Upcoming Events
All events are open to the public, and all are free of charge.
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.
Tuesday, November 11, 2025 • 7 pm • Bucher Meetinghouse
LECTURE
Living Our Song: The Music of Andy and Terry Murray
Andy and Terry Murray—renowned Church of the Brethren musicians and influential theological storytellers—have spent decades blending rich harmonies with deep spiritual insight, using music to pass on essential tenets of Brethren theology, faith, and practice: heroes “never carry a gun,” pick up a “shovel instead of a gun,” and “one person at a time” can get things done.
Join the Murrays and Rachel Bucher Swank for an exploration of the rich theological and storytelling legacy of the Murrays’ music. Rachel will interview Andy and Terry about their music, and the Murrays will sing several of their songs. The evening will also include a time of singing together from Living Our Song: The Music of Andy and Terry Murray, a new songbook collection featuring many of their original compositions.
Rachel Bucher Swank (songbook editor) is a 7th grade general music teacher at Manheim Township Middle School in Lancaster and an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren, currently serving as music coordinator at Elizabethtown Church of the Brethren. She is a 2025 Master of Music and Peacebuilding graduate from Elizabethtown College and also holds a Master of Education and a certificate of Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation in Educational Settings from Eastern Mennonite University.
Andy and Terry Murray are best known within the Church of the Brethren as a singer/songwriter duo who compose songs about Brethren history and theology. Throughout his career, Andy has worked as a minister, chaplain, and college professor, and he was the founding director of the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at Juniata College. Terry, a professional organist, has worked as a composer, arranger, and piano and organ professor at Juniata College.
Tuesday, February 17, 2026 • 7 pm • Bucher Meetinghouse
LECTURE
Peggy Turners Legacy: African American Reformed Mennonites
Starting with Peggy Turner's conversion in the 1840s, the Reformed Mennonites were the first American Mennonite group to have African American members. They continue to have Black members up to the present. What is there about Reformed Mennonites that enabled them to incorporate African Americans into their community decades before any other Mennonite group? How did African American members’ stories of conversion and incorporation counter the prevailing racism that they faced in other spheres of life? Did that same racism impact their place within the Reformed Mennonite Church?
Edsel Burdge Jr. is the research associate at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College. He is the editor of volume 3 of Documents of Brotherly Love: Dutch Mennonite Aid to Swiss Anabaptists, 1712-1784 (Ohio Amish Library, 2023) and coauthor with Samuel L. Horst of Building on the Gospel Foundation: The Mennonites of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and Washington County, Maryland, 1730–1970 (Herald Press, 2004). He holds an MA in history from Villanova University.
Videos of Past Events