mennonite denomination. https://www.biblio.com/cart.php?bid=553 ... fndr&add=1

Building on the Gospel Foundation: The Mennonites of Franklin County, Pennsylvania and Washington County, Maryland by Samuel Horst and Edsel Burdge, is a painstakingly researched and exhaustive study of Mennonite groups in southern Pennsylvania and nearby Maryland. Most of the volume was (I think) researched and written by Edsel Burdge, who probably belongs to MennoNet.

MacMaster, Richard K., Schlabach Theron F, Juhnke James C & Toews Paul, The Mennonite Experience in America, 4 volumes. This series gives a scholarly overview of American Mennonite history. https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss ... in+America

There are many more titles which would address your questions. If you need more assistance, let it be known on MennoNet.

I would like to read the context of Hat's Off's quote above and am having trouble finding the thread it came from. Any one know?

http://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=786 Why are you a plain Mennonite/Anabaptist.

For a rather (or should it be "extremely") polemical take on the "free fall," peruse the pages of "Sword and Trumpet." E.G. Gehman's cartoons (from the old days) depicting the sinking of the "Mennonite Titanic" are literally graphic.

I forgot to mention Harry Brunk's two-volume History of the Mennonites in Virginia. By the way, Harry was the one who introduced me in person to the world of conservative Virginia Mennonitism. I believe that Harry would be grief-stricken if he knew how the Mennonite community has changed since the 70s'.


Volume One of Harry's history was recently reprinted with, I believe, updates. As I recall, it didn't cover the 20th Century. I asked A.G., a Mennonite friend who lent me his copy, why no one had attempted to update Volume Two and republish it. He replied that updating Volume Two would be a perilous undertaking inasmuch as it would deal with the dramatic changes that have taken place. I still think it's a doable project if done from a position of scholarly detachment.

For more details about Harry Brunk's history, and the cheapest price I could find for the revised Volume One, see https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDe ... 9182035799

Bill Rushby wrote:MacMaster, Richard K., Schlabach Theron F, Juhnke James C & Toews Paul, The Mennonite Experience in America, 4 volumes. This series gives a scholarly overview of American Mennonite history. https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss ... in+America

This is an excellent series. It's written by progressives, but I found it remarkably fair and even sympathetic to the conservative point of view.

cmbl wrote:

Hats Off wrote:I have found the story of "Change" in Anabaptist churches very interesting but also discouraging.
In the late 1800s we experienced a split in the Swiss Mennonite churches of eastern USA and Canada.
The plain group reined in their standards and practices to recover ground they had lost while trying to satisfy the more liberal groups.
The liberal groups, freed from the plain restraints, went all out until after twenty five years of free fall, they became concerned by the modernist spirit of the time.
Fundamentalism seemed a good way of stopping the trend, but eventually, to some, it looked, felt, and acted too much like their Old Order cousins.

Where can I go to read about the 25 years of freefall? I suppose I know that one of the schools (Goshen?) was shut down for a year, but that's about it.

(Conservative Mennonites who've absorbed those 25 years may not be the best place to go...)

so glad you asked. this thread is one of the treasures to be found here.

Bill Rushby wrote:For a rather (or should it be "extremely") polemical take on the "free fall," peruse the pages of "Sword and Trumpet." E.G. Gehman's cartoons (from the old days) depicting the sinking of the "Mennonite Titanic" are literally graphic.

I forgot to mention Harry Brunk's two-volume History of the Mennonites in Virginia.
By the way, Harry was the one who introduced me in person to the world of conservative Virginia Mennonitism. I believe that Harry would be grief-stricken if he knew how the Mennonite community has changed since the 70s'.

Volume One of Harry's history was recently reprinted with, I believe, updates. As I recall, it didn't cover the 20th Century. I asked A.G., a Mennonite friend who lent me his copy, why no one had attempted to update Volume Two and republish it.
He replied that updating Volume Two would be a perilous undertaking inasmuch as it would deal with the dramatic changes that have taken place.
I still think it's a doable project if done from a position of scholarly detachment.

i miss "my" older generation so much. but, when i'm not grieving for myself, i'm thankful they are not here to be bothered with the noise of today's life. they made every effort to leave a better world for those to come.

I guess I need to read more about those years. (1890 to 1915) To describe them as total years of freefall may be using a bit strong language to describe an era where I believe both sides of the church (the OO split off and the "old" Mennonite church) were trying to find their way. I believe there were many very sincere folks on both sides of the equation that were really struggling to determine what serving Christ looked like in the new industrial age.

Certainly there is evidence that both sides had extreme elements to them that really came out some 30 years later in future splits at least here in Ontario. On the liberal side there was an element that was eager to take the liberal critical thinking of the past generations of the mainline protestant churches and make it their own. Unfortunately this element was balanced off by another extreme IMO where some elements of the counteractive fundamentalists were adapted. On the conservative side there were those that were convinced that danger could be averted simply by implementing a culture of no change whatsoever or as some decided since that proved to be impossible at least look on change as probably being bad until it simply cannot be avoided. They simply could not seem to accept the idea of an unchanging God in a changing world.
This era has a lot of personal interest to me as my great great grandfather whose land I still reside and work on was a central figure of that time. I read some of his writings and hear stories of some of what must of been heart wrenching times as he had to make decisions which put him at odds with a brother-in-law of his from another district who he was obviously very close to.
I have often wondered how different the Mennonite church might look today had they been able to compromise and reconcile their differences. I have a theory that the corresponding result could of been one where the extremes would of balanced each other off and the end result would of been something much more in between the two today.
Just a little over a month ago something happened in our church that I like to think would of made both those men smile. One of the great great grandson s of one of those men as the out going superintendent for our Sunday school met along with others, the incoming SS superintendent who happened to be the great great grandson of the other bishop to pick SS teachers and make plans for another year of SS.
I think they would of smiled because I think both would of been wise enough to recognize that some 130 years later one of their fears would of been diminished in that even with all the changes there was still at least a desire among some in the communities they both represented to serve God in the time and place they were called to.