Midway to host event Sunday

Midway Mennonite Church to host celebration Sunday

Staff report

COLUMBIANA

The Mennonites of eastern Ohio will mark 200 years since their first church building in 1815.

A celebration is planned at 2 p.m. Sunday at Midway Mennonite Church, 13376 Columbiana-Canfield Road (state Route 46 north of Columbiana).

There will be singing, historical displays, storytelling, hayrides, children’s activities and a carry-in evening meal.

The public is invited as seven area Mennonite congregations recall their spiritual roots, the spiritual legacy of two centuries of faith and life in Columbiana and Mahoning counties, and look at what it means to be followers of Jesus in our world.

Those wishing to participate in the evening meal are asked to contact the church office at 330-482-3135.

Also participating are Leetonia Mennonite, North Lima Mennonite, Berean Christian Fellowship of Leetonia, Berean Fellowship Church of Youngstown, Mount Joy Mennonite Church of rural Leetonia and Maple Grove Mennonite of New Castle, Pa.

Mennonites from western Virginia and eastern Pennsylvania settled in Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties in the early 1800s.

The first permanent settlement of Mennonites in the U.S. was in what is now the Germantown section of Philadelphia in 1683.

Mennonite history goes back to the 16th-century Protestant Reformation.

In Switzerland, the Reformed movement headed by Ulrich Zwingli attracted some who were ready to follow the New Testament in matters of faith and practice more radically than Lutherans and Reformed. Infant baptism was an issue.

A group in Zurich understood baptism in the New Testament to be for believers.

On Jan. 21, 1525, in violation of the decree of the town council, a baptism of adults took place.

That was deemed a re-baptism, and that group was then labeled as “Anabaptists,” meaning “again-baptizers.”

Intense persecution followed.

For 25 years, Menno Simons, a religious leader, taught and wrote.

His followers were called Mennonites.

This wing of the Reformation spread in Europe, and by the early 1700s Mennonites also came to North America.

Today Mennonite World Conference includes 1.77 million baptized believers in 83 countries in six continents.

Midway Mennonite Church cooperates with other local congregations of the South Range Council of Church and Community (3Cs).

It is launching a “God’s Choice” worship service for special needs peoples and their caregivers in collaboration with the Upper Room Fellowship on Sept. 22 at the Upper Room. Midway’s worship service is 10:30 a.m. weekly; Jesse Johnson is pastor.