Germantown Church of Brethren celebrates 300 years of continuous service

Cheryl Jensen-Gates was once a devout Catholic.

“I lived and breathed it,” Jensen-Gates said.

She graduated from a Catholic school in the South Bronx, sacrificed during Lent, and attended church weekly. When she moved to Philadelphia in 1998, she joined the Catholic church closest to her new home.

But in her 30s she began to sense something was missing.

“I would say I was religious but not spiritual,” she said.

When the Archdiocese of Philadelphia stopped English-speaking services at Holy Angels Catholic Church, she went in search of a new home church.

In 1719, Peter Becker, a German emigrant, also was seeking a new church home.

Religion in 18th-century Europe was subject to strong governmental control, which discouraged diversity. But groups of dissenters believed they practiced a purer form of Christianity more in line with the word of Jesus that was warmer, less formal, and emphasized biblical study. They became known as the Brethren.

When life in Germany proved financially and spiritually untenable, Becker led a group to William Penn’s more tolerant colony of Philadelphia.

After several years, Becker established the Germantown Church of the Brethren on Christmas Day in 1723, an occasion marked by a full immersion baptism of adult believers in the nearby chilly Wissahickon Creek.

Jensen-Gates’ and Becker’s religious journeys were separated by centuries but were connected by the same spiritual longing.

The Germantown Church of the Brethren started ministering to its members in what was then the prosperous rural village of Germantown and is now 6611 Germantown Ave. They believe in pacifism and peace, reject oaths and litigation, insist on simplicity and compassion, and are zealous about outreach. It is, Brethren doctrine insists, the true way to live like Jesus.

Jensen-Gates said it was the inviting nature of the church that ultimately encouraged her to join.

“They greeted me so well. It was so warm and welcoming.”

“I will attribute its longevity to the passion and sacrifice of its founding leadership, migrating from Europe beginning in 1719, and subsequently the Brethren Movement’s commitment over the years to servanthood and inclusivity,” current Pastor Richard Kyerematen explained.

“From 1723 to when the meetinghouse was built, members met in each others’ homes,” said Kyerematen, who has lead the church since 1989. “It is one of the few churches in the nation that has been worshiping continuously on the same grounds since its first meetinghouse was erected in 1770.”

While the church has remained rooted in place, the community it serves has drastically changed.

Originally a thriving German-speaking community, Germantown underwent a slow decline and became a largely poor and working class African American neighborhood. Today, Germantown’s poverty rate is now 50% higher than the rest of Philadelphia’s, although it is beginning to experience an economic revitalization.

The Rev. Joseph Craddock, a member of Germantown Church of the Brethren, remembers well that when Kyerematen joined the church, it was caught in the throes of a drug crisis. “All of the west side was nothing but drugs. It changed the whole neighborhood,” Craddock recalled.

According to Kyerematen, Germantown was called “dogtown” and was known for gangs. “The church was right in the middle of everything,” he said.

As a result of the riots of the ‘60s and the exodus of residents, the Church of the Brethren, the denomination’s national ruling body, debated whether to maintain Germantown as an active church or to turn it into a museum, according to Kyerematen. “Rev. Dr. Earl Ziegler, an executive of the [church’s] Atlantic Northeast Division [at the time], said he still felt there was a possibility to revitalize the church. He always felt there was potential to survive and to do well. [It was] just a question of not giving up.”

That kept the doors open. Currently, there are about 50 to 60 active members.

“[Having] a physical presence, that is one of reasons we remain relevant,” Kyerematen said. “The mother church [has been] on the same ground for 300 years.”

Kyerematen also said the church is beginning to restart it outreach activities that were halted for COVID-19.

“The Congregation, at one time or another, has offered a myriad of programs including operating a food bank especially for seniors, a seniors’ computer program, and a day-care program,” said Kyerematen, ticking off a few of the activities.

Craddock also wants to start a youth drama group.

“That way the youth have something,” he said. “They can become active.”

“Ministry built this church,” Jensen-Gates said. According to church history, it wasn’t along after Becker formed the church that the first missionaries were sent out to other rural areas around Philadelphia.

Both Craddock and Jensen-Gates insisted that the church will be around to help others yet to be born with their own faith journey during the next three hundred years.

“This church will never close,” Craddock said. “It has stood for 300 years. We won’t be here, but the church will.”