Ziegels Union Church, Breinigsville, kick-started its 275th anniversary year with a special presentation by Dr. William W. Donner and Ruth Freyberger, professor of Pennsylvania German Studies at Kutztown University.

Donner spoke about The Pennsylvania Germans: past, present and future.

The March 29 event was free and open to the public.

Participants enjoyed traditional Deitsch snacks: pretzels, ring bologna and cheese, springerle and gingerbread cookies, and potato candy.

The church organized in Weisenberg Township, years before the beginning of the United States.

The first Ziegels Church was a log cabin, dedicated in 1750 as a Union church, shared by a Lutheran congregation and a German Reformed (presently United Church of Christ or UCC) congregation.

In 1796, a new stone church was dedicated as the log cabin church had grown too small and was dilapidated.

In 1864, a larger brick edifice with a towering spire was erected; this church stood until 1887, when “a shaft of electric fluid” struck the spire and burned the building to the ground.

The congregations decided to rebuild; the fourth church was also a brick building with a tall spire.

History repeated itself in 1907 when the spire again was struck with lightning.

Built within the shell of the fourth church, the current (fifth) church stands on the site of the fourth building.

One notable difference is that the spire is considerably shorter.

Besides the church, the original 1750 Union Agreement called for the establishment of a school and of a “spacious burying ground.”

In preparation to celebrate this special anniversary year, the church applied for and received several grants.

The first grant, an Empowered History Microgrant from the Pennsylvania State Archives and the National Historical Records and Publications Commission, underwrote a 132-page publication “Ziegels Union Church: Treasures Rediscovered in the Safety Deposit Box,” which is currently in press.

The volume features the discovery items long stored in a safety deposit box and rediscovered 25 years ago, including a 1771 “Bucher” painted box, presently on exhibit at the Center for Pennsylvania German Studies in Trappe, as well as many 18th and 19th century documents.

Other grants provided for technological upgrades to the Fellowship Room to improve visual and audio accessibility for church and community programming, such as the lecture by Donner.

Funders underwriting the project include: UCC Grants Energizing Ministries, UCC Operational Grant, UCC Neighbors in Need Grant, Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod Witness and Service Team Grant.

In addition, many church members provided donations or memorial gifts to complete the project.

Lehigh Valley Sight and Sound installed the new systems.

The church is planning other special events open to the public this year, several underwritten in part by the UCC Neighbors in Need grant.

The next speaker, Christopher Malone, curator of Historic Trappe, will present The Muhlenberg Family and the Lutheran Church in Early Pennsylvania 1 p.m. May 10 in the handicapped accessible Fellowship Room.

Other community events include the April 26 basket social, the May 4 Red, White and Blue Tea Party featuring Martha Washington, the May 18 special anniversary worship service and the July 12 tractor show and picnic.

Consult the church’s website and Facebook page for additional anniversary events.