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SAENGER FEST
(Mass Choir)
Practice: 10:30 a.m. ∓ 4 p.m.
Performance: 7:30 p.m.
Eden Mennonite Church
Choir practice for evening performance of
A HYMN OF HERITAGE, an original anthem
commissioned for the anniversary. All
interested singers are invited to participate.
TALKING CEMETERY
1:45-2:15 p.m. ∓ 4:15-4:45 p.m.
Hopefield Mennonite Church
Tour of the Hopefield cemetery, where the
immigration pioneers and many of their
descendants are buried. Leaders: Vic Goering
and J.O. Schrag, both North Newton, Kan.
SWISS FEST
2:30 p.m.
Hopefield Mennonite Church
Panel discussion: Ten Windows on 125 Years
in the United States. Presenters: Delbert
Goering, Moundridge, Kan.; Marlene
Krehbiel, McPherson, Kan.; Alice Suderman,
North Newton, Kan.; Rynall Schrag, Urbandale,
Iowa; James W. Krehbiel, Charleston, Ill.;
Harley J. Stucky, North Newton, Kan.;
Leann Toews, Goessel, Kan.; Jim Juhnke,
North Newton, Kan.; Robert E. Krehbiel,
Pretty Prairie, Kan.; Dale R. Schrag,
Newton, Kan.
Activities will also include period farming
demonstrations, artisan displays and food.
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SCHMECK-ESSEN
(Ethnic Meal)
5-7 p.m.
Eden Mennonite Church
Menu: ham, sausage, fried potatoes, kraut berogie,
cucumber salad, mach kucken. Costs:
under 5, $5,; students, $10; adults, $15. Deadline
for ordering tickets: July 20.
Oral histories and slide presentations to be
given during mealtime elsewhere in the church.
VERSAMMELUNG
(Gathering for speakers, stories and music)
7:30 p.m.
Eden Mennonite Church
Emcee: Wynn Goering, Albuquerque, N. M.
Speakers: Gordon Kaufman, Cambridge, Mass.,
and Rachel Waltner Goossen, Topeka, Kan.
Music: A Hymn of Heritage, composed by Steven
Stucky, Ithaca, N.Y.; text by Gladys Graber
Goering, Moundridge, Kan.; directed by Marles
Preheim, North Newton, Kan.
Reader's theatre of stories, adapted and directed
by John McCabe-Juhnke, North Newton, Kan.
EHREN ∓ PREISEN
(Worship)
Sunday, Aug. 15
Swiss (Volhynian) Mennonite congregations are
encouraged to reflect on the 125th anniversary
during their Sunday worship services.
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Gladys Graber Goering, lyricist of A Hymn of
Heritage -- Born at Freeman, S.D. Lives in
Moundridge, Kan. Writer and homemaker.
Wynn Goering, emcee -- Native of Moundridge,
Kan. Former instructor and administrator at Bethel
College, North Newton, Kan. Instructor of strategy
and research associate at the University of New
Mexico, Albuquerque.
Rachel Waltner Goossen, speaker -- Grew up in
Goessel, Kan.; Upland, Calif.; and Normal, Ill. Taught history at Bethel College,
North Newton, Kan.; University of Kansas, Lawrence; and Goshen (Ind.) College.
Now lives in Topeka, Kan.
Gordon Kaufman, speaker -- Grew up in North Newton, Kan. Edward Mallinckrodt
Jr. Professor of Divinity emeritus at Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge,
Mass. Pastored the Mennonite Congregation of Boston. Lives in Cambridge.
John McCabe-Juhnke, reader's theatre director --
Born at Moundridge, Kan. Professor of communication arts at Bethel College,
North Newton, Kan. Lives in North Newton.
Marles Preheim, conductor of A Hymn of Heritage -- Native of Freeman, S.D.
Retired this spring after
22 years as professor of music and director of choral
music at Bethel College, North Newton, Kan. Lives in North Newton.
Steven Stucky, composer of A Hymn of Heritage --
Born at Hutchinson, Kan., and grew up in Kansas
and Texas. Professor of music at Cornell University,
Ithaca, N.Y. Has written commissioned works for the
Chicago Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Baltimore
Symphony, Chanticleer and others.
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SOJOURN TO A CELEBRATION
For more than three centuries, a group of
Anabaptists sojourned across Europe in
search of religious freedom. Members of a
movement with its roots in the 15th century
Reformation, they placed discipleship--living
their lives with Jesus Christ as their
model--over the demands of state and society.
As a result, they risked persecution and
ostracism for their faith.
Of Swiss ethnicity, these Anabaptists (one
of a number of such groups that sprang up
across the continent) found their way east,
trying unsuccessfully to establish communities
to live out their beliefs in France,
Germany, Poland and Russia. In the late
18th century, they were allowed to settle in
the western Russian province of Volhynia.
But when their religious freedom was again
threatened, they emigrated in 1874 to the
plains of Kansas and South Dakota.
Now 125 years later, these Swiss (Volhynian)
Mennonites can still be found in enclaves
such as Moundridge and Pretty Prairie,
Kan., and Freeman, S.D. But these people of
the prairie have also become people of the
world, continuing the sojourn of their
ancestors by moving from their traditional
communities to face new opportunities and
challenges elsewhere. The result has been
evolving concepts of peoplehood, community
and faith.
Celebrating 125 years of Swiss (Volhynian)
Mennonites in the United States is a time to
commemorate their past, consider their present
and contemplate their future.
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