Bally Mennonite Church (Mennonite Church USA; earlier known as Hereford Mennonite Church), located in the village of Bally, Washington Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, is a member of the Franconia Conference. The first meetinghouse is supposed to have been built here in 1732, replaced by a larger log structure in 1755, enlarged in 1790, and used continuously until 1899 when it was razed, and succeeded by a stone structure plastered both inside and out. As in many other congregations of the Franconia Conference, English was first introduced about 1900. The Bally (Hereford) congregation was never large, seldom being much over 100 even including those who worshiped in the Boyertown meetinghouse. (The Bally and Boyertown worshipers constituted but one organized congregation historically, and were served by one set of Sunday-school officers.) Members worshiping at Bally in 1956 numbered 95, while 33 worshiped at Boyertown. Elias W. Kulp was the pastor in 1956, assisted by Paul Longacre; the deacon was Abram M. Ehst.

In the division of 1847 one of the Hereford ministers withdrew from the Franconia Conference and took a portion of the members with him into Oberholtzer's new conference. In 1851 this Hereford General Conference Mennonite congregation ceased to use the old meetinghouse on alternate Sundays as they had done since 1847, having built a new meeting house. It became much larger than the old group, reaching 202 members by 1895.

Bibliography

Additional Information

Address: 1481 Route 100, Bally, Pennsylvania

Phone: 610-845-7780

Website: Bally Mennonite Church

Denominational Affiliations:

Franconia Mennonite Conference

Mennonite Church USA

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, pp. 708-709. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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