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At approximately 4:30pm on March 9, a driver lost control of his truck on Allentown Road in Quakertown, PA and ran into the West Swamp Mennonite Church building. No one was in the church at the time and the driver suffered only minor injuries. 

The collision destroyed the church sign and impacted the church building, breaching the church’s exterior wall and causing interior damage to the fellowship hall and men’s bathroom. Numerous first responders responded to the scene, and a large tow truck eventually removed the septic tank truck from the church property. The fire marshall expressed concern for the structural integrity of the building, so the church is pursuing appropriate action to ensure no further damage occurs. 

Pastor Michael Howes shared, in communication with his congregants about the incident, “It’s good to be reminded at moments like this that, as much as our church building is a valuable resource, passed on to us by prior generations of faithful stewards, we are the church, ourselves.”

For coverage of this event on local news, click here. 

Editor’s note: The following story is an excerpt from the full version, published in MHEP (Mennonite Historians of Eastern PA) Quarterly in Winter 2000. The story is a fascinating piece of our own church history as we honor women’s history month in March.

In 1916, the Rev. Dr. Ann Jemima Allebach was called to serve as pastor of the Sunnyside Reformed Church in Long Island City, NY. The parish had been without a pastor for more than ten years, and there had been talk of selling the property and relocating the congregation. Allebach served the church for approximately two years. She was a Mennonite, a member of the Eastern District Conference of the Mennonite Church.

The Sunnyside Reformed Church began to recover under the leadership of Pastor Allebach. Attendance at worship doubled. An article in the New York World claimed that attendance at the Sunnyside Church grew from four members to 600 during Allebach’s ministry.  Allebach’s ministry was purposeful, pastoral, lively, and fun. “A Woman Parson Who Really ‘Ministers’” was the title of a feature article about her in the magazine section of the New York World dated December 23, 1917.

Rev. Allebach was recognized as an exceptionally fine preacher and public speaker. Years before pastoring the Sunnyside congregation, she drew great crowds at her home church.  “The three churches were filled with people. The Eden Church in the morning was filled. The Zion main room could not hold nearly all the people, and the folding doors had to be opened. The Harleysville chapel was filled to overflow that many claimed there were never so many people inside that building.”

With so little encouragement from the institutional church, what led her to take the path to ordination? Although her family encouraged and supported her education (which included attending Ursinus College for Normal School, Columbia University, Union Theological Seminary, and New York University), and although she came from a “family of parsons” as she put it, there is no indication that her family encouraged her to enter the ministry.

As a child, Ann Allebach attended the Eden Mennonite Church in Schwenksville, PA where she was baptized in 1892. In 1907, J. W. Schantz became the pastor and, he, with N. B. Grubb, ordained Allebach to the gospel ministry in 1911. The Reformed Church in America would not ordain women until 1973. The Eastern District Conference, her own tradition, would not ordain another woman until 1980.

Response to the ordination was mixed. The Philadelphia newspaper covered the story and printed her picture. The weekly bulletin of the First Mennonite Church reported, “The service this morning is one that is unique in the history of our Church. The ordination of Miss Annie J. Allebach to the gospel ministry; Miss Allebach has been engaged in Gospel work for some years; in fact, for many years, and has proven herself well worthy of the office to be conferred upon her today.”

On the other hand, the minutes of the 113^th Eastern District Conference meeting on May 7, 1911, made no mention of Allebach’s ordination, even though her brother was the President and Schantz (who presided over the ordination) was secretary of the meeting.  Neither Grubb nor Schantz reported the ordination, nor were they questioned about it.

Several years later, when asked about her ordination, Allebach said, “Of course I am eternally apologizing for my existence. That I have a gospel right to it few people know but perhaps you realize that women even better than men have the right to preach the Gospel. Was it not a woman that the risen Christ delivered the message to go and tell and preach what she had seen?”

Click here to read the original article.

I think we can agree that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has not only caused a health and economic crisis, but also a crisis of justice for humanity. The police brutality and armed violence against George Floyd, Breona Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others sparked our awareness that the journey of restitution, restoration, and reconciliation work for Black people still has a long way to go. It is as if the pandemic has opened old wounds and diseases of all sorts that are not fully healed. 

More recently hate crimes and acts of racism have been on the rise again, this time, directed towards the US Asian community. Perhaps the peak of this violence occurred in January when Vichar Ratanapakdee, an 84-year old immigrant from Thailand, was violently pushed to the ground by a stranger in an unprovoked attack in San Francisco, CA.  Ratanapakdee never regained consciousness and died in the hospital. 

Since February, there have been 3,000 cases of hate crimes against Asians in the United States and the numbers continue to increase. Asian-owned shops are being looted and houses of worship are being destroyed. 

The increase in hate crimes was triggered by racist and xenophobic rhetoric surrounding the origins of COVID-19.  Since then the government has taken steps by issuing a memorandum condemning racism, xenophobia, and intolerance against Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Our homework as Mosaic Conference is still significant and the journey to racial justice still has a long way to go. 

Despite recent acts of racism towards Asian Americans, the issue is not new. US history contains many heinous examples. The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II are just two atrocities that Asians have faced since first setting foot in the US. As minorities, Asians and Asian Americans experience prejudice every day. A pandemic only opens up a disease in society that has actually existed since the beginning, the disease of racism. 

Just yesterday, after buying groceries at the supermarket, I saw an older Asian man having some difficulty paying the cashier for his groceries. He didn’t speak English very well, if at all. The cashier was frustrated. Suddenly, one of the onlooking customers made an inappropriate gesture by trying to take the man’s money and solve the problem in an unnecessarily rude way. After the old man left, both the cashier and the “helpful” customer were smirking. This kind of response is not new, and my heart is troubled. 

Many Asian Americans, including myself, have not experienced physical violence as a result of racism, but we all have experienced other kinds of violence: verbal assaults, microaggression, negative stereotypes, and intolerance. Openness and education are the beginning of recovery. From every crisis and conflict, there is an opportunity for peace and reconciliation. 

Racism is actually a taboo subject to discuss in Asian American communities. When hate crimes occur, it is highly likely that Asian victims will not report the violence to the police. This is due in part to some Asian immigrants who are not fluent in English and also not wanting to create any more trouble for their community. As a result, many choose silence as their response to violent acts against them. 

Is silence a good thing? There is a proverb that says, “Speech is silver; silence is golden.” However, I believe to speak up and expose evil is diamond. Any form of racism is evil, and the Lord Jesus shuns hatred.

We see resilience, beauty, and strength in the Asian community. The Conference must stand together against hate and racism. Let’s continue to strive for peace, justice, and nonviolence, and let us heal and reconcile together in Jesus. 

With so many unknowns this past year, Mosaic Conference is pleased to share a positive report of the annual Conference budget, ending on January 31, 2021. Throughout the year, all bills have been paid on time and, thanks to a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan and careful management of finances, the cash flow is very strong.  “The results of our first Mosaic budget were evidence of grace and generosity,” reflected Executive Minister Steve Kriss. 

The pandemic contributed to some of these positive outcomes since overall expenses were below budgeted expectations. A majority of those funds were due to an understandable reduction in travel by staff and Conference leaders. Some Conference events were canceled or reconfigured, such as Assembly, which resulted in approximately $35,000 in savings. These savings then allowed the Conference to give an additional $10,000 for pastoral support, counseling, spiritual development, and leadership development. 

While the pandemic created uncertainty from a fiscal perspective, there were other unknowns for the newly created conference this year. Director of Finance Conrad Martin, shared, “It was difficult to know how to budget for congregational giving when we are a new conference and did not have conference-giving relationships fully established.” Congregational giving was lower than what had been budgeted, which could have been due to the new Conference set-up, the pandemic, or many other reasons. Martin still felt optimistic, however, with the support from congregations throughout the year.

“We were surprised by the number of congregations who checked in periodically on how we were doing, offering to make early contributions to help our cash flow, if needed,” reported Martin. “Most congregations contributed what they had said they would when we set up the budget, months before COVID struck, and for that we are grateful.”

The normal year-end appeal typically requests funds for the Conference operating budget. This year, however, the Conference Board decided that the year-end appeal would focus solely on the Shalom Fund. Since mid-December 2020, over $25,000 has been contributed to the Shalom Fund. “It seems that every time I make a deposit there is a new check or PayPal contribution to record into the Shalom Fund account,” Martin reflected.

Mosaic Conference also owns a number of properties with tenants that subsidize the overall conference budget. Despite all the challenges of COVID, Martin reported that all tenants of conference properties continued to pay their rent, even though some rents were deferred for a few months. 

In a year when a new conference was born, despite many unknowns and a pandemic, Mosaic congregations continue to show tremendous generosity to the Conference budget and the desire to continue to grow the ministries of Mosaic Conference. “I am deeply grateful for our sense of mutuality and care for each other and our neighbors near and far,” expressed Kriss. “This is an excellent foundation for our ongoing ministry and witness together into the future.”