Bucher Meeting House Article

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Bucher Meeting house in South Lebanon township

The 150th anniversary of the historic Bucher Meeting House in South Lebanon
Township near Cornwall will be celebrated with a public event on September 10 (two
years late due to the Covid-19 pandemic). Events, including building and cemetery tours, will begin at 2 p.m. with an old-fashioned hymn sing at 3 p.m. The granddaughters of two former ministers will be present with one leading the hymn sing.

According to historical documents, the Bucher Meeting House (once known as “Cornwall House”) was constructed in 1871 after Tulpehocken Church of the Brethren members who lived near Cornwall and had been worshipping at private homes decided to build a meeting house. The Bucher Meeting House – a 60-foot by 40-foot wooden frame structure – and a large horse shed were built along what is now Route 419 east of Cornwall in South Lebanon Township for $2,957.29. It is believed the name came from the Bucher family (Elder George and Anna Bucher and Jacob Bucher Sr.), who lived nearby and often hosted church services in their barns. Among donors to the building project were well-known Cornwall area residents Robert and Anna Coleman, owners of the Cornwall Iron Furnace.

Today, the white frame meeting house looks much as it did in 1871 with straight benches and hanging kerosene lamps in the interior, but the horse shed is gone. There are two front doors – one for the men and one for the women who entered the building separately – and benches still fill the building. The adjacent cemetery, with marked graves dating back to 1842, is located south of the building.

Originally owned by the Tulpehocken congregation, the meeting house and cemetery were under the ownership of the Midway Church of the Brethren (which had also once been a part of the Tulpehocken congregation) from 1902 until 2018. Records show regular Sunday morning worship services were held there until the late 1800s with evening services continuing for several years. Since the mid-1930s, only special occasion services have been held there. However, when the Midway COB undertook a construction project in 1950, church members regularly worshipped at the Bucher Meeting House until construction on the Lebanon church was completed. For several years, the building served as the site of an annual summer service, and a 100th anniversary celebration was held in 1971.

A few years ago, the Atlantic Northeast District Church of the Brethren took ownership of the meeting house and cemetery after Midway COB left the denomination. A six- member committee made up of three district officers and three at-large members now oversees the property.

The land where the meeting house and cemetery are located was originally part of a farm owned by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Dohner.

As for the cemetery, the earliest dated stone recorded is for Jacob Schmidt (1774 - 1842), who married into the Dohner Family, followed by other Dohner Family members. That leads historians to believe the cemetery may have originally been a family cemetery. At this time, only reserved cemetery plots can be used.

Charitable donations to assist with the upkeep of the Bucher Meeting House may be made to the Bucher Perpetual Care Fund through the Atlantic Northeast District of the Church of the Brethren.

Written By Kathy Hackleman

ACOB ANNUAL CHICKEN POT PIE FUNDRAISER

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Kathy schrader, Left & Kate WEntling, Right making pot pie

A successful fundraising effort requires multiple things: first, a product or service people are willing to pay to obtain followed by volunteers willing to organize, set up, and carry out the efforts involved in the fundraising event.

In the case of Annville Church of the Brethren, the product is chicken pot pie and the organizers of the fundraiser for the past 10 years are church members Kathy Schrader and Kate Wentling.

The most recent annual fundraising sale of quarts of Pennsylvania Dutch chicken pot pie (most accurately described as a thick noodle soup) raised approximately $4,000 in March 2023. The recipient of this year’s fundraiser has not yet been selected but in past years, has included denomination and/or church outreach projects, expenses for church youth to attend church camp and National Youth Conference, church kitchen renovations or a community need.

Originally conceived as a dinner at the church where tickets were sold, over the years the annual fundraising dinner transitioned into its current form where quarts of pot pie are presold. In a typical year, between 625 and 650 quarts of chicken pot pie are sold. Due to the rising cost of ingredients, the cost increased slightly this year to $8.50 per quart.

Held annually in March, the chicken pot pie sale requires Kathy and Kate to begin working behind the scenes soon after the start of each new year.

“We begin watching for good deals on ingredients in January,” Kathy explains.

Of course, the main ingredient of chicken pot pie is chicken – for 625-650 quarts of finished pot pie, that means about 60 chickens. Church members volunteer to cook down the chickens, sometimes at their homes and other times in small groups in the church kitchen.

Once the chickens are cooked and the meat removed from the bones, other ingredients are weighed and measured in preparation for a small army of volunteers who gather in the church kitchen to complete the pot pie. Those volunteers spend two days on such tasks as peeling potatoes, working the dough and rolling it out, stirring the pot pie as it cooks, and filling the containers.

Volunteers are solicited through announcements at church and individual contacts. People can sign up for the day or days they want to volunteer and also for the specific job they wish to do. Volunteers are rewarded with doughnuts and breakfast casseroles on the days they work. Each of the two-day shifts is between two and five hours.

The specific recipe used for the chicken pot pie is a secret. The recipe originated decades ago from church members Charlotte and Gladys Wampler. It has been tweaked only a bit over the years, most often when ingredients have increased significantly in price or are no longer available. The original recipe called for specific brands of ingredients, which became problematic as the years passed. Also, the recipe has been changed to reflect precise measurements (Kate reports the original version called for the “white mug full of onions” and a specific number of eggs, which Kathy and Kate have found is more accurately measured by cups, not number since the size of eggs can vary widely). Even with the recipe and years of experience, Kathy and Kate say some years they have to adjust on the fly, such as sometimes adding additional broth to make the finished pot pie “just right.”

The annual pot pie sale is held in March, but the exact date varies from year to year as Kathy and Kate work around Easter and their own schedules to set the date, but the final product is always put together and finished on a Friday and Saturday.

Although dozens of volunteers put in hundreds of hours to get the final product out the church door, Kathy and Kate contribute the lion’s share of work, but it’s an effort they clearly enjoy, although both say they wish there was an easier, faster way to get the chickens cooked and prepared. Pot pie not a difficult dish to prepare, Kathy notes, but it does take quite a bit of time since it involves multiple steps and quite a few ingredients.

Kathy explains, “I enjoy the fellowship and I like it when people compliment the final product. There are some years where I feel like I can’t do it again, but then people tell me how much they look forward to it and how they wait all year for it, and I decide to do it again.”

It’s continuing a decades-long tradition that propels Kate to do the work each year. “Annville is known locally for its pot pie, and I enjoy being a part of that,” she says.

Once all of the containers filled with pot pie are out the door, the work continues. Kathy and Kate write notes to include in the decades-old chicken pot pie folder, which includes details from each year’s fundraiser (including the amount of money made, cost of ingredients, where the funds were distributed, and any suggestions they have for the following year).

You might think Kathy and Kate would be tired of chicken pot pie by the time this fundraiser is done, but that’s not the case. Kate doesn’t make pot pie at home for her family as she says she doesn’t often cook large meals from scratch, but Kathy makes small batches for her family throughout the year. She tweaks the recipe slightly but says her smaller family version tastes nearly identical to the church version once she’s finished.

The annual spring chicken pot pie sale is only one of a number of kitchen projects Kathy and Kate coordinate at Annville COB. Another major effort is making chicken pot pie for the annual Disaster Relief Auction in Lebanon. For that, volunteers prepare the pot pie and deliver it to the auction where it is sold by as part of a meal or in larger quantities to be carried out. That usually involves around 100 quarts, the proceeds of which go to the auction for disaster relief. The total raised through that project varies as it depends on whether the majority is sold as part of a meal at the auction or whether most of it is sold in larger quantities.

Written by Kathy Hackleman

Ridgeway Brass is Performing at ACoB on 12/4/22

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Free Community Concert

Ridgeway Brass 

December 4, 2022
2:00 p.m. 

The Annville Church of the Brethren, 495 E. Maple, Annville, is hosting a free community Christmas concert featuring Ridgeway Brass at 2 p.m. Dec. 4.

Group members are: Ron Howe and Mike Schmehl , trumpets; Josh Stroup, French horn; Don Wetzel, trombone; and Greg Bidgood Enders, tuba. They all have had connections either directly or indirectly to the Ridgeway Church of the Brethren in Harrisburg. They usually perform in south-central Pennsylvania, but have also played in the Philadelphia and Baltimore areas. The repertoire for the group includes sacred, classical, Broadway, ragtime, Dixieland and pop music, although the upcoming concert will focus on Christmas music. Their focus was on performances at church services until 2006 or 2007, when they branched out to begin playing at festivals, retirement communities, concert series and schools, where they promoted music education for students. Several members of the group also play in other groups as well.

The public is invited to attend the concert. A freewill offering will be taken to benefit Brethren Disaster Ministries, a program that focuses on rebuilding homes, caring for children and providing international relief by engaging volunteers, supporters and partners to serve communities recovering from disasters.


New Sign Thanking Annville Church of the Brethren from the ACYSC

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The Annville Cleona Soccer Club placed a new sign on the shed in the soccer field behind the church. The sign reads “Special Thank you to Annville Church of the Brethren and Boger Concrete.” Annville Church of the Brethren allows the ACYSC to use the field throughout the year to host practices and games on. The sign is a lovely gesture by the Annville Cleona Soccer Club.

Free Little Library

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FREE LITTLE LIBRARY    

A “Free Little Library” has been installed and stocked with books for our neighbors in the community and our congregation to enjoy.  It is located on the northeast side of the church near the Peace Pole.

The library was purchased with donations given in memory of Delmar Cook.

In order to keep our Little Library stocked with books, we will gladly accept any donation of books that you are willing to part with.  Book donations may be placed in the bin marked “Free Little Library Book Donations” located in the Narthex.

Children's Sunday & All God's Children Picnic

/ South Annville Pavilian /

Join us this Sunday at 10am for a service at our pavilion. We will not be holding a regular service at our building in Annville. We will be having the This Way Up Band perform as part of the service. Following the performance we will be having a meal. Please bring lawn chairs, blankets, etc. to sit on during the service. All are welcome!