Groffdale Conference Mennonite Church

Last updated
Horse-drawn buggy painted in the Mennonite style, such as the Groffdale Church would use Jrb 20071024 Mennonite Amish buggy Shipshewana Indiana.JPG
Horse-drawn buggy painted in the Mennonite style, such as the Groffdale Church would use

The Groffdale Conference Mennonite Church, also called Wenger Mennonites, is the largest Old Order Mennonite group to use horse-drawn carriages for transportation. Along with the automobile, they reject many modern conveniences, while allowing electricity in their homes and steel-wheeled tractors to till the fields. Initially concentrated in eastern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, their numbers had grown to 22,305 people resided in eight other states as of 2015. They share the pulpit with the Ontario (Old Order) Mennonite Conference but have some differences in Ordnung.

Contents

History

The Groffdale Conference Mennonites have their roots in the Anabaptist movement of Switzerland and Southwest Germany, including the German-speaking Alsace, that came under French rule starting in the 17th century. In the first two centuries or so this movement was known by the name Swiss Brethren but later adopted the name Mennonite.

Anabaptist beginnings

Spread of the early Anabaptists, 1525-1550 Spread of the Anabaptists 1525-1550.png
Spread of the early Anabaptists, 1525–1550

The early history of the Mennonites starts with the Anabaptists in the German and Dutch-speaking parts of central Europe. These forerunners of modern Mennonites were part of the Protestant Reformation, a broad reaction against the practices and theology of the Roman Catholic Church. Its most distinguishing feature is the rejection of infant baptism, an act that had both religious and political meaning since almost every infant born in western Europe was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church. Other significant theological views of the Mennonites developed in opposition to Roman Catholic views or to the views of other Protestant reformers such as Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli.

Some of the followers of Zwingli's Reformed church thought that requiring church membership beginning at birth was inconsistent with the New Testament. They believed that the church should be completely removed from government (the proto–free church tradition), and that individuals should join only when willing to publicly acknowledge belief in Jesus and the desire to live in accordance with his teachings. At a small meeting in Zurich on January 21, 1525, Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and George Blaurock, along with twelve others, baptized each other. [1]

Despite strong repressive efforts of the state churches, the movement spread slowly around western Europe, primarily along the Rhine. Officials killed many of the earliest Anabaptist leaders in an attempt to purge Europe of the new sect.

Menno Simons Menno Simons.jpg
Menno Simons

In the early days of the Anabaptist movement, Menno Simons, a Catholic priest in the Low Countries, heard of the movement and started to rethink his Catholic faith. In 1536, at the age of 40, Simons left the Roman Catholic Church. He soon became a leader within the Anabaptist movement, and was wanted by authorities for the rest of his life. His name became associated with scattered groups of nonviolent Anabaptists whom he helped to organize and consolidate.

Migration to North America

In the 18th century, about 100,000 Germans mainly from the Palatinate emigrated to Pennsylvania, where they became known collectively as the Pennsylvania Dutch. Of these immigrants, around 2,500 were Mennonites and 500 were Amish. These two groups settled mainly in southeast Pennsylvania, many of them in the Lancaster and adjacent counties.

During the Colonial period, Mennonites were distinguished from other Pennsylvania Germans in three ways: [2] their opposition to the American Revolutionary War, in which other German settlers participated on both sides; resistance to public education; and disapproval of religious revivalism. Contributions of Mennonites during this period include the idea of separation of church and state, and opposition to slavery.

From 1812 to 1860, another wave of Mennonite immigrants from Europe settled farther west in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. These Mennonites, along with another wave of Amish, came from Switzerland, Southwest Germany and the Alsace-Lorraine area.

Old Order Movement

The Groffdale Conference has its roots in the Old Order divisions, that occurred in Indiana in 1872, and in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1893, over the question of English language preaching, Sunday Schools and other questions. The trigger for the split in Lancaster County was a quarrel about a pulpit that was to be installed in church instead of the traditional preacher's table. [3]

The modernizing trends that changed the form of religious practice were pushed among the Mennonites especially by two men: John F. Funk and John S. Coffman. The Groffdale Conference Mennonites still call modernized Mennonites Funkeleit, that is Funk people. [4] The traditional minded people left the old conferences to form new ones, not the modernizers. [5] [6]

The emergence of the Groffdale Conference

The Groffdale Conference arose in 1927 at the conclusion of a seventeen-year disagreement within the Weaverland Old Order Mennonite Conference, over use of the automobile. [7] Five hundred of the more traditional members of the Weaverland conference, about half of the congregation, formed this group in order to retain horse-drawn transportation. The name of the conference comes from the Groffdale churchhouse where Joseph O. Wenger led the first worship services. [8]

Further history

The John W. Martin Mennonites, a group of Old Order Mennonites from Indiana, merged with the Groffdale Conference in 1973. [9]

In 1974 a new settlement in Yates County, New York, was started. It grew quickly and steadily and with a population of more than 3,000 in 2015 it was almost as large as the Lancaster County settlement. [10]

The Wenger Mennonites ("Joe Wengers", "Wengerleit", "Fuhre Mennischte") or Groffdale Conference Mennonites experienced several smaller splits during their history:

People in the lot (for ordinations) had to accept it, otherwise they would be taken out before election. In 1991 a new ordained one refused to deinstall electricity and phone, supported by Bishop Aaron Sensenig. Deacon John Martin demanded expulsion, without success. Finally it was also allowed for the ministry, a fraction broke away and formed under John Martin (former deacon) a new group, in Missouri its leader was Noah W. Leid. The John Martin (Groffdale Conference) Mennonites (for a short time), better known as Leid Church or "Old Order Wenger Church" never grew to big numbers, mostly associated with Missouri and Kentucky. John Martin came from Lancaster County but had no strong support there. This group still exists and had 77 members in the 2010s. Congregations exist at Clearview Old Order Mennonite meeting house, Versailles, MO (shared) and Miller Valley meeting house in Kentucky (alone). In 2021 a one of their bishops joined the Mid-West Conference according to "Die Botschaft", a newspaper for an Old Order audience from Sugarcreek, Ohio.

All these former splits were smaller ones. The numbers go into the tens, instead of hundreds.

In spring 2018 a big split happened.

This split affected Missouri, Kentucky, New York and Indiana, (and Iowa to a very small part) where bishops, preachers and deacons left the Wenger Mennonites with a big amount of laity, but still (a sometimes high-numbered) minority locally, They formed a loosely connected Midwest Conference according to their Directory it is named "Midwest Conference Mennonite", according to other sources like obituaries it is called "Old Order Midwest Mennonite Conference".

In 2016 already some problems were made public when a bishop of Missouri added some pages to the annual printing of Calendars and later this edition had to be destroyed and a second printing was distributed to the laity (of course without these pages). He mentioned therein rulings which should be established in the next years, conservative rulings. Written by bishop Raymond Shirk, he later joined the Midwest side and organized it in his area.

The split resulted in about 10% (exactly 9.6 %) of the members leaving (current numbers: abt. 1270 members, 2638 people for 2022) with higher percentages in the Mid Western settlements. In Missouri abt. 29 % and Indiana abt. 33 % left the Wenger Mennonite church, in New York 20 % and in Kentucky close to 25 % (although in Christian County up to 30 %). In contrast, in Pennsylvania there weren't even any ministers that left to join the Midwest Conference and no members so far known. They had five bishops joining them. In 2021 they had 21 ministers of whom seven were ordained since the split. They also had 7 deacons who joined and in 2021 had 12 ordained deacons. There are several settlements with meeting houses in upstate New York, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky but also meeting places in Tennessee, Iowa.

Parts of a Stauffer Mennonite current split-off (Arthur Martin movement) in Illinois joined them, these are abt. 20 families in 2022. They exchange ministers with this group and are even present at ordinations. Current reports quote that the shifting of membership from the big Groffdale Mennonite church to the split-off group still grows. The OOMMC works together with the tractor-forbidding former Groffdale Mennonite group of Spencer, Tennessee.

A sign of all these combined churches is that their settlements have the right for slightly changed local rulings, instead of the Groffdale Conference nationwide rulings. That means here and there are material items forbidden or permitted which are not forbidden or permitted elsewhere under the same conference "umbrella". It is understood the special settlement variations are accepted if moving in or out from and to another settlement. A nationwide sign of this movement is the agreement on the computer issue.

Belief and practice

The black carriages (called "Carridge or Fuhr" instead of Amish "Dachwägle") of the Wenger Mennonites distinguish them from the Amish in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who use gray ones. [11] with round corners. Groffdale Conference buggies have a small window in the back and big ones in the upper part of left and right front door. It is also allowed to put rubber on the wheels. Currently just conservative Groffdale Conference members have steel on their wheels, while all Amish must have steel, they are not allowed to have rubber put on it. Stauffer Mennonites and Reidenbachers must also have steel. Smoothly driving carriages in Lancaster County belong to the Groffdale Conference, while harder sounding carriages are either Reidenbachers(black with windows) or Stauffers(black without windows, just a frontshield).

Young people during "Rumspringen" put lining on their carriages´ wheels, which is partly allowed among Reidenbachers. In former times Groffdalers drove a folding top buggy during courting time and as young couples, but that changed to the closed-up wagon type their parents use too, just with fancy lining on wheels etc.. In the late 1990s one could still see some folding-top buggies among them. Quoted Reasonings for the change were that getting cold hands could be prevented better and protection anyhow by the box-like type during heavy weather conditions. Well, this was for decades accepted, so mainly a longing for more comfort was prevailing, which changing times also allowed for the youth later.

They are mainly rural people, who work small farms. Groffdalers rather move than are fixed to landscape like Amish of Lancaster County and have a tendency to still prefer agriculture for everything else. The Amish have instead, staying in Lancaster County mostly, sought for other occupations. Initially concentrated in eastern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, they resided in eight other states as of 2002. [12]

Church members use modern self-propelled farm machinery and lawn mowers that have been refitted with steel wheels. Starting in the 1970s, some farmers used rubber belts and blocks to give wheels more traction, provide a smoother ride and reduce damage to public roads. This practice caused considerable debate within the community, which was resolved in 1999 with a compromise that allows limited use of rubber in the structure of steel wheels. [13] Hard rubber or pneumatic tires are allowed on bicycles and machinery not requiring a driver, such as walk-behind equipment and wagons. Use of steel wheels ensures tractors are not used as a substitute for automobiles to run errands or to make more extensive trips than are convenient with horse-drawn carriages. The steel wheel rule prevents large agricultural operations, reinforcing an emphasis on small farms that provide manual labor for all of the family members.

The German language is used for Bible reading and singing in worship services and Pennsylvania German is used in worship services for preaching and is spoken at home and with other Old Orders. [14] They meet in plain church buildings to worship, but do not have Sunday schools. Practicing nonresistance like other traditional Mennonite groups, during World War II they advised young men not qualifying for a farm deferment to accept jail terms instead of Civilian Public Service, the alternate used by other Anabaptist conscientious objectors. [12]

Population and distribution

Historical population
YearPop.±%
1927 500—    
1957 1,450+190.0%
1992 5,464+276.8%
2002 17,775+225.3%
2013 22,397+26.0%
2018 24,060+7.4%

The group consisted of about 500 members in their beginning in 1927 and grew to about 1,200 members in 1954. [15] In 1957 there were 1,450 members. [6] In 1992 the estimated membership grew to 5,464. [16]

As of 2002, the conference has grown to 49 congregations with 8,542 members and a total population of 17,775, with 20% and 66% of population below 5 years and below 21 years respectively. [17] In 2008/9 membership reached 10,000 in 50 congregations. [18]

In 2015 the group had a total population of 22,305 people of which 9,620 lived in Pennsylvania, 3,934 in New York, 2,395 in Wisconsin, 1,805 in Ohio, 1,545 in Missouri, 1,112 in Kentucky, 995 in Indiana, 600 in Iowa and 300 in Michigan. [9] [19]

The population had grown to 24,060 by the year 2018. [20]

Around the year 2005, the population had an annual growth rate of 3.7 percent, doubling about every 20 years and was comparable to the growth rate of the Old Order Amish. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Order River Brethren</span>

The Old Order River Brethren are a River Brethren denomination of Anabaptist Christianity with roots in the Radical Pietist movement. As their name indicates, they are Old Order Anabaptists.

Old Order Mennonites form a branch of the Mennonite tradition. Old Order are those Mennonite groups of Swiss German and south German heritage who practice a lifestyle without some elements of modern technology, still drive a horse and buggy rather than cars, wear very conservative and modest dress, and have retained the old forms of worship, baptism and communion.

Rumspringa, also spelled Rumschpringe or Rumshpringa, is a rite of passage during adolescence, translated from originally Palatine German and other Southwest German dialects to English as "jumping or hopping around", used in some Amish communities. The Amish, a subsect of the Anabaptist Christian movement, intentionally segregate themselves from other communities as a part of their faith. For Amish youth, the Rumspringa normally begins at age 16 and ends when a youth chooses either to be baptized in the Amish church or to leave the community. For Wenger Mennonites, Rumspringa occurs mostly between ages of 17 and 21.

The Ordnung is a set of rules for Amish, Old Order Mennonite and Conservative Mennonite living. Ordnung is the German word for order, discipline, rule, arrangement, organization, or system. Because the Amish have no central church government, each assembly is autonomous and is its own governing authority. Thus, every local church maintains an individual set of rules, adhering to its own Ordnung, which may vary from district to district as each community administers its own guidelines. Among the Amish, these rules are largely unwritten, yet they define the very essence of Amish identity. Conservative Mennonites refer to Ordnung by the English terms "discipline" or "standard", and their rules are usually written.

The New Order Amish are a subgroup of Amish that split away from the Old Order Amish in the 1960s for a variety of reasons, which included a desire for "clean" youth courting standards, meaning they do not condone the practice of bundling during courtship. Tobacco and alcohol are also not allowed. They also wished to incorporate more evangelical elements into the church, including Sunday school and mission work. Some scholars see the group best characterized as a subgroup of the Old Order Amish, despite the name.

Donald B. Kraybill is an American author, lecturer, and educator on Anabaptist faiths and culture. Kraybill is widely recognized for his studies on Anabaptist groups and in particular the Amish. He has researched and written extensively on Anabaptist culture. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Elizabethtown College and Senior Fellow Emeritus at Elizabethtown's Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies.

Amish Mennonites came into existence through reform movements among North American Amish mainly between 1862 and 1878. These Amish moved away from the old Amish traditions and drew near to the Mennonites, becoming Mennonites of Amish origin. Over the decades, most Amish Mennonites groups removed the word "Amish" from the name of their congregations or merged with Mennonite groups.

The Stauffer Mennonites, or "Pikers", are a group of Old Order Mennonites. They are also called "Team Mennonites", because they use horse drawn transportation. In 2015 the Stauffer Mennonites had 1,792 adult members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amish</span> Group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships

The Amish, formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships with Swiss and Alsatian origins. As they maintain a degree of separation from surrounding populations, and hold their faith in common, the Amish have been described by certain scholars as an ethnoreligious group, combining features of an ethnicity and a Christian denomination. The Amish are closely related to Old Order Mennonites and Conservative Mennonites—denominations that are also a part of Anabaptist Christianity. 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.

The Orthodox Mennonites, also called Wellesley Orthodox Mennonites and Huron Orthodox Mennonites, are two groups of traditional Old Order Mennonites in Canada and the US with about 650 baptized members. Even though plain to a very high degree and primitivist concerning technology, they are rather intentionalist minded than ultra traditional. Since 1999 they were joined by several other Old Order Mennonite communities.

Over the years, as Amish churches have divided many times over doctrinal disputes, subgroups have developed. The "Old Order Amish", a conservative faction that withdrew in the 1860s from fellowship with the wider body of Amish, are those that have most emphasized traditional practices and beliefs. There are many different subgroups of Amish with most belonging, in ascending order of conservatism, to the Beachy Amish, New Order, Old Order, or Swartzentruber Amish groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weaverland Old Order Mennonite Conference</span>

The Weaverland Conference, also called Horning Church or Black-bumper Mennonites, is a Christian denomination of Old Order Mennonites who use cars.

Joseph Wenger (1868–1956) was an Old Order Mennonite preacher, who, in the 1927 schism of the Weaverland Old Order Mennonite Conference was ordained bishop by bishops in Indiana, Michigan, and Virginia, and made head of a new branch broken from the Weaverland Conference. The branch, which split from Weaverland over the issue of adopting the automobile, became formally known as the Groffdale Conference Mennonite Church, the congregation where Wenger preached, but is also informally known as the Wenger Church.

Stephen Scott was an American writer on Anabaptist subjects, especially on Old Order and Conservative Mennonite groups.

The Ontario Mennonite Conference is a moderate Old Order Mennonite group in the Canadian province of Ontario, that was formed in 1889 as a reaction to modernizing trends among the Mennonites in Ontario. The members use horse and buggy for transportation. As of 2020, they also have a colony in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island.

The John W. Martin Mennonites were a group of Old Order Mennonite mainly in Elkhart County, Indiana, that existed from 1907 to 1972 as an independent church, which never allowed the ownership of automobiles.

The Virginia Old Order Mennonite Conference, also called Cline Mennonites or Cline-Showalter group, is an Old Order Mennonite group to use horse-drawn carriages for transportation. It separated from the Virginia Mennonite Conference in 1901. The members of the group speak English only, unlike almost all other horse and buggy Old Order Mennonite groups, who speak Pennsylvania German as their first language. In recent years the group sometimes uses the name "Riverdale Old Order Mennonite Church".

The John Dan Wenger Mennonites are an Anabaptist Christian denomination that belongs to the Old Order Mennonites. They use horse and buggy transportation and are mainly located in Virginia. Under the leadership of Bishop John Dan Wenger, they separated from the Virginia Old Order Mennonite Conference in either 1952 or 1953.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Byler Amish</span> Religious denomination

The Byler Amish, also called Alt Gemee, are a small conservative subgroup of the Amish. They are known for the yellow color of their buggies, which earned them the nickname "yellow-toppers" and for wearing only one suspender. They are the oldest Old Order Amish affiliation that separated for doctrinal and not for geographical reasons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Order Anabaptism</span> Branch of Anabaptist Christianity

Old Order Anabaptism encompasses those groups which have preserved the old ways of Anabaptist Christian religion and lifestyle.

References

  1. ↑ Strasser, Rolf Christoph (2006). "Die Zürcher Täufer 1525" [The Zurich Anabaptists 1525](PDF) (in German). EFB Verlag Wetzikon. p. 30. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 24, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2012.
  2. ↑ Samuel Floyd Pannabecker: Open Doors: A History of the General Conference Mennonite Church, Newton, Kansas, 1975, page 12.
  3. ↑ Stephen Scott: An Introduction to Old Order: and Conservative Mennonite Groups, Intercourse, PA 1996, pages 20-24.
  4. ↑ Donald B. Kraybill and James P. Hurd: Horse-and-Buggy Mennonites - Hoofbeats of Humility in a Postmodern World, University Park, PA, 2006, page 24.
  5. ↑ Stephen Scott (1996). An Introduction to Old Order: and Conservative Mennonite Groups. Good Books, Intercourse, PA. pp. 12–27.
  6. 1 2 Old Order Mennonites at Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.
  7. ↑ Donald B. Kraybill and James P. Hurd: Horse-and-Buggy Mennonites - Hoofbeats of Humility in a Postmodern World, University Park, PA, 2006, pages 63-74.
  8. ↑ Donald B. Kraybill and James P. Hurd: Horse-and-Buggy Mennonites - Hoofbeats of Humility in a Postmodern World, University Park, PA, 2006, page 21.
  9. 1 2 Donald B. Kraybill (2010). Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hurtterites and Mennonites. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 157.
  10. ↑ Reid, Judson (2019-11-16). "Old Order Mennonites in New York: Cultural and Agricultural Growth". Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies. 3 (2): 212–221. doi: 10.18061/1811/75350 . hdl: 1811/75350 . ISSN   2471-6383.
  11. 1 2 Donald B. Kraybill and James P. Hurd: Horse-and-Buggy Mennonites - Hoofbeats of Humility in a Postmodern World, University Park, PA, 2006, pages 2-3.
  12. 1 2 Ira D. Landis: Wenger Mennonites 1959, at GAMEO.
  13. ↑ Donald B. Kraybill and James P. Hurd: Horse-and-Buggy Mennonites - Hoofbeats of Humility in a Postmodern World, University Park, PA, 2006, Chapter 3, Mobility and Identity, pages 63-89.
  14. ↑ Groffdale Old Order Mennonite Conference at Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.
  15. ↑ Ira D. Landis: Groffdale Old Order Mennonite Conference in The Mennonite Encyclopedia, 4 Volumes 1955-59.
  16. ↑ Stephen Scott: An Introduction to Old Order: and Conservative Mennonite Groups, Intercourse, PA 1996, page 30.
  17. ↑ Kraybill, Donald B; Hurd, James P. (2006). Horse-and-Buggy Mennonites - Hoofbeats of Humility in a Postmodern World. University Park, PA. p. 3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  18. ↑ Donald B. Kraybill (2010). Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hurtterites and Mennonites. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 258.
  19. ↑ Simon J. Bronner and Joshua R. Brown (edit.): Pennsylvania Germans: An Interpretive Encyclopedia, Baltimore, 2017, pages 126-7.
  20. ↑ Edsel Burdge, Jr (2019), Old Order Mennonites (Horse-and-Buggy) (PDF)

Literature

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.