Three years ago, when I was given the privilege to serve as president of the Historical Society, I announced three goals. The first was to seek new board members to give long-term leadership to the Society. As our Society moves into a new generation of leadership, we need support and encouragement from continuing members, who have all agreed to keep serving. We elected a new slate of officers: David Flowers, president; Christina Embree, vice president; Hank Johnson, secretary; and Karen Ulery, treasurer. We also engaged a new executive director, Joshua Nolt, who comes with a mission to continue our focus on the “history” side of our name but to add more emphasis on the “life” side to allow us to better support the church.
While we welcome Joshua, we regret losing Ken Hoke as executive director, who is leaving the right way by putting our Society in a strong place administratively. Specifically, he developed an Operational Handbook that includes all our guiding documents in one place. We are deeply indebted to Ken for his diligent service and owe him our heartfelt thanks.
My second goal was to stimulate more involvement from our traditional partners, the Old Order River Brethren and the United Zion. I am delighted that both John Dietz of the Old Order and Jay Showalter of the United Zion continue on the board. Both these churches are developing archives for their denominations’ historical writings and artifacts.
My third goal was to develop collaborating partnerships with groups sharing similar research interests. Such relationships have developed with Zambian Christian University through the work of Dwight Thomas and the Theological Study Group with the help of their leader Bob Verno.
Our gatherings this year are typical of meetings that Ken Hoke has administered during his tenure. At the 2024 Annual Heritage Service, Bishop Rob Patterson spoke on “openness,” specifically on the word “and.” Coordinated by Beth Saba, the 2024 Annual Meeting held during the Brethren in Christ U.S. General Assembly in July focused on stories from the Great Lakes Conference (video available at https://tinyurl.com/487ts9bn.) At General Assembly, Karen Ulery coordinated and hosted a display table, sold books, and received memberships.
Editor Harriet Sider Bicksler produced issues of Brethren in Christ History and Life that included Randall Basinger’s article on “The Brethren in Christ and the Peace Position,” “Three ‘Failed Missions’” by Daryl Climenhaga; Lucille Marr’s story of Frances Davidson and her sister Mary Davidson Yoder; articles on singleness; a dialogue among Lynn Thrush, John Yeatts, and Jay McDermond on “The Brethren in Christ and the LGBTQ+ Community;” responses to the Basinger article; and Jim Amstutz and Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz, on “Peacefully Resolving Conflict in Our Polarized Society,” with more coming in the December 2024 edition.
We are grateful for those who serve the Historical Society in so many ways. Pray for us as we work to support the Brethren in Christ Church as a whole and its members. Board members beginning January 1, 2025: David Flowers, president; Christina Embree, vice president; Henry (Hank) Johnson, secretary; Karen Ulery, treasurer; Devin Manzullo-Thomas, archivist, Glen Pierce, assistant archivist; Harriet Sider Bicksler, editor; Leonard Chester, Canadian representative; and John Dietz, Jay Showalter, David Weaver-Zercher, John Yeatts, members-at-large.