For more than a century and with 101 years in the same building, the Stanley Church of the Brethren has sought to serve as a local witness to the Gospel, even as it has come to be the only Brethren church left in the state of Wisconsin, the majority of Brethren churches now being in Illinois and Indiana. The Brethren originated as a “peace church” established by Alexander Mack and seven others in 1708, in the aftermath of the European religious wars of the century prior.

Peace churches exist in part to bear witness to the possibility of a Christianity that opposes war, in contrast with the European state churches of its day. Mack later came to America and Germantown, Pennsylvania, thereby establishing a Brethren presence on U.S. soil. That said, if the Stanley Brethren can’t find a preacher soon, they will disband. The meeting to make a decision is scheduled for November 2 at 6:30 p.m. at the church property on the southeast corner of Maple and Franklin Streets, in Stanley.

“We haven’t had church since this pandemic started,” Stanley Brethren moderator Josh Winger said of what the congregation is facing. Many of the members are elderly and the church didn’t want to put them at risk for the virus. In addition to the pandemic, however, was the death of Josh’s mom Deb Winger from cancer earlier this year, followed by the unforeseen announcement that church pastor Laurie Natzke was resigning, which Winger speculated was due to getting burnt out and also because Natzke had been close to Deb. Taken together, the triple punch of pandemic stress, member death and the pastor’s resignation have created a situation in which going on will be very difficult, if the congregation continues at all.

“We have to decide if we can find someone to take the pulpit or we’re going to close the doors,” Winger said of the local and historic congregation meeting in the building built by and originally used for a Scandinavian Lutheran church, itself dedicated September 3, 1899. Brethren members purchased the building from the Lutheran congregation around 1919 when it merged with another at Fourth and Emery on the present site of Our Savior’s Lutheran. Now the Brethren congregation founded in the midst of one pandemic, might close during another, pending the outcome of a November 2 meeting.