A Century of Mission: Mennonite Church Programs in Context, 1897-1997  

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At this, what may be the final General Assembly before integration, it is appropriate for us to look back and to look ahead.  To give you a sense of the church's mission of healing and hope within the context of the world in which we live, let us revisit the past 100 years.  John Sharp, director of the Historical Committee of the Mennonite Church, will share with you his reading of the century.  As he proceeds, the others on the platform will help to tell the story, specifically of when, where, and how the Mennonite Church and its program boards interfaced with social history.

Professor Historian Sharp, are you ready?

"History is a profession and a hobby of mine. It's a privilege for me to review this century. Let's begin ... "

1897, 1898, 1899

A century ago William McKinley was inaugurated as president of the United States and Wilfred Laurier was prime minister of Canada. In Mennonite circles, George Lambert was becoming a household name as he stirred the church to respond to a crisis far beyond North American borders -- a severe famine in India.

The church rallied, not only by sending food and money to starving India: it also sent out its first missionaries to India -- J.A. Ressler, W.B. and Alice Page.

Here is a statement, written by J.D. Graber, about the Mennonite Church's first overseas mission:

"Primarily and fundamentally, India needs the Gospel of Christ.  She needs this Gospel because we believe that any soul anywhere without a living faith in Christ is lost.  I should like to make my appeal for India not on the basis of her sinful practices or of her revolting heathenism.  I shall not attempt to enlist your sympathies for India by telling you terrible stories of child marriage, of accursed widowhood, or of some of her customs that seem revolting to us.  I shall not attempt to draw the usual map of the world of India, China, Africa and other Oriental countries painted in black and the rest of the world in white ... I contend that this attitude and these tactics are not right, and I earnestly hope I shall never be guilty of producing in anyone's mind this feeling of complacent race superiority."

1900, 1901, 1902

While Sigmund Freud was publishing his psychoanalytic theories, Mennonite women rolled up their sleeves and activated needles and thread to support mission work, both at home and abroad. Following the lead of their organizing elders, young people gathered in literary societies for fellowship and activities, while the first old people's home was also established.

The world was shocked by the assassination of President McKinley. Big business was forging a new era, as J.P. Morgan organized the giant U.S. Steel Corporation. But beyond the sounds of forging steel a new sound developed: ragtime jazz. This new music, sometimes lively and sometimes melancholy, expressed the soul of African-Americans.

Beatrix Potter introduced English-speaking children to the antics of Peter Rabbit, who suffered the consequences of his disobedience at the hands of farmer Brown. Not taken in by frivolous tales of talking rabbits, Mennonites sang their way through a new English-language hymnbook, The Church and Sunday School Hymnal (1902).

1903, 1904, 1905

Soft and cuddly Teddy bears made their appearance in 1903, named after the "rough and ready" cowboy and presidential candidate, Teddy Roosevelt. We'll never know whether the Wright brothers took a Teddy bear on their first powered airplane ride, or how many pioneers who settled the Alaskan frontier wished for the companionship of Teddy bears in the face of Alaskan Grizzlies.

Helen Keller, the incorrigible blind and deaf child, was transformed by her miracle-working teacher, Anne Sullivan. This child conquered incredible odds to graduate from Radcliffe College in 1904. Helen Keller become the hero and model for hearing- and seeing-impaired people the world over.

Mennonite educational leaders probably paid little attention to the mathematical genius Albert Einstein in 1905. They were more concerned with the implications of higher education on the Mennonite Church than with the Special Theory of Relativity. Nor did they pay attention to a young man named Ty Cobb, who was beginning his baseball career with the Detroit Tigers.

1906, 1907, 1908

Albert Schweitzer’s The Quest of the Historical Jesus, which would create a stir among theologians, had little effect on Mennonite mission leaders who organized the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities in 1906. They were surely moved by the 700 people who died in the devastating earthquake that hit San Francisco.

Oklahoma became the forty-sixth state of the union. Some Mennonites had been among the eager settlers who rushed across the line into the Cherokee strip when the government opened the land for white settlement. How many were aware of the Native Americans, who had once again been displaced?

In 1908 Henry Ford produced the first Model T Ford. Known by many as the Tin Lizzy, she could be purchased for $850. This marvel of mechanical technology revolutionized North American society. The founders of the Mennonite Publishing House could hardly imagine that soon the periodicals and books they would produce would be carried all over North American in 18-wheeled descendants of the Tin Lizzy. Gospel Herald, for example, has been delivered north and south, east and west throughout this century.  It's first editor in 1908 was Daniel Kauffman.

1909, 1910, 1911

The first commercial manufacture of Bakelite marked the beginning of the Plastic Age. Can you imagine life without it? No Tupperware, no plastic bags, no light-weight glasses frames, no plastic ware for the new students at Hesston Academy and Bible School?

Of course we've always had it, but the weekend took on new meaning in 1910. Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday became a block of time for leisure, for travel, for anything but work! And of course, we had fathers, but we didn't celebrate before the residents of Spokane, Washington started the trend, which became a national holiday in the U.S.

The burgeoning of popular culture coincided with (and possibly caused?) struggles in the typical Mennonite congregation.  The issue wasn't whether church members could go to peep shows - that was a clear no.  Rather, the church was disquieted by the controversies among traditionalists, Fundamentalists, progressives, and modernists.  A lot of effort by church leaders went into the clarification and advocacy of correct doctrine throughout the second and third decades of the century.

In 1911 China found itself in a revolution. The Manchu dynasty, in power since 1644, was overthrown. The new republic abolished pigtails, reformed its calendar, and elected a president. Chiang Kai-shek was appointed the president's military adviser.

1912, 1913, 1914

The modern world was shocked by a great tragedy on April 15, 1912. The unsinkable Titanic on its maiden voyage sank off the coast of Newfoundland. Captain Smith said his career had been uneventful. This was to be -- and was -- his last voyage. Of special interest for Mennonites was the death of missionary Annie C. Funk, a second class passenger. She had been called home from India to Bally, PA. to see her mother one last time.

Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian Passive Resistance Movement. was arrested. The world would hear much more about this hero of nonviolent resistance in the future. Under Gandhi's leadership, India gained its political independence from Great Britain.

It is unlikely that Gandhi was a household name among Mennonites in the early teens.  When the war in Europe came close to home, even in the form of persecution, Mennonites thought about their own forms of witness for peace.

On June 28, 1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo. This triggered an Austro-Hungarian declaration of war against Serbia. Great Britain declared war on Germany. Canada, a part of the British Empire, found itself automatically at war. The domino effect had begun which led to a war never before experienced on earth -- World War I. It was to be the "war to end all wars."

1915, 1916, 1917

In New York, Margaret Sanger was jailed for writing Family Limitation, the first book on birth control. After her release she helped open the first birth control clinic. North American sensibilities had little tolerance for such intervention of God's natural processes. Rural Mennonites had their eyes on Henry Ford's newest invention: the farm tractor.

In 1916, Woodrow Wilson, the professor from Princeton University, was reelected president of the United States, barely defeating Charles Evans Hughes. Rather than singing popular political tunes, Mennonites began singing new gospel songs from the new collection published by MPH, Life Songs #1.

What some feared, and what others demanded, came to pass in 1917: The U.S. declared war on Germany, and then on Hungary and Austria. Canada passed the Military Service Act to reinforce its volunteer fighting force. The war and the new rage, bobbed hair for women, notwithstanding, Mennonites sent missionaries to South America and opened a new school in Park View (Harrisonburg), Virginia.

1918, 1919, 1920

Finally, the "great" war which was to make "the world safe for democracy" ended. Woodrow Wilson proposed Fourteen Points for world peace. Russian Ex-Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed. The Serbo-Croatian-Slovene Kingdom of Yugoslavia emerged. The global influenza epidemic claimed thousands of lives.

The emergency needs of starving Mennonites in the Ukraine precipitated the organizing of Mennonite Central Committee, founded in 1920, with the participation of many from our denomination.  Among them was Clayton Kratz of the Franconia Mennonite Conference who was arrested in Russia and never heard from again.   That same year, Herald Press published Feeding the Hungry by P. C. Hiebert.

Workers in Winnipeg initiated Canada's first and only general strike (May 15, 1919). Laborers reacted against industrial abuses, high prices, low wages, long hours. For six weeks all essential services were shut down. This explosive event was a harbinger of the growing role of the labour movement in Canadian politics.

The optimistic "Roaring Twenties" arrived on the American scene as the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote, Warren G. Harding was elected 29th President, and Babe Ruth was sold by the Boston Red Sox to the NY Yankees for $125,000. Scottdale’s new Youth's Christian Companion did not comment on these events.

1921, 1922, 1923

Mackenzie King, the popular, highly-skilled leader of the Liberal Party, was elected Prime Minister of Canada (1921). Meanwhile in Pittsburgh, Pa., KDKA began transmitting the first regular radio program in the U.S. The Mennonite General Conference, in session at Garden City, MO, incorporated Fundamentalist language and concepts into its new Confession of Faith.

The Ku Klux Klan, assuming the name of the post-Civil War organization, gained political power and boldness. In 1922, Klan activities became violent throughout the southern United Sates, destroying property and branding and whipping African-Americans and those who sympathized with them. At the same time Louis Armstrong, arrived in Chicago to join Joe "King" Oliver’s band, and soon made his mark as a legendary jazz musician.

Disaster struck Japan when the centers of Tokyo and Yokohama were destroyed by an earthquake, leaving 120,000 dead (1923). Instability of another kind caused the closing of Goshen College. The controversies of the teens and early 20's dealt sometimes with large theological issues, but they were often expressed in painful disagreements.

In 1922 Noah Oyer, dean of Hesston College, began writing the first vacation Bible school curriculum, which would eventually be published in 1928.

1924, 1925, 1926

The following year (1924) Sanford Calvin Yoder, the new president of Goshen College, was charged with the task of rebuilding a faculty that would reflect the values and standards of the church. That same year another Calvin (Coolidge) became president of the U.S. when Warren Harding died in office.

In 1925 public opinions raged in a small courtroom in Tennessee. John T. Scopes, a high school teacher, became the focal point of a campaign to test a controversial law banning evolution theory in Tennessee's public schools. The case, known as the "monkey trial," pitted Protestant Fundamentalism against the encroachment of scientific method in one of the most publicized cases of the era.

Ironically, in the same year that Hitlerjugend was founded (1925), the Mennonite World Conference held its first meeting in Basel and Zurich, Switzerland.

1927, 1928, 1929

The world focused its attention upward these years: Charles A. Lindbergh flew nonstop from New York to Paris. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. And Canada was the first to use airplanes to dust crops. Airplanes weren’t the only objects in the air: Babe Ruth kept baseballs in the air too! He hit 60 home runs for the Yankees in 1927.

In 1927 Mennonite Publishing House bought its first bookstore from Weavers in New Holland, Pennsylvania.

Since we're in Orlando, we can't ignore those famous creations by Walt Disney -- Mickey Mouse films!

The Greenwood Mennonite School in Delaware has the distinction of being the oldest Mennonite elementary school in continuous operation.  It began in March, 1928, after the Mennonite students were expelled from the Greenwood public school for refusal, on grounds of conscience, to salute and pledge allegiance to the American flag.
 
 1930, 1931, 1932

With the Stock Market collapse of ‘29, the Roaring Twenties came to a dramatic halt. The "Dirty Thirties" took their place. The Lindbergh baby was kidnapped. Grant Wood's American Gothic appeared. But not all was grim. Hattie T. Caraway was elected the first woman in the U.S. Senate. Amelia Earhart flew solo across the Atlantic. And Maude Buckingham Douglass, who discovered Mennonites in Colorado, inspired many by her mission work among her own people in the Ozarks.

Farther north, in Chicago, mission workers began to hold Spanish language services for Hispanic migrants.

It seems rather insignificant today, but what an innovation: church meetings, designed for youth!  Many of these were held on Sunday evenings.

The Mennonite college presidents of the 1930s, such as Milo Kauffman, Sanford Yoder and J. L. Stauffer helped our colleges survive the Great Depression.  There are many touching stories of their personal sacrifices on behalf of students or faculty members.

1933, 1934, 1935

In 1933 FDR was inaugurated into the first of four terms as president of the U.S. He won the ‘32 election over incumbent Herbert Hoover by a landslide. Promising to pull the country out of the Depression, he initiated policies of the New Deal, such as Social Security. In Canada Prime Minister Richard Bennet's Conservative government founded the Bank of Canada, and proposed his own "New Deal." But Mackenzie King was elected once again

Oversees, Adolf Hitler was appointed German Chancellor. After gaining dictatorial powers, he began building the first of the infamous concentration camps, and began boycotting Jews.

The Vacation Bible School movement was young but healthy.   C. F. Yake and Paul Erb were the editors of Mennonite Publishing House's Bible school curriculum.

The church appointed a committee to study Christian Stewardship and to bring plans for an organization that would provide for medical care, hospital bills, and funeral expenses of needy members of the church.

1936, 1937, 1938

Women made gains in the market place when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of minimum wages for female workers. The rights of African-Americans to gain an education were recognized when the Supreme Court ruled that the University of Missouri Law School must admit African-Americans. U.S. workers benefited when the 40-hour work week was established. This era had its tragedies, too. Johnstown, Pa., was devastated by flood waters. And the heroic aviator, Amelia Earhart, died when her plane plunged into the Pacific.

The Sunday School movement entered the church earlier in the century. However, in establishing a Commission for Christian Education, the church signaled its earnest attempt to be an educator of quality.

Calvary Mennonite Church in Mathis, Texas, began in Tuleta as a mission to Hispanics in south Texas.

1939, 1940, 1941

All the world became a stage -- for another world war. Canada joined Britain in declaring war on Nazi Germany. The U.S. congress passed the Selective Service Act, and provoked by the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, declared war on Japan and Germany. FDR allowed for Civilian Public Service for Conscientious Objectors, which must include "work of national importance." The Peace Churches must administer and pay for this alternative service. The first CPS camp was opened in Grottoes, Virginia (1941).
 
Cleaning up after a flood, raising a barn, helping a sick neighbor harvest crops, providing alms for the widows of the church: In 1939, we began to use a term for it:  mutual aid.

In 1941 Camp Men-O-Lan opened in Quakertown and Niagara Camp opened in Fort Erie, Ontario.  In the next two decades camps were established throughout Canada and the United States.

Forty years after mission work in India began, Ezra and Orpha Hershberger went to Darjeeling, India and S. Jay and Ida Hostetler went to Bihar, India.

1942, 1943, 1944

General Dwight Eisenhower was placed in command of all Allied armies. News headlines reflected the European carnage: The murder of millions of Jews in Nazi gas chambers, "round the clock" bombing of Germany, the massive invasion of Normandy, and the "Battle of the Bulge.".

While the world's attention is focused on Nazi Germany and the Pacific Theater, the U.S. government imprisoned 100,000 Japanese-Americans. Fearing that these American-born citizens of Japanese descent would turn against their chosen country, the U.S. built its own prison compounds.

Harold S. Bender gave a hurried speech that declared Mennonites had a noble heritage. It was a repeatable and a biblical heritage. A new identity could be found in The Anabaptist Vision. It was a timely word.

World War II brought new awareness of societal challenges to Mennonite life and witness, and Mennonite high schools were started in most population centers of the Mennonite Church.  At first these schools tried to protect Mennonite youth from secular influences. Now the goals focus on integrating faith with all other dimensions of life, and preparing students for service.

In 1944, the Mennonite Board of Missions (MBM) Relief Committee received a mandate to begin Mennonite Service Units, thus beginning the Voluntary Service Program.  That same year, J. D. Graber became the first full-time, paid secretary of the MBM.

1945, 1946, 1947

FDR, elected for an unprecedented fourth term, died suddenly and was succeeded by VP Harry S. Truman. "V. E. Day" ended the war in Europe. The partitioning of Europe set the stage for the post-war Cold War. Truman authorized the use of the newly developed Atomic bomb on Hiroshima (Aug. 6) and Nagasaki (Aug. 9). Japan surrendered five days later. Estimated casualties of WW II: an incredible 45 million.

Mennonite Mutual Aid (MMA) was founded in 1945 to help the church practice the Biblical principles of mutual aid and stewardship.  Its first program was to provide loans for returning CPS men.

MMA was born on May 31, 1945.  Twenty-seven persons gathered in Adelphian Hall at Goshen College for the historic event.  The Mutual Aid Committee drew up Articles of Incorporation and a Constitution.  The new organization was authorized to "immediately arrange its offices" and raise $5,000 for operating expenses.

C. L. Graber, functioning as secretary, was made administratively responsible for the new organization.  Within a few weeks the new organization had a room in a house on South Eight Street in Goshen, and some stationary to begin business.  By the end of October 1945, Graber reported receipts in loans and contributions of $8,750.  He also reported spending $254.91 in startup costs.

In September Guy Hershberger wrote three articles for the Gospel Herald announcing the formation of Mennonite Mutual Aid, Inc.  MMA, he assured his readers, would help them find each other.

[Sections of this MMA information were borrowed from Al Keim's book My Brother's Keeper]

The Mennonite community movement was an effort on the part of church people, who observed the post-war migration to urban centers, to extol the virtues of rural community.  Mennonite Community magazine, which later became Christian Living, carried the spirit and content of the movement.  Out of this movement came the Mennonite Community Cookbook by Mary Emma Showalter, a best-seller ever since.

MBM's initiative to China was significant but short-lived because of the Communist revolution.  You can learn more from the book We Tried to Stay by Dorothy McCammon, who died in 1997.

Having been exposed to new worlds, Mennonites would never be the same. The church could no longer remain isolated. A new era had arrived. An electronic brain built on the campus of Pennsylvania University in Philadelphia, would help Mennonites do their new work. We call it the computer.

1948, 1949, 1950

National boundaries and names continued to change. The survivors of the Holocaust formed the new nation of Israel. Gandhi was assassinated. Apartheid became national policy in South Africa. Communist People's Republic of China was established under Mao Tse-tung. North Korea invaded South Korea. Harry S. Truman was elected U.S. President, narrowly, and unexpectedly, defeating Thomas Dewey.

The Mennonite Church sent missionaries to Japan (Carl and Esther Beck and Ralph and Genevieve Buckwalter) and Belgium (David A. and Wilma Shank). 1-W men started congregations in the urban centers where they are serving.

In 1950, Ruth Stoltzfus broadcast the first Heart to Heart message on radio in North America, and MMA introduced its first medical and burial plans that same year.

Elizabeth Bender began to translate Mennonitisches Lexikon which grew into the four-volume Mennonite Encyclopedia, published in the 1950's.

1951, 1952, 1953

Color television appeared, adding multiple hues to the black and white screen. The publication of the Revised Standard Version Bible added considerable color to the religious scene. 32 scholars, Protestant and Catholic, collaborated on the project. Many Christians considered it a perversion and condemned the new version that dared differ with the King James Version. Millard Lind and Howard Charles were asked to give Gospel Herald readers perspective on the RSV. The King James prevailed in most Mennonite congregations for several more decades. It also prevailed in the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Mennonite Foundation receives, manages and distributes gifts of cash and property for Mennonite conferences and institutions.  Today its portfolio totals more than $250 million.

In 1953 the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities appointed a Radio Evangelism Committee.  It also made The Mennonite Hour an "official arm of the Mennonite Church," and agreed to sponsor and promote the program of the Mennonite Crusaders.

Among the hymnbooks listed on the time line, Songs of the Church, published in 1953, is likely the least known.

1954, 1955, 1956

Biblical justice, read from KJV and the RSV, became the basis for the civil rights movement. The charismatic Baptist preacher Martin Luther King, Jr., emerged as the movement's able leader. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation by color in public schools was a violation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks sparked an effective city-wide bus boycott. A few radical Mennonites joined in the demonstrations seeking justice and equal opportunity for their African-American brothers and sisters.

In 1954 J. R. and Susan Burkholder and Peter and Alice Sawatsky began work among  Portuguese-speaking people in Brazil.  That same year H. James and Anna Martin and Clyde and Anna Mosemann began mission work in Uruguay.

In cooperation with Goodville Mutual Insurance Company, MMA began to offer automobile insurance.  In 1955, the Puerto Rico Mennonite Conference was founded.

1957, 1958, 1959

A new era of exploration -- and international competition -- began when the U.S.S.R. launched the world's first satellites, Sputnik I and II. The U.S. raced to launch its tiny, 31-pound satellite, Explorer I. The 3,000-pound Sputnik III followed. The USA established NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), and launched the first moon rocket, which failed to reach its target.. The Soviets achieved two more firsts in the space race: they sent two monkeys into the Earth's orbit, and successfully sent Lunik to the moon.

Menno Insurance Service (a stock corporation owned by MMA) was founded, providing access to various insurance and employee benefit products from other carriers.  One year of the establishment of the Menno Insurance Service, MMA set up the Catastrophe Aid Fund.

In 1957, MBM missions workers were sent to Algeria, Ghana and Nepal.  In 1959, Edwin and Irene Weaver were sent to Nigeria to provide leadership training institutions for Bible teachers in West Africa, and to help indigenous national church groups grow in their understanding of the Bible.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars for relief, channeled largely through MCC, is the result of four decades of relief sales.  The first one took place 40 years ago (1957) in Morgantown, Pennsylvania.

1960, 1961, 1962

Two men named John entered the world's stage and made their mark in history -- John F. Kennedy and Pope John XXIII. JFK was elected the 35th and youngest president of the United States. Pope John XXIII, a bold reformer, convened the Second Vatican Council to renew and reshape the Roman Catholic Church. Both served short terms: President Kennedy, three years, and Pope John IIXXX, less than five years. Both were energetic and visionary leaders.

Mennonite Secondary Education Council united the various high school programs.  Eastern Mennonite Seminary began a three-year graduate program.  And Mennonite elementary schools formed an association.

MMA introduced its first life insurance plans -- called "survivors' aid" -- providing assistance for survivors of the deceased.  Quite a large number of Mennonites found life insurance in its  traditional forms to be a worldly gamble.

Another significant shift was taking place around 1960.  There was a move, slow but noticeable, for decision-making to move from a few powerful leaders to congregations, and in the congregations, the decision-making began to include non-ordained members.

Builder magazine as well as the graded Sunday School series were cooperative publications of Mennonite Publishing House and the General Conference Mennonite Church's Faith and Life Press.

1963, 1964, 1965

John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, and Pope John XXIII died in Rome after a painful illness. Kennedy's assassination by Lee Harvey Oswald was symbolic of the national mood of violence. Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald. Riots and beatings of African-Americans by Whites and police marked civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama. 200,000 "Freedom Marchers" descended on Washington, D. C. The war in Viet Nam escalated. Malcolm X was shot in New York. College and university students demonstrated against the U.S. bombing of North Viet Nam. Some resisted the draft. Race riots broke out in the Watts district of Los Angeles.

On January 1, 1964 we began referring to the bookstores of the Mennonite Publishing House as PROVIDENT bookstores.  And speaking of books, we think of the many writers who have supplied us with material.  The following is an excerpt from a letter sent to the planners of this meeting from one of the writers, Katie Funk Wiebe:

"I owe a great deal to the Mennonite Publishing House.  My first connection was through Daniel Hertzler when he was editor of Christian Living.  I submitted an article on reading.  I was just beginning to freelance.  No word from him for a long time.  Then I received a letter from him with a check for $5.  But he returned most of my article.  The check was for two paragraphs "cut out" literally of the article ... I still have the mutilated article somewhere in my files.  But I was overjoyed.  I had made my first sale!  Some time later, at the 1962 Mennonite World Conference in Kitchener, I timidly asked Dan about submitting an article.  After all, I was talking to a real editor.  Quite simply he said, "Submit it."  Helen Alderfer asked me for articles.  She was also the first to invite me to speak at a widow's retreat.  So she launched another scary aspect of my development - speaking in public.  The summer of 1976 I received a phone call from Paul Schrock asking me to write a manuscript about Mennonite Disaster Service, an overdue project for a 25th anniversary of the organization.  Paul was the book editor for Good Times with Old Times and Bless Me Too, My Father.  Mike King has ably edited my last three Herald Press books.  I also felt privileged to write two Adult Bible Study guides for Laurence Martin.  I had had chapters in numerous other Herald Press books.  As I said, I owe a great deal to Mennonite Publishing House." 

1966, 1967, 1968

Canada celebrated its centennial in a big way at the World's Fair in Montreal. Canadians commemorated the confederation that was established by the British North America Act in 1867. On March 29, Queen Victoria signed the documents authorizing the new "Dominion of Canada." The movement for a strong centralized government was motivated in part by the desire to avoid the "mistakes and weaknesses" of the U.S. government, in which the states were given too much power. The bloody Civil War had seemed proof enough. In 1968, Canada's neighbor to the south endured still more violence when Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated.

Mennonite Publishing House faced an unusual problem.  It wanted to publish a magazine for youth.  It had a successful magazine called Youth's Christian Companion, but the "YCC" was everybody's, including Sunday school superintendents and senior citizens.  So the board created two new magazines to replace it -- Purpose for the adults and With for the youth.

1969, 1970, 1971

The Mennonite Church, recognizing the need to incorporate its African-American members, approved the organization of the Urban Racial Council in 1969. While NASA put the first man on the moon, the Mennonite Church put its first woman in the pulpit. Emma Richards was ordained for pastoral ministry by the Illinois Conference. Change continued. The church reorganized itself in 1971 in order to better represent members of congregations, and to recognize the congregation as the primary body for fellowship and discernment.  Paul Kraybill was the first general secretary of the Mennonite General Board.

Through an MBM initiative, the Mennonite Church launched the Minority Ministries Council with John Powell as executive secretary in 1969.

The Mennonite Hymnal made its debut during these years. 

1972, 1973, 1974

Richard M. Nixon was reelected U.S. President by a landslide in 1972. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger assured Americans that peace in Viet Nam was "at hand." But in Washington, D. C., five men were arrested inside the Democratic National Headquarters in a complex called Watergate. "Watergate" became notorious as a senate committee investigated the scandal and its cover-up, complete with "gaps" in the White House tape recordings. President Nixon is forced to resign after additional tapes reveal his involvement in the cover-up.

Perhaps it was the need to shed the doom of political scandal that led to the shedding of clothing in the new fad on college campuses called "streaking."

Daniel Hertzler summarized the Mennonite Board of Education's Philosophy of Christian Education  Study.  Published as Mennonite Education: Why and How, it led to a two-year "Church wide Thrust on Education."

In the early 1970's there was a consultation on the Holy Spirit, then festivals of the Holy Spirit, and in 1974 a meeting of charismatics at Landisville, Pennsylvania.

1975, 1976, 1977

Oil prices were raised 10% by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1975. By 1977 President Carter warned that the energy crisis in the U.S. could lead to a "national catastrophe." He urged Americans to respond with the "moral equivalent of war" to make "profound" changes in oil consumption. Long lines at the gas pump and high prices became commonplace. Small, fuel-efficient cars replaced luxury-sized "gas hogs."

Responding to the new awareness of consumption habits, Mennonite Publishing House published the More With Less Cookbook, which has become an all-time best-seller for Herald Press.  Later it published Extending the Table, which took on an international perspective.

1978, 1979, 1980

The world was shocked by the news that a test-tube baby was born in England. Lesley Brown gave birth to a girl -- the first human baby conceived outside the body of a woman. Intense discussions of bioethics followed. President Jimmy Carter made history when he negotiated the Camp David peace accord between Israel and Egypt. In England Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain's first woman prime minister. In Pennsylvania a small "Three Mile Island" in the middle of the Susquehanna River gained instant notoriety when a partial meltdown released high levels of radiation from its nuclear plant.

In consultation with the Hispanic Concilio, MBE established a Spanish-language leadership training program at Nazerene Bible College in Texas: later this became the Hispanic Ministries department at Goshen College.

The variety of legal entries established by Mennonite Mutual Aid didn't quite cover the map.  People wanted to contribute, not just to pay their own insurance premiums but also to help other in need.  In response, MMA established the Sharing Fund.  Since its establishment, the Sharing Fund has disbursed about $15 million.

The James and Rowena Lark Award is presented to people who have been faithful in urban ministries.  The first recipients were Carl Smucker, Amber Wright and Lupe DeLeon, Jr.

1981, 1982, 1983

The hostage crisis in Iran ended when 53 U.S. citizens held by militant Iranians for 444 days were released. The hostages were released just hours after President Carter left office. The new president, Ronald Reagan, welcomed the hostages home. Sandra Day O’Conner became the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court.. In 1982 instituted constitutional reforms, including a charter of rights; the strengthening of provincial control over natural resources; and the recognition and affirmation of the existing rights of Canada's aboriginal peoples.

The Wellness Program listed there in 1982 was an initiative to become pro-active in health maintenance, that is, to invest in building health and not just to pay for broken health.

Eastern Mennonite Seminary opened its Center for Evangelism and Church Planting.

1984, 1985, 1986

In 1985 Gorbachev became general secretary of the soviet Communist Part. Little did the world realize the reforms he would initiate. South Africa, increasingly under pressure to abandon its apartheid policies, declared a state of emergency. Desmond Tutu, a respected churchman and a powerful voice for freedom and equality, was elected Archbishop of south Africa. A national tragedy hit the U.S. when the space shuttle Challenger exploded, with elementary school teacher Christa McAuliffe aboard. During Challenger's six-day mission, she planned to teach two lessons from orbit to classrooms across the nation as the first teacher in space, indeed, the first truly private citizen to win a seat on a space shuttle. The flight of mission 51-L was suddenly over.

At Mennonite World Conference in 1984, Ron Sider proposed Christian Peacemaker Teams.

In the decade of 1985 to 1995, MBM provided resources for conferences and congregations for Vision '95.   One seventh of current Mennonite Churches began during this decade.

MBE established the Theological and Pastoral Education COuncil, one of whose projects now is the distance learning program for pastors and congregational leaders.

1987, 1988, 1989

In 1987 the Iran-Contra scandal dominated the news. President Reagan made a secret decision to sell arms to Iran in opposition to his own policy to remain neutral in the Iran-Iraq war. Then Reagan's aides used the arms sales profits and money from third countries to help fund a civil war in Nicaragua.. In 1989 the world's attention was focused on the Tiannamen Square in China, where pro-democracy students were literally overrun by government tanks. Peristroika and Glasnost won the day in the Soviet Union. Solidarity won over great odds in Poland. The Berlin Wall, which separated Germany since WW II was knocked down.

The concept of mutual aid had found its context largely in the family, the congregation, and the conference.  With the Share Net Employer Plan, MMA extended the mutual aid concept into business.

These three years were important ones in congregational life.  United Native Ministries COuncil was established in 1987, followed by the Blueprint for Youth Ministry and the Living in Faithful Evangelism (LIFE) project.

In 1989, Service Adventure Units open for the first time.  The first locations were in Sarasota, Champaign, and Philippi.

1990, 1991, 1992

Once again political boundaries were redrawn and political power was transferred. East and West Germany were reunited. Nelson Mandela was released from prison. And reforms gave legal equality to black South Africans. Soviet president Gorbachev wins the Nobel Peace Prize. The Soviet Congress surrendered its powers, and former Soviet states emerged as independent nations. U.S. President George Bush ordered air strikes against Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Operation Desert Shield/Storm took the lives of 100,000 Iraqis.

Howard Brenneman was appointed president of MMA in December of 1991, just in time to face the full-blown health care crisis, which came in the decade of the 1990's.  In 1992, MMA adopted a guide for responding to this crisis.

Mennonites continued to sing.  In 1992 after many years of careful work, musicians gave the new Hymnal: A Worship Book to MPH for publication. 

1993, 1994, 1995

Violence again struck the U.S. as federal agents destroyed the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas. In Idaho federal agents attacked militia members on Ruby Ridge. Exactly two years after Waco, the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City was bombed, claiming the lives of 168 victims. In South Africa former civil rights leader Nelson Mandela became the country's first black president. South African native Stanley Green became MBM president.

In 1995, Mennonite Board of Missions Voluntary Service and General Conference Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS) decided to merge.

"By the middle of January we could move out of a shed and into a beautifully renovated home," wrote a member of the Homestead Mennonite Church in southern Florida.  He went on: "Many, probably at least a hundred people, worked on it.  It's a Mennonite miracle.  On August 24, 1992 Hurricane Andrew blasted winds of 160 miles per hour, throwing stones, metal, wood and leaves against the Homestead Church where people were waiting out the storm.  Next morning at 5 am, the people could look up through the eye of the hurricane and see the wall of the storm on both sides and stars directly above.  Later that day people came out of hiding to hind stuff lying everywhere, leaves stripped from bushes and trees.  Houses of course were in shambles.  Mennonite Disaster Services workers arrived from Sarasota.  First they secured the church building, then organized us into teams in order to help others get help.  Eventually we heard 'now let's go look at your house.'  An amazing range of people and groups were lined up by Howard and Jean Schmitt (pastors of Bayshore Mennonite Church) to help make it happen."

Laura Schlabach began work in Mongolia in 1993, and two years later Drew and May Ellen Robinson joined her.  The mission work there is part of a special partnership between MBM, EMM, and the Mongolia Support Group, a groups of congregations and individuals from Holmes and Wayne counties in Ohio.

1996, 1997

Bill Clinton was reelected to a second term as president of the United States, though dogged by the alleged scandals of Whitewater, political fundraising and Paula Jones. TWA flight 800 exploded killing all 230 people aboard in the worst air disaster in aviation history.  Hong Kong was returned to China, and as we all know, Mike Tyson bit off more than he could chew in his ill-fated boxing match with heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield.

In the past two years, MPH has published the eight volume of believers Church Bible Commentary, the 35th Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History, 50 other books along with its ten periodicals and curriculum pieces.

MMA continues to explore opportunities for mutual assistance.  Two recent programs are Affinity Life plans and Medical Savings Accounts.

For the first time, MBE installed a woman as president of a Mennonite Church College.  In 1997, Shirley Hershey Showalter was inaugurated in as president of Goshen College.

In partnership with "Friends of the Tabasarans" in Springfield, Ohio, MBM sent Phil and Alice Shenk and their family and Donna Classen to begin work in a mountainous village in the republic of Dagestan in 1996.

Delegates to the Mennonite Church General Assembly reviewed the work of the program boards on Wednesday afternoon in the context of global social history. Oh, that's us. That's now. I guess we're caught up!
 

Thank you John Sharp, thank you Don Graber (who has projected the years onto the screen), thank you representatives of the boards.  And please join me as we thank God.

Holy and reverent is thy name, Lord God of history.  We are grateful to You for the privilege of living in the 20th century.  It has been a time of creative work, wonderful discoveries, and honorable experiences.  It has also been a time of selfishness, sin, and suffering, brought on by human frailty.

Forgive our errors and please forget them.  But where we have walked in your way and carried out your will on earth, let those events rebound in memory for the glory of God who will be Sovereign Lord of the 21st century.  Amen.