Mennonite Church Artifacts

In the basement of the Good Library at Goshen College, there is a small art gallery.  At the moment, the exhibit is entitled “Going to Church: Objects Representing Mennonite Congregations.”  I visited this showcase, expecting to see a host of sights familiar to me from my home-church in Pennsylvania.  There were many things that met these expectations; baptism pitchers, friendship quilts, antique pews, and even a commemorative plate from the church I grew up in.  These items were interesting for several reasons.  For one, they showed an astonishing link to the past.  Offering plates from 100 years ago look pretty much the same as they do nowadays.

However, what really fascinated me was the diversity of church buildings from around the world.  I had imagined all Mennonite churches to incorporate the wide and plain meetinghouse design that seems so normal to me, from what I've seen in Pennsylvania and Indiana (apart from worldly churches like mine, that dare erect a steeple).  Most of the variety was found in the Russian Mennonite tradition and the churches in Europe.

There were photographs of a forest in Langenau, Germany where Anabaptists met during persecution, and later built the oldest surviving Mennonite church.  The churches in Amsterdam also looked completely foreign to me.  They were built into city blocks, and appear to be apartment buildings (to my untrained eye) from the outside.  The Dutch/Prussian/Russian Mennonite tradition also surprised me with their elaborate pulpit designs, that are reminiscent of high-church protestant constructions.

In addition to these photos and artifacts, there are a number of paintings and scale models of Old Order Mennonite churches in Goshen.  It is a delightful exhibit.