The Mennonite Publishing House was a non-profit publishing operation in

Scottdale, Pennsylvania Scottdale is a borough in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh. Early in the 20th century, Scottdale was the center of the Frick coke interests. It had steel and iron pipe mills, brass and silver works, a casket facto ...

, controlled by the Mennonite Publication Board of the (old) Mennonite Church. It served as the primary publisher of the denomination's periodicals, books, and congregational materials from 1908 to 2002.

History

Founding

By 1907 several conferences of the (old) Mennonite Church had expressed interest in church ownership and operation of publishing, which had until then been operated privately and separately by publishing houses like the

Mennonite Publishing Company The Mennonite Publishing Company was a publishing agency in Elkhart, Indiana, operating primarily from 1875-1908, which under John F. Funk served as the main source of published material for the (old) Mennonite Church. The Mennonite Publishing Co ...

, Mennonite Book and Tract Society, and Gospel Witness Company. In 1908, at a meeting of the Mennonite Church General Conference, it was decided to take publication under the control of the church, and the Mennonite Publication Board was created. This board purchased equipment and periodicals from the privately owned publishing houses, and chose to locate its new headquarters in

Notable publications

The Mennonite Publication Board purchased the ''

Herald of Truth The ''Herald of Truth'' was a religious newspaper founded by John F. Funk in 1864. It was the first periodical of the "Old" Mennonite Church (MC) and was also published in German as the ''Herold der Wahrheit''. Funk published the ''Herald'' throug ...

'' from the

and the ''Gospel Witness'' from the Gospel Witness Company and combined these periodicals to form a new official church periodical, the ''

Gospel Herald ''Gospel Herald'' (Scottdale, Pennsylvania) was the official publication of the Mennonite Church from 1908–1998. It was formed from a merger of ''Gospel Witness'' (Scottdale, Pennsylvania) and ''Herald of Truth'' (Elkhart, Indiana). As part o ...

'', which published its first issue on April 4, 1908.

Legacy

The records of the Mennonite Publishing House are located at the

Mennonite Church USA Archives The Mennonite Church USA Archives was founded in 2001 under the denominational merger of the (old) Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church. Prior to 2001, the two largest Mennonite denominations maintained separate archives: t ...

References

{{morecat, date=April 2024 Publishing companies of the United States