The Blumenort Mennonite Church in Rosetown is marking its 100th anniversary with events and services July 12-13, and organizers note how the congregation is not only surviving but thriving.
“We have this little rural church that is still going strong … and especially when you see all the children, that’s a good sign for the future,” said Karla Fehr, a Sunday school teacher and key organizer of the celebrations.
The events kick off that Saturday with a golf tournament at Oakview golf course in Gretna. A highlight of the day will be a bus tour that will depart at 2 p.m. and go to a variety of significant sites in the area.
“The way our church was set up, a hundred years ago, people lived in the various villages in the west reserve, so there were congregations that met in many of the different villages,” explained Fehr. “They would only gather as a larger body once or twice a year.
“So we’re going to visit a number of those original sites. I don’t know if any of the original buildings are still there. There might be one or two, but we know where they were and know some of the history.”
The Sunday will start with a choir practice at 9:30 a.m. followed by a worship service at 10:30 a.m.
“Singing has always been a very big part of our Sunday mornings,” noted Fehr, who said things will continue with a lunch at noon then another service at 2 p.m. where they will have more music and focus on the history of the church. It will conclude then with faspa.
A history book that was written by Peter Zacharias for the 60th anniversary will also be available for people to purchase. It outlines a few key moments in the church’s history, such as when the decision was made to become one congregation sometime in the 1960s
“There’s also been congregations that were further away,” noted Fehr, citing the example of the Wingham congregation in Elm Creek.
The church in Rosetown was built in 1965, and Fehr observed how much history there is connected to the congregation over time.
“How many baptisms would have been performed? How many marriages and how many funerals?“ she wondered. “There’s so many families that have been a part of this congregation … I’ve spoken to a few of the young couples … they have family who were founders, and that is five generations ago.”
The church continues to be a vital hub for the community.
“I grew up in the Winkler area, but my husband grew up in this church … and when we got married, we were farming in this area, so we made a conscious decision that we would join this church so that we could get to know more of the people in the community,” Fehr shared.
“When people first came in 1923 or 1924, they came from such hardship,” she added. “The church was key. They would get together to be thankful. They had such hardship in the old country and again in the new country because they had to leave everything behind … they had to struggle really hard to get settled here.
“The focus was being thankful that they were together and they were alive and that they could still worship God, and that’s still the case. Worship is the key.”
