Swiss Mennonite congregations: chapels and conference

Meetinghouses and local worship. Swiss Mennonite life continued in the Emmental, Jura, and Basel region after the early persecutions and migrations. The Swiss Mennonite guide records permission for a Basel prayer house in 1847 and later meetinghouses at Cernil in 1883, Langnau-Kehr in 1888, Moron in 1892, Les Bulles in 1894, Jeanguisboden in 1900, and La Chaux-d’Abel in 1905. These dates mark buildings, not the first existence of their congregations. Farmhouse worship also continued alongside chapel life.

A shared conference. Surviving minutes document a fifth joint meeting at Sonnenberg on 2 March 1892 and a continuous record from the seventeenth meeting on 24 March 1898. The association was entered in the register at Langnau on 5 May 1898. Its constituent congregations included Basel, Bressels, Chaux-d’Abel, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Cortebert Matte, Emmental, Gross Lützel, Kleinthal, and Sonnenberg. The conference helped these local churches consult and cooperate while retaining congregational responsibility.

Preserving the congregation’s memory. At the March 1898 meeting, the churches agreed to keep membership registers. The Swiss Anabaptist Historical Society explains that fear of renewed persecution had previously discouraged such lists. The surviving books record baptisms, family connections, and transfers between congregations; they are generally held in local church archives. They provide evidence for following particular communities beyond a single branch label.

Continuity across generations. Conference statutes were revised in 1950, and delegates adopted new statutes, a confession, and the name Konferenz der Mennoniten der Schweiz (Alttäufer) in 1983. From the early 1990s, conference work was conducted in German and French as language use changed in Jura congregations. Its stated faith centres on Scripture, following Jesus, believers’ baptism, the Lord’s Supper, peace witness, and service.