Everence participates in Germantown Church of the Brethren tercentenary
Celebration marks 300 years of the Brethren in America
Madalyn Metzger (center), Everence Vice President of Marketing and Church of the Brethren 2024 Annual Conference Moderator, greets Rev. Joel S. Billi (right), President of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) and Mrs. Salamatu Joel Billi (left), EYN Women’s Fellowship Leader and wife of President Billi, at the 300th anniversary celebration of the Germantown Church of the Brethren in Philadelphia. (Photo: Eric Miller/Church of the Brethren.)
Madalyn Metzger, Vice President of Marketing and current Church of the Brethren Annual Conference Moderator, and Leonard Dow, Vice President of Church and Community Engagement, attended the celebration, which was held at the historic Germantown Church of the Brethren.
Other attendees included representatives from many of the U.S.-based Brethren denominations, including the Church of the Brethren, The Brethren Church, Dunkard Brethren Church, Charis Fellowship (Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches), Conservative Grace Brethren Churches International, Covenant Brethren Church, and others from the Old Order German Baptist Brethren heritage. Everence serves members and clients affiliated with many of these denominations and church networks.
Leaders from Ekklesiyar ‘Yan’uwa a Nigeria – EYN (the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) also joined the celebration. EYN, which just celebrated their 100th anniversary, is the largest national Church of the Brethren group in the world, with close to a million members in more than 50 districts, despite regularly experiencing violence, the burning of churches and homes, and the deaths and kidnapping of many members.
Denominations that trace their roots back to the 1708 Schwarzenau Brethren (or German Baptist Brethren) movement consider the Germantown meetinghouse to be their “mother church.” The first Brethren to arrive in colonial America settled in the Germantown area of Pennsylvania, and organized the congregation on Christmas Day, 1723. Initially meeting in church members’ homes, the congregation eventually built the Germantown meetinghouse in 1770.
The Germantown Church of the Brethren is still an active congregation, with community ministries focused on drug prevention, youth engagement, evangelistic outreach, food distribution, and support for the unhoused. The church cemetery is also the final resting place of Alexander Mack, Sr., who is known as the leader and first minister of the Schwarzenau Brethren.
The 300th anniversary celebration also served as the conclusion for the seventh Brethren World Assembly, which is held every five years and sponsored by the Brethren Encyclopedia Project.