Home
CONGREGATIONAL VIGNETTES 2000--COLLECTING OURSELVES
Have you ever wondered what a Sunday morning service in 1900 was actually like? What did people wear? How did the singing sound and what types of songs were sung? How were services structured? What was the tone and focus of a sermon in 1900? In short, what was day-to-day and week-to-week congregational life like for most Mennonites 100 years ago?
We would have better answers to these questions if someone had saved more records. Today, with easy access to technology and with an increased interest in the lives of ordinary people, we can preserve records that will give future historians opportunities to know what Mennonite congregational life was like in 2002.
Congregational Vignettes 2002 is a special project sponsored by the Historical Committee of the Mennonite Church. This project will preserve a detailed record of a cross-section of Mennonite congregations by systematically collecting historically relevant material from up to thirty congregations during the year 2002.
Many congregations already collect material to be placed in an archives, but this project will focus on collecting more material and collecting it more deliberately. Most details of day-to-day and week-to-week life of a congregation are currently not saved and this project will do that by preserving a complete picture of events as varied as Sunday morning worship, potluck dinners, weddings, funerals, and church council meetings.
If you are interested in becoming part of this project, contact John Sharp by phone (219-535-7477) or by e-mail (johnes@goshen.edu). Selected congregations will be given instructions on how to begin the project.
Mennonite Historical Bulletin, April 2001