Upcoming Events
All events are open to the public, and all are free of charge except the banquet (March 20) and the Anabaptism conference (July 22–24).
For events in the Bucher Meetinghouse, use “450 Campus Road, Elizabethtown, PA” in your navigation app. Although not an actual physical address, it will place you close to the entrance of the Young Center parking lot. Then use the building’s main entrance—beside the Young Center sign—to access the meetinghouse.
Thursday, January 16, through Friday, May 16, 2025 • IDEA Lab, High Library
Available to view during library hours
EXHIBIT
Preserving the Stories of Etown Students and Alumni of Color
Since the summer of 2024, the Hess Archives has been conducting oral history interviews with alumni of color and researching student experiences represented in Elizabethtown college's yearbooks, newspapers, and archival collections. Visit this new exhibition to view the oral history interviews and learn more about early BIPOC alumni, influential faculty and staff, student clubs, activism, and much more. The exhibition also features the work of the Elizabethtown Church of the Brethren Racial Justice Working Group, including research on Elizabethtown’s history as a “sundown town” that used various methods, including racial covenants, to keep Blacks from living in the borough in the first half of the twentieth century.
The exhibition includes a display of books available for checkout including titles suggested by the College’s Coalition for Anti-racist Education (CARE) as well as information on Elizabethtown’s Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus Center.
This project was made possible with support from the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies; the Office of Civil Rights, Opportunity, and Access; as well as the Office of Alumni Relations.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025 • 7:00 pm • Bucher Meetinghouse
LECTURE
Welcome to “America’s Refugee Capital”: An Exploration of the Role of Brethren Identity in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Naomi Kraenbring will share early thoughts on themes, interpretation, analysis, and conclusions from her dissertation work, still in progress. Important theological tenets of Anabaptist and Radical Pietist theology have emerged, and she will discuss the influence of religious identity on refugee welcome and resettlement activity as well as the influence of this activity on identity.
Naomi Kraenbring serves as full-time pastor at Elizabethtown Church of the Brethren and also teaches religious studies and peace studies courses as an adjunct faculty member at Elizabethtown College. She holds an MDiv and MA from Bethany Theological Seminary and is pursuing her PhD from the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University.
Wednesday, February 26, 2025 • 7:00 pm • Winters Alcove, High Library
LECTURE
Researching and Recording BIPOC Student History at Elizabethtown College
Students Kalen Tendo and Jordyn Dutko will share their recent research with Archivist Rachel Grove Rohrbaugh on the history of students of color at Elizabethtown College, research showcased in the spring High Library IDEA Lab exhibition, “Preserving the Stories of Etown Students and Alumni of Color.”
Kalen Tendo is a sophomore legal studies major. He completed a Summer Creative Arts and Research Program (SCARP) project in the Hess Archives in summer 2024 and continues to work in the archives. Jordyn Dutko is a history and political science major with a minor in public heritage studies. She joined the project in fall 2024 as the Young Center’s Zeigler Fellow.
Thursday, March 20, 2025 • 6:00 pm • Susquehanna Room of Myer Hall
BANQUET
The annual Young Center dinner gives faculty, staff, students, church leaders, and other friends of the Young Center the opportunity to socialize and learn about the Center’s activities and programs. A reception for Durnbaugh Lecturer John D. Roth begins at 5:30; the dinner begins at 6:00.
Parking is available at the Elizabethtown Church of the Brethren, 777 S. Mt. Joy Street. Enter the parking lot from Cedar Street.
Registration for the banquet will open in early 2025.
Thursday, March 20, 2025 • 7:00 pm • Susquehanna Room of Myer Hall
DURNBAUGH LECTURE
The Bible as a Source of Renewal (and Conflict) in Anabaptism and Pietism
Both the Anabaptist and Pietist movements emerged out of a conviction that Scripture was not only authoritative for Christian faith and life but also accessible to ordinary lay people. By challenging inherited assumptions that restricted biblical interpretation to a small group of elites—scholars, ordained clergy, or church-appointed guardians of tradition—Anabaptism and Pietism played a significant role in "democratizing" biblical hermeneutics. But that same impulse, central to the origin and identity of these movements, also provided a resource for later renewal movements to make similar claims, often leading to schisms and ongoing uncertainty about the nature of ecclesial authority. In this lecture, John Roth examines the question, What is the role of the Bible today among the heirs of the Anabaptist and Pietist traditions?
John D. Roth serves as project director for Anabaptism at 500, an initiative of MennoMedia, and as the general editor of the Anabaptist Community Bible. He is professor of history emeritus at Goshen (IN) College, where he also served as director of the Mennonite Historical Library and the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism, and as editor of Mennonite Quarterly Review. Roth has published widely on topics related to Anabaptist-Mennonite history and church life, and has served with Mennonite World Conference in a variety of roles, including participation in ecumenical dialogues with Lutheran, Catholic, and Reformed church leaders.
Copies of the Anabaptist Community Bible will be available for sale at the lecture.
Parking for the Durnbaugh Lecture is available at the Elizabethtown Church of the Brethren, 777 S. Mt. Joy Street. Enter the parking lot from Cedar Street.
Friday, March 21, 2025 • 9:30 am–noon • Susquehanna Room of Myer Hall
DURNBAUGH SEMINAR
Introducing (and Reading!) the Anabaptist Community Bible: An Interactive Seminar
The Anabaptist movement emerged in the sixteenth century when a group of young people gathered around Scripture and were transformed as they asked new questions about its relevance for their day. Over the past 500 years, the Bible has continued to sustain and renew Anabaptist faith communities, including the Church of the Brethren and the Mennonites. Rooted in this tradition, the Anabaptist Community Bible is an invitation to read Scripture together as a living text that continues to transform lives. This interactive workshop. led by John Roth, will introduce the Anabaptist Community Bible as a unique resource for a fresh encounter with Scripture.
Copies of the Anabaptist Community Bible will be available for sale at the seminar.
Parking for the Durnbaugh Seminar is available at the Elizabethtown Church of the Brethren, 777 S. Mt. Joy Street. Enter the parking lot from Cedar Street.
Thursday, April 3, 2025 • 7:00 pm • Bucher Meetinghouse
BROWN BOOK AWARD LECTURE
Debating Sustainability: Mennonite Settlers, NGO Agronomists, and Agribusinessmen
How do farmers think about the sustainability practices they pursue, and where do those ideas come from? In this talk drawing on Mennonite Farmers: A Global History of Place and Sustainability and on subsequent research that extends beyond the seven communities examined in that book, Royden Loewen will consider transnational flows of agricultural knowledge, as agronomists, agribusinessmen, and ordinary Mennonite farmers debate the merits and methods of sustainability in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Canada, and southern Africa.
Royden Loewen is professor emeritus of history at the University of Winnipeg and the author of ten books, including most recently, Mennonite Farmers: A Global History of Place and Sustainability (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021). His current research focuses on transnational flows of agricultural knowledge and Canadian farmers in global context.
Copies of Mennonite Farmers will be available for sale and signing after the lecture.
Tuesday, April 15, 2025 • 7:00 pm • Bucher Meetinghouse
KREIDER LECTURE
Negotiating the Kingdoms: Pluralism, Plain Communities, and State Power in the Twenty-First Century
Ongoing clashes between state authorities and Plain communities reveal fundamental tensions between religious liberty and civil obligations. Such encounters—including ongoing disputes over slow-moving vehicle emblems and highly publicized conflicts over wastewater treatment technologies—demonstrate how citizens of pluralistic societies negotiate competing imperatives (those rooted in sacred authority against those anchored to the state’s sovereign mandates). These conflicts illuminate profound differences among Anabaptist communities. Drawing on his research at the Young Center, Colyer’s lecture will explore how different Anabaptist affiliations approach these challenges, suggesting broader insights about religious freedom and state power in modern America.
Corey Colyer is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at West Virginia University. His research examines how individuals and communities negotiate institutional power in modern pluralistic societies. His work explores the dynamic interplay between structural constraint and human freedom, revealing the possibilities and limits of personal agency in institutional settings.
July 22–24, 2025
CONFERENCE
Early Anabaptism in Global Perspective
This conference marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of Anabaptism, giving special attention to the global context in which Anabaptism emerged and spread. Presentations will also consider the global reception of Anabaptist history today, particularly in light of the diffusion of Anabaptist traditions around the world. Early Anabaptist history has figured prominently as a resource for global churchly identity through scholarship, teaching, and preaching.
Videos of Past Events