New Order Amish Fellowship

Last updated

The New Order Amish Fellowship or New New Order Amish, most commonly called New Order Christian Fellowship, is the most progressive affiliation among the New Order Amish. Because some scholars see the New Order Amish just as a subgroup of the Old Order Amish, the New Order Christian Fellowship is thus the most progressive affiliation among the Old Order Amish. In spirituality, they are close to Beachy Amish. Their use of horse and buggy transportation and their preservation of the German language distinguishes them from the Beachys, except for the Old Beachy Amish who have also retained the German language but drive cars.

Contents

History

In the late 1970s, there was a dispute among the New Order Amish if undesirable behavior should be treated by sanctions or by preaching. The context of this controversy was the fact that about half of the young people did not join the New Order Amish church. Therefore, some leaders had the impression that they had "gone too far" and that they had to "back up" a little, which was seen by the more liberal faction as a return to the "Old Order mentality". The more liberal faction, led by Aden Yoder, thus split from the New Order Amish in 1986 in Holmes County, Ohio, and formed the New Order Amish Fellowship. [1]

Belief and practice

Like Old Order groups, New Order Amish Fellowship wear plain clothing, speak Pennsylvania German and use horse and buggy, but allow tractors for field work. They still speak Pennsylvania German, but there is a tendency to shift to the English language. [2]

All New Order Amish districts still preserve the traditional Amish dress, although there is a trend towards slimmer brimmed hats and trimmed beards among the men. As for the women, they typically have brighter colors all around. The New Order Amish Fellowship allows electricity from the grid in the home and computers in shops but discourage television. New Order Amish may be more lenient in the practice of shunning, and may be more permissive of photography than lower-order groups. [3]

Population

In 2008 the New Order Fellowship had seven congregations in three states, Ohio, Maryland and Kentucky, with a total population of about 400. [4] In 2001 they had four church districts in four settlements in three states, mostly in Ohio. [5] The rate of young people who join the Amish, the so-called retention rate, among the New Order Amish Fellowship is the lowest of all Amish groups. Only 31,5 to 32 percent of the young people join the church of their parents while the defection rate is 68 to 68,5 percent. Because the average number of children among the New Orders Amish is only about five, the New Order Amish Fellowship is shrinking [6] [7]

Literature

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.

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 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 Beachy Amish Mennonites, also known as the Beachy Mennonites, are an Anabaptist group of churches in the Conservative Mennonite tradition that have Amish roots. Although they have retained the name "Amish" they are quite different from the Old Order Amish: they do not use horse and buggy for transportation, with a few exceptions they do not speak Pennsylvania Dutch anymore, nor do they have restrictions on technology except for radio and television. In the years 1946 to 1977 a majority of the Beachy Amish incorporated certain elements of revivalist practice, such as the preaching of the New Birth. The traditionalists who wanted to preserve the old Beachy Amish ways then withdrew and formed their own congregations. Today they are known as Midwest Beachy Amish Mennonites or Old Beachy Amish.

<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 German and Alsatian origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches, a separate 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.

The Swartzentruber Amish are the best-known and one of the largest and most conservative subgroups of Old Order Amish. Swartzentruber Amish are considered a subgroup of the Old Order Amish, although they do not fellowship or intermarry with more liberal Old Order Amish. They speak Pennsylvania German as their mother tongue as well as English.

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.

The Andy Weaver Amish, locally also called "Dan Church", "Dan Amish" or "Danners", are a conservative subgroup of Old Order Amish. They are more conservative than average Old Order Amish.

The Michigan Amish Fellowship is a subgroup or affiliation of Old Order Amish. In 2022 his network of churches consisted of 33 settlements in Michigan, Maine, Missouri, Kentucky, Montana, and Wyoming. Stephen E. Scott described the affiliation which emerged in 1970 in Michigan as "Amish Reformist".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lancaster Amish affiliation</span> Subgroup of Amish

The Lancaster Amish affiliation is the largest affiliation among the Old Order Amish and as such a subgroup of Amish. Its origin and largest settlement is Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. The settlement in Lancaster County, founded in 1760 near Churchtown is the oldest Amish settlement that is still in existence.

The Buchanan Amish affiliation is a subgroup of Amish that was formed in 1914 in Buchanan County, Iowa. It is among the most conservative in the entire Amish world. It is the fourth largest of all Amish affiliations, having almost as many church districts as the Holmes Old Order Amish affiliation. Geographically it is more dispersed than any other Amish affiliation.

The Holmes Old Order Amish affiliation is a subgroup of Amish, that is almost only present at the Holmes-Wayne Amish settlement in Ohio. With 140 church districts there in 2009 it is the main and dominant Amish affiliation there, even though there were 61 another church districts of 10 other affiliations in the settlement. It is third in numbers of adherents of all Amish affiliation.

The Elkhart-LaGrange Amish affiliation is the second largest Old Order Amish affiliation and as such a subgroup of Amish. Its origin and main settlement lie in Elkhart and LaGrange counties in Indiana. While the Amish of Holmes County, Ohio, and adjacent counties split into several different affiliations in the last 100 years, the Elkhart-LaGrange affiliation remained united, but with a considerable internal diversity. The Elkhart-LaGrange affiliation had 177 church districts in 2011.

A Seeker is a person likely to join an Old Order Anabaptist community, like the Amish, the Old Order Mennonites, the Hutterites, the Old Order Schwarzenau Brethren or the Old Order River Brethren. Among the 500,000 members of such communities in the United States there are only an estimated 1,200 to 1,300 outsiders who have joined them.

<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.

The Old Beachy Amish or Old Beachy Amish Mennonites, also called Midwest Beachy Amish Mennonites, are a Plain, car-driving Beachy Amish group, that preserves the old ways of the Beachy Amish including the German language. They live in Kentucky and Illinois. They are part of the Amish Mennonite movement in a broader sense, but they are not an organized denomination.

The New Order Tobe Amish, or often only New Order Tobe, are a small subgroup of Amish that belongs to the New Order Amish. In 1967, they split from the Tobe Amish, who in 1940 had split from the Troyer Amish, a very conservative group. They live in Ohio. They share an unusual mix of conservative and progressive traits. In contrast to other New Order Amish groups, they have a relative high retention rate of their young people that is comparable to the retention rate of Old Order Amish.

The Tobe Amish, also called Tobe Hochstetler Amish, Old Order Tobe Amish or just Old Order Tobe to distinguish them from the New Order Tobe Amish, are a small subgroup of the Old Order Amish, that emerged in 1940 through a split from the Troyer Amish. They live in Ohio.

References

  1. ↑ Charles Hurst and David L. McConnell: An Amish Paradox: Diversity and Change in the World's Largest Amish Community, Baltimore 2010, pages 50-51.
  2. ↑ Donald B. Kraybill: Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites, Baltimore, 2010, page234.
  3. ↑ Amish Online Encyclopedia-"Differences Between New Order and Old Order Amish"
  4. ↑ Donald B. Kraybill: Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites and Mennonites, Baltimore, 2010, page234.
  5. ↑ Kraybill, Donald; Karen M. Johnson-Weiner; Steven M. Nolt (2013). The Amish. Johns Hopkins Univ Pr. p. 139.
  6. ↑ Charles Hurst and David L. McConnell: An Amish Paradox: Diversity and Change in the World's Largest Amish Community, Baltimore 2010, pages 80.
  7. ↑ Donald B. Kraybill, Karen M. Johnson-Weiner and Steven M. Nolt: The Amish, Baltimore, MD, 2013, page 80.
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.