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The Schwenkfelders were persecuted in Silesia by Jesuits and Lutherans. In this podcast, H. Drake Williams, Jr. recounts how Schwenkfelders were buried by the Viehweg. It was a sign of disrespect.
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Each year at our Day of Remembrance service, someone from the General Conference recounts the story of the Schwenkfelder migration. H. Drake Williams, Jr. does so at the service in 2025 held at Palm Schwenkfelder Church.
The Schwenkfelders were persecuted in Silesia by Jesuits and Lutherans. In this podcast, H. Drake Williams, Jr. recounts how Schwenkfelders were buried by the Viehweg. It was a sign of disrespect.
The historic Peter Wentz Farmstead is known to represent colonial life from the 18th century in the Philadelphia area. While first settled by Peter and Rosanna Wentz in 1744, the farm was purchased by Melchior Schultz, a Schwenkfelder Minister, in 1794. Generations of the Schultz family continued to live and farm here until 1969, when Montgomery County purchased the property.
The Schwenkfelders have the longest standing continuous thanksgiving service in the United States. It started first in September of 1734 and still continues to this day. How did this come about? Why is it special? What happens at this service?
When a church exists in a neighborhood for many years, it is only natural that it would interact with the surrounding society. The Schwenkfelders have been in what is now known as the Lansdale/Worcester area since the 1730's. The Worcester Historical Society (website: http://www.worcesterhistorical.org/) is interested in the preservation of the history of this area from that time and earlier. Naturally, this involves the preservation of artifacts and documents that remember the life of important events and people in Worcester.
In the 1700's a small group of followers of Caspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig crossed the Atlantic Ocean and settled north of the city of Philadelphia.