Howard Rice Audio Collection
Most of these recordings were made at
Deep Run East Mennonite Church, Bedminster Township, PA
We don't know when Deep Run East Mennonite Church first began meeting as an organized group. However they built their first building about 1746 in Bedminster Township, Bucks County, PA.
Beginning around 1950 Howard Rice recorded the services. During the week he would visit church members who were unable to attend because of health issues and play recordings of the services.He began with a wire recorder and then switched to magnetic tape when machines became widely available. When he died in 2011 his family found many of these tapes in the attic of his home. These recordings have been digitized so that they could be available to students of Mennonite thought and practice and to the Deep Run community. They are accessible through the menu on the left.
Please remember that these historical documents do not necessarily represent the views of the church. There were views expressed, especially by visiting speakers, that probably made the church leadership cringe in the middle of the last century and would not be the views of the leadership today. But because these recordings document the diversity of teaching which our community heard during that period, they are valuable in understanding who we are and how we came to hold our beliefs and value system.
There are undoubtedly many errors in the attributions of speakers and singers on these tapes. If you find errors, please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . These pages are very large and slow to load. If they are impossible to use, let me know and I will try to break them up into smaller pieces.
Photo Courtesy of Kirsten Rice