Bethany Mennonite Church (Quakertown, Pennsylvania, USA)

Bethany Mennonite Church (General Conference Mennonite) of Quakertown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was a member of the Eastern District Conference. On 27 December 1898 a group of Mennonites living in Quakertown met in St. Paul's Evangelical Church for the purpose of taking preliminary steps toward organizing a congregation. This organization was finally effected at another meeting on 2 January 1899. Services had previously been held occasionally in the St. Paul's church, but action was now taken to have regular services. Later in the same year the above building was purchased and remodeled. The Sunday school, organized in 1895, and the Young People's Society, organized in 1897, antedated the congregation and gave impetus to its organization.

Ministers and their terms of service (to 1953) were A. B. Shelly, 1899-1913; Harvey G. Allebach, 1913-1921; P. E. Frantz, 1922-1925; Seward M. Rosenberger, 1925-1929; Arthur S. Rosenberger, 1930-1934; A. J. Neuenschwander, 1939-1949 and Wilmer B. Denlinger. Deacons and their terms of service were U. S. Stauffer, 1899-1936; Daniel W. Landis, 1899-1925; A. G. Moyer, 1926-1934; Milton R. Strunk, 1935-1945; John K. Boorse, 1937- and Robert M. Landis, 1946- .

The membership in 1908 was 62, and in 1953 was 156. The common names in the 1950s were Shelly, Boorse, Landis, Moyer, George, and Martin.

The Bethany congregation merged with the Flatland Mennonite Church to form the United Mennonite Church at 180 West Thatcher Road, Quakertown. The latter congregation withdrew from the Eastern District in 2002 and became a founding member of the Alliance of Mennonite Evangelical Congregations, a conservative group of congregations opposed to the theological diversity within the new Mennonite Church USA.

Bibliography

Alliance of Mennonite Evangelical Congregations. Untitled page. 2004. Accessed 28 December 2006. <http://www.aemc2000.org/main/gettingstarted.html>

"History of the Bethany Congregation." Mennonite Yearbook and Almanac (1902).

"Bethany Church." Mennonite Yearbook and Almanac (1926).

Wenger, J. C. History of the Mennonites of the Franconia Conference. Telford, PA: Franconia Mennonite Historical Society, 1937. Reprinted [Pennsylvania]: Publication Board of the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church, 1985.

Author(s)	J. Herbert Fretz
Date Published	1953

Cite This Article

MLA style

Fretz, J. Herbert. "Bethany Mennonite Church (Quakertown, Pennsylvania, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1953. Web. 24 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bethany_Mennonite_Church_(Quakertown,_Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=54558.

APA style

Fretz, J. Herbert. (1953). Bethany Mennonite Church (Quakertown, Pennsylvania, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bethany_Mennonite_Church_(Quakertown,_Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=54558.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 304. All rights reserved.

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