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In 1999, I was one of 52 invited people from the US and Canada who gathered at Roxbury Camp with the goal of determining a set of core values for the Brethren in Christ Church. While I can’t remember a lot of the details from that Consultation on Core Values,...read more
In the early 1940s during World War II, Brethren in Christ missionaries were mostly unable to travel to or from the mission field due to the danger of attacks on the high seas. Despite the danger, David and Mable Hall and their two children, Barbara and John, set sail aboard...read more
For the fourth edition in a row, the journal is featuring the stories of conscientious objectors to war, starting with the stories of five men who served in 1-W during the Vietnam War (December 2017), Morris Sherk’s memoir of his Civilian Public Services during World War II (April 2018), and...read more
In Quest for Piety and Obedience, the authoritative history of the Brethren in Christ Church, Carlton Wittlinger details the significant changes or innovations that characterized the church during what he calls “the first period of transition” from 1880-1910: missions, local church outreach, Wesleyan holiness, institutions like Messiah Lifeways and Messiah College,...read more
The stories of many of CPS workers are told on the website civilianpublicservice.org, a site created in 2011 by Mennonite Central Committee for the 70thanniversary of the opening of the first CPS camp in 1941. The civilianpublicservice.org website is a treasure trove of information about a generation that is almost...read more
During his life, Luke Keefer, Jr. achieved a well-deserved reputation as a pre-eminent Brethren in Christ theologian. Before the health issues that eventually took his life prevented him from further research and writing, Luke was planning a series of lectures on heresy, inspired by a controversy involving an accusation of...read more
In the second part of Dwight Thomas’ history of Sikalongo Mission in Zambia (the first part was in the December 2016 edition), Dwight picks up the story following the death of Myron Taylor in 1931 and describes the development of the mission, particularly the expansion of educational and medical endeavors,...read more
Thirty years ago, I wrote an article for the journal on the potential for Brethren in Christ fiction in which I reviewed a Mennonite novel and advocated for fiction to be written with a Brethren in Christ setting.[1] At the time, I was not aware of any fiction that had...read more
The August 2016 edition of Brethren in Christ History and Life is a self-contained book: former missionary Grace Holland’s autobiography, Planting Seeds: A Missionary Story. All members of the Historical Society receive a copy; additional copies are available for sale at $10.00 each. Contact the editor. Fred and Grace Holland’s story is an ordinary story about...read more
Leading off this edition is a short semi-biographical piece by Jan Engle Lewis based on her interviews a number of years ago with Anna Taylor Grissinger and Mabel Frey Hensel, who were missionary children in the early days of Brethren in Christ missions in Africa. Anna and Mabel’s reflections suggest...read more
Some of you may remember filling out an online survey in 2014 about your relationship to the Brethren in Christ Church, your Christian beliefs and practic- es, and the level of your agreement with various statements regarding contempo- rary social issues. During 2014, twenty-four Anabaptist groups around the world participated...read more
I (Harriet) have been a member of the Brethren in Christ Church since I was 12, having been baptized and accepted into membership at Macha Mission in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). When my family settled in the United States, we joined the Grantham (PA) congregation, where I have now been...read more
In 2003, The Zimbabwe Brethren in Christ Church hosted the once-every-six years global assembly of Mennonite World Conference. I (Harriet) had been wanting to attend an assembly sometime, having heard great things about previous ones, and so when the Zimbabwe site was announced, I decided I had to figure out...read more