|
John H. Oberholtzer
John H. Oberholtzer (10 January 1809 – 15 February 1895) was a North American Mennonite leader who advocated for Mennonite cooperation for the purpose of higher education and mission work. He provided key leadership during the formation of the General Conference Mennonite Church. Oberholtzer was born on a farm in Berks County, Pennsylvania, the second child of Abraham and Susanna Oberholtzer. Starting at age sixteen he was employed as a schoolteacher and learned locksmithing to supplement his income. Between school teaching and his locksmith shop in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Oberholtzer was in daily contact with a wider variety of people and ideas than other Mennonites in the area, who tended to be more withdrawn. At the age of 33, Oberholtzer became the pastor of his congregation, Swamp Mennonite Church. Mennonite pastors were untrained, unpaid and selected by lot. The selection process began with nominations from the congregation. A set of Bibles, one for each nominee, was p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mennonite
Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radical Reformation, Simons articulated and formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders, with the early teachings of the Mennonites founded on the belief in both the mission and ministry of Jesus, which the original Anabaptist followers held with great conviction, despite persecution by various Roman Catholic and Mainline Protestant states. Formal Mennonite beliefs were codified in the Dordrecht Confession of Faith in 1632, which affirmed "the baptism of believers only, the washing of the feet as a symbol of servanthood, church discipline, the shunning of the excommunicated, the non-swearing of oaths, marriage within the same church, strict pacifistic physical nonresistance, anti-Catholicism and in general, more emphasis on "true Chris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Conference Mennonite Church
The General Conference Mennonite Church (GCMC) was a mainline association of Mennonite congregations based in North America from 1860 to 2002. The conference was formed in 1860 when congregations in Iowa invited North American Mennonites to join together in order to pursue common goals such as higher education and mission work. The conference was especially attractive to recent Mennonite and Amish immigrants to North America and expanded considerably when thousands of Russian Mennonites arrived in North America starting in the 1870s. Conference offices were located in Winnipeg, Manitoba and North Newton, Kansas. The conference supported a seminary and several colleges. In the 1990s the conference had 64,431 members in 410 congregations in Canada, the United States and South America. After decades of cooperation with the Mennonite Church, the two groups reorganized into Mennonite Church Canada in 2000 and Mennonite Church USA in 2002. Background Mennonites first came to North Am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berks County, Pennsylvania
Berks County ( Pennsylvania German: ''Barricks Kaundi'') is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 428,849. The county seat is Reading. The Schuylkill River, a tributary of the Delaware River, flows through Berks County. The county is part of the Reading, PA metropolitan statistical area (MSA), which is included in the Philadelphia-Reading- Camden, PA- NJ- DE- MD combined statistical area (CSA). History Reading developed during the 1740s when inhabitants of northern Lancaster County sent several petitions requesting that a separate county be established. With the help of German immigrant Conrad Weiser, the county was formed on March 11, 1752, from parts of Chester County, Lancaster County, and Philadelphia County. It was named after the English county in which William Penn's family home lay, Berkshire, which is often abbreviated to Berks. Berks County began much larger than it is today. The northwestern parts of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the English county of Buckinghamshire. Bucks County is part of the northern boundary of the Philadelphia– Camden– Wilmington, PA– NJ– DE– MD Metropolitan Statistical Area, more commonly known as the Delaware Valley. It is located immediately northeast of Philadelphia and forms part of the southern tip of the eastern state border with New Jersey. History Founding Bucks County is one of the three original counties created by colonial proprietor William Penn in 1682. Penn named the county after Buckinghamshire, the county in which he lived in England. He built a country estate, Pennsbury Manor, in Falls Township, Bucks County. Some places in Bucks County were named after locations in Buckinghamshire, including Buckingham and Buckingham T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franconia Mennonite Conference
Franconia Mennonite Conference was a conference of Mennonite Church USA based in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, with 45 congregations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont, New York and California and 19 conference related ministries. In February 2020, Franconia Mennonite Conference merged with Eastern District Conference to becomMosaic Mennonite Conference It is a member of Mennonite World Conference. History As the oldest Mennonite body in America, Franconia Conference is a three-century-old Mennonite “congregation of congregations” in southeastern Pennsylvania. Comprising about fifty congregations with some 7,000 members, it dates the arrival of its first members at Germantown near Philadelphia in 1683, and the first baptisms a quarter-century later in 1708. The caution which delayed the first baptisms is symbolic of the desire for authentic church order, characteristic of the Franconia tradition. The act of conferring is at the heart of the historic Mennonite concern to “giv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catechism
A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult converts. Catechisms are doctrinal manuals – often in the form of questions followed by answers to be memorised – a format #Secular catechisms, that has been used in non-religious or secular contexts as well. According to Norman DeWitt, the early Christians appropriated this practice from the Epicureans, a school whose founder Epicurus had instructed to keep summaries of the teachings for easy learning. The term ''catechumen'' refers to the designated recipient of the catechetical work or instruction. In the Catholic Church, catechumens are those who are preparing to receive the Sacraments of the Catholic Church, Sacrament of Baptism. Traditionally, they would be placed separately during Holy Mass from those who had been baptized, and wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sunday School
A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Sunday school classes usually precede a Sunday church service and are used to provide catechesis to Christians, especially children and teenagers, and sometimes adults as well. Churches of many Christian denominations have classrooms attached to the church used for this purpose. Many Sunday school classes operate on a set curriculum, with some teaching attendees a catechism. Members often receive certificates and awards for participation, as well as attendance. Sunday school classes may provide a light breakfast. On days when Holy Communion is being celebrated, however, some Christian denominations encourage fasting before receiving the Eucharistic elements. Early history Sunday schools were first set up in the 18th century in England to pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Open Communion
Open communion is the practice of some Protestant Churches of allowing members and non-members to receive the Eucharist (also called Holy Communion or the Lord's Supper). Many but not all churches that practice open communion require that the person receiving communion be a baptized Christian, and other requirements may apply as well. In Methodism, open communion is referred to as the open table, meaning that all may approach the Communion table. Open communion is the opposite of closed communion, where the sacrament is reserved for members of the particular church or others with which it is in a relationship of full communion or fellowship, or has otherwise recognized for that purpose. Closed communion may refer to either a particular denomination or an individual congregation serving Communion only to its own members. Affirmation Generally, churches that offer open communion to other Christians do not require an explicit affirmation of Christianity from the communicant b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prayer In Christianity
Christian prayer is an important activity in Christianity, and there are several different forms used for this practice. Christian prayers are diverse: they can be completely spontaneous, or read entirely from a text, such as from a breviary, which contains the canonical hours that are said at fixed prayer times. While praying, certain gestures usually accompany the prayers, including folding one's hands, bowing one's head, kneeling (often in the kneeler of a pew in corporate worship or in the kneeler of a prie-dieu in private worship), and prostration. The most common prayer among Christians is the "Lord's Prayer", which according to the gospel accounts (e.g. Matthew 6:9-13) is how Jesus taught his disciples to pray. The injunction for Christians to pray the Lord's prayer thrice daily was given in ''Didache'' 8, 2 f., which, in turn, was influenced by the Jewish practice of praying thrice daily found in the Old Testament, specifically in , which suggests "evening and morni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secret Societies
A secret society is a club or an organization whose activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla warfare insurgencies, that hide their activities and memberships but maintain a public presence. Definitions The exact qualifications for labeling a group a secret society are disputed, but definitions generally rely on the degree to which the organization insists on secrecy, and might involve the retention and transmission of secret knowledge, the denial of membership or knowledge of the group, the creation of personal bonds between members of the organization, and the use of secret rites or rituals which solidify members of the group. Anthropologically and historically, secret societies have been deeply interlinked with the concept of the Männerbund, the all-male "warrior-band" or "warrior-society" of pre-modern cu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maundy (foot Washing)
Maundy (from Old French ''mandé'', from Latin ''mandatum'' meaning "command"), or Washing of the Saints' Feet, Washing of the Feet, or Pedelavium or Pedilavium, is a religious rite observed by various Christian denominations. The Latin word ''mandatum'' is the first word sung at the ceremony of the washing of the feet, "''Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos''", from the text of John 13:34 in the Vulgate ("I give you a new commandment, That ye love one another as I have loved you", ). This is also seen as referring to the commandment of Christ that believers should emulate his loving humility in the washing of the feet (). The term ''mandatum'' (''mandé'', maundy), therefore, was applied to the rite of foot-washing on the Thursday preceding Easter Sunday, called Maundy Thursday. John 13:2–17 recounts Jesus' performance of this action. In verses 13:14–17, He instructs His disciples: Footwashing was practiced by the early Church, prior to rece ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wadsworth Institute
Wadsworth Institute was a Mennonite seminary in Wadsworth, Ohio, from 1868 to 1878. Officially named the "Christian Educational Institution of the Mennonite Denomination", it accepted men aged 18 to 35 for a three-year program centering on biblical studies and other topics relevant to training pastors and mission workers. Starting in 1876, women were accepted as day students. Classes were primarily taught in German and some in English. Instruction was divided among three departments: theology, German and English. The theology department classes covered biblical and church history, biblical theology, doctrine symbolics, catechism instruction and homiletics. Classes in the German department included reading, writing, grammar, spelling, composition and world history. The English department taught a wide variety of subjects including reading, writing, orthography, grammar, geography, arithmetic, analysis of sentences, rhetoric, logic, elementary algebra, higher algebra, geometry, trigono ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
