HILLSBORO, Kan. – The Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies is hosting its annual spring dinner meeting at 6:30 p.m., Saturday May 2 in the lobby of the Wohlgemuth Music Education Center located at 400 South Jefferson in Hillsboro, Kan.
This year’s speaker is Mark Jantzen, associate professor of history at Bethel College in North Newton, Kan. He will be presenting a speech on “Mennonite Migrants, Mennonite Soldiers: Tracking Mennonite Identity Across Four Centuries in Poland, Prussia and Russia through the Lens of Military Service Exemptions.”
Raised on a dairy farm in Beatrice, Neb., Jantzen worked with Mennonite Central Committee in East Germany from 1988 to 1991 and in Serbia from 1993 to 1996.
Jantzen’s presentation will be drawn from his extensive research into the Prussian/Polish Mennonite experience. He has authored several books relating to this topic: “The Wrong Side of the Wall: An American in East Germany during the Peaceful Revolution” and “Mennonite German Soldiers: Nation, Religion, and Family in the Prussian East, 1772-1880.” He is also the editor, along with John D. Thiesen, of “The Danzig Mennonite Church: Its Origin and History from 1569-1919” and “The Military Service Exemption of the Mennonites of Provincial Prussia.”
According to CMBS Director Peggy Goertzen, “This is an opportunity to benefit from Dr. Jantzen’s extensive research into the Prussian Mennonite experience and to see the struggles for identity and belief which are still with us today.”
Also at our annual spring dinner, we want to recognize Wilmer A. Harms, for his 36 years of service as board chairman for the Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies at Tabor College. Harms resigned from this position in November 2014.
The event costs $16 per person. For reservations call (620) 947-3121 ext. 1211 or email peggyg@tabor.edu. Reservations are due by April 27. Scholarships are available for Tabor College students to cover the cost.