The Schwenkfelder Story
What is a Schwenkfelder?
“Schwenkfelder” is the term used since the very early 1700s to identify people who study and follow the ideas and teachings of Caspar Schwenckfeld.
Who was Caspar Schwenckfeld?
Caspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig (1489/90–1561) was a radical-Protestant, spiritual reformer. Born a member of the lower nobility, Schwenckfeld lived in Silesia (at that time an area on the eastern border of Germany; today southwestern Poland) from the time of his birth in 1489/90 until 1529 when he was exiled as a heretic. He spent most of the rest of his life constantly moving incognito around a broad area of southern Germany, hiding in the homes of his friends and fellow believers as well as monasteries. He died in 1561 at the home of a friend in Ulm. His burial place is unknown.
As a spiritualist, Schwenckfeld never intended to establish or to build a separate, physical church. Worship during Schwenckfeld’s lifetime was in the form of individual devotions. Public worship in a church was not an option. He published many treatises and books in defense of his teachings, aimed primarily at scholars who attacked him. He wrote countless letters to teach and support his followers.
In the 1500s, Schwenckfeld’s fellow believers were typically of the lower nobility or the wealthy merchant class. They called themselves Confessors of the Glory of Christ. Since the 1700s, however, the spiritual descendants of Schwenckfeld have been mostly ordinary people called Schwenkfelders
What did Schwenkfelders believe?
Major issues central to Schwenckfeld’s Christianity were The Lord’s Supper and Celestial Flesh. Schwenckfeld’s spiritual view of The Lord’s Supper asserted that Christ’s body is not physically present in or around the bread and wine nor that the elements are merely empty symbols. Schwenckfeld contended that The Supper is a spiritual communing with God. His view is based on John 6. Schwenckfeld encouraged his followers not to participate in public celebration of the rite until all Christians could agree on a single understanding of the sacrament. This suspension of the sacrament was called the Stillstand. The Schwenkfelders abided by the Stillstand until the last quarter of the 1800s.
Regarding Celestial Flesh, Schwenckfeld viewed Christ’s divinization as a gradual change starting from his birth on earth proceeding through the resurrection to his glorification at the right hand of the Father. Schwenckfeld’s concept of the New Man gradually replacing the Old Man resembles this same process.
What made the Schwenkfelders leave Europe?
For generations after Caspar Schwenckfeld’s death, Schwenkfelder communities survived without a formal leader for the group. Schwenkfelders endured years of oppression. Enslaved on ships, jailed, fined, and put in stocks, they were not allowed freedom of worship for 150 years. Persecution sometimes came from Lutherans, Catholics, and foremost government officials.
In the 1720s, the new Lutheran priest in Harpersdorf, where many Schwenkfelders then lived, had no tolerance for their ways. At the same time a Jesuit mission was set up in the village to convert the Schwenkfelders to Catholicism. By the 1730s, it was clear that these people could not continue to worship as they wished in Europe. Various groups, such as the Mennonites and Moravians, had sent people to the new colony of Pennsylvania where Christians could worship freely and recommended the Schwenkfelders settle there too.
Where did they settle in this country?
The Schwenkfelders came to the port of Philadelphia, knowing of German settlements in the area, especially Germantown. The first American Schwenkfelders were very interested in finding land where they could settle together, thus supporting each other and preserving their ways. A group purchase, however, did not happen, and the Schwenkfelders spread out and settled in the region between Philadelphia and Allentown, Pennsylvania. Much later, they established communities in the “Upper District” (Goschenhoppen), the “Middle District” (Skippack), and the “Lower District” (Germantown, Chestnut Hill, and Norristown).
Like other immigrants, they maintained some of their cultural ways and adapted to the new situation. For example, two days after their landing in Philadelphia, on September 22, 1734, they met to give thanks for their safe arrival. Since then, this Gadächtnistag or “Day of Remembrance” has been observed every year on September 24, or the closest Sunday. While this tradition is unique to the group, in other ways, the Schwenkfelders became part of the larger Pennsylvania German or Pennsylvania Dutch culture of the region.
Perhaps because they were geographically dispersed and lived among people of differing faiths, the Schwenkfelders began to formalize their religious practices in 1782. They established their first-ever meetinghouses in the late 1700s and built modern churches in the first half of the 1900s. In 1851 a Constitution and By-Laws of the Schwenkfelder Society was published. In 1909 the Schwenkfelders were officially recognized as a denomination.
Are there any Schwenkfelders around today?
By the late 1700s, Schwenkfelder descendants began moving away from their original settlement area and now live in nearly every state. By the early 1800s there were no more Schwenkfelders living in Europe. Today, four Schwenkfelder churches are in Montgomery or Philadelphia Counties, but nowhere else. Though the membership has changed from predominantly Schwenkfelder descendants to a multi-cultural church community, the values of the Schwenkfelders, rooted in religious freedom, tolerance, charity, and education, are undercurrents in all current church activities.
The first half of the Orientation Video gives background on the Schwenkfelder immigration and faith.