Credit: WITF, Inc.
Transcript:
Background music:Light, ambient, spiritual music mixed with gospel for appropriate segments throughout the entire duration.
Sound effects:
Choir sounds, preacher, church patrons speaking out.
Narrative:
Founded by William Penn on the principle of religious freedom, Pennsylvania became a haven for dissenting religious groups seeking to practice their beliefs without fear of persecution.
Video:
Pennsylvania woodland, Pennsylvania landscape, dissolves with religious icons such as the Bible, and the church exterior.
Narrative:
In 1682, William Penn and several hundred dissenting Quakers came to settle in Pennsylvania. Penn then invited all who believed in a Christian God to join him in his "holy experiment."
Video:
Image of William Penn.
Narrative:
This opportunity brought many groups from across Europe and the British Isles. In the early 1700s, followers of the Swiss Brethren reformer Jakob Ammann settled in Pennsylvania, establishing Pennsylvania's Amish community, which continues in Pennsylvania today.
Video:
Images of Amish family.
Narrative:
In 1732, the German immigrant and religious seeker Conrad Beissel established Ephrata in Lancaster County, one of the first and longest lasting separatist communities in the Commonwealth. Including both celibate and non-celibate members, the Ephrata community emphasized spiritual rather than material goals and adopted an ascetic way of life. Although their lives were austere even by contemporary standards, community members' creativity flourished. Ephrata was known for creating exquisite hand-illuminated manuscripts in the style known as fraktur. Although the last celibate member died in 1813, the community remained in existence until 1934.
Video:
Video clips of the Ephrata Cloister buildings, and items from inside the cloister buildings.
Narrative:
As Ephrata was growing as a community, Moravians, who had been persecuted since the 15th century for their heretical beliefs, were establishing the towns of Bethlehem, Nazareth, Emmaus and Lititz. In 1746, the Moravians built the Linden Hall School for Girls in Lititz, the oldest school for girls in continuous existence in the United States.
Video:
Images of the towns of Bethlehem, Nazareth, Emmaus and Lititz mixed with images of the Linden Hall School for Girls.
Narrative:
Another religious separatist, George Rapp, left the Lutheran church in his native Germany to establish his own evangelical movement, and in 1804, he and his followers founded the community of Harmony in western Pennsylvania. Seeking a location closer to a source of water transport, in 1825 the Harmony community established the town of Economy, along the banks of the Ohio River. Here the community flourished for a half-century, but it failed to attract many new members and eventually closed its doors in the early 20th century.
Video:
Video montage of the Old Economy Village and the communal home of the Harmony Society.
Narrative:
Claiming divine inspiration, the young Joseph Smith transcribed the Book of Mormon on a northern Pennsylvania farm. The book became the basis for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, founded by Smith in 1830 and eventually becoming a worldwide missionary movement.
Video:
Still images of churches in Pennsylvania.
Brought to you by ExplorePAhistory.com,
your gateway to Pennsylvania, Past and Present.
