Page 46 - History of UB Church by A. Funkhouser Ver 1
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of the United Brethren Church, also confined himself to the German in his preaching. But
Newcomer soon found it necessary to preach in English as well as in German. As early as 1800 he
found that little German was understood at one of his Virginia appointments. He remarks that
though his English was broken it seemed to make some impression. His audiences in the Valley of
Virginia seem often to have been mixed, and had he not been able to preach or exhort in the
official language of the United States, his efficiency as a bishop would have been much impaired.
So it is not correct to say that until 1820 the preaching of the United Brethren in Virginia was
almost exclusively in German. But until that date the use of German was in the lead. Only one
decade later, English was fast taking the place of the foreign tongue. There were several reasons
for this growing demand for English preaching. For forty years after the close of the Revolution the
renewed immigration from Germany was very small, and little of this small amount settled in the
region now covered by the Virginia Conference. The children of the United Brethren families were
often educated in English and not in German. Such persons would prefer to hear preaching in the
adopted tongue. And by reason of intermarriage, or the settling in of new comers, in nearly every
locality where the United Brethren fathers planted societies, there would be people who understood
little German or none at all.
Nevertheless, the church was slow to give up the use of the foreign speech. Until 1833 German
dominated in the General Conferences. In 1819 a few copies of the Discipline were printed in
English, but it was not until 1837 that this book appeared in English, with the accompanying
German version looking as though it were a translation from English to German and not as though
the entire book had been translated from German to English.
This tenacity in holding to a language that has no official recognition in this country worked
against the numerical growth of the United Brethren Church. By 1820 it counted only 20,000
members. During one decade there was an actual loss. The children of United Brethren parents
who clung to the German noticed that the unprogressiveness of the latter operated as a handicap
in the matter of civic and social opportunities. There was hence an extensive drift of the younger
generation into other churches, especially the Methodist.
But when once the speech of America had obtained the mastery in the United Brethren pulpits,
the decline of the church was arrested. The falling away in membership gave place to an increase,
this increase coming largely from the non-German elements of the American people. By 1880 only
one-twenty-fifth of the total membership of the United Brethren were adhering to the German.
The United Brethren Church is now a German denomination only in the sense that a very large
majority of its communicants are of the posterity of the German settlers of Pennsylvania, Maryland,
and Virginia. But this posterity is now almost entirely American in speech and still more so in
thought. That many people of English, Scotch, and Welch descent have joined the United Brethren
is not because of what may still be termed a German complexion, but because of their approval of
what the church distinctively stands for. This non-German element has made a very noticeable
impression on the life of the organization. The non-British beginnings of the United Brethren are no
longer felt. In brief, the United Brethren Church of 1920 is as truly an American church, and in as
full harmony with American thought, as are the branches of American Protestantism that are purely
of British origin.
But the deluge of foreigners that has been inundating America since 1840 has called the
attention of this church to new duties. It is in response to this call that the United Brethren have
entered the field of foreign missions. One of these fields,—very appropriately the German,—was
opened in 1869.
The United States has no official tongue but the English, and if the foreigner does not know it
on his arrival here, it is his business to learn it. And yet there is a sense in which preaching in a
foreign tongue to an American congregation is quite proper and even necessary.
The thoughts of the newcomer are cast only in the mould that is peculiar to his mother tongue.
His comprehension of thought uttered in English is as limping as the broken English in which he
tries to converse with the natives of his adopted country. If he is denied the privilege of hearing
Scriptural truths expounded in the only idiom with which he is truly familiar, a positive wrong will
be done him. It is better for the interests of Christianity, and even for Americanism in general, that
he should retain the option of listening to a preacher who is at home in the language in which he
Chapter XI 46 The Transition from German to
English
Newcomer soon found it necessary to preach in English as well as in German. As early as 1800 he
found that little German was understood at one of his Virginia appointments. He remarks that
though his English was broken it seemed to make some impression. His audiences in the Valley of
Virginia seem often to have been mixed, and had he not been able to preach or exhort in the
official language of the United States, his efficiency as a bishop would have been much impaired.
So it is not correct to say that until 1820 the preaching of the United Brethren in Virginia was
almost exclusively in German. But until that date the use of German was in the lead. Only one
decade later, English was fast taking the place of the foreign tongue. There were several reasons
for this growing demand for English preaching. For forty years after the close of the Revolution the
renewed immigration from Germany was very small, and little of this small amount settled in the
region now covered by the Virginia Conference. The children of the United Brethren families were
often educated in English and not in German. Such persons would prefer to hear preaching in the
adopted tongue. And by reason of intermarriage, or the settling in of new comers, in nearly every
locality where the United Brethren fathers planted societies, there would be people who understood
little German or none at all.
Nevertheless, the church was slow to give up the use of the foreign speech. Until 1833 German
dominated in the General Conferences. In 1819 a few copies of the Discipline were printed in
English, but it was not until 1837 that this book appeared in English, with the accompanying
German version looking as though it were a translation from English to German and not as though
the entire book had been translated from German to English.
This tenacity in holding to a language that has no official recognition in this country worked
against the numerical growth of the United Brethren Church. By 1820 it counted only 20,000
members. During one decade there was an actual loss. The children of United Brethren parents
who clung to the German noticed that the unprogressiveness of the latter operated as a handicap
in the matter of civic and social opportunities. There was hence an extensive drift of the younger
generation into other churches, especially the Methodist.
But when once the speech of America had obtained the mastery in the United Brethren pulpits,
the decline of the church was arrested. The falling away in membership gave place to an increase,
this increase coming largely from the non-German elements of the American people. By 1880 only
one-twenty-fifth of the total membership of the United Brethren were adhering to the German.
The United Brethren Church is now a German denomination only in the sense that a very large
majority of its communicants are of the posterity of the German settlers of Pennsylvania, Maryland,
and Virginia. But this posterity is now almost entirely American in speech and still more so in
thought. That many people of English, Scotch, and Welch descent have joined the United Brethren
is not because of what may still be termed a German complexion, but because of their approval of
what the church distinctively stands for. This non-German element has made a very noticeable
impression on the life of the organization. The non-British beginnings of the United Brethren are no
longer felt. In brief, the United Brethren Church of 1920 is as truly an American church, and in as
full harmony with American thought, as are the branches of American Protestantism that are purely
of British origin.
But the deluge of foreigners that has been inundating America since 1840 has called the
attention of this church to new duties. It is in response to this call that the United Brethren have
entered the field of foreign missions. One of these fields,—very appropriately the German,—was
opened in 1869.
The United States has no official tongue but the English, and if the foreigner does not know it
on his arrival here, it is his business to learn it. And yet there is a sense in which preaching in a
foreign tongue to an American congregation is quite proper and even necessary.
The thoughts of the newcomer are cast only in the mould that is peculiar to his mother tongue.
His comprehension of thought uttered in English is as limping as the broken English in which he
tries to converse with the natives of his adopted country. If he is denied the privilege of hearing
Scriptural truths expounded in the only idiom with which he is truly familiar, a positive wrong will
be done him. It is better for the interests of Christianity, and even for Americanism in general, that
he should retain the option of listening to a preacher who is at home in the language in which he
Chapter XI 46 The Transition from German to
English
