Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radical Reformation, Simons articulated and formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders, with the early teachings of the Mennonites founded on the belief in both the mission and ministry of Jesus, which the original Anabaptist followers held with great conviction, despite persecution by various Roman Catholic and Mainline Protestant states. Formal Mennonite beliefs were codified in the Dordrecht Confession of Faith in 1632, which affirmed "the baptism of believers only, the washing of the feet as a symbol of servanthood, church discipline, the shunning of the excommunicated, the non-swearing of oaths, marriage within the same church", strict pacifistic physical nonresistance, anti-Catholicism and in general, more emphasis on "true Christianity" involving "being Christian and obeying Christ" however they interpret it from the Holy Bible.
Mifflin County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,143. Its county seat is Lewistown. The county was created on September 19, 1789, from parts of Cumberland County and Northumberland County. It was named for Thomas Mifflin, the first Governor of Pennsylvania. Mifflin County comprises the Lewistown, PA Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Franklin County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 155,932 Its county seat is Chambersburg.
Kutztown is a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Allentown and 17 miles (27 km) northeast of Reading. As of the 2010 census, the borough had a population of 5,012. Kutztown University of Pennsylvania is located just outside the borough limits to the southwest.
Chambersburg is a borough in and the county seat of Franklin County, in the South Central region of Pennsylvania, United States. It is in the Cumberland Valley, which is part of the Great Appalachian Valley, and 13 miles (21 km) north of Maryland and the Mason-Dixon line and 52 miles (84 km) southwest of Harrisburg, the state capital. According to the United States Census Bureau, Chambersburg's 2020 population was 21,903. When combined with the surrounding Greene, Hamilton, and Guilford Townships, the population of Greater Chambersburg is 52,273 people. The Chambersburg, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area includes surrounding Franklin County, and in 2010 included 149,618 people.
The Brethren in Christ Church (BIC) is a River Brethren Christian denomination with roots in the Mennonite church, Radical Pietism, and Wesleyan holiness. They have also been known as River Brethren and River Mennonites. The Canadian denomination is called Be In Christ.
The Mennonite Church USA is an Anabaptist Christian denomination in the United States. Although the organization is a recent 2002 merger of the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church, the body has roots in the Radical Reformation of the 16th century.
Goshen College is a private Mennonite liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana. It was founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, and is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and has an enrollment of 749 students. While Goshen maintains a distinctive liberal Mennonite worldview and Mennonites make up 43 percent of the student body, it admits students of all religions.
Fresno Pacific University (FPU) is a private Christian university in Fresno, California. It was founded as the Pacific Bible Institute in 1944 by the Pacific District Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches. The university awarded its first Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965. The first master's degree program was introduced in 1975.
Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) is a private Mennonite university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The university also operates a satellite campus in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which primarily caters to working adults. EMU's bachelor-degree holders traditionally engage in service-oriented work such as health care, education, social work, and the ministry. EMU is especially known for its Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP), especially its graduate program in conflict transformation.
RJC High School (Rosthern Junior College) is an independent high school in Rosthern, Saskatchewan, Canada since 1905. Opening in that year as the German-English Academy, it was founded by Mennonite settlers in response to a need for trained teachers to work in the schools being established in homestead communities in Saskatchewan. Implicit in this perceived need were concerns among Mennonite settlers for the preservation of culture, religious values and the German language, concerns that arose directly from the pressure in the province (Northwest Territory at the time) to make education English and assimilative.
Dock Mennonite Academy, formerly known as Christopher Dock Mennonite High School and Penn View Christian School is a private school in Montgomery County that is affiliated with Mosaic Mennonite Conference. The school was named after schoolmaster Christopher Dock of Skippack, Pennsylvania. The school's stated mission is to "inspire and equip each student to serve with a global perspective by integrating faith, academic excellence, and life-enriching opportunities in a Christ-centered community". The school has two campuses and serves students in early childhood to grade twelve.
Lancaster Mennonite School is a private Christian school located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. The Lancaster Campus, east of the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, serves students from Pre-K through twelve. The high school on the Lancaster Campus is known as Lancaster Mennonite High School. In 2021, the former New Danville and Locust Grove campuses closed, and merged with the Lancaster Campus.
Belleville High School is a four-year comprehensive community public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grade from Belleville, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. Operating as the lone secondary school of the Belleville School District, the school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1964.
The Kishacoquillas Valley, known locally as both Kish Valley and Big Valley, is an enclosed anticlinal valley in the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians of Central Pennsylvania, and is located in Mifflin and Huntingdon counties.
Columbia Bible College (CBC) is an evangelical Mennonite Bible College in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada. It is affiliated with two regional Mennonite conferences, British Columbia Mennonite Brethren and Mennonite Church British Columbia. Columbia is accredited by the international Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), and is registered with the British Columbia Private Career Training Institution Association (PCTIA).
Conestoga Christian School is a private Christian school located in Morgantown, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1952 as an extension of the educational ministry of the Conestoga Mennonite Church, CCS is a non-profit organization providing education for K-12th grade students. The school is accredited by both Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) and Middle States Association (MSA), and belongs to Mid-Atlantic Christian Schools Association (MACSA) and Lancaster Area Council of Mennonite Schools (LACMS). Conestoga Christian is staffed by 35 faculty members and enrollment is currently 325 students.
Althoff Catholic High School is a private Catholic institution in Belleville, Illinois, part of the Diocese of Belleville.
The Amish, formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian (French) origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches, another Anabaptist denomination. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and slowness to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view neither to interrupt family time, nor replace face-to-face conversations whenever possible, and a view to maintain self-sufficiency. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility and Gelassenheit.
Conservative Mennonites include numerous Conservative Anabaptist groups that identify with the theologically conservative element among Mennonite Anabaptist Christian fellowships, but who are not Old Order groups or mainline denominations.
