Mennonite Weekly Review

HARRISONBURG, Va. — Archived Easter radio specials from the 1960s are now available for a new generation online at Third Way Café.

The Greatest Week in History, produced by Mennonite Media (then Mennonite Broadcasts), was originally released in 1965 and aired on 135 stations the first year.

The Greatest Week in History, produced by Mennonite Media (then Mennonite Broadcasts), was originally released in 1965 and aired on 135 stations the first year. In 1966, 750 stations carried it.

Due to continuing demand by some stations, the four-minute reports have been rereleased for this Easter season to a limited number of radio stations on CD, and on the Internet. The radio broadcasts report in mock news style the events of Easter.

Listeners get an eyewitness report from the events of Passion Week beginning with the Palm Sunday triumphal entry through Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. The programs also include humorous and imaginary “news” from Jerusalem, such as snippets on a camel driver and chariot overturned in a narrow street and a girl rescued after falling into a well.

Written and produced on a three-week crash schedule by David Augsburger and James G.T. Fairfield, the programs include their voices among many Harrisonburg radio personalities of the time. The program was also translated and available in Spanish and Portuguese.

Gil Poese, president and news director at KBRX Radio, O’Neill, Neb., remembers the original 33 rpm vinyl record albums containing The Greatest Week in History and called Mennonite Media the day he received the new CD with the programming.

“I’m calling to congratulate you on putting The Greatest Week in History out on CD,” he said in a voice message. “I just received my copy this morning. We look forward to playing it, and I appreciated that because we used the records for many, many years and people always enjoyed the ones at Easter and, of course, the ones at Christmas also.”

Brent Siegrist, pastor of Glade Mennonite Church in Accident, Md., e-mailed in response to news of the programs: “Thanks for providing The Greatest Week in History,” he said. “My congregation normally has Lent readings. This year, we’re going to have weekly news flashes instead between the prelude and the call to worship.”

The scripts and audio files for The Greatest Week in History are also available free to stage re-enactments of the events of Easter in Passion Week services, devotionals, youth groups or small groups.