The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-23
DUNKERS INVADE NEW YORK.
PLAIN LIVING CHRISTIANS GET
A FOOTHOLD HERE.
Aney WIN Soon Build . Church In Brooklyn
They Live and Preach the simple
IAfe-H1EyOOO Of hem m This Country
10 which william Penn Invited Them

me store window at the corner Of Fifty
ninth street and Third avenue, South
BROOKLYN, Is q sign which reads Christian
Brsehren Mission" and a placard giving a
lisA Of the services held there Sundays and
week days.
Tho interior Of the store is furnished
with q reading desk, a large blackboard, a
huge stove and rows Of high back reversible
benches which will seat about 200 persons.
On special occasions, however, the congre-
cations number nearer 800. The only
decorative features are framed Scripture
tsxts on the white kAlsomined walls and
thick half curtains at the windows to screen
the worshippers from curious gazers on the
nidewalk.
II IL a noisy corner. The mission stands
between a crowded tenement population
Nn the one hand and fats and small dwellings
OF better of wage earners on the other, and
Adraws its congregations from both.
Occasionally women wearing picture hats,
Jewels, silken gowns and French heeled
shoes mingle with the congregation. but
they seldom come again upon discovering
that the Christian Brethren are not advo-
Gates Of outward adjoining. Probably not
one visitor in fifty realizes that this IL the
headquarters OF the Dunkers, alias Dun
kards. alias German Baptists, alias Chris
Aian Brethren, who less than eight years
ago were not represented at all in Greater
New York and to-day are a growing re-
Iigious body. An evidence of this is the
purchase by the congregation last spring OF
q 40 by 100 foot lot at the corner Of Sixty
Aecond street and Third avenue, South
Brooklyn, on which they intend to erect
soon a substantial church and parish house.
But for this fact the Dunkers might have
continued to operate their u~npretentious
mission without attracting the least atten-
ton from most Of the c~hurchgoing COM
munity. As il is, church workers are be-
ginning to take notice and to wonder whether
IN the near or far future the Christian
Brethren will be a force to be reckoned with;
whether primitive Christianity as taught
and practised by the Brethren has a chance
10 grow and spread in this section OF the
United States, where church services are
yearly becoming more ornate under the
necessity, it is said, of catering to the taste
of twentieth century c~hurchgoers.
With the elaboration of the ritual, re-
1trictions against church members indulg-
ing in certain forms OF amusement have
been removed. But the Dunkers are diff
ferent. They have failed in questions OF
church doctrine and church government
90 keep up with this procession. While
other denominations in this part OF the
country have given way here and added
on there in Difference to questions OF ex-
pediency or for any reason at all the
Durkers have not budged one inch from
the platform adopted in 17l9, when at the
Invitation Of William Penn the church
emignted to this country from Germany,
where it was organized a decade or 80
earlier Inder the leadership Of Alexander
Mack.
What / more, they emphatically dis
claim any intention to bulge 30 long as
the organization exists. Needless TO say
this platfoAm is in some respects at the
other extreme from that practised in the
mp 70 date ~cAurchgoing circles of Greater
New York. therefore that the Christian
Brethren as the sect now prefers to be
cateds should after only eight years Of
struggle attaina church roll Of seventy
eight members the dignity of owning a
city lot and almost cash enough to put
up q SIS 900 modem edifCe with a seating
capacity OF 5000, has surprised men and
women we'll posted on the church going
problem in connectNn with great cities.
The beginning OF this church was in
significant. Sent by the Chicago branch
Of the Church, Miss Aloe Boone, aided by
II. T. Meyers Of Philadelphia, established
IN Februaryj1Se7, the firt Dunkard mission
In New York in small rooms in Fifty-second
street, Brooklyn. Two months later a
Sunday school was startk, and on Octo-
ber 4, 1899, ten persons net In the place
and banded themselves hto "The First
Christian Brethren Church. OF Brooklyn,
N. Y. The pastors we're Nr. and Mrs.
Ulery; who succeeded Miss Boone. The
store in Fifty-ninth street wal, secured for
: the work.
Elder J. Kurtz Miller, the preent pastor,
u and his family, live in a nine room fat
over the store, and the assistant pastor,
W. NJ. Howe, and his sister, a missionary
worker, occupy the fat above. Il is safe
60 say that there are few buster Haces in
Brooklyn at any hour Of the day than the
pastors apartment.
When Elder Miller was asked TO tslkabout
his work he suggested that the subjec was
not one which admitted Of much PLAY for
the imagination, consequently it was band
to b uninteresting to writer's for meto-
politan newspapers.
And nave imaginary descriptions ben
pr1nUeul the mhllHUeT was dSheu. .
mo end Of them" was the answer. w.
have been described as teaching and prac.
Using Mormon doctrines, probably because
ministers presiding over congregations arr
called elders. We have been described al
advocating oelibacy for ministers and lay,
men and of prescribing that marriages shall
take place only among members Of thu
faith. 1t has been said that we live in com.
munities and wear a peculiar uniform anc
keep the seventh day as the Sabbath Non'
Of these things il true.
what are the Distinguishing featur eI
Of the Christian Brethren fai'h?- he re
peated slowly. We'll, first and foremos
we believe in an experimental, not a per
forming, religion. Performing the mos
rigorous and elaborate ceremonial OF ritua
once a week or many times a week will no
in our church code take the place Of living
experiencing, practising the word Of God
We take the Bible for our rule Of faith anC
practice. We obey its commands respect
ing Christian conduct literally.
MANY persons are not aware that thu
Dunkers. AZ they were originally called
number LIS .O0O. scattered over MARYLAND