“As we approach the 250th anniversary of the event that kicked off the revolution, we might ask, what do we Brethren think about the Declaration of Independence? … And what would our forebears say about what we’ve become?” asked Denise Kettering-Lane at her standing-room-only equipping session titled “Dunkers and the Declaration of Independence: Then and Now.”
Mission Advancement has launched a campaign to preserve the historic Germantown property in Pennsylvania, and the history of the Church of the Brethren in the Americas. We invite you to prayerfully consider helping us to take the next step by supporting this effort to raise $300,000.
For Black History Month 2026, Newsline is offering a feature for each week in February to celebrate our Black forebears in the Church of the Brethren. In this issue, we celebrate the life and groundbreaking ministry of Samuel Weir, the first ordained Black Brethren elder and preacher.
“Fraternity Church of the Brethren is 250 years old!” said an announcement of the congregation’s upcoming Homecoming and anniversary celebration on Sept. 13-14. “Take a moment to think about that. In 1775 when the American Revolutionary War was being fought, when this country was being founded, it was documented that a group of ‘Dunkard’ Brethren held a baptism near Muddy Creek.”
On Sunday, Sept. 14, at 3 p.m. (Eastern time), the 55th annual Dunker Church Service will be held at the Dunker Church on the Antietam National Battlefield. Often noted as one of the most remarkable landmarks on this battlefield, the church has long stood for peace and love even during one of the most brutal confrontations of the Civil War.
One of the most astonishing stories told at the “Early Anabaptism in Global Perspective” conference, held recently at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College in recognition of the 500th anniversary of the Anabaptist movement, was told by Japanese scholar Tomoji Odori.
The temperature on the thermometer read two degrees below zero as hundreds of Anabaptists of all persuasions (and garb) gathered for worship the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, at College Mennonite Church in Goshen, Ind. It was 500 years to the day after a small group of believers met in a private home in Zurich to study scripture together and perform baptisms, an event considered the beginning of the Anabaptist movement.
After comparing the decline in membership across what he called the “Ecumenical Church” (often referred to as the mainline Protestant churches) to the rise in membership and political influence of the evangelical church over the past century, David Hollinger asked what he thought was a more important question: Which has had a stronger influence in American society?
On Sunday, July 28, Germantown Church of the Brethren in Philadelphia, Pa., celebrated Reunion Sunday and the dedication of a 300th Anniversary plaque, with an Awards Presentation.
The Bridgewater (Va.) College Forum for Brethren Studies together with the Bridgewater College Endowed Lecture Series present the symposium “Perspectives in the Twenty-First Century: Challenges for the Church of the Brethren,” on Sept. 12-13.