By Charlene Smalls
Ripple Church (Allentown, PA) in partnership with Whitehall (PA) Mennonite and the Mennonite Heritage Center (Harleysville, PA), invites you to a 500-Year Anabaptist Celebration Experience!
Gather with us at 4 p.m. on Sunday, September 28, for a special event commemorating five centuries of Anabaptist history. This celebration will bring together many people from the local Mosaic Conference community to honor the traditions of worship that have shaped our shared faith journey.
The afternoon will be a tapestry of music, storytelling, and visuals, designed to both educate and inspire.
The event will feature a series of reflections and performances that bring our history to life. Joel Horst Nofziger, Executive Director of the Conference-Related Ministry Mennonite Historians of Eastern PA, will share about the character of Anabaptist worship over time.
Mosaic Leadership Minister Jeff Wright will speak on new movements in Mennonite worship. Conference Moderator and Ripple Co-Pastor Angela Moyer Walters will reflect on worshipping as Mosaic.
These storytellers will be joined by Dr. Rashard Allen, who will provide beautiful music to guide our time of worship. Allen was the Music Coordinator and part of the worship team for the Anabaptism@500 Celebration in Zürich, Switzerland on May 29, 2025, and co-worship leader for the 100th Anniversary of Mennonite World Conference (MWC) in Schwabish Gmünd, Germany on May 25. Read his reflections on this momentous experience.
Visual elements during the event will give us a deeper understanding of our history—especially valuable for those new to the Anabaptist story. Together, these elements will create a vivid and engaging encounter with the past, grounding us in a legacy that continues to shape our present.
Peter and the other apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than human beings! We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” — Acts 5:29, 32, NIV
Charlene Smalls
Charlene Smalls is co-pastor of Ripple in Allentown, PA.
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The opinions expressed in articles posted on Mosaic’s website are those of the author and may not reflect the official policy of Mosaic Conference. Mosaic is a large conference, crossing ethnicities, geographies, generations, theologies, and politics. Each person can only speak for themselves; no one can represent “the conference.” May God give us the grace to hear what the Spirit is speaking to us through people with whom we disagree and the humility and courage to love one another even when those disagreements can’t be bridged.