FIRST MENNONITE CHURCH MEDIA RELEASE__100 Years of Mennonite Women: a Musical will be performed at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, June 20 at Bluffton's First Mennonite Church.

As we celebrate Anabaptism at 500, we acknowledge the essential role of women which went undocumented for much of our history. In the 20th century, the founders of our women’s organizations dared to claim a role specific to women and honor its importance. At First Mennonite the “Women in Mission” group went through years when their work sometimes felt futile, exuberant decades of high turnout, and times of self-reflection and even doubt, to emerge victorious and vibrant. 

Wendy Chappell-Dick has set to music a century of carefully archived committee minutes from the Women in Mission group at First Mennonite into a lively dramatic production, ready to make you laugh and cry. Join us for a review of hymns and pop songs that trace our changing culture through the 1900s. Come to celebrate and learn, and be prepared to sing along!

Featuring narrator Ruth Naylor, accompanist Carolyn McDaniel, and performers Laurel Neufeld Weaver, Jan Wiebe, Beth R. Boehr, Kendra Johns Nickel, Jane Steinmetz, Janeen Bertsche Johnson, Amber Steiner, Alicia DeMarco, and Wendy Chappell-Dick

This event is free and open to everyone.