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LECTURES
& HISTORICAL NOTES
"Transforming History into Legacy:
The Valley Brethren-Mennonite Story?"*
Dr. Phillip C. Stone
We know that Mennonites constituted one of the earliest of the reformation groups as they left the Roman Catholic
Church about the same time Martin Luther was advancing the larger Protestant movement. We are also aware that other
Anabaptists emerged as faith communities during the same time in the 16th Century. Not all of those were pacifists and pious
people. In fact, some were so politicized and radical that they engaged in outrageous and violent conduct, particularly those
associated with Jan of Leyden.
The peace-loving Mennonites, however, paid dearly for their devotion to their faith. Many were executed, even more
were tortured or imprisoned, eventually most of them had to flee their home countries for more secure areas. By the late 17th
Century (1683), some of them had made their way into Pennsylvania where, under the protection of their fellow pacifists, the
Quakers, they found their religious freedom at last. It was primarily from those Mennonites in Pennsylvania that Mennonite
settlements were eventually established in Virginia in the next century (as early as 1728 near Luray).
The Brethren came much later to the Protestant religious movement. Rather than breaking directly from the Roman
Catholic Church, the Brethren actually separated from the established Protestant churches which were part of the original
Protestant reformation. The Brethren were influenced principally by the Pietist movement then rampant in Germany. The
Pietist movement taught personal piety, holy lifestyles, love and service, a devotion to follow the example and ³mind² of
Christ. Pietists objected to the institutional church and formal structures. As the early Brethren studied scriptures to learn
more about the way of Christ, they, like the Mennonites before them, concluded that there were certain practices within the
established Protestant churches that were not authorized by scripture and other practices actually commanded by scripture
which were not included within the church ordinances. Like their Mennonite friends before them, the early Brethren
concluded that they could not in conscience participate in the established churches. Because this position put them in
jeopardy, they withdrew to a safer part of Germany, to the small village of Schwarzenau in Hesse.
Starting in 1708, almost 200 years later than the Mennonites who began in 1525 in Europe, the Brethren also made their
way to Pennsylvania. Within approximately 20 years after the group conducted its first baptism in Schwarzenau and
befriended to a substantial extent by the Mennonites of the Netherlands, the Brethren joined the American Mennonites in
Pennsylvania, mostly in German-town. Like the Mennonites, they also made their way to the Shenandoah Valley in the 18th
Century, arriving as early as 1730.
* This address was delivered by Dr. Stone, President of Bridgewater College, on September 21, 2002 at the Bridgewater
Church of the Brethren. The occasion was a meeting the Shenandoah Valley Mennonite Historians and the Valley Brethren-
Mennonite Heritage Center Board, their guests and the public.
During the first 150 years of their life in the Shenandoah Valley, the Mennonites and Brethren had much in common,
particularly their devotion to the simple life, nonresistance, and non-participation in secular power structures. As secular
society changed dramatically around them, Brethren and Mennonites retained much of their style of dress, rejection of
advanced education, and non-participation in much of the secular community. They became increasingly more than simply
³the quiet people of the land;² they became ³a peculiar people,² and in many respects, a ³separate people,² or as Dr. Steve
Longenecker says, an ³outsider people.² As their method of dress and non-participation in the general community became
more noticeable and contrasted with the development of new lifestyles in the broader community, they felt more and more
pressure either to protect their communities from out-side influences by separation or to immerse themselves more fully into
the broader community while faithfully retaining core values and practices. That tension of living in ³two kingdoms²
continues to attend the life and work of Brethren and Mennonites in the Shenandoah Valley.
Some of the leaders of the Brethren and Mennonites, particularly Joseph Funk, Peter Burkholder, John Kline, and Peter
Bowman committed to writing their passionate arguments over doctrinal and religious differences thought by many of us today
to be relatively trivial. Even as they acknowledged that argument and division were unseemly, usually apologizing for any
offense, they attacked each other¹s beliefs. Today, knowing that the Brethren and Mennonite positions on non-violence,
simplicity of life, and service to humanity stand in stark contrast to the practices of other religious and secular societies around
us, we find it hard to imagine that our leaders ever spent so much time or energy developing those relatively unimportant
differences.
During the Civil War, both Brethren and Mennonites suffered for their faith. Many of our faith community actually left
Virginia for other communities where they would not be so directly affected by war. Whether seeing their young men arrested
because they would not participate in the military, having crops and barns burned by military forces, or even sacrificing one¹s
life as in the case of Elder John Kline, the Brethren and Mennonites paid dearly for their non-violent positions during the time
of war. The first and second world wars in the 20th Century generated such popular support that the Brethren and Mennonites
were once again faced with pressures and prosecutions for their refusal to serve in the military.
Today, the Brethren and Mennonites still exist in Rockingham County in significant numbers. They reflect not only the
diversity of their own groups (Old Orders, Conservatives, Moderates, and Progressives) and the various denominational
branches which previously developed from their groups, but the emergence of new practices, living pat-terns, and attitudes
within their faith groups, and the challenge of living out their faith in a new culture, in a new time.
How shall the Brethren and Mennonites acknowledge, preserve, and further develop their legacy and heritage? Should
the heritage even be preserved? Is the heritage valued? Today, Brethren, whose founders left their homes and risked their
entire estates and even personal safety and freedom over such fundamental beliefs as adult immersion baptism would not insist
on immersion baptism for a person transferring membership into the denomination. There are congregations which believe
that a prior commitment to Christ is adequate for a transfer even if the original baptism was not even adult baptism. Clearly,
immersion is no longer required even though the Brethren were adamant that persons needed to be baptized in flowing water,
immersed at least three times. It was fundamentally important that they be baptized as Jesus was baptized. It was not simply a
preference; it was a rigid, doctrinal interpretation of scripture. Now baptism is seen more as evidence of a declaration of faith;
its form does not matter to most of us. Brethren have long since abandoned their partisan arguments with their Mennonite
friends. Brethren even accept Mennonite non-immersion baptisms!
Similarly, many Mennonites and Brethren today do not feel that they need to separate themselves from society to
preserve the purity of their faith. As to both Brethren and Mennonites, a long-standing hostility toward higher education has
been overcome and both denominations now have colleges and other schools. Clearly, for most us, our personal appearance
has changed; we vote in elections; we participate in civic clubs; we have churches with instruments, choirs, professional
clergy. Clearly, we are a changed people!
I. Intellectual Interest
One of the reasons to develop a heritage facility is simply to preserve that heritage as a matter of intellectual interest.
Like the Ephrata Cloisters community, an off-shoot of the early Brethren, a monastic religious community which died out
many years ago, or the Shakers, or other now non-existent groups similar to the early Brethren and Mennonites, it is of
historical interest simply to know about our ancestors in the faith. The migration of families and faith communities from one
country to another, particularly to and within the New World; their early religious life and activities in Pennsylvania; the
challenges of settling the Western lands now known as the Shenandoah Valley, confronting not only the challenge of the
Native Americans, natural elements, and remoteness from civilization but also the challenge of becoming a new community
integrated with those of other faiths and cultural backgrounds are of significant intellectual interest to us. Just as we seek to
learn more about genealogy and local history as a matter of intellectual interest, it is a valuable exercise to learn about the past
so that it will not be lost. A heritage center can provide that resource.
II. Show Respect
We also remember heritage as a way of honoring people of the past. There is, after all, little we can do for those who
have already passed away. Those who died in the Holocaust in Nazi Germany obviously cannot now be helped. The survivors
appeal to all of us simply to re-member what happened. Remembering is a way of respecting. Just as we might put flowers on
graves, establish memorials in churches, colleges, and other facilities, pre-serve and display pictures of persons long deceased,
plant memorial trees, and engage in many other activities to memorialize people of the past, we know that a way of respecting
them is just to remember. Whether they were obedient people living long, useful, and quiet lives or were martyrs to their
faith, a heritage center gives us an opportunity as a community to remember those who preceded us in our faith communities.
In remembering them, we respect them. We remember not only a martyr like John Kline but all those faith ancestors who tried
to be faithful as they lived and worked in the Shenandoah Valley.
III. Commitment and Renewal.
Acknowledging heritage is also a way to commit to fundamental and core values. Throughout the Old Testament, God
commanded individuals or the Israelite community to do certain things as memorials, not just to re-member as a matter of
intellectual fulfillment or out of respect for some event or person, but as a way of renewing the covenant which the act being
remembered evinced. For example, a rock which Jacob had used as a pillow just prior to his struggle with the angel became
Bethel, the place of God, and a sacred altar. Presumably, it was to be remembered not only because a special event had
occurred but as a way of continuing to honor the special relationship between God, Jacob, and the descendants of Jacob. In
Deuteronomy 6, the Jews were taught to ³teach the children² about God and their religious ways. They were not only to
remember as a matter of respect; their memory was a continuing commitment and covenant. When Joshua led the children of
Israel across the River Jordan after the death of Moses, they were commanded to stack up rocks from the river as a memorial
of what God had done. They were told that for generations to come, when persons walked by those rocks and asked about
them, they would be told that God had done a great miracle for his people there. God wanted more than our memory, respect,
or intellectual fulfillment: he wanted the continuing obedience, commitment, and fulfillment of the covenantal requirements.
When the Jews in Babylon, as expressed in Psalm 137, thought of Jerusalem, the city of God which had been destroyed, their
psalmist cried out: ³How can I forget Jerusalem? If I should forget thee, may my right hand wither, may my tongue cleave to
the roof of my mouth.² Remembering was more than nostalgia; it was part of the renewing and continuing relationship
between God and his people.
As a New Testament people, even though many of the Old Testament dietary laws and other religious requirements are
no longer binding on Christians, Jesus, in the most sacred of the church ordinances, said that the bread and cup to be
distributed as his body and blood were to be done ³in remembrance of me.² There, too, memory is more than nostalgia,
intellectual curiosity, or holding on to the past; it is the renewal of faith, the experience of living in Christ¹s name.
The heritage center will be a resource for us also to renew by remembering. By remembering our past, we recall the
core values and principles held by those who preceded us. At one time, both Brethren and Mennonites believed so firmly in
the ³two kingdom² approach to the faith that neither of our groups participated fully in secular activities. We were clear that
we belonged entirely to God¹s kingdom. Our participation in the secular community was transitory and minimalist. It was
relatively recently that members of either of our communities ran for office, served on juries, became lawyers and judges,
participated in civic clubs, and otherwise participated in the life of the community. Now, with rather limited exceptions, most
of us are fully immersed in the general community and provide significant leadership to community organizations. Even 100
years ago, our church leaders would not have permitted such behavior.
Once we believed that our existence in the secular kingdom was just the setting in which we had been placed by God,
but we lodged all our loyalty, attention, and energy on the kingdom of God. It made sense for us to live in communities
separated from the general population and to decline full participation, particularly in the power structures. We did not seek
secular power and approval; we did not need higher education; it was simply a distraction and a temptation to be pulled away
from our faith. We were focused on our faith commitments to non-violence, love and service, fidelity, personal piety,
obedience, and God¹s will as it was interpreted by the faith community. As we made our peace with being fully integrated
into a secular community, we struggled with former practices. In some instances, we simply abandoned those practices. We
now accept baptism practices we once renounced; we moved into church buildings with the furniture, furnishings, and
decorations our ancestors would not have permitted; we have come to enjoy the church musical instruments now found in most
of our churches; we want educated and trained ministers; while the prayer covering is still worn by many, it has been rejected
by many others; plain clothing is not thought to be a requirement to prove compliance with the faith. For many, particularly
the Brethren, it has meant that the pacifist position could be abandoned. Free choice in the guise of conscience has become
popular. We speak of ³acting in conscience² on matters involving abortion, divorce, military service, and other personal and
political choices. Conscience, regrettably, has come increasingly to mean a strongly held personal opinion; not a Luther-like
assertion: ³Because of my understanding of God¹s requirements of me, I can do no other.² A progressive political agenda
becomes easily confused with religious beliefs; the prejudices and passions of politicians and political commentators are
adopted as religious doctrine. We struggle with whether to maintain traditional church objections to certain lifestyle options
such as divorce and remarriage, homosexual conduct, and participation in the military. Shall we say the Pledge of Allegiance,
sing the National Anthem, put flags in our church? As we focus on our heritage, we are also called to focus on values that are
so important to us that whether we are in Babylon or Jerusalem, whether in the 18th Century or the 21st Century, whether
physically segregated in separate communities with minimal contact with the outside world or being fully immersed in the
general community, we are called to live according to God¹s will in ways that reflect faithfulness, commitment, and
obedience. If our changes in practice, doctrine, and lifestyle are made because, after further study of the scriptures, prayer,
and discussion with brothers and sisters, we have concluded that former requirements no longer apply, we should not be
discouraged about those changes. If, however, we are simply intimated by the pressures of the secular world, the difficulty or
cost of compliance, or the embarrassment of being peculiar, we must acknowledge our weakness and renew commitment to be
as courageous as our ancestors who risked all for their faith. Ultimately, a heritage center will be not only intellectually
fulfilling for those who are curious about Brethren and Mennonite history, including members of our own group; and it will be
more than simply a nostalgic memorial of the past. Ultimately, the heritage center must be a continuing, living, vibrant, and
practical resource for the renewing, nurturing, and living out of core values and faith in a new age, in a changing culture, and
in a society in which we may still be required to be a peculiar people.
CrossRoads Home Page
Valley Brethren-Mennonite Heritage Center
Location: 1921
Heritage Center Way (Off Garbers Church Road)
Harrisonburg, Va.
Mailing Address: P. O. Box 1563, Harrisonburg 22803 (540) 438-1275
