You could call it musical theater… or a musical review. Or a very entertaining history lecture. Wendy Chappell-Dick has set to music carefully archived, 100 year old COMMITTEE MINUTES into a lively dramatic production, to make you laugh and cry. Seriously, though, it’s hilarious. Join us for a review of 100 years of hymns and pop songs that trace our changing culture and evolving theology. Come to celebrate and learn, and be prepared to sing along! Scroll down for YouTube videos of each song or visit my YouTube channel for the playlist here.
The year was 1918 and the First Mennonite Church building was only 12 years old. The women of First Mennonite were already part of the larger Mennonite women’s community – a group that had been meeting at least once each year for an all-day sewing. Sometimes the women met at Ebenezer, at other times at St. John, Grace, or Bluffton.
But, by 1918, each church had a strong-enough membership for each church’s women’s group to hold its own meeting in its own church building and work on its own projects. So the ladies of Bluffton First Mennonite drew up a constitution and organized their own Women’s Missionary Society. Their first president was Mrs. E. J. Hirschler, wife of a Bluffton College professor (the grandmother of Marilyn Bishop). -Joanne Niswander
Joanne Niswander, our narrator
They that Wait Upon the Lord 1953 (with tune My Boyfriend’s Back 1963, The Angels)
Earth and all Stars 1964 (with tune Last Thing on my Mind, 1964, Tom Paxton)
Now is the Time to Worship 2010 (with tune All the Single Ladies, 2008, Beyoncé)
Great is the Lord 1982 (with tune Hard for Me to say I’m Sorry, 1982, Chicago)
For the Fruit of All Creation 1970 (with tune Let it Be, 1970, The Beatles)
Great is Thy Faithfulness 1923 (with tune Bye Bye Blackbird 1926, Henderson/Dixon)
Shop MCC!
Lord of our Growing years 1982/1990 (with tune And so It Goes, 1989 Billy Joel)
Come, now is the time to worship!
(all the Menno Ladies)
Move in our Midst 1942 (with tune Every Time we Say Goodbye 1944, Cole Porter)
Today we are celebrating 100 years of a women’s service organization at Bluffton First Mennonite Church. Thanks to those who went before us, and kept a record of what they did, and saved those records in the college archives, we have been able to reconstruct much of that 100-year history. That is what we’re going to share with you today.
But first, a little preparation by you, our audience.
We will look at our history by decades – celebrating each 10 years with some stories, songs and hymns from each particular decade. You will help us sing the hymns. All of those hymns will be from our regular Mennonite Hymnary – except for the last one which will be from Sing the Journey. Our soloists and ensemble will sing new words to a popular song from that same decade, words that explain some of the projects that our women were involved in.
At a meeting on March 6, 1919, the minutes tell us that “Ms. Fred Gratz was appointed President of the Refugees Relief Committee – twenty dresses were made.”
(unquote) These dresses were for Belgian and French refugees of World War I.
In October of that same year, 1919, we read, “Some tomatoes were canned for the Rescue Home in Lima and the society voted to pay for the cost in doing the work. The amount was 75 cents.” (unquote)
Here is the list of items made during the all-day sewing on March, 1920: 6 large and 2 small comforters, 4 large dresses, 3 aprons, 5 petticoats, 2 boys waists, 8 white baby dresses, 13 gingham dresses for children, 3 drawers, 4 suspenders, 6 boys pants, 1 middy suit, 1 sheet and 3 pillow slips. Some of these were sent to a mission in Altoona Pennsylvania, others to the Chicago Mission.”
The sewing project for the following year, 1921 was for Champa, India. Two years later, $75.00 worth of clothing went for Russian Relief. And in 1925, clothing was sent to “Russian immigrants in Canada.”
God is Working his Purpose Out 1931 (with tune Brother can You Spare a Dime? 1930, Harburg/Gorney)
‘Cause if you like it than you should have put a quilt on it
Photos by J Tyler Klassen
Reflections from Researcher, Archivist and Narrator Joanne Niswander
It began as a request to do a little research. With another anniversary coming up – that of 100 years for our church’s women’s organizations – it’s time to celebrate another milestone.
The college archives has a treasure-trove of material from our church’s history, and part of that is an extensive chronicle of what the various women’s groups did during the past 100 years… box after box of meeting minutes and records. One hundred years of “mite boxes” and counting tax stamps, Christmas Bundles and wrapping bandages, missionary boxes and school kits.
Sorting through a century of records tells a story of changing times, changing needs. Famine in India, displaced Mennonites in Europe and South America, Russian immigrants in Canada. Mennonite Memorial Home and Bible School for migrants. Camp Friedenswald and Chicago Learning Center.
Through it all, Mennonite Women continue to meet and serve.
Reflections from Writer and Arranger Wendy Chappell-Dick
Hymns, like our understanding of mission and theology, are not made in a vacuum, but are part of the great arc of history.
These songs take us through the decades as a poignant guide. Each hymn verse has been chosen carefully for the message of inspiration the lyrics have for us, and undoubtedly held for the women of that decade. The music serves as a reflection of waves of cultural and social events that shook, challenged and sometimes strengthened Mennonite Women’s understanding of the church, and their role in the world.
The founders of our women’s organizations dared to claim a role specific to women at First Mennonite, and honor its importance. Our Mennonite Women group has come through years when their work sometimes felt futile, exuberant decades of high turnout, and times of self-reflection and even doubt, to emerge victorious and vibrant 100 years later. All the Menno ladies- put your quilts up! We’re ready for the next 100 years.
Mennofolk Music 