220 / Development of Church Life in the Older Congregations

a weekly radio broadcast which was probably the first major Mennonite broadcast. It became known as the Calvary Hour, with Orrville, Ohio, as its headquarters. When Detweiler died in 1956 his twin sons, Robert and William, continued the broadcast, which in the thirty years of its existence has been released over many stations; at this writing the number is thirty-three, including Canadian and foreign stations. Pastors at Oak Grove in recent years were Virgil Gerig and Robert Otto. Presently Lotus Troyer is pastor.

The Oak Grove congregation has had, as already noted, a strong tradition of Amish congregational life. Because of this its members hesitated to join a conference on terms which they felt would interfere with their basic autonomy as a congregation. For many years the relation of the Oak Grove congregation to the conference was tenuous and uncertain. For example, the congregation was not wholeheartedly in favor of the merger of 1927. In 1947 the conference officials reluctantly declared the Oak Grove congregation to be out of conference fellowship because of an alleged irregularity in an ordination procedure. The congregation, it should be noted, affirmed its loyalties to the Mennonite faith, and the conference has since taken steps toward a reconciliation.

At the same time a minority group of the Oak Grove Church met at the Crown Hill Church near Rittman, Ohio, to determine whether it would be possible for them to use the Pleasant Hill Church until the conference made disposition of the Oak Grove situation. At a July 7, 1947, meeting it was decided to confer with the Oak Grove church council regarding this, with the result that the Oak Grove council granted the minority group the privilege of using Pleasant Hill as a place for worship. According William G. Detweiler was installed as pastor and Gerald Studer as assistant in August of 1947. Thus a building which dated from 1880 and which served Oak Grove for many years as an alternate place for worship became the site of another congregation.

In 1958 certain members of the Pleasant Hill congregation erected a new, spacious church building on the eastern edge of Smithville. The present membership of Smithville Mennonite Church is 163 and .the pastor is David Eshleman. The membership at Pleasant Hill is served by Stanford Mumaw.