Written by Kaden Wagner ‘24
Legal Studies Major
Elizabethtown College’s Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies will host Visiting Fellow Jonathan R. Stayer for the annual Kreider Lecture on Tuesday, April 5 at 7 p.m. at the Bucher Meetinghouse. Stayer will give a lecture titled, “The Unknown Story of Naming the Brethren in Christ” and will take a deeper look into historical accounts, newspapers, church sources, and government records of the Brethren in Christ.
This lecture will be held in person and live-streamed on Zoom.
“My Lecture will focus on how the name-change story unfolded over time, when the name “Brethren in Christ” came into common usage, what ways an understanding of the Civil War drafts impacts this investigation, and planning for future research,” Stayer said. “If the National Archives reopens before the date of my presentation and if I uncover pertinent documents, I also will discuss the results of those findings.”
Stayer seeks to explain to his audience the curious nature of the name and background of the name for the Brethren in Christ church. He will explore the previous name for the church, the River Brethren, and will also explore the claims of Carlton Wittlinger, who said that Brethren in Christ had to classify themselves as a nonresistant organization in response to the Civil War. However, the United States did not require Peace Churches to register at that time.
Stayer was supervisor of reference services at the Pennsylvania State Archives when he retired in 2019 after 35 years of employment. He is vice president of the South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society (SCPGS) and volunteers at the History Center and the State Archives.
This event is made possible by the Kreider Fellowship and the generosity of alumni Carrol Kreider ’60 and J. Kenneth ’61.