BRETHREN-L Archives

Archiver > BRETHREN > 2003-01 > 1043754366


From: "Cheryll Reed" <>
Subject: RE: [BRE] Is he Brethren?
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 06:46:06 -0500
In-Reply-To: <BA5B6371.24558%kmoyer@marauder.millersville.edu>


Thank you so much! I've been struggling for several years to get a
handle on how all these similarly named denominations fit together.
Where do the Seventh Day Baptists figure in? Is there a relationship
with the German Baptists?

I find it very interesting that the Hagerstown/Frederick area is the
scene for quite a number of spiritual events or movements. We have the
Snow Hill organization (SDB) just a handful of miles north of the Pa.
line in Franklin County, the UB church and the large Roman Catholic
community (not to mention Elizabeth Seton) in Hagerstown and Frederick,
and what appears to be several important Quaker meeting houses
throughout the area. Ephrata Cloister is only a stone's throw away. Am
I only noticing this because so much of my research is based in that
area?

-----Original Message-----
From: MARAUDER [mailto:]
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 10:30 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [BRE] Is he Brethren?


> Charley Atkinson died, Sunday morning. He was an active member of the
> U.B. Church, and was well known among the people with whom he had done

> business on the road for 35 years. Early last winter he suffered an
> attack of something in the nature of paralysis, from which he never
> recovered. There was good, old-fashioned, congregational singing at
> the funeral of Charley Atkinson at Otterbein, last Monday. Some of the

> old-time songs were sung. Rev. Kalley preached a good discourse.
>
>
> Would he be considered Brethren?

No, he was of the United Brethren in Christ Church, commonly known
simply as the "United Brethren" or "U.B." church, founded by Philip
Otterbein and Martin Boehm in 1800 at either Frederick or Hagerstowbn MD
-- I forget which city. The denomination was the result of a remarkable
meeting of the two at Long's barn north of Lancaster PA many, many years
earlier. The group eventually merged (1946) with the Evangelical
Church to
become the Evangelical United Brethren Church and then in the '60's with
the Methodists to become the United Methodist Church. The chief
archives for old-time U.B. materials is now at the U.M. archives at Drew
U., Madison NJ, but many records are also found elsewhere.

The Brethren (or more properly Church of the Brethren, or in older
times the "German Baptist Church" or "Dunkard Church") was and is
anabaptist and
came from Germany, with Alexander Mack an important early founder. By
contrast, the U. B. church was rather "Methodist" in orientation despite
Martin Boehm's background as Mennonite.

Karl E. Moyer
Lacnaster PA

______________________________

This thread: