Attending a worship service at l'Eglise Evangélique Mennonite de la Prairie, Montbéliard

Dear Mother,

Last Sunday, we picked up Hélène, who directed us to her church, the Eglise Evangélique Mennonite de la Prairie, just inside Montbéliarde.  This is one of the largest Mennonite congregations in France, with about 200 or so.  There are but 2,000+ Mennonites in all of France, so I believe their influence is out of proportion to their numbers!  Last Sunday, however, since the chorale was singing at another church, many of the people in their 40s to 60s were away.  Even so, attendance was very good.  The building is usually so full that they have decided to create a building fund.

The youth were in charge of the day's service, so it was less formal than usual (though French Mennonites are generally somewhat informal, which I enjoy).  To my surprise, the service began with some announcements, which were followed by prayer requests and a time of open prayer.  This set the tone nicely for the gathered community.  Then we had perhaps 25 minutes of singing, all with overheads and largely in unison, with the occasional parallel 3rds or even harmony (but the choir was gone).  The sermon by Jean (John) Klopfenstein was on Hebrews 3 and Psalm 131.  If it were my church, I would purchase a great big clock for the benefit of the speakers!  The congregation does not have paid leadership, which is exactly what most of the folks prefer, so eight or so people take turns speaking.

The first photo was taken with my pocket camera, a bit on the sly, before the service began.  People were gathering, it was after the appointed time to begin, but nobody seemed to be concerned or pressed for time.  The young man standing at the front was waiting for more of the musicians to come.  He would eventually be leading the service, using a microphone, so I heard everything.  He also led the music from the piano.  The overhead was showing their equivalent of a bulletin for that day. They do not have a printed bulletin, but they have a monthly newsletter. The scripture was not shown on the overhead, which was a bit unusual.  Fortunately, I have a French version of the bible on my phone, so I could follow along with better understanding.

Since the day was nice and warm, people just stayed and stayed after church.  Of course, many of the families have been in this area for several centuries, and many are related to each other (and to themselves!)  We got to meet more Grabers, Shadts, Widmers, a Goll, etc.

In the background, you can see a bit of the separate building where the children have Sunday School, where they have fellowship meals, where the office is of Editions Mennonites (the French Conference publisher of their magazine, Christ Seul), and where (very important) the old Amish church record is housed, an important source of information on the Amish/Mennonite/Anabaptist people of the area in the 18th and 19th centuries (Janice's ancestors).

After church, Hélène invited us for a Sunday dinner.  The entrée was a thin-crusted pizza served with a cider from Normandy, a carrot salad (shredded carrots with a gentle dressing) and cabbage (also shredded with dressing).  This was followed by Belgian endives wrapped in cured ham and then baked with a white sauce (excellent).  Then a series of desserts.   On Saturday, she served a Hugelkopf (Gugelhupf, etc.) with cider.  This time, she served another type of Alsatian cake with coffee and mixed fresh fruit (over which she had liberally poured some rum).  We then worked for several hours on her papers, maps, and Hélène answered Janice's accumulated questions, etc.  Hélène had spent several years working in Scotland about forty years ago, which is where she picked up a number of old hymn books.  She insisted that I play some of them on her piano, she then hummed or even sang along when I selected an old favourite.  All of the songs were unknown to me.  Then it was time for another dessert (forget what it was).

We finally had to leave, because we had 500 kms of driving being ahead of us, and we feared that traffic might prove challenging.  We were on the highway by 6:00.  I tried not to exceed the speed limit most of the time, since 130 kms/hr = 80 mph, which is a nice limit, but it was not often observed by drivers in more peppy cars.  To our amazement, our GPS worked, right to the door.  Traffic was heavy, but it kept moving.  The tendency of European drivers to stay all the way to the right unless passing, really helps traffic move along in an orderly fashion.  But this disintegrated as the city approached.  We were home and unpacked by 11:30, tired but happy.

All for now, with love from us both,

Evan