Holly Grove Mennonite Church (Westover, Maryland, USA)

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Holly Grove Mennonite Church, Westover, Maryland.
Source: Church web site

The Holly Grove Mennonite Church, Westover, Maryland, USA, is located on the eastern shore of Maryland between the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay. Bishop John S. Mast of Elverson, Pennsylvania, organized the congregation in April 1919 in I. M. Kauffman's home. The first settlers in the area arrived 10 years earlier. Amos Ogden has started a Sunday School in 1917 in a local one-room school.

Bishop Mast from the Conestoga Amish Mennonite Church was part of the Eastern Amish Mennonite Conference, thus this became Holly Grove's first conference affiliation. The congregation erected a wooden meetinghouse in 1920 next to the school site. It enlarged and remodeled that structure in 1951. In time the congregation purchased the former in order to use it as a fellowship hall.

The congregation began the Holly Grove Christian School 1976 with 19 students in grades 2-8. In 1981 it opened a new school building on a lot behind the church. The school began adding grades in 1994 and completed a new high school wing of the school in 2001. At that time it had an enrolment of 550 in 12 grades with a staff of 41. In 2017 it had an enrolment of 565.

In November 2017 Holly Grove withdrew from the Atlantic Coast Conference (a descendant conference of the Eastern Amish conference) and Mennonite Church USA. It subsequently became a member of the Rosedale Network of Churches.

Bibliography

"History." Holly Grove Christian School." 2017. Web. 23 February 2022. https://hgcsweb.com/about#history.

Minnich, Marilyn. "Getting acquainted." Atlantic Coast Conference Currents 7, no. 3 (May-June 1986): 1.

Additional Information

Address: 7333 Mennonite Church Road, Westover, Maryland  

Phone: 410-957-3463

Website: http://www.hollygrovemennonitechurch.org/

Denominational Affiliations: CMC (Conservative Mennonite Conference doing business as CMC)

Pastoral Leaders at Holly Grove Mennonite Church

Name Years
of Service
Visiting Ministers 1919-1922
Aaron Mast (1880-1964) 1922-1933
George M. Hostetler (1883-1951)
(Bishop)
1922-1933
1933-1951
A. Roy Payne (1895-1962) 1933-1938?
Amos C. King (1910-2007) 1936-1963
Abram D. Minnich 1957-1967
1976-1978
1987-1988
Abner G. Miller (1909-2008) 1967-1974
Kenneth G. Good (Interim) (1910-1997) 1975-1976
Nelson H. Lehman (1939-2015) 1978-1982?
Linford King 1982-1987
Kendrick "Jack" Scandrett 1988-1994
Cleo Koop 1995-1996
Earl Sheats 1996-2002
Eric Henderson (Interim) 2002-2003
Nathan T. Stucky (Youth) 1999-2005
Verle A. Brubaker 2003-2010
Colin J. Roynon (Youth) 2006-2010
A. Willard Shertzer (Interim) 2011-2013
James Wengerd 2013-present

Membership at Holly Grove Mennonite Church

Year Membership
1919 27
1930 83
1940 72
1950 74
1960 80
1970 66
1980 81
1990 106
2000 152
2007 93
2020 95

Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article

By Amos C. King. Copied by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 792. All rights reserved.

The Holly Grove Mennonite Church (Mennonite Church USA), located near Westover, Somerset County, Maryland, a member of the Ohio Mennonite Conference, was organized as a congregation of 27 members in April 1919 by Bishop John S. Mast of Elverson, Pennsylvania, in the home of I. M. Kauffman. In 1909 the D. P. Yoder family had settled here with others following from Michigan, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Missouri. The first Sunday school, held in a schoolhouse, was organized by Amos C. Ogburn in 1916. The present structure, enlarged and remodeled in 1951, was erected in 1920.

Those who served the congregation as bishops were John S. Mast and George M. Hostetler; as ministers, Aaron Mast, George M. Hostetler, A. Roy Payne; as deacon, Amos C. Ogburn. Serving in 1954 were Ira A. Kurtz, Amos C. King, and Harold Hostetler.

The membership (1956) was 86.


Author(s) Samuel J Steiner
Date Published February 2022

Cite This Article

MLA style

Steiner, Samuel J. "Holly Grove Mennonite Church (Westover, Maryland, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. February 2022. Web. 31 Oct 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Holly_Grove_Mennonite_Church_(Westover,_Maryland,_USA)&oldid=178422.

APA style

Steiner, Samuel J. (February 2022). Holly Grove Mennonite Church (Westover, Maryland, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 31 October 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Holly_Grove_Mennonite_Church_(Westover,_Maryland,_USA)&oldid=178422.




©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.