Events

500th Anabaptist Anniversary - Livestream Program

500th Anabaptism Anniversary - 1525-2025

January 21, 2025 - Livestream of a community service from Parkview Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA, available here.

Our baptisms, our hymns, and our history were remembered. A local quartet led the singing of selected hymns from five centuries.

Thursday, May 29 - Mennonite World Conference is inviting guests from around the world to Zurich, Switzerland, to commemorate the beginning of the Anabaptist movement. The Eastern Mennonite University Chamber Singers will perform at this event. The Chamber Singers will be joined by ensembles from Indonesia, Kenya, Paraguay, and Switzerland. For more detailed information, go to the MWC website: mwc-cmm.org/anabaptism500.

A local program is planned for the spring and fall program with a guest speaker.

33rd Zwanzigstein Fest - Saturday, July 5, 2025 - More details to follow.

Photo Credit: Gary and Elsie (Lehman) Herzig

Zwanzigstein means "Twenty Stones." This name comes from when God led Joshua and the Israelites over the Jordan River. When they were safely across, the Lord said to Joshua that the twelve chosen men, one from each tribe, were to take a stone from the middle of the Jordan, carry it out, and pile them up as a monument at the place where they camped that night. In the future, when their children asked, "What is this monument for," they could tell them it is to remind them of God's amazing miracle. All nations of the earth will realize Jehovah is the mighty God and all will worship him forever.

As our forefathers (twenty families) traveled from Europe to settle here, they, too, must have realized the mighty hand of God and truly worshiped him. When our children ask, we can tell them of this mighty God.

And so Zwanzigstein.

The purpose of the Zwanzigstein Fest is to preserve, celebrate, and accurately portray our religious and cultural heritage in Lewis County. Since 1991 the Heritage Farm has provided the site for visitors to learn about our Anabaptist faith legacy and rural life of years past through stories, exhibits, tours, demonstrations, and fundraising venues such as foods and crafts.