Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

John Ruth

On ‘Titanic’ centennial, missionary’s life remembered

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By Sheldon C. Good, Mennonite World Review

Annie Funk
Funk prepares to ride her bicycle to the girls’ school she started in India in 1908. — Photo provided

HARLEYSVILLE, Pa. — When Annie Clemmer Funk, a Mennonite missionary to India, learned her mother was very ill in Pennsylvania, she quickly packed her bags and caught a train to Bombay. From there she traveled to England, where she learned a coal strike had delayed her ship’s voyage to the U.S.

So she paid a few extra gold pieces for a spot on the Titanic, which set sail two days later.

Funk was one of 1,517 people who died in the “unsinkable” ocean liner’s disaster on April 15, 1912. Just three days earlier she had celebrated her 38th birthday aboard the Titanic.

To mark the centennial of Funk’s death in one of history’s most famous tragedies at sea, filmmaker Jay Ruth is producing a 35-minute video that tells the story of Funk’s faith and witness and describes the nature of Mennonite mission at the time.

A DVD will be available, and two premiere showings are planned. The first will be at 7:30 p.m. April 29 at Zion Mennonite Church in Souderton. The second will be at 7:30 p.m. May 6 at Hereford Mennonite Church in Bally, Funk’s home congregation.

The film, sponsored by Mennonite Historians of Eastern Pennsylvania, is a production of Jay Ruth’s Branch Valley Productions in Lederach.

A native of Butter Valley in southeastern Pennsylvania, Funk was the first Mennonite woman from Pennsylvania to serve as a missionary in India. Fragments of her story have been known for years, but the film is the first larger project of its kind.

“Here’s a young woman who grew up in rural Pennsylvania, and somehow she was drawn from there to the other side of the world, and then her life ended in this worldwide drama,” said historian John L. Ruth, a consultant for the film. “As a memorably dedicated Christian, she has not been forgotten in India and North America as a hero of our faith family.”

Using momentum from the blockbuster 1997 film Titanic, Charlotte Strouse of Zion Mennonite helped Funk’s story became even more widely known. Strouse recalled Funk’s life more than 100 times in a one-person re-enactment.

Before going to India, Funk took a teachers’ course at West Chester State Normal School, which later became West Chester University. She trained for Christian service at D.L. Moody’s Northfield (Mass.) Seminary for Ladies, then served in Chattanooga, Tenn., and with the Young Women’s Christian Association in Paterson, N.J.

After Mennonite missionaries in India put out an urgent call for an unmarried woman, Funk expressed interest, Jay Ruth said.

According to a story in the Dec. 26, 1985, issue of Mennonite Weekly Review, Funk had written: “Several years ago I promised the Lord that if the way would open to go to the foreign field, I would do my duty… . Now the door is open wide enough for me to do my duty to the extent of being willing to go.”

Funk went to Janjgir, India, in 1906, at the age of 32. She served under the General Conference Mennonite Church’s young board of missions.

“At the time, India had famine, leprosy, cholera and extreme heat,” Jay Ruth said. “Annie would not have thought of herself as an important person. She would have thought of herself as being faithful.”

In 1908 Funk started a one-room school for girls, later named Funk Memorial Girls School.

Giving up her seat

Not much is known about Funk’s time on the Titanic. Conflicting stories tell of her experience while the ship was sinking.

According to one account, Funk was already seated in a full lifeboat when she saw a woman and her child (or children) who needed space. So Funk gave up her seat, saying she would probably find a seat in another boat.

Although a newspaper in England was said to have documented Funk’s situation, the story is now mostly oral, Jay Ruth said.

Funk’s friends back home were surprised to see her name listed in newspapers along with the other casualties. They were sure the Annie Funk they knew was to come on the SS Haverford. A letter Funk sent back to India as the Titanic left England explained what she had done.

After her death, several memorial services were held in Pennsylvania and India. Her mother’s health had improved, and she was able to attend one of the services. A plaque was later installed in the chapel of the Northfield school, where she had trained.

In 1913 a monument was dedicated at the Hereford Mennonite Church cemetery. The monument, erected by Eastern District Conference, says: “Her life was one of service in the spirit of the master — ‘not to be ministered unto but to minister.’ ”

Reprinted by permission from Mennonite World Review.

Historic forums planned for inter-conference dialogue

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Emily Ralph, eralphservant@mosaicmennonites.org

Delegates from Eastern District and Franconia conferences approve continued conversations on a shared future at the joint assembly in 2011. Photo by Emily Ralph

Eastern District and Franconia conference leaders have planned two delegate forums this spring to continue the exploration of a shared future.  The forums will be held on March 29 and May 24 at Christopher Dock Mennonite High School in Lansdale, PA and will include presentations from conference historians and conversations about the nature of each conference and possible next steps.

At the joint assembly in 2011, delegates of both Conferences expressed a strong desire to more fully understand the events that led to the 1847 split in Franconia Conference and the eventual formation of Eastern District Conference.  There was overwhelming support for continuing conversation as well as concern that these conversations be done with care and integrity, said Eastern District moderator Ron White, from Church of the Good Samaritan, in a letter to delegates.

Continuing to maintain two separate conferences, side by side, is the expression of an unhealed break in the Body of Christ, according to historian John Ruth, Salford congregation, who will be presenting at the March forum.  “It’s a statement that needs to be explained (or defended) to the current generation of church members . . . and the neighbors to whom we witness,” he said.

Beth Rauschenberger, associate pastor at Zion congregation, understands the need for these forums. She didn’t grow up within the Mennonite church and has always found the historic rift between the conferences puzzling, she said in a recent round table. “You have to hear those personal stories; you have to hear the hurt,” she explained.  “I don’t understand the hurt, so I want to hear the hurt that some people have gone through.”

Although all delegates are asked to attend, the forums are also open to anyone interested in learning more about the joint history of the conferences or participating in conversation about future possibilities.

In preparation for the forums, Franconia Conference has made available digital copies of three chapters of Maintaining the Right Fellowship, Ruth’s history of Franconia and Eastern District conferences.  These chapters describe the circumstances leading up to the 1847 split and the aftermath of the conflict.

These forums are historic, said Ruth, “because there has never been a serious, deliberate dialogue between the two conferences on this problem.”  The current dialogue, he added, could be transformative “because the core of the Gospel we profess is reconciliation.”

Forum One (March 29, 7-9 pm):  In this forum, Franconia Conference historian John Ruth and Eastern District Conference historian Jim Musselman will explore the differences that led to the 1847 split and the birth of the Eastern District.  A time for questions and conferring will be structured into the forum where participants will be invited to consider how this split has impacted our two conferences for the past 165 years.

Forum Two (May 24, 7-9pm): This Forum will focus on the current realities of our conferences.  What are the present-day similarities and differences in the vision and mission of our conferences?  What are the strengths and weakness of our two conferences?  Are there ways the 1847 split continues to cause tension between our conferences?  What have we learned from each other?  What are the next steps for our continuing dialogue?

New fruit, rooted in history at the Mennonite Heritage Center

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by Sarah Heffner, Hereford

The Mennonite Heritage Center, Harleysville, and Eastern Mennonite Seminary cosponsored a class on Anabaptist History and Theology: An Introduction to Basic Themes and Perspectives on four Tuesday evenings in October.  Instructors John Ruth and Steve Kriss and 23 participants considered critical themes running throughout Anabaptist history.

Steve Kriss instructs the Anabaptist history class at the Mennonite Heritage Center. Photo by John Ruth.

The class syllabus described this introduction as “acquainting students with the almost 500-year sweep of Anabaptist/Mennonite history, experience and theological reflection since 1525. This story of a movement and faith communities will be viewed against the background of the spiritual, social, geographical and cultural dimensions both historically and from today’s perspective.”

An ambitious agenda for the four evenings, but an excellent opportunity for participants to ponder what Ruth described as “a small chapter in a specific story with universal meaning”. During the first class, the instructors gave a quick overview of early European Christian history leading up to the Reformation period. From the early beginnings as a persecuted church until Christianity became legitimized as a religion after the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine in the fourth century, the church grew and spread throughout Western Europe. Kriss noted that although the church became rich and institutionalized, it was still the voice of Jesus Christ through the centuries.

Ruth, who has led many trips to the Anabaptist European roots in the Netherlands and the Palatinate, discussed the early European reformers’ objections to the corruption of the official state church during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The religious fervor, persecution and social upheaval of this period led to the development and growth of the Anabaptist churches. Ruth noted that the development of the printing press played an important role in the ability of the common person to learn and study Scripture and theology for themselves. The insularity of the local Mennonite culture began to change with the modern era. “Mennonites of this region were in a thermos bottle for three centuries and their warmth was retained,” Ruth said.

Kriss spoke about the mission effort of the mid to late 20th century as one of Christianity’s major efforts, noting that the mission efforts sometimes lacked in cultural understanding. “We are now in another reforming time,” Kriss said. “The good news goes out even though the church goes through upheaval. How do we play in the global church reality?”

The last evening was spent looking at the global Mennonite story and the rising presence of the global church in local Mennonite conferences. Franconia Conference is growing because of the new immigrant congregations. Kriss noted that we will need to graft the stories of the historic congregations and the new congregations together—the fruit might look different but the harvest is there. The desire is to have our roots planted seriously but with a strong sense of the global community.

Both Kriss and Ruth enjoyed the challenge of teaching this topic. “Teaching with John Ruth is a privilege and challenge,” Kriss noted. “I appreciate his wisdom, wit and experience. In our teaching together, I hope that John and I are able to model the struggle and possibility that exists within our time with respect to history and hope for the future, knowing that we’re living a story still being written by God and that we are characters in this ongoing drama across the generations—of creation, learning and redemption in the way of Christ.”

Pilgrims on a Journey: Exploring Mennonite Spirituality Past and Present

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Saturday, May 31, 2008

triptychforflyer.jpgThe Mennonite Heritage Center of Harleysville, Pa. invites the public to a symposium, Pilgrims on a Journey: Exploring Mennonite Spirituality Past and Present, to be held Saturday, May 31. It will run from from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the the Franconia Mennonite Church fellowship hall, located at 613 Harleysville Pike, Telford, Pa. This will be a time to explore how Pennsylvania Mennonites have wrestled with and expressed their spiritual life over the centuries.

The morning sessions will focus on stories from past generations of Pennsylvania Mennonites. Speakers include scholars and pastors John Rempel, John Ruth and Dawn Ruth Nelson. In the afternoon, several presenters of differing Mennonite/Anabaptist viewpoints will share from their own contemporary spiritual experience. The symposium will end with a panel discussion and time for questions. A catered lunch is included. Registration deadline is May 15, 2008 and the cost is $40. A limited number of scholarships are available. We cordially invite all interested persons to join us for this time of learning and thinking together.

At 7:00 p.m., a worship service, open to the public and free of charge, will be held at Klein’s Meetinghouse, Maple Avenue, Harleysville, Pa. (on the campus of Peter Becker Community). This service will explore the experience of 18th and 19th century Mennonite worship in ritual, song and the spoken word.

More information on the event is available here, or call the Mennonite Heritage Center at (215) 256-3020; www.mhep.org.