We love God.
Empowered by the Holy Spirit, Oxford Circle Mennonite Church’s mission is to share in word and action Christ’s message of love that reconciles us to God and neighbor.
HISTORY
———1940s———
During World War II, there was a need for housing military service families at a minimal cost in Northeast Philadelphia. A village of 600 one-story houses was built next to the Naval Depot. Since this affordable housing was near Oxford Avenue, the village was named Oxford Village. This attracted The Reedel family who were members of Norris Square Mennonite Church in North Philadelphia. Harry and Viva moved their four children to Oxford Village in 1945.
The Reedels soon discerned a need for religious teaching among the residents since there were very few churches in the area. They slowly got to know their neighbors and began transporting their children to Norris Square on Sunday mornings. By July 1946, Viva started gathering children in her backyard to share Bible stories. Later, the first Bible School for the children was held in the homes of the Reedels and Alice Reeves. This increased interest in hearing Bible stories in the community. By the end of the summer, they started an afternoon Sunday School in the Reedel home.
By September, more help was needed. The Troyer family, of Wilmington, DE, traveled to Philadelphia by train to assist each Sunday. The services evantually changed from Sunday afternoon to Sunday morning as attendance continued to grow. A monthly religious paper called ‘The Way’, was distributed door-to-door in the village. Youth groups from Mennonite Churches in Lancaster County helped to pass these out and held street meetings in the area.
A lot was purchased and ground was broken in November 1948 for a basement church and dedicated in February 1949. J. Paul Graybill and George R. Brunk II were speakers, and Henry Garber, Eastern Mennonite Mission (EMM) President, moderated at the dedication. In August 1949, Henry met John Winters at the Missionary Training Institute and later requested his help with the ministry at Oxford Circle Village.
John preached his first sermon on November 20, 1949 on church boards laid across the mud. For the first year, the Reedels welcomed him into their home for lunch each Sunday. In the afternoons, John would stop at homes in Oxford Village. He was ordained as minister for Oxford Circle. After two years in the basement church, John requested that the upper part of the building be completed. EMM provided a grant and in 1951, the work was completed with volunteer help. A small apartment was included and used by the Winters family on weekends.
Laura Weber moved to Philadelphia in 1948 and helped at Oxford Circle on Sundays. Esther Clark helped with Sunday School and Bible School as early as 1950. Laura and Esther were dedicated church workers. They would go to homes on Sunday mornings while the parents were still asleep, get the children out of bed, groomed, dressed and bring them to church. They also ministered to many of the elderly in the community. In 1953, Laura Weber and Esther Clark moved into the apartment in the church.
———1950s———
Sunday School attendance rose to about 175 as many others helped continue the work. In 1950, Paul and Helen White helped with teaching and organizing. In June of 1954, Glenn and Erla Ranck began commuting from Bucks County. Later they moved their family into the city and served faithfully in the church until their deaths in 1980 (Glenn) and 1994 (Erla). Carol (Stone) Reinford grew up across the street from the church. Later, after moving to Chester, she became a member of Oxford Circle Fellowship and with her mother’s permission, came back to live with Laura and Esther. She lived with them until she married Clyde Reinford in 1967 and moved to Kentucky. In 1977, Laura also moved to Kentucky to teach school where the Reinford family was living at the time. Sharon (Weber) Lazarus lived in the apartment for a year until Sharon bought her own house where the two moved into together. When Sharon got married in 1987, Esther moved to Lancaster after more than thirty years of working with the church.
Throughout the 1950’s, attendance at Oxford Circle grew and continued to be primarily children and youth from the neighborhood combined with Mennonites who had moved to the city from rural areas. In 1956, The Housing Authority of Philadelphia demolished about half of the units in Oxford Village. As many of the residents moved elsewhere, this greatly reduced the attendance at Sunday School and Bible School.
In June of 1957 as John Winter’s health declined, the church called Donald Wenger as the new pastor. He and his wife, Ruth (Hackman), were attending Oxford Circle where Donald, along with Glen Ranck and George Weber, were in the class for the ministry. In 1958, John resigned from his pastoral duties.
Ruth Graybill arrived in Philadelphia in 1950 after feeling a calling to a ministry to Jewish people. For the next fifty years, Ruth remained a faithful member of Oxford Circle where her quiet presence served as an inspiration to others in the church. A house directly across the street from the church was purchased as a parsonage. In 1962, the Wengers moved on and Bishop Stoner Krady (retired from his Lancaster churches) served as pastor. They had a second floor apartment and shared the house with Ruth Graybill, Miriam Stoltzfus and Ada Myer, and later with Amos and Naomi Harnish. Krady served for four years until his death in November 1966.
———1960s———
In August of 1966, George Weber was ordained as a minister by the new bishop, Luke Stoltzfus. George and Gladys (Sensenig) Weber had been teaching Sunday School at Oxford Circle since 1948. They continued to be involved at Oxford Circle until he was called into 1W (conscientious objection) service in the South. They returned to Philadelphia in 1956 and later moved into the parsonage. After serving as pastor from 1966 to 1971, they answered a call to pastor in Tamaqua, PA.
———1970s———
From 1971-72, Jacob and Anna Frederick filled the pastoral role. He was a former pastor of Norris Square Mennonite Church. During this time, he asked Kenneth Bucher to move into the parsonage and assist with Sunday School and Cottage meetings. In March of 1973, Kenneth married Evelyn Brandt whose Voluntary Service (VS) time overlapped with Ken’s for three months in 1971. He was ordained in 1974 and continued to serve as pastor until 1980. From 1977-1980, he shared the pastoral responsibilities with Jim Leaman.
Jim and Beth Leaman also came to Philadelphia as VS workers in 1969. After serving as youth worker, assistant pastor, and lead pastor at Norris Square Mennonite Church before its transition to Iglesia Menonita Arca de Salvacion, Jim and Beth left the city for three years to attend seminary at Eastern Mennonite University. They were invited to return in 1977 so that Jim could serve as a co-pastor with Kenneth. The two worked side by side at Oxford Circle and shared most of the pastoral duties aided by the continuing work of Laura Weber and Esther Clarke.
In the late 1970’s, a daily summer day camp was started. Kids came from the neighborhood to study the Bible, do crafts, sing, and take day trips. In later years, the camp became a summer club, but also expanded to weekday activities with YESers assisting during their training in Philadelphia. Treva Stutzman and John McGraw gave much leadership in later years. In addition, a new vision from the church leadership emerged to shift from busing children to Sunday School services to a more family-oriented ministry. It happened gradually over a number of years. The church eventually started becoming more ethnically , culturally and socio-economically diverse. In June of 1980, Kenneth left and became pastor at Manheim Mennonite Church. Ten days later, the church grieved the death of long-time worker Glenn Ranck. Don and Dorothy Schmucker, who had been attending Diamond Street Mennonite Church, affirmed an invitation to join the team at Oxford Circle.
———1980s+———
The Oxford Circle leadership during the 1980’s considered relationships with other churches to be important. The church building was shared with two other Mennonite congregations for a number of years into the early 1990’s. The Oxford Circle congregation met on Sunday morning, Bethany House of Worship (an Asian Indian membership) met in the afternoon, and Iglesia Menonita Comunidad de Amor gathered in the evening. Occasionally all three congregations worshiped together.
As the church was growing, the quiet power of prayer and real Christian community began to attract more people. More activities happened such as our annual live outdoor nativity pageant, neighborhood Bible studies, Saturday morning men’s breakfast, all-night prayer meetings, youth outreach, church retreats, etc. The congregation continued to shift towards more of a family focused atmosphere to compliment the youth work, led primarily by Treva Stutzman during the 80’s and 90’s.
In 1998, Pastor Jim and Beth took a year-long sabbath away from the church to discern future direction. Bishop Freeman Miller assisted the congregation in setting up a ministry team: Larry Fahnestock, Vandy Parks and Leonard Dow. Vandy Parks, a former member of Oxford Circle who had been pursuing church planting efforts in Northeast Philadelphia, agreed to serve as the interim pastor. This led the congregation toward a more intentional team ministry effort as others members were also asked to fill various roles. Later that year, Pastor Jim sensed that they had completed their ministry at Oxford Circle.
The ministry team quickly set up a search for another pastor. After interviewing several candidates from a nation-wide search, the church decided that it would be most appropriate to find somebody not only with prior urban experience, but ideally somebody who knew Philadelphia. During this time, Leonard Dow, an Oxford Circle member who was working in the banking industry, began to sense a calling to the ministry. Many in the Philadelphia area already knew of Leonard’s gifts for working with people and organizations. Upon further prayer and reflection, Leonard submitted his name to the pastoral search committee who affirmed the decision, and Leonard was officially welcomed as lead pastor by January of 1999. He worked as half-time program coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee’s Philadelphia Service Unit. He also coordinated Kingdom Builders, a city-wide coordinating effort of the Philadelphia Anabaptist churches.
The neighborhood demographics were rapidly changing with more Latino/Hispanic, African-American, Asian and other ethnic immigrant families moving into the neighborhood. A more diverse, multi-ethnic congregation emerged in the late 1990’s under Pastor Dow. When Leonard, who is African American, and his wife Rosalie, who is Hispanic, first visited the church in the early 90’s, they found a congregation of all white individuals where they were two of the youngest people in attendance. Both current and past leadership feel that a new day is dawning at Oxford Circle with the emergence of this multicultural congregation. The members hope that this is a sign of reconciliation in the surrounding community as well. (delete this part and instead add “By the time Pastor Leonard became lead pastor, the leadership felt that a new day was dawning at Oxford Circle with the emergence of this multicultural congregation, and hoped this would be a sign of reconciliation in the surrounding community.”)
Lynn Parks, Vandy’s wife felt the call into pastoral ministry in late 1999, as the church was praying for an associate minister to work with Pastor Leonard. She and Vandy had been missionaries and church planters in England, Germany and Philadelphia. She served as associate pastor at Oxford Circle since 2000. She also served as Pastor of Visitation at Neshaminy-Warwick Presbyterian Church in Warminster, PA for over 9 years. She is the first woman to be officially ordained in Lancaster Mennonite Conference. When Pastor Leonard stepped down in 2017, she became interim pastor. She was called to be Lead Pastor in 2019.
Ron Tinsley has served in various ministry positions at OCMC since coming to Oxford Circle Mennonite Church with his family in 2007. Ron responded to the pastoral call into ministry in 2019 and became Pastor of Outreach in 2021.