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Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society
1 week ago
Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society

Eden Seminary Archives | #tbt in Eden History
May 15 | Otto Dibelius

Friedrich Karl Otto Dibelius, prominent 20th century German Protestant churchman and bishop known for opposing Nazis and Communist totalitarianism, was born on May 15, 1880, in Berlin.
Dibelius was one of the few German Church leaders with long-term connections to the Evangelical Synod. In 1921, he visited the denomination’s General Conference. The Eden Archives has correspondence between Dibelius and Evangelical Synod president John Baltzer (1920-28). He recorded his impressions of the denomination in a recently discovered 1922 publication.
In 1933, Eden Theological Seminary awarded Dibelius an honorary Doctor of Divinity. His friends in the Evangelical Synod hoped that this additional public attention would protect him at a time when he was publicly confronting the Nazi government. His 1947 speaking tour of the U.S. was sponsored by the Evangelical & Reformed Church and the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ.
After receiving a doctorate in theology from the University of Berlin in 1901 and seminary study, Dibelius rose rapidly through the German Protestant hierarchy, writing numerous articles and books on theology, Church history and the Church’s role in society. His book, Das Jahr-hundert der Kirchen [The Church’s Century] (1927), was one of the most widely read books on the Church in Germany.
Many blamed Germany’s political and economic turmoil after its defeat in WWI on the punitive Treaty of Versailles, communists, and the Jews. Dibelius was a political conservative and a member of the German National People’s Party, a nationalist and antisemitic political organization whose members transferred their support to the Nazi Party after Hitler took office in 1933. Dibelius’ own diocesan newsletter and sermons during these years include numerous antisemitic and pro-NSP statements.
Dibelius’s opposition to Hitler began when the government attempted to assert its control over the German Protestant churches in July 1933. The Prussian Church had been a state church until 1919, when the Weimar Republic replaced the monarchy. Church organizations were given the freedom to conduct themselves free from government interference, a change that Dibelius believed would allow the Church to become the ethical voice of society. When the Nazi government installed Ludwig Muller as Reichsbischof of the newly created and unified German Christian Church, Dibelius joined Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Niemoller and others in forming the underground “Confessing Church.” Dibelius was arrested three times in 1933 but managed to avoid punishment.
In 1945, Dibelius became Bishop of Berlin and Brandenburg, an area that included the divided city and surrounding areas within the communist German Democratic Republic (GDR). His anti-communist sermons and diocesan newsletter articles created ongoing tensions with the GDR authorities. He was barred from preaching in areas outside of Berlin in 1957 and restricted only to West Berlin after construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. He continued to serve as bishop until 1966 and died on Jan. 31, 1967, in West Berlin.
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Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society is feeling excited.
3 weeks ago
Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society

As we prepare for Heritage Sunday on June 12, 2022 the Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society would like to share with you film footage from the 1934 merger celebration of the Evangelical Synod of North America and the Reformed Church in the United States. This historic event took place on June 26, 1934 at Zion's Evangelical Church at W. 14th and Branch Streets in Cleveland, Ohio.

In this video, you will witness part of this historic event. At seven o'clock on the evening of June 26, 1934, the delegates of the two conferences - 65 ministers and an equal number of laymen representing 21 districts of the Evangelical Synod, and 120 ministers and 93 elders representing 56 of the 58 classes of the Reformed Church - came from opposite directions to meet at the door of Zion's Evangelical Church. Then in pairs they entered the sanctuary where in joint session and by joint resolution they declared that the union of the churches had been duly effected. The presidents of the churches and the chairmen of the committees on union, Paul Press and Louis W. Goebel for the Evangelical Synod and Henry J. Christman and George W. Richards for the Reformed Church, led the uniting processions and presided over the final formal enactments.

Source: Dunn, D., Cursius, P.N., Frideli, J., Menzel, T.W., Schneider, C.W., Toth, W., & Wagner, J.E. (1961). A history of the Evangelical and Reformed Church. Philadelphia, PA: The Christian Education Press.
youtu.be/0n3nyPT1XOw
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Looks like an Eden and Lancaster merger. Women were more predominant from one side.

Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society
3 weeks ago
Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society

Eden Seminary Archives | #tbt in Eden History
May 1 | Herman A. Feierabend

Herman August Julius Feierabend, long-time missionary in Central India, was born on a farm in Grey Eagle Township, Todd County, Minnesota on May 1, 1889. After attending a county school, he was sent at age 14 to Minneapolis for further education. There he received religious instruction and was confirmed at St. John’s Evangelical Church. Back home his family pastor encouraged him to attend Elmhurst College and become a minister. While at Elmhurst he felt a calling to become a foreign missionary and joined the campus branch of the Student Volunteer Movement.

The interdenominational Student Volunteer Movement was founded in 1888 with the slogan “the evangelization of the world in this generation.” In its efforts to support the Western missionary movement, the Student Volunteer Movement encouraged students to commit to foreign mission work through national gatherings and supported their commitment through publications and campus chapters. At its peak in the early 1920s, half of all new missionaries leaving the U.S. for their assignments had made a commitment as a student.

Feierabend entered Eden in 1909, where he met other students preparing for missionary work. The members of the Eden chapter of the Student Volunteer Movement included Theophil Twente, Theodore Seybold, and Hans Koenig, all of whom became missionaries in India. In June 1912, the Evangelical Synod Board of Foreign Missions commissioned Feierabend, and he arrived in Raipur, Central Providences, India on Oct. 30. His first assignments were in Hindu-speaking areas at Sakti and Mahasamund, the latter a large region of approximately 3,600 square miles. His transportation options included an oxcart and a bicycle! When he returned to the U.S. in 1921, he married Marie Nottrott, a deaconess sister at the Evangelical Hospital in St. Louis.

The Feierabends returned to India where they started a new ministry to the Oriya people. Herman’s responsibility was to evangelize and support the small but growing churches that resulted. Marie used her nurse’s training to provide basic medical care. For many years, Herman, Marie, and their growing family traveled through the Oriya region in oxcarts—and later a truck—camping outside villages while preaching, distributing literature, and providing medicine to the inhabitants. In 1940, they took over the mission work at Parsabhader, continuing until they retired in 1957.

During their forty-five years of ministry, the world had changed. Two world wars had indirect impacts on their work, and the Indian-led church took over much over their work. Increased sensitivity to the Western cultural baggage that often accompanied the work of missionaries required the Feierabends to rethink their approaches to ministry.

After retiring from the mission field, the Feierabends returned to the U.S., where Herman served Friedens UCC in Farina, Ill.. After three years, they moved to Nashville, Illinois. Herman died at home suddenly on September 23, 1971. Marie died May 12, 1992 in St. Louis.

The life and work of Herman A. and Marie Nottrott Feierabend are described in Life of a Jungle Missionary: Herman August Feierabend—A Biography by Herbert H. Feierabend (North Freedom, Wis.: H.H. Feierabend, 1999), available for check out in the Eden-Webster Library collection at call no. EDEN STORED BV3269.FD4 F4 1999. A copy can also be viewed in the archives.
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Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society
4 weeks ago
Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society

#tbt in Eden History
April 24 | Incorporation of the Evangelical Deaconess Society of St. Louis

St. Louis was the fourth largest city in the U.S. in 1889, rich with many important businesses and cultural institutions but—as with other many fast-growing cities during this period—burdened with poor sanitation, inadequate social services, and blighted housing. Medical care was primitive, even for those who could afford to pay. Most people attended to sick family members at home. The quality of care at City Hospital (founded 1846) was poor, and non-English speaking patients often felt unwelcome.

The members of the St. Louis Evangelical Pastor’s Association recognized the need for better medical care. Although Good Samaritan Hospital had been established in 1857 as a private venture by Pastor Louis Nollau to address this need, more effort was necessary. The pastors looked to the example of the Deaconess Home and Hospital in Kaiserswerth, Germany for a possible solution. Here, single women dedicated their lives to providing health care to the needy people while living in a supportive religious community.

The decision was made to organize the Evangelical Deaconess Society of St. Louis at a public meeting on March 18, 1889, and articles of association accepted, and a board of directors elected on April 24. The composition of the board was to include at least four women, which was unusual for a time. The purpose of the Society was 1) to nurse the sick and exercise care for the poor and aged by deaconesses, and 2) to found and support a home where deaconesses would be educated and trained.

An eleven-room house at 2119 Eugenia was secured to serve as a home and hospital for deaconess work. Mrs. Katherine Haack, a widow and her daughter, Lydia Daries, were consecrated as the first deaconess sisters. Prominent physicians Drs. Henry Summa, A. F. Bock, Arthur E. Ewing, and John Green, Sr. offered their services to treat patients in the new Evangelical Deaconess Home. Improved facilities were built at 4117 West Belle Place in 1893 and subsequently replaced by a new hospital at 6150 Oakland Ave. in 1930.

The number of St. Louis deaconess sisters peaked in 1937 at 144. Although the number of women entering the sisterhood declined rapidly after that, enrollment in the nursing school grew rapidly after its founding in 1942. Despite an intensive effort, deaconess recruitment ended in the mid-1950s when it was determined that young women desired nursing as a career but no longer wanted to live in deaconess communities. The last deaconess was consecrated in 1949. Deaconess sisters continued to teach in the nursing school and work in the hospital until their retirement.

The changing landscape of healthcare and healthcare funding led to a decision to sell the hospital to Tenant Corp. in 1997. Funds from the sale continue to support the Deaconess Foundation’s mission to strive for the wellbeing of children in the St. Louis metropolitan area. The Deaconess School of Nursing was sold to Chamberlain University in 2005.

Like many other Evangelical Synod institutions, Eden seminary maintained a close relationship with Deaconess Hospital. Eden graduates served as hospital directors and chaplains, the hospital provided practical educational opportunities for Eden students, and the seminary provided classes in religion and theology for Deaconess School of Nursing students.
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Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society
1 month ago
Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society

Eden Seminary Archives | #tbt in Eden History
April 12 | The Evangelical Synod Board of Foreign Missions

The Evangelical Synod Board of Foreign Missions incorporated in 1922. The foreign missionary work of the Evangelical Synod of North America began when the German Evangelical Synod of N.A. assumed the support and administration of the existing German Evangelical Mission in India on May 20, 1884. A denominational board, Die Heidenmissions-Behörde, was created to do this work.

Through the following decades, the mission effort in India expanded, even during the turmoil of World War I. When the Board of Foreign Mission began to expand its workload by developing a second mission field in Honduras, it seemed desirable to alter its status “into an entity separate from and independent of, but still affiliated with the German Evangelical Synod of North America, in order that said Board for Foreign Mission may perform acts on its own account independently of, but in accordance with the canons of the German Evangelical Synod of North America” (Bd. of Foreign Missions of the Evangelical Synod of North America, Minutes, Oct. 18, 1921). The official act of incorporation took place on April 12, 1922 in Baltimore, Maryland
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