Wednesday, July 16
Highlights of the Day

[Photo | Worship]

The moderators of the Church of the Brethren and the Brethren Church annual meetings join together in lighting candles for the closing worship service of the 300th Anniversary Conference. Photo by Glenn Riegel

The three candles in the Conference worship center may represent the three centures of Brethren heritage and history. Photo by Regina Roberts

A group of youth join in the worship songs on the closing morning of the Conference. Photo by Ken Wenger

OVERVIEW OF THE DAY
The 300th Anniversary Conference closes today with Bible studies, and a joint worship led by a team from the Church of the Brethren and the Brethren Church.

FINAL ATTENDANCE AND OFFERING NUMBERS
Total registration for the 2008 Annual Conference is 6,184 people, including 864 delegates and 5,320 nondelegates. The offering total once the morning offering is received, will come to more than $76,400. Offerings received at the two joint worship services of the Brethren Church and the Church of the Brethren--the Sunday and Wednesday morning services--will be shared proportionately between the two denominations.

FINAL BLOOD DRIVE NUMBERS
The Conference blood drive collected 247 units, from 275 presenters. In a special note from the drive, 38 of the 44 presenters on the first day of the drive were first time blood donors.

FOOD DRIVE AND SERVICE BLITZ RESULTS
The Food Drive sponsored by the 300th Anniversary Committee received donations of 3,655 pounds of food, and $613 to purchase food. The food and monetary donations benefit the Central Virginia Food Bank, which reported that every $5 donated will feed five people.

Through the anniversary committee’s Service Blitz, Brethren volunteers gave 925 hours of service work to the community of Richmond. Volunteers worked at the Central Virginia Food Bank, sorted food collected in the Food Drive, assisted with the Blood Drive, checked and packed school and hygiene disaster relief kits collected during the Conference, assisted with clean up projects in three Richmond neighborhoods (Fairfield Court, Whitcomb Court, and the historic Jackson Ward), and did clean up at the city park on Belle Isle in the James River.

QUILT AUCTION RESULTS
The Annual Conference quilt auction raised $19,200 for hunger relief. The Association for the Arts in the Church of the Brethren (AACB) sponsors the annual quilt auction.

A BIT OF BRETHREN HISTORY: ALEXANDER MACK DEFENDS THE GOSPEL
Following the baptism of Eva Elizabeth Hoffmann in Marienborn on Aug. 21, in 1711 an edict dated Sept. 4 was issued expelling her mother and Alexander Mack from the district. Mack wrote directly to Count Charles August, who had issued the edict, defending the act of baptism as biblical:

“Now I will freely and publicly confess that my crime is that Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, desires that we do what we are doing--that the sinner shall repent and believe in the Lord Jesus and should be baptized in water upon his confession of faith. He should then seek to carry out everything Jesus had commanded and publicly bequeathed in His Testament. If we are doing wrong herein, against the revealed word of the Holy Scriptures, be it in teaching, way of life, or conduct, we would gladly receive instruction. If, however, no one can prove this on the basis of the Holy Scriptures, and yet persecutes us despite this, we would gladly suffer and bear it for the sake of the teachings of Jesus Christ....”

The baptisms continued. A report in Nov. of 1712 noted, “Last night the Baptist Alexander Mack arrived here.” The authorities warned Mack he was not to perform any baptisms and he is reported to have said that he only came to visit good friends and planned only to stay overnight. However the report went on to state that he had soon performed four more baptisms. His expulsion soon followed.

A hearing was ordered and one of the clergy called to take part suggested that “...friendly and affectionate persuasion will accomplish and avail more against this than harsh methods or punishment.” Indeed, no severe action was taken against them.

But a year and a half later Mack returned and baptized Peter Becker and his wife. The authorities had not consider the matter critical until then. Becker was not one of the settlers who merely lived in the Marienborn region. He was a subject of the Count. The Brethren were expelled once and for all, and for most of the remainder of their sojourn in Europe were economic refugees.

It was in part their poverty that would lead to their immigration to the new world in 1719. Peter Becker would become the first minister among the Brethren in the Colonies.

So what happened to the original eight Brethren?

Following the first Brethren baptism Andreas Boni may have made an early trip to Germantown, Pa., in 1710, perhaps looking into the possibility of Brethren emigration. In 1714 he helped free the Brethren minister Christian Liebe from his punishment as a galley slave. He and his wife emigrated with Alexander Mack in 1729. A decade later Andreas sent instructions to a cousin in Switzerland on the best way to emigrate, leaving valuable information about the difficulties of ocean travel in that day. He continued to earn a living in the New World as a weaver.

Johanna Noethiger Boni relocated with her husband Andreas to the Netherlands in 1720. She traveled to America in 1729. Her death in the New World was recorded by Alexander Mack, Jr.

Georg Grebe sold his home in 1720 to follow Mack and the Brethren to the Netherlands, but after a very public disagreement over the subject of church discipline, he remained behind in Europe and did not follow the Brethren to the New World.

Johanna and Johannes Kipping both moved to the Colonies with Alexander Mack in 1729, with two of their children. Their deaths were later recorded by Alexander Mack, Jr.

Anna Margaretha Mack gave birth to three more children following her baptism: Alexander Mack, Jr., in 1712, Christina in 1714, and another daughter who died as an infant. Her health deteriorated under the stress of caring for her family while becoming dependant on charity. After the family moved to the Netherlands she found it difficult to adjust to the harsh climate and a strange language. In 1720 she and her daughter Christina died within a week of each other.

Alexander Mack continued to take great risks in the practice of his faith, and over time spent all his money in caring for the Brethren. One critic of the church predicted that the movement would end when his cash ran out, but that proved to be untrue. Instead Mack depended on the charity of others. Mack held the Brethren together through difficult times. He wrote two tracts, “Basic Questions” and “Rights and Ordinances.” In 1719 the first group of Brethren sailed for the Colonies under the leadership of Peter Becker. Mack followed with another group a decade later, and upon his arrival in the New World was recognized once more as their spiritual leader. However, to his great disappointment he failed to heal the rift that had developed between the Brethren and the Ephrata Community which had split away under the leadership of the charismatic Conrad Beissel. It is said that this contributed to his death in 1735. He was buried in the cemetery of the Germantown congregation.

Evidently the wife of Lukas Vetter, who was not among the first eight Brethren, chose to be baptized at a later date. Eventually they sold their property in Schwarzenau in 1715. By 1718 the couple with their four children were living in Krefeld and were listed on the relief roll. The family emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1731, and their deaths were listed by Alexander Mack, Jr.

-- Frank Ramirez’ “Tercentennial Minutes” for Aug. 17 and Aug. 24. Ramirez pastors Everett (Pa.) Church of the Brethren, which has offered the weekly Tercentennial Minutes through 2008 as a celebration of the 300th Anniversary of the Brethren.

Today the exhibit hall is dismantled as worshipers leave the closing joint service of the anniversary. Closing worship is led by a team of preachers representing the Brethren Church and the Church of the Brethren. Photos by Amy Heckert