Author: Susan George

Facing religious discrimination and economic and political pressure in Ireland in the early 18th century, thousands of Ulster Scots saw a dismal future with little hope of providing a good life for their families. Their Presbyterian faith led them to believe that by working hard and following Christian practices, God would give them a good life. 

Across the Atlantic Ocean, William Penn had established a colony founded on the practices of religious toleration, participatory government, and “brotherly love.” Scots-Irish immigrants learned that Pennsylvania had opportunities and available land to free them from the financial, social, and political difficulties they faced in Scotland and Ireland. 

William Penn founded his colony on Quaker principles of non-violence and religious toleration and believed white Christians, indigenous Christians, and non-Christians could live peacefully together. 

In 1682 Penn purchased land from the Lenape tribe and hoped to sell it to settlers to pay off his debts. He also desired to foster trade with the Native Americans and establish a military defense for residents. In his book, Peaceable Kingdom Lost, historian Kevin Kenny noted that after the Great Agreement of 1701, Penn and the Conestogas promised to live together peacefully. The humane treatment of the indigenous people was an essential segment of Penn’s vision. 

Around 1700, the Ulster Scots began leaving Ireland for a new life in Pennsylvania. Arriving in Philadelphia and Delaware ports, it did not take long for them to feel unwelcome. The Quakers who ruled the new colony did not always follow Penn’s practice of absolute religious toleration. Numerous restrictions were placed on non-Quakers, limiting their full participation in the colony’s political, social, and economic life. 

Since most of these immigrants were tenant farmers, living in and around Philadelphia did not offer the opportunities they desired. At this time,  Pennsylvania’s frontier was 40-50 miles west of Philadelphia, including what later became Lancaster and Lebanon counties. 

Many Indian trails crisscrossed the rolling hills and forests. Such an Indian trail passed near the spring that ran behind Derry Church. The trail stretched from the Manada Gap to the headwaters of the Conewago Creek. These trails were rough and rocky. However, the determined Presbyterian, Mennonite, River Brethren, and Moravian immigrants made their way westward in increasing numbers. So many were coming, and their arrival seemed like a swarm of bees. 

While Penn insisted on legitimately purchasing Indian lands, these newcomers felt the land was theirs. “It was against the laws of God and nature that so much land should be idle, while so many Christians wanted it to labor on and to raise their bread,” wrote Israel Daniel Rapp, in his 1847 book, History and Topography of Northumberland, Huntington, Mifflin, Union, Columbia, Juniata, and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania. 

Settlers occupied the hills around the settlements in Pennsylvania. They marked their property by cutting their initials in trees on the boundary of what they considered theirs, then cut circles in the bark to kill the tree. They refused to pay the Native Americans for the land, believing that God owned it.

According to historian Luther Kelker, the settlers would build a church soon after clearing some land, building simple dwellings, and planting crops. The farmers often did not remove tree trunks and roots, and simply planted them with crops set out around them. They often planted various grains, beans, peas, and turnips.

The settlers kept goats, pigs, cattle, sheep, and a horse or two for plowing. As time passed, settlers often built grist mills and tanneries, with distilleries often added later. Colonial wives spun flax, milled the corn, worked in the fields, while bearing and raising large families of up to 10-15 children. 

Days were long and strenuous, but the men would gather at the tavern to  exchange stories and catch up on local and international news . Magisterial courts met there, and the taverns often served as polling places. 

While German farmers were frugal, well-organized, and interested in improving the land, the Scots-Irish settlers were not known for being good stewards of the land. They often farmed the soil while it was fertile and then moved westward when the soil stopped being productive. 

While working to create a good life on the frontier, immigrants saw the need to establish a church. In the early 1720s, at least three Presbyterian congregations began gathering for worship. For the Derry congregation, at first worship was held outside, by a spring. At times, worship services would be held in homes. 

As the Presbyterian congregations grew, these new worship communities requested formal recognition as a congregation from the Presbytery. After several years of meeting without the leadership of an ordained minister, members of Derry Church applied to Donegal Presbytery In 1729 to be recognized as an established church and to request that they be served by an ordained minister. In response, Donegal Presbytery directed Reverend James Anderson, then serving as Pastor to Donegal Springs Presbyterian Church, to attend to Derry Church every fifth Sunday. 

In 1732, when Derry called its first pastor, Reverend William Bertram, a small log building, the Session House, was erected. In 1734, a second structure was built to serve as a sanctuary. In 1769, a larger structure the “Old Derry” Meeting House was constructed. 

On the frontier, the church became an important social center. People traveled long distances to attend day-long worship services often held just once per month. Services began around 10 a.m. and included two sermons, hymns, and prayers. Between discourses, adults lingered in small groups discussing local happenings while children and youth enjoyed playing with each other. At noon, the entire congregation settled underneath the trees to enjoy picnics brought from home. 

Presbyterian ministers were hard to find on the frontier. The Presbyteries required ministers to have a classical education, including theology, Greek, and Latin before they could be considered for ordination. If the itinerant preachers did not have this background, the Presbyteries required them to return to Scotland to study at Edinburgh University. Once Princeton was established (1746), most ministers received their training there. 

Because of the shortage of qualified ministers, it was common for a clergyman to serve more than one church. Reverends James Anderson and William Bertram, Derry’s earliest ministers, both served several congregations, often visiting newly established congregations a few times a year, in addition to their more regular service to their called church. 

During these years, social, economic, and political challenges were plentiful. While most descendants of the Scots-Irish settlers moved on as the soil became less productive, they left an enduring heritage in this area. Building upon their religious and political views, they laid the foundation for our new nation and the challenges ahead.

For further reading:

Kelker, Luther Reilly. History of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. United States: Lewis Publishing Company, 1907. 

Kenny, Kevin. Peaceable Kingdom Lost: The Paxton Boys and the Destruction of William Penn’s Holy Experiment. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. 

Rapp, Israel Daniel. History and Topography of Northumberland, Huntington, Mifflin, Union, Columbia, Juniata, and Clinton Counties, PA. (1847)

Over the past several months, Jill Peckelun and I have had the privilege of working with Derry’s 3rd-5th graders on a picture book history of Derry Church. We are often joined by Pam Whitenack, who answers many questions about Derry’s history on the spot, and Kristy Elliot, who provides student support. 

Plans for this project emerged last year as the Derry 300 Committee imagined ways to include children’s voices in the Derry 300 celebrations. During the 2023-24 program year, Jill and I have met with an average of about ten children per week during Creation Time on Tuesday evenings to write and illustrate the story of Derry Church. 

We decided to tell the story through the evolution of Derry’s physical space. 3rd-5th graders are just developing the capacity for the kind of abstract thought that deep study of history requires, so we decided to connect all the abstract names, dates, and ideas to a space they already knew well and now know even better—their own church.

We divided our project into several topics. So far we have written and illustrated pages about the Session House, Spring, and Cemetery, Old Derry, and the John Elder Memorial Chapel. Jill and I have developed the following process for researching, illustrating, and writing about each topic. 

First, we do a site visit to a relevant location in the church to draw from life, or we draw from pictures in Derry’s archives. Jill takes the children’s sketchbooks and painstakingly selects images from each of the children’s drawings to create a composite collage. Next, the children use crayons to add color to the composite image. Jill then repeats the process, creating the final image by scanning and collaging the color images. We’d like to thank Sue George for lending her technical expertise to aspects of this process.

Through this process, I’ve been able to introduce some of the concepts of historical work, including primary sources (those contemporary to the period under study) and secondary sources (those created later from primary sources). Primary sources used on this project include photographs, artifacts, and of course, the building itself. For our secondary source, we rely on Bobbie Atkinson’s April 27, 2023 Long Read, which details the history of our buildings. We begin our study of a particular topic by reading the relevant portions of this article to get a general overview, and we revisit it throughout our study.

To produce the text, I begin by listening to the children talk as they work. Sometimes I ask them questions about what they are drawing and why. I note what they tell me. Toward the end of the process, I ask, “What did we learn? What do we feel is important for others to know?” I note that down, too. Finally, I take all the language they have given me and shape it into a narrative.

My star word for 2024 is delight, and it has truly been a delight to work on this project. Here are a few of the standout moments:

• Taking the children outside to sketch the Session House, Cemetery, and Spring. It was such a blessing to hear their kind words for the saints resting in our cemetery, those they knew and those who lived long ago. Several of them asked if there was any way to go inside the Session House, so we are working on possibilities for taking them in one or two at a time when it is safe. I have learned that kids love the Session House! (It’s a little house under glass in the parking lot. Who wouldn’t?)
• Participating in a Tuesday night worship service. In November, Pastor Stephen led a Tuesday evening worship in the Chapel with communion. The kids sat around the chancel to sketch the artifacts that remain from Old Derry, including furniture and the pewter communion set. 
• Watching the kids get so excited about artifacts from the Heritage Room! We meet in Room 6, which is conveniently located next to the Heritage Room. It was such a joy to see the kids show so much interest in the various objects Pam Whitenack pulled out one evening and debate with each other and us about their possible uses.
• Helping a table of kids study images of the Chapel to put them in chronological order—an activity they began spontaneously out of their own interest.
• Meeting with a small but dedicated group the night of a snowstorm to tour the chapel with Pam and ring the bell.
  

It’s not often in life you realize you’re doing one of the most important things you’ll ever do while you’re doing it, but I have experienced that feeling while working with these children on this project. 

Jill and I are often astounded by the children’s work, by their wisdom and talent. Looking with new eyes, they often show us things we missed. I hope that the children who work on this project will take the skills and confidence and knowledge they’ve gained into whatever they do next and into their eventual vocations. I don’t call this a children’s book, because it isn’t just for children. It’s a picture book, and picture books are for everyone. 

You’ll have your opportunity to pre-order this one in the spring. In the fall, we will celebrate the book’s arrival with a book launch party at a special post-worship fellowship.

Thank you for your support of the children and this project. To learn more, check out the bulletin board across from Room 6 or ask a 3rd-5th grader about their experience. We look forward to sharing the book with you.

Editor’s Note: On the first Thursday of each month, the eNews feature article highlights the mission focus for the month. In February we’re lifting up homelessness and our mission partner, Family Promise of Harrisburg Capital Region.

Steve came to Family Promise HCR with his 12-year-old son and two-year-old daughter. They had spent the last year in a hotel, and the expense chewed through their savings. The next step was living in his car, which would place him in danger of losing custody of his children. 

That’s when they applied to Family Promise HCR. He entered the program in a very stressed state, with a constant knit in his brow. Unfortunately, stories like his are not unique.

Family Promise HCR has spent the last year:

• Housing 14 families, including 23 children. 
• Beginning the UP programs in July 2023:
  • Move UP assists with back rent and security deposits: 23 families benefited.
  • Wheels UP provides funds for car repairs and back car payments: seven families benefited. 
  • Heads UP assists with mental health visits for those who have experienced homelessness.
• Working with 100 individuals looking for work, as a program management site for the United Way’s Road to Success program.

Our UP programs and Road to Success help divert families from homelessness. This is so important, because once a family has an eviction, it is much harder for them to find a landlord willing to rent to them.  

We don’t do this alone. We are a part of over a dozen coalitions or groups throughout the area representing hundreds of partner service organizations. This includes the Brethren Housing Association (BHA), where we hold a Road to Success “Job Club” and Capital Area Coalition on Homelessness, where Stacey Coldren, our Program Director sits on the board. We work with the Healthy Steps Diaper Bank to receive diapers for our guests. And we partner with organizations including Christian Churches United to share resources whenever possible, like the over abundance of hats and scarves we received and donated to the Overnight Women’s Shelter. 

Our families stay in our Day Center during the day, and in the evening stay at our network of ten host congregations. They transform three rooms into a cozy space to shelter our families in the evenings, and provide an evening meal and hospitality.

Steve graduated from the program. A local congregation that wanted to use one of its rental properties for mission work rented to him and his family. They gave him a reduced rate and took a chance on his rough credit report. This month it’s been one year since the move and the family is thriving! No more knit in his brow.

Last week, we discussed how Presbyterians from southern Scotland migrated to Ulster, Ireland’s northernmost province, and became known as the Ulster Scots. To summarize, in the early 1600s, England determined to strengthen its grip on Ulster through a policy of plantation (or settler-colonialism). English landlords found tenants for their holdings among the Presbyterians of southern Scotland, for whom repeated crop failures and religious persecution made Scotland a difficult place to live. Some Scottish Presbyterians settled in Ulster on the chance life might be easier there, but some were forced to emigrate. 

Now we’ll look at how many Ulster Scots found themselves emigrating a second time in relatively short order, not simply across the narrow channel that divides Ulster from southern Scotland, but across the Atlantic Ocean.

The Siege of Londonderry
Toward the end of the 17th century, Ireland became a minor theater in a larger struggle known variously as the War of the League of Augsberg, the War of the Grand Alliance, the Nine Years’ War, King William’s War, and the War of the Three Kings (1688-1697). To summarize, the French Catholic monarch Louis XIV sought to extend his power and smaller (largely Protestant) nations banded together to stop him. 

Louis XIV was the first, and certainly the most powerful, of the three kings referenced. The two others were the Catholic James II of England (also James VII of Scotland) and Protestant Dutch Prince William of Orange. William was both James’s nephew and son-in-law, as he was married to his first cousin, James’s daughter Mary. 

Despite persecution from Protestant reformers, the Catholic presence in England had never disappeared. After Oliver Cromwell’s death, his Commonwealth government collapsed and the Stuart dynasty was restored to the English throne in the person of Charles II, son of the executed monarch Charles I. While Charles II produced many children with his mistresses, his marriage was childless, so his openly Catholic younger brother James inherited the throne upon his death in 1685. 

When James’s Catholic second wife gave birth to a son in June 1688, panic arose among Protestants across both islands at the thought of a Catholic dynasty. When William of Orange invaded England in November 1688, the English army and navy supported him and James escaped to France.

In England, Parliament declared that James had abdicated through desertion and offered William and Mary the crown as co-regents ruling as William III and Mary II. James attempted to reclaim his throne by bringing a French army to Ireland. In Ireland, the larger-scale European conflict between Protestant and Catholic powers played out between Jacobite (Latin for James) forces who favored the Catholic James II and VII’s claim to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland and Williamite forces who favored William of Orange.

As Protestants, the Ulster Scots were firmly in the Williamite camp. The Siege of Londonderry is probably the most lauded moment in Ulster Scots history. In 1689, they made their most famous stand as they held the walled city of Londonderry against Jacobite forces for 105 days at great personal cost, contributing mightily to William’s ultimate victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. 

In the ensuing years, many more Presbyterians left Scotland to join the Ulster Scots Presbyterians in Ireland. Alas, any belief that their contributions to the Williamite victory would lead to political and religious equality with Anglicans was short-lived. By 1704, the more religiously tolerant (and perhaps grateful) William III was dead, along with his wife and co-regent Mary II. In that year, the Test Acts went into effect, requiring all public office holders to produce a certificate stating they had received communion in an Anglican church, effectively barring Presbyterians from government. 

Emigration to North America
In the 18th century, many elements combined to make emigration to North America attractive to the Ulster Scots. The Crown and the Anglican Church regarded their marriages as invalid, excluded them from public life, and required them to pay additional taxes. They were accustomed to religious intolerance, and that alone might not have induced them to leave Ulster. But crop failures, rising rents, and a string of economic crises made the prospect of a new land more appealing. 

Kevin Kenny writes, “Presbyterians began to leave Ulster for America in large numbers at the turn of the eighteenth century. They left in pursuit of land and religious toleration, the two goals that had brought their Scottish forefathers to Ulster over the previous three generations” (27). In the early decades of the eighteenth century, Pennsylvania was the most religiously tolerant of Great Britain’s North American colonies, an appealing prospect for dissenters from the Church of England, including Presbyterians. (In 1707, the Treaty of Union established the Kingdom of Great Britain as a sovereign nation by uniting the Kingdom of England, which included Wales from 1542, and the Kingdom of Scotland.)

In 1718, large-scale Ulster Scots migration to North America began with the departure from Derry Quay of five ships carrying several congregations of Presbyterians led by their ministers. Landing in Boston, they found the long-established Puritan inhabitants hostile. As early as 1700, noted Puritan minister Cotton Mather had declared attempts at Ulster Scots settlement in New England to be “formidable attempts of Satan and his Sons to Unsettle us”(28). By 1724, the traditional date of Derry Church’s founding, new Ulster Scots immigrants to North America had learned to look for homes further south, a process facilitated by close ties between Belfast merchants and Delaware ports.

For the third time in history, the people who had been the Lowland Scots and who had become the Ulster Scots, would take on a new frontier and a new name. “On both sides of the Atlantic, Ulster Presbyterians served as a military and cultural buffer between zones of perceived civility and barbarity, separating Anglicans from Catholics in Ireland and eastern elites from Indians in the American colonies. What they wanted above all else was personal security and land to call their own” (3). In North America, the Ulster Scots became known as the Scots-Irish, and would again serve as a human shield between elite colonizers and indigenous people, at the mercy of, and ultimately reviled by, both.

This was the world into which Derry Church came into being, a world whose true nature has been cloaked over time in the myth of brave and hearty frontiersmen and women. No doubt some of them were brave and hearty, and certainly most of them clung to their own interpretation of the Presbyterian faith as a comfort and a guide in a world in which their lives were likely to be short and difficult and to end messily. Conditions on the North American frontier were brutal, and the choices these largely impoverished and repeatedly oppressed people faced were often no choice at all. Sometimes their migration was forced. Often they were lied to about the opportunities awaiting them on the opposite side of a perilous sea voyage.

The Ulster Scots who made their way to North America were victims of the generational trauma of living a hardscrabble existence on frontiers, between warring forces, their homes never secure, their lives perpetually at risk. By the time they came to the place they called Derry Church, they were ready to fight for their own security, whether that meant fighting the people who were already here or the elites who forced them onto the frontier.

Perhaps for our 300th Anniversary, we can give our forebears the gift of seeing them truly, with the mix of pride, shame, and compassion which is the legacy of most of the people who have walked this earth.

Further Reading: The best secondary source on this topic is Kevin Kenny’s Peaceable Kingdom Lost: The Paxton Boys and the Destruction of William Penn’s Holy Experiment, from which the above quotations are taken.

Spend enough time around Derry Church, and you’ll hear the story of how our earliest members emigrated from Ireland to Pennsylvania in the early 1700s, founding a church here around 1724. In this first piece, I’m taking you deeper into the past, to an earlier migration that is just as deserving of a place in Derry’s collective memory. 

The Protestant Reformation
Derry’s story begins with the Protestant Reformation. In 1517, priest and theologian Martin Luther published his 95 Theses, challenging the teachings of the Catholic church and inadvertently igniting the religious reform movement known as the Protestant Reformation. Religious groups in conflict with the Catholic church soon came into conflict with each other, ultimately producing the many denominations of Protestantism known to us today, including Presbyterianism.

While the Protestant Reformation occurred across Europe, events in England are most significant for Derry. In 1534, the infamous English monarch Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church and established the Church of England, or Anglicanism. Henry VIII’s concerns were political, not religious. While the English monarch replaced the pope as the head of the church, Anglicanism remained similar to Catholicism. 

Henry VIII’s actions produced two significant outcomes in England. First, it left serious religious reformers interested in a change in church substance, not just in name and leadership, dissatisfied. Second, by creating a national church, it explicitly tied religious identity to national identity. Those who didn’t support the national church might find themselves under suspicion of not supporting the nation—and by extension, the monarch who was head of both.

Scottish Presbyterianism vs. English Anglicanism
Meanwhile in Scotland, Protestant zealot John Knox spread the teachings of Swiss theologian Jean (or John) Calvin. In Scotland, national identity became linked to Calvinism, a theology most fully expressed in Presbyterianism. The first General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church was held in Edinburgh in December 1560. Over the next century, an early form of Presbyterianism comprised of a combination of Anglican, Puritan, and Calvinist theology, structure, and process spread throughout southern Scotland. (The much-mythologized Highlands and its clans remained overwhelmingly Catholic and separate from the Lowlands. They are not a significant part of Derry Church’s story.)

In 1603, James VI of Scotland inherited the throne of his cousin Elizabeth I of England, making him both King of Scots and King James I of England. (The two remained separate nations, but James was king of both, reigning as James VI of Scotland and James I of England.) James had been baptized Roman Catholic and raised Presbyterian, but he understood that his throne and his global power depended on that of the more powerful nation of England and its Anglican church. This led to a series of attempts by James and his heirs to “Anglicize” Scottish Presbyterianism and bring the two nations into closer alignment.

In 1637, attempts by James’s son Charles I to impose Anglicanism in Scotland led to riots in the Presbyterian stronghold of St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh. A more measured response to Charles I’s actions came in the form of the Scottish National Covenant of 1638, which declared Presbyterianism to be the only true form of church government and aligned Scotland with Presbyterianism and the principles of the Protestant Reformation. Over 300,000 Presbyterians in Scotland and Ulster signed it. 

The Presbyterian Migration to Ulster
Where is Ulster, and what were Scottish Presbyterians doing there? To answer that question, let’s start with a little geography.

Ireland is the name of a nation, but it’s also the name of an island, and the two aren’t exactly the same. Today, the separate nations of the Republic of Ireland (commonly called “Ireland” and a completely independent nation) and Northern Ireland (which is part of the United Kingdom) share the island of Ireland. 

Ulster is one of the four traditional provinces that make up the island of Ireland. Northern Ireland is comprised of six counties in Ulster. But three of Ulster’s counties are in the Republic of Ireland. The island’s traditional provinces predate English interference and have no present-day political existence or administration—and what existed in the past wasn’t especially strong. It might be helpful to think of these traditional provinces as similar to regions—such as New England, the Southeast, the Midwest—in the United States. These areas have a shared history and culture, but they aren’t political entities.

Okay, back to the history:

English monarchs had been claiming Ireland since at least the 1100s, but much of their power was in name only. In the early decades of the 1600s, the English Crown’s attempts to rule Ireland in fact as well as in name led to the systematic plantation of Ulster, the northernmost province of Ireland that had always been the most difficult to bring under English control. In this context, “plantation” is a verb, not the noun we’re used to using to refer to large antebellum farms in the American Southeast. In essence, plantation involves driving the native inhabitants off the land you want and replacing them, or simply overwhelming them, with your own people. England used this method (which is very similar to what is today called “settler-colonialism”) to great effect for centuries, with Ulster as their proving ground. 

So why did the Plantation of Ulster occur when it did? With much of Ulster abandoned by native Irish leaders as a result of conflicts early in the 1600s, English interests were able to swoop in and sell the abandoned land to new (mostly English) landlords. In need of tenants to make their new holdings profitable, these landlords looked to the Lowlands of Scotland, where years of crop failures and religious persecution for their Presbyterian faith made promises of better land and greater religious toleration in Ulster attractive. Some of these Scottish settlers in Ulster chose migration—to the extent that trading probable starvation for possible starvation is a choice. However, some were forcibly transplanted. 

In addition to their vulnerable state as a mostly poor and marginalized group, Lowlander Scots held a particular attraction for their new landlords. For centuries, their families had inhabited the constantly contested borderlands of England and Scotland. They were accustomed to making their homes between violently antagonistic forces. This was key, because the land they settled on was not empty. Ulster had been abandoned only by its elites. Many native Irish remained, clinging to their Catholic faith in the face of persecution from both English Anglican landlords and Scottish Presbyterian tenants.

The Black Oath
When those 300,000 Presbyterians in Scotland and Ulster signed the Scottish National Covenant of 1638, the English Crown responded with what became known as the “Black Oath.” It required every Protestant in Scotland and Ulster over the age of sixteen to swear allegiance to the king and reject the Scottish National Covenant. The Black Oath turned the Ulster Scots community against Charles I, adding to the controversial monarch’s many enemies. The 1640s, a decade of bloody unrest on both islands, ended with the king’s execution in 1649. 

When the dust of migration and war finally cleared around 1660 there were three major religious groups in Ulster: displaced and oppressed Catholics, looking to Rome and the Catholic monarchs of continental Europe for redemption; land-owning Anglicans, loyal to the restored monarch Charles II and the Church of England; and a tenant class of Protestant Dissenters, of which Scottish Presbyterians made up the largest part and whose numbers were increasing. 

Indeed, while there had been plenty of Scottish Presbyterian settlements in Ulster in the first half of the 1600s, the greatest numbers, including many Presbyterian ministers, migrated to Ireland during the second half. All told, perhaps a quarter of a million people migrated from the island of Great Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland) to the island of Ireland by 1700, most of them to Ulster.

These migrants to Ulster from Lowland Scotland—Scottish, Presbyterian, Dissenters — became known as the Ulster Scots. Stay tuned next week to discover how they became known in North America as the Scots-Irish.

Further Reading: This article provides an extremely simplified overview of a complex historical process. Jonathan Bardon is a major authority on the history of Ulster. His book, The Plantation of Ulster (2011) is the standard source. If you’re not interested in reading a whole book but want to learn a bit more, check out the Ulster-Scots Agency.

Image credit: Wdcf, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

We are nearing the end of a season of wonder and I confess I have never ceased to be amazed at the number of projects and their huge impact for our local and worldwide communities that Derry undertakes. I say this because my first church was a small congregation in western Pennsylvania where I remember hearing adults talk about “living link missionaries.” These missionaries seemed to be far away, so I wondered: where were these missionaries and what did they do there?

My experience of mission at Derry has vastly enlarged my understanding of how we, individually and collectively, are a link to others.  I am thinking especially of the ministry of the Presbyterian Education Board (PEB) in Pakistan, which Derry members have been supporting — first in small ways beginning in 2009, and now in significantly substantial ways through a variety of fundraising endeavors and the personal involvement of many.  This is about education for the most needy in Pakistan, where government-run schools are inadequate and where many children could suffer lifelong illiteracy. 

Derry’s Shares for Scholarships campaign, under way now and continuing through February, supports the education of children in PEB schools. Last year 54 folks at Derry raised $23,200 in scholarship funds that are benefiting 55 children who attend PEB day and boarding schools. It is my good fortune and a blessing to be able to send Adan, a little guy who is a day student, to nursery school. His letter from 2022 tells me that his favorite subject is English and that he wants to be an engineer. Wonderful! 

Derry members support the work of PEB through Friends of the Presbyterian Education Board here and across the country.  There are now three schools  in Sargodha (a large city of about 660,000 people) that serve more than 1,000 boys and girls who are Christians and Muslims. An annual scholarship is $400 for a day student and $800 for a boarding student. A share is any amount you might wish to allow God, though you, to support the education of a child.

I believe we are truly God’s links to youngsters who will have hope of a better future, a chance to rise out of poverty, and the promise of becoming educated citizens who are prepared to serve their communities and the world. A card from PEB reminded me of Hebrews 6:1, “God is not unjust: God will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped God’s people and continue to help them.” 

I invite you to join me by becoming a link of God’s love to one of God’s children by giving online or by sending checks to Derry Church notated “Pakistan Scholarships.” 

Editor’s Note: On the first Thursday of each month (or close to it), the eNews feature article highlights the mission focus for the month. In January we’re lifting up women’s equality, justice and opportunity through the good work of our mission partner, Bethesda Women and Children’s Mission in Harrisburg.

My first visit to Bethesda Women’s Shelter was easily 25 years ago. It was a dark, cramped building that had once been a school. We shared our love by preparing a luncheon and sharing a meal together. Over time, Derry members visited and learned about their programs and needs, and we planted colorful geraniums in a narrow strip of grass between the sidewalk and the road.

Now the Shelter has been replaced on the same site by a light-filled interior space surrounded by outdoor views that allow women to thrive in a Christ-centered facility. Bethesda offers hope to those searching for their purpose and their place in this world. 

On completion of a year-long Discipleship and Recovery program, women have the option to move into a Transitional Living Program before moving out on their own. Because many of the women have addictions to drugs and alcohol, and may have been living in domestic abuse situations, it is important for program participants to commit to sobriety. Bethesda offers prayer, a discipleship program, counseling — individual and group — and 12-step Christian recovery groups and meetings. Children may stay with their mothers at the shelter so their bond can be maintained and strengthened. Parenting classes are available, and everyone has access to financial and budgeting instruction to help round out their life skills.

Since their education may have been interrupted, Bethesda can assist participants in obtaining local social, medical, and educational services to help them set and reach attainable goals during their stay. Some women, after completing Bethesda’s programming, either return to the work force or continue their education at a local college. Many of the graduates remain in contact with the shelter through calls, mentoring, or as volunteers.

Derry has shared our love with them as well as our mission funds over the years. Look for opportunities in the near future for you  to share your time and talents, too!

What’s the most important word in the Bible? There are a lot of good answers: love, salvation, grace, and Jesus. We tend to think of important words in terms of belief: the most important words in the Bible must be about our belief, right? 

When I was studying at the Corrymeela community in Northern Ireland two summers ago, one thing that was said stood out above all others. It’s that we must hold relationships above beliefs. So often seminaries and churches focus so much on right belief, but we don’t spend enough time on right relationships. This idea of holding relationships above belief has changed my answer to the question: what is the most important word in the Bible?

The Christmas story reminds me of the power of this word. The angel says to Joseph, “‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us.’” And then in John’s gospel, we get the summary statement of what Christmas means: “The Word became flesh and lived with us.” It’s an unprepossessing little word, but this is the word that lies at the heart of Christmas and at the heart of the Christian faith. The word is “with.” 

Think back to the very beginning of all things. John’s gospel says, “The Word was with God. He was in the beginning with God. Without him not one thing came into being.” In other words, before anything else, there was a “with.” The “with” between God and the Word, or as Christians came to call it, between the Father and the Son. “With” is the most fundamental thing about God. And then think about how Jesus concludes his ministry. His very last words in Matthew’s gospel are, “Behold, I am with you always.” In other words, there will never be a time when I am not “with.” And at the very end of the Bible, when the book of Revelation describes the final disclosure of God’s everlasting destiny, this is what the voice from heaven says: “Behold, the home of God is with mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them.” 

We’ve stumbled upon the most important word in the Bible, the word that describes the heart of God and the nature of God’s purpose and destiny for us. That word is “with.” That’s what God was in the very beginning, that’s what God sought to instill in the creation of all things, that’s what God was looking for in making the covenant with Israel, that’s what God coming among us in Jesus was all about, that’s what the sending of the Holy Spirit meant, that’s what our destiny in the company of God will look like. It’s all in that little word “with.” God’s whole life and action and purpose are shaped to be “with” us.

At Christmas God said unambiguously, “I am ‘with’.” Behold, my dwelling is among you. I’ve moved into the neighborhood. I will be “with” you always. My name is Emmanuel, God “with” us.

The story of the Bible, the good news of the Gospel, the joy of Christmas is “with.” God is with us, but we are also designed and made to be with each other. We need each other. We cannot be Christian or truly human alone. 

So much of the Bible is about how to live well in this world with each other. The promised day of God looks like wolf laying down with lamb, lion and calf dancing with each other, all of God’s children at the same table with one another. 

We’ve been talking about “Home for Christmas” this Advent. Home isn’t a place; it’s a way of being and living. Home is with God and with one another not just in physical presence but in purpose and love and spirit. With is not always easy. Relationships are hard. Those who have large extended families and in-laws coming for Christmas may attest to the stress of “with.” We do not always live with each other well, as the news is quick to remind us. We are not home yet, the world is not as it should be.

God, above all, knows how exasperating, ungrateful, thoughtless and self-destructive company we can be. Most of the time we just want God to fix it, and spare us the relationship. But that’s not God’s way. God could have done it all on his own. But God chose not to. God chose to do it “with” us. Even though it cost the cross. That’s the wonder of Christmas. That’s the amazing news of the word “with.”

This fall and winter I have continued to have the privilege of making music with the kids of Derry Church.  Our schedule looks a little different this year from last year. Some parts are the same, on Sunday mornings from 9:00-9:15 am, I still make music with preschool through 5th grade children. On Tuesdays, however, we have done some rearranging.  From 5:45-6:05 pm, I make music with preschool children and their families; from 6:05-6:35 pm, I make music with K-2nd grade children; from 6:35-7:00 pm, I make music with 3rd-5th grade children; and from 7:00-7:20 pm, I ring bells and chimes with 3rd-5th grade children. All of our groups, especially our 3rd-5th graders have been BUSY!

The 3rd-5th grade group has already sung and rung in worship three times this school year, AND they are getting ready to do it again on Christmas Eve at 5 pm! We are looking forward to a slightly slower paced January. The songs they have been working on are much more complicated than what they worked on last year. The vocal range is larger, the songs are longer, and some have had multiple parts happening at once. The K-2nd group sang on Children’s Sunday and are getting ready to sing on Christmas Eve.  They are working hard on consistently staying in their singing voice, accurately echoing pitch, keeping a steady beat, and playing musical games together. Our new group, the preschool and family group, has been having fun exploring together. Adults and kids alike ride “Engine No. 9,” sing and move at rabbit or turtle speed, and learn songs together.

While all the groups work very hard to get ready to lead worship, that is never the primary focus. Rather, we are exploring our faith together and building a safe, nurturing, joyful community in the process. These kids are kind, joyful, curious, and extremely hard-working. It is a privilege to be in community with them every week.

Come, rejoice and celebrate the wonder and mystery of the birth of the Christ Child with the choirs of Derry Church as they take you on a journey to Bethlehem! 

The Sanctuary Choir and Derry Ringers will  join with soprano and tenor soloists Nina Cline and Christian Seay to present our 2023 Christmas concert, Gaudete!* The concert features works by Dan Forrest, including his settings of O Little Town of Bethlehem for choir, piano, and soprano saxophone, and Angels from the Realms of Glory for four-hand piano and violin. 

The orchestra will accompany the choir in my setting of The First Noël, and you’ll enjoy  J. David Moore’s stirring setting of Gaudete with choir, soloists, and tambourine. Harold Darke’s alternate tune set to the text In the Bleak Midwinter features Nina and Chris accompanied by our Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ. You’ll also hear accompanists well-known to Derry: pianists Mary Lemons and Kurestin Miller, and organist Mark O’Hearn.

Other works include Mary Did You Know?, Angels Carol by John Rutter, and Alfred Burt’s beloved Caroling, Caroling. The Derry Ringers will perform two well-known carols, Fum, Fum, Fum and the Ukrainian Bell Carol, more commonly referred to as Carol of the Bells. 

The concert begins this Sunday, December 10 at 2 pm** and 5 pm in the Sanctuary, but you’ll want to get there 10 minutes early to hear a pre-concert recital by our harpist, Marilla Clay.  Join us for a sojourn that begins with a star above the stable, on a cold winter’s night where Mary, Joseph, and the Babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, await the shepherds and wise men. As we lift our voices together, I pray that each audience member will be caught up in the most tender warmth of love that the most humble birth of Jesus gives to each of us.

* In case you were wondering, Gaudete means “rejoice” — an apt description for this concert orchestrated to fill your heart with Christmas joy.

** You can also attend the 2 pm concert by live stream, but I heartily encourage you to attend in person, if at all possible. Click here to download the concert program.

Editor’s Note: On the first Thursday of each month (or close to it), the eNews feature article highlights the mission focus for the month. In December we’re lifting up the Christmas Joy Offering and Stop the Violence, recipient of a portion of that offering. 

On Sunday, when I push through the curiously heavy doors that lead into Derry Church, I’m reminded about how much God has blessed our church with many amazing gifts. With those gifts comes a weighty responsibility to do our best to love and support our neighbors in the community, especially the vulnerable.

Who is vulnerable? Surprisingly, the vulnerable look just like you and me. They have jobs, but maybe don’t make enough to support a family. They have children, but lack affordable healthcare or childcare. They have housing, but struggle to have enough left over each month to pay for heat and other utilities.  

God reminds us in Proverbs 31:8-9, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

The Christmas Joy Offering is one of four special offerings received by the Presbyterian Church (USA) during the year.  This month and on Christmas Eve, Derry Church is receiving the Christmas Joy Offering. Derry Church will share a portion of our 2023 Christmas Joy Offering with Stop the Violence (STV) in Harrisburg. STV supports those that are vulnerable by providing counseling for women of domestic violence, as well as providing food, clothing, gifts and school supplies to families and elderly in need. 

Rev. Mim Harvey, President and Founder, provides this update:

This is a very sad time for our area, as we experience high levels of crime and poverty. Many mothers and grandmothers are raising children on their own. People are hurting. The high cost of food and necessities, like clothing and diapers, is also an issue for our community.

So, what will the Christmas Joy Offering mean to an organization like STV?

• Secure food that is delivered to seniors that are afraid to come out, that don’t have transportation, or that don’t have relatives.
• Fund Thanksgiving food baskets for over 100 families, including turkeys and the works for dinner.
• Purchase new coats for needy children.
• Support a drive-by Christmas party serving 125 children with Christmas toys and candy bags (with a special appearance from Santa Claus!).
• Provide blankets, coats, hats, gloves, scarves, and socks to the homeless.

In other words, donating to the Christmas Joy Offering will mean fewer hungry mouths, warmer people on the streets, reduced anxiety for mothers, grandmothers, and the elderly. It will mean that children in the community will be happier and healthier.

As you think about how you can spread love and joy this holiday, consider giving to the Christmas Joy Offering and helping lift up those in need. Click here to donate online or notate checks “Christmas Joy Offering.”

To learn more about Stop the Violence and ways you can volunteer, contact me. 

Thank you, Derry Presbyterian Church. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn and grow as a faith leader over the last five and a half years.  Thank you for your unending support and encouragement. Thank you for helping our children’s ministry programs grow by volunteering in our classrooms, surrounding us with your thoughts and prayers, joining us for special events, and sharing your gift of time, talents or financial contributions to our various programs. Thank you for joining with the Derry family for our whole church events like the Church Picnic and Corn Roast. Thank you for helping our Prime Timers program on Monday afternoons become a wonderful fellowship opportunity for the adults of the church.  Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to lead and serve you. 

This Thanksgiving season I find myself extra full of gratitude.  As I prepare to transition from my role as a church staff member to a congregation member, I feel incredibly thankful that I do not have to step away from this wonderful church family. While I will need to remove myself from our children’s ministry programs to allow Shawn Gray the opportunity to grow into his role at Derry, I am thankful that I can still be active in so many other ways.  

I am thankful to have Shawn joining us on December 1 so that we can share a month working together.  What a blessing for Derry Church to have this overlap time. I look forward to showing Shawn all the gifts that Derry Church offers to our church family, and the community, through our programming, education, care, time and talents.  

The next few months will be different for us all. However, if we focus on the many church blessings we have and allow that to guide our hearts, this time of transition will be more joyful. As I was preparing for many Thanksgiving lessons between Sunday School, KIWI, fellowship, my preschool classroom and Prime Timers, I came across the following quote from Maya Angelou and it has stuck with me…

“Be present in all things and thankful for all things.” 

I hope during this time of transition at the church, and during the Thanksgiving season, that you will find a way to stay present and thankful. My prayers consistently include prayers of thanksgiving for the unending helping hands we seem to have for one another, the level of stewardship for our beautiful and vibrant church building, the warmth and joyfulness you feel as you enter our church for worship, the thoughts and preparations made for each program and event held at the church, and the genuine care, help and thoughtfulness shared by everyone. Being present and thankful is much easier when you are with this church family.

As we approach my last month working at the church, I want you all to know how thankful I am for the last five and half years. What a blessing this chapter has been in my life. I look forward to this next chapter together as I continue to worship, grow in my faith and share my gifts alongside each of you.

I hope you have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

With love and gratitude, 

🙂 M.E.