The "Anabaptists Arrival In Lancaster County: Part lI - The Mellinger Congregation; Angels On Earth!" Story

The Mellinger Mennonite Church on Lincoln Highway East.

It was an ordinary day.  Snapping a few photographs of Mellinger Mennonite Church at 1916 Lincoln Highway East in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  The Mellinger congregation was established in 1717 when a number of Mennonites settled near Mill Creek, southwest of Lancaster City.  One cluster of Mennonites was in the Millstream watershed, and that's what evolved into the Mellinger congregation.  The "Mellinger" name came from Martin Mellinger who was a prominent member of the church.  

An early photograph of the Mellinger Mennonite Church.

He arrived in the United States in 1772, five years after the first meeting- house had been built near the site of the current church.  He was soon ordained as a deacon in the church and became a well-known leader in the Mennonite church.  He was credited with helping coordinate the hymnal - Ein Unpartheyisches Gesangbuch - which was published in 1894.  Old Order Mennonites still use this version of the hymnal.  Tragedy struck his personal life when both his wife and child died.  The farmland that sits next to the church I am standing near was where the first meetinghouse, known as the Mellinger Meetinghouse, once stood.  

A series of date stones tell the story of
the Mellinger Mennonite Church.

Then in 1812 a group from the Mellinger congregation broke away and formed a new congregation known as the Longenecker Meetinghouse.  Mellinger congregation still is strong today with 370 members and it, along with the Groffdale congregation, is celebrating 300 years of existence.  The congregation has a Parent and Preschool Center along with the Emmaus Road Cafe which is part of the church's outreach program.  The cafe was started to share the good news of Jesus and to be a Christian presence in the community.  Mennonites left Europe years ago because they were persecuted for refusing to be part of the Swiss Reformed Church which insisted on infant baptism.  Anabaptists believe that baptism is valid only when a person confesses his or her faith in Christ.  In the past few years there has been healing between the Anabaptists, Lutherans and Catholics.  

The side of the church away from the highway shows
beautiful windows and stonework.

The Mennonites realize that they need to recognize their history of perse- cution, but also need to recognize there has been reconcilia- tion to move forward.  The Mellinger Mennonite Cemetery is located at 11 Greenfield Road, across Lincoln Highway from the church.  It holds many generations of Mennonite families, but it also holds the bodies of the "unclaimed" in Lancaster County which I find to be a remarkable gesture of compassion and spiritual giving to the community of Lancaster County.  

The stone tells the story of the cemetery.

In the Sunday, August 27, 2017 edition of the local newspaper was a story telling of Noah and Pauline Zimmer- man, a funeral director and a few men who had backed a truck carrying 600 bags of cremated human remains to the edge of a freshly dug hole in the cemetery on Greenfield Road.  600 bags of cremated remains that no one had claimed as family or friends and who were going to be buried along with others who also were unwanted for one reason or another or whose relatives or friends couldn't afford to have them buried.  But yet the Mellinger congregation was willing to allow these bags of human remains to be buried in their cemetery.  

The plot where the unclaimed remains were buried.

Until the remains are buried in the cemetery they are stored on shelves in the Lancaster County morgue where they sit, in black cardboard boxes, on shelves arranged according to year of death.  No tears shed and no family watching as the dirt is thrown on the remains.  How hard it must be for those who dig the hole and place the bags into the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust!  My guess is that the Mennonite operators of the cemetery say a silent prayer for those lost souls that will be put to eternal rest in their cemetery.  After all, anyone with a name such as Noah, would have to say a graveside prayer before shoveling the dirt into the hole.  Those from the Mellinger congregation who give of their time and effort to those in need are true Angels.  God Bless Them All!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.