HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1981-07-02, Page 3Citizens News, July 2, 1981
Mennonite settlers came early to Hay, Zurich
Bishop it was an issue of authority sultations with a trust com- Zurich church served as in -
was purchasedOeschIn fromhe year of and he could not be inconsis- Pony officer, the local bank term pastor of Zurich and
- 1885 a building twhe put of . tant in Hay and face his manager and a lawyer. The Blake from 1970 to 1972.
- on this far as I can other congregations without result was the chairman in- Clayton Kuepfer served as
ascertain,nthissite. As wasr the first consultations and time. The sisted that financing must be joint pastor from 1972 to
Christian virtures of done through the local bank , 1979.
Amish Mennonite Church patience and forebearance or b trust company mpany -both Families seemed to -move
that was built of brick. Thep
building of meeting houses were lacking in this devision. would finance it, subject of a lot in. the early. days. A
'There were also personality course to an equity reserve. family by the name of
was a very devisive issue in conflicts and many of the So on this issue the project Eicher left this community
nearly all Amish and Men- et thingsthat often afflict came to an end. . at the turn of the century
nonite churches. There was rr gto people. Time went Shortly after this a and some of them served a
also- some disagreement on and both congregations number of members from missionaries in India under
here, but it was largely over- had to accept many cultural Zurich and Blake had an un- another denomination.
come by good leadership. cagesofficial meeting to try and Mary Mae Schwartzen -
Sheds were also built for Sunday Schools came into resolve the finance question. truber is presently serving
horses. bei and the Blake church • An offer was made bythe as assistant
One of the last house local bank manager tloan church in Kitchener.r in a
meetings held in a had one for over forty years, each familyg
wascut stone newy the first was in German and the $1,000 toward A number of others work-
houseJacobbuiltof who was later changed to English in project. This too was not ed in Volunteer Service un-
- Jacob Gingerichm Gingerich's grand -was the late twenties. acceptable, so the merger der MC.C.
father. The Sunday School
did not take place. Carol Ann Erb worked in a
Superintendent played a In a few years Zurich Mission Hospital in `Kabul
Life went on in the com- large role for many years decided to renovate and for nearly nine years, three
munity but changes cdme to not .only in Blake but ` enlarge, which they did. years under M.C.C. and the
the Amish world, and some throw out our whole A.M. About this time some balance of the time as an
of these changes were not brotherhood and I for one families left the Blake OMA worker with the Men -
acceptable to all for various deplore the downgrading of church for other parts of On- nonite Board of Missions and
Tf�9 ilAn1
. New -styles of his office! 'tarso which left the Blake
clothing, grooming and the In 1932 " Young Peoples Sunday School with a
increasing use of the English meetings were started joint- smaller enrolment. So a
language and differing ap- ly between Zurich and Blake number of families with
proacserious
es to worship led to and were very successful for children decided to attend
serious differences between the Zurich church °where
those who thought manyIn e 1940's a front lobby they could have fully graded
themselves as progressive was added to the church and classes and generally a more
or conservative, and I use »
these words in a cultural a partial basement. In the Finally church life.
term, the Spiritural I leave 1950 s an addition was added yin 1979 the remain -
to the east end of the church, ing members decided to
to Him who knows the heart also a full basement, Blake out services in the
of all men. washrooms etc. and a lake church and more
While Blake was spared general renovation was done fafnllies joined the Zurich
the division that took place in the next few years. church. Some moved from
in both Amish and Men- Progress was veryood the community and most of
nonite communities, it suf- In the 1960's he Zurich the rest attend at Zurich.
fered the same fate on other church wanted to renovate Blake has a board of
issues or maybe we should and, enlarge but the cost trustees which looks after
say, situation. would be considerable so the property. In 1979 it was
In 1908 the Amish Minister theytarted to think in rented to the Lakeview
at Hay had a son-in-law in ters of a new church Conservative Mennonite
Michigan who was a building, onsequently Blake congregation, which was
minister in the Mennonite formed in the communis
was appy ched to join in a y
church. He used his in-
fluence on his father-in-law project of new church'for with some former members
both congregalions. Many in of the Zurich congregation
to hold evangelistic Blake were • eluctant and others who have moved
meetings in the evenings because their buil ' g was in into the community.
which resulted in 19 com- reasonable, good clition. The following is a list of
mitmenis or conversions. It was decided to study the Ministers of Blake from
Some
Some of the young men feasibility of such an under- Orland Gingerich's book -
refused to wear traditional taking, so a building com- The Amish of Canada: John
dress at the time of bap- mittee was set up, also a Oesch, 1792 - 1850; John Egli,
sizing and were refused. A finance committee and one Christian
ristian Shantz, no dates;
real congregational crisis or two others, and a ery con- Dan Oesch, son of Bishop J.
developed. siderable amount of study Oesch; John D. Bender;
In the end, a Mennonite took place. I would also say John Gascho, 1838 - 1919, Or -
Bishop from Waterloos there was considerable unof- dained in 1876 joined Men -
County served baptism, and ficial planning going on. In nonite church in 1908; Chris -
they, and about 50 members, principle there was really no tian $eachler,ordained in
left and founded the Zurich great amount of opposition 1876; Jacob Gingerich, or -
Mennonite Congregation. but the tensions and dained in 1870's; Christian
Here now was -a division struggles became apparent Kropp ; Christian
which we label a s to the Finance Comittee. It Schwartzentruber ; John
progressive on one hand and seemed that many people in Gerber, ordained in 1916;
on the other hand conser- both congregations wished Valentine Gerber; Solomon
vative, but this was on one to finance it through what is Beachler, ordained deacon
issue in the future years called a personal and 1928, minister 1940;
where the roles were often several note - that was in Ephraim Gingerirch, or -
reversed. this instance a sum es- dained minister 1947, or -
Jacob H. Bender who timated at $100,000 plus, dained bishop in 1952; (He
declined to baptize the group with one note with 20 - 25 was the first and only bishop
at that time was asked if he signatures without a revenue ordained in Blake. He was
thought this was really a of equity. This was not also a joint pastor in the
Biblical issue pertaining to acceptable to the finance Zurich church from 1966 to
baptism - he is reported to committee, especially the 1970 when he resigned) ;
have said that it was not, but chairman, who had eon- 'Cyril Gingerich of the
was supported by the Chris-
tian Blind Mission.
In the past almost all of .
our church ministers came
from a farm or rural
background. In my humble
opinion this gave them a con-
cept of God that is difficult
to acquire. As our people
become more urban it is
bound to change some of our
culture in the future.
Humbly submitted,
Gordon Erb
(for Zurich Historical
meeting - June 13, 1981)
GRADUATION MUSIC
Boniface separate school graduation was grad Geoff Masse.
— Playing the guitar at the
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SCHOOL AWARDS — This year's most improved boy at St. Boniface separate school was
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