September 11th – 25th, 2024
September 11th – 25th, 2024
by Richard Bergmann
We are officially Ayold’s favourite group as we depart a few minutes early and are now crossing into Switzerland to visit the Swiss Mennonite archives to visit one of the churches of the Sonnenberg Mennonite congregation near the town of Tavannes. On the way, Ayold feels that singing some hymns will help get us wake up so we attempt a few numbers from the Anabaptist tour hymn list – yes, I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet but we do sing hymns on this tour, sometimes it’s spontaneous, sometimes it’s in an ancient church, and sometimes it for grace at a meal. These bring back some good memories as it’s been a while for me since I have heard some of them.
During the Reformation period, the Mennonites were chased out of Zurich and allowed to live in this hill country if they were above 1,000 meters where they settled. This land was less desirable, unfarmable but was the option given to them. It’s here in the high hill regions that Mennonites turned this area into productive land, and they are still here today.
Ayold wears a red baseball cap when he leads us and today, I notice, he’s changed his red ball cap from a Holland flag to a red cap with the Swiss flag – it’s a subtle but strategic move by a veteran tour leader. Today on these tight windy roads we are faced with a logging tractor delay and cattle fencing that is moved to make room for our bus on roads that were never designed for such a rig.
At the Sonnenberg Church we are greeted by Margret and another elderly couple who share their stories and the history of their Mennonite families living in these hills. There is a similar theme throughout, they have 3 churches in the area, and it will reduce to 2 churches in the coming year as they just don’t have the younger generation, so it is a struggle to keep the churches alive. We hear that young people still value their Mennonite heritage but do not have active connections in their church community in this modern era unless there’s a stronger social purpose. They rotate their weekly services between the current locations but need to save more costs to operate which is an on-going challenge for their church that is not state sponsored like the Reform and Catholic churches.
After some coffee and fresh bread, we are reprimanded by Ayold for potentially spoiling our lunch at the Masion de la Tete du Moine where we enjoy a wonderful cheese and meat spread. The Swiss know how to make some spectacular cheese, this stop was a treat. We walk over to the Bellelay Abby and sing a few more hymns in the echoing acoustics of the massive church before we head for our final stop which is a cave hike.
We hike up a moderately steep hill to a cave where persecuted Swiss Mennonites worshiped. Although they were allowed to farm and live in these high Jura hills, having a church was pushing their luck so it was here that they needed to discreetly conduct their worship services.
It’s time to call it a day and head to our hotel stop where we will spend the next 3 nights in Burgdorf as we explore various sites in the Bern and Emmental regions.
