Our history
Thirteen Dutch Mennonite families arrived in Philadelphia on October 6, 1683, and settled on Lenape land in what became known as Germantown. At first, these families met in private homes and worshiped with Quaker families. In 1687, they authored the first protest by white people against slavery in North America.
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The early settlers erected a log meetinghouse in 1708. In 1770, the log building was replaced with a stone structure. In the mid-1950s, with most of the regular attendees coming from the rural suburbs, this historic meetinghouse was almost sold.
The church’s revival began in the mid-1970s, when a concerted effort was made to gather the varied Mennonite graduate students and volunteer service workers within Philadelphia. The congregation began to grow numerically and assume an identity and vision for Mennonites who loved the city and felt a spiritual calling to live in an urban setting. A growing congregation soon made the 1770 meetinghouse obsolete. In 1993, after a couple of years as tenants in neighboring facilities, the Congregation purchased the present site at 21 West Washington Lane.
At that time, Germantown was a dual-affiliated congregation, being a member of both the Franconia and the Eastern District Mennonite conferences. In October 1997, Franconia voted to remove Germantown as a conference member, due to our full inclusion of LGBTQ people into membership. For similar reasons, the Eastern District also removed Germantown as a member congregation in November 2002.
The video below tells the complete story of our congregation’s removal.
In 2025, Germantown Mennonite Church remains outside of the body of Mennonite Church USA but we maintain many relationships with Mennonites in our region and around the world. Today, our congregation is a multigenerational community of people who live in the Germantown area and other areas. Many in our church grew up Mennonite, and equally as many come from diverse Christian or other faith backgrounds.
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