Working regularly with archival materials often yields lovely surprises, and so it was for Dwight Thomas when he discovered a series of reminiscences by Kathleen Free Aiken about her life and the community and church in which she grew up in Englewood, Ohio. For this edition of the journal, Thomas has written a brief biography of Aiken, selected and organized excerpts from her reminiscences, and preceded them with contextual notes. The result is a fascinating portrait not only of Aiken herself, but also of the Fairview (Ohio) Brethren in Christ Church during the first half of the twentieth century.
David Weaver-Zercher follows up his research into the Brethren in Christ and Civil Rights1 with an analysis of one specific effort by Messiah College (now University) in the early 1970s to address racism. Using the newly-established Philadelphia Campus, which was affiliated with Temple University in the heart of the city, administrators and professors sought to provide an immersive experience for Grantham Campus first-year students to learn about racism in the much more racially diverse environment of Philadelphia. In his article, Weaver-Zercher describes the origins of the project and how it was implemented, and analyzes the results and the reasons it did not last.
During 2025, the journal has observed and celebrated the five hundredth anniversary of Anabaptism, the original theological stream of the Brethren in Christ. In this edition, we come to the final piece in that series. John Roth, a Mennonite historian who has served as project director for Menno Media’s “Anabaptism at 500” initiative, places the Brethren in Christ in the context of the historical Anabaptist movement. While recognizing the sometimes uneasy relationship the Brethren in Christ Church—especially in the US—has had with other Anabaptist groups, including Mennonite World Conference, Roth explores the relevance of Anabaptism for the denomination today. This article comes compliments of the longstanding tradition of the journal to publish the annual Schrag Lecture at Messiah University.
Also coming from one of the Historical Society’s partnerships, this time with the Theological Study Forum (a grassroots initiative of Brethren in Christ pastors and laypeople to offer discussions on contemporary topics of interest to the church), is an article by Steve McBeth and Andrew Saylor. Both are laypeople—McBeth growing up in the denomination but now living away from it, and Saylor coming into the church as an adult. In their article, they bring a fresh biblical and theological analysis to a topic central to the Brethren in Christ from our earliest days—that of nonconformity, separation from the world, and being “in but not of the world.”
The journal concludes with the usual book reviews and a letter to the editor.
Corrections:
In her review of Menno’s descendants in Quebec, Lucille Marr highlighted Brethren in Christ missionaries David and Patrica Miller’s decision to work with the Mennonite Brethren. She missed the significant relationship and accountability that they have maintained with the Be in Christ Church of Canada and Brethren in Christ U. S. World Missions. They currently serve in Quebec under a Joint Ministry Agreement between the Be in Christ Church of Canada and the Quebec Association of MB Churches (see August 2025, pp. 121, 191, 206).
Aubrey Hawton’s address in the August 2025 edition should be 19 Alpine Dr., Oro-Medonte, ON L0K 1N0.
Our apologies for the errors.
[1] See David Weaver-Zercher, “Sympathy and Disfavor: The Brethren in Christ and Civil Rights, 1950-1965,” Brethren in Christ History and Life 44, no. 3 (2022): 315-353; David Weaver-Zercher, “Words Empty and Hollow: The Brethren in Christ and the Challenge of Race,” Brethren in Christ History and Life, 45, no.1 (2002): 3-58.
- See David Weaver-Zercher, “Sympathy and Disfavor: The Brethren in Christ and Civil Rights, 1950-1965,” Brethren in Christ History and Life 44, no. 3 (2022): 315-353; David Weaver-Zercher, “Words Empty and Hollow: The Brethren in Christ and the Challenge of Race,” Brethren in Christ History and Life, 45, no.1 (2002): 3-58. [↩]