Ohio-Indiana Mennonite Conference

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The Ohio-Indiana Mennonite Conference, also called Wisler Mennonites, is an Old Order Mennonite church body, whose Ordnung allows the ownership and private use of cars. They are quite similar to the Weaverland Old Order Mennonite Conference.

Old Order Mennonite

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, who dress plain and who have retained the old forms of worship, baptism and communion.

Ordnung set of rules for Amish, Old Order Mennonite and Conservative Mennonite living

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. 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 are usually written.

The Amish blueprint for expected behavior, called the Ordnung, regulates private, public, and ceremonial life. Ordnung does not translate readily into English. Sometimes rendered as ordinance or discipline, the Ordnung is best thought of as an ordering of the whole way of life ... a code of conduct which the church maintains by tradition rather than by systematic or explicit rules. A member noted: The order is not written down. The people just know it, that's all. Rather than a packet of rules to memorize, the Ordnung is the understood behavior by which the Amish are expected to live. In the same way that the rules of grammar are learned by children, so the Ordnung, the grammar of order, is learned by Amish youth. The Ordnung evolved gradually over the decades as the church sought to strike a delicate balance between tradition and change. Specific details of the Ordnung vary across church districts and settlements.

Weaverland Old Order Mennonite Conference

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

Contents

History

The Old Order Mennonites in Indiana were the first of all Old Order groups among Mennonites. They emerged in 1872, when there was a wave of modernization, led by Daniel Brenneman and John F. Funk. Jacob Wisler (1808-1889), bishop in Indiana since 1851, was a staunch conservative who clashed with the modernizers, who tried to silence him. In 1867 they were successful and Jacob Wisler's ministry was suspended. In 1872 Jacob Wisler and preachers Christian Bare and John Weaver were expelled from the Indiana Mennonite conference. About 100 members sided with them and formed the Old Order Mennonites of Indiana, who became known under the name of Wisler Mennonites or just Wislers. Later they were joined by Mennonites from Ohio. [1]

Daniel Brenneman was an influential Mennonite minister and modernizer of the Mennonite Church (MC), who later founded his own church.

John Fretz Funk was a publisher and leader of the Mennonite Church. Funk published the Herald of Truth from 1864 until 1908 when it merged with the Gospel Witness to form the Gospel Herald. Jacob Clemens Kolb, in his preface to Bless the Lord, O My Soul quotes an unnamed commentator who said, "John F. Funk is the most important [Mennonite] man after Menno Simons."

In 1907 the Old Order Mennonites of Ohio and Indiana split into two factions. The group that was less traditional kept the name of Wisler Mennonites, but took the formal name Ohio-Indiana Mennonite Conference, while the more conservative fraction became known under the name of John W. Martin Mennonites. The central conflict was about telephone use and the English language in preaching, which a majority of the Wisler group wanted to be allowed. In the year 1924 the Wisler group also allowed the ownership of cars. A large group of more modern Wisler Mennonites in Ohio split from the Ohio-Indiana Mennonite Conference and formed the Ohio Wisler Mennonites in 1973. [2] [3]

Ohio State of the United States of America

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Of the fifty states, it is the 34th largest by area, the seventh most populous, and the tenth most densely populated. The state's capital and largest city is Columbus.

Indiana State of the United States of America

Indiana is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern and Great Lakes regions of North America. Indiana is the 38th largest by area and the 17th most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th U.S. state on December 11, 1816. Indiana borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north, Ohio to the east, Kentucky to the south and southeast, and Illinois to the west.

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.

Membership and congregations

Year Membership
1954 150
1994 637
2000 780
2008/9 925

In 1954 there were 150 baptized members in the Ohio-Indiana Mennonite Conference [4] and in 1994 there were 637. [5] In the year 2000 membership was 780 in 7 congregations, which were located in Indiana (420 members, 3 congregations), Ohio (228, 2), Michigan (108, 1) and Minnesota (24, 1). [6] In 2008/9 membership was 925 in 7 congregations. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

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The Ohio Wisler Mennonite Churches, also called Ohio Wisler Mennonite Conference, are a group of churches with a Mennonite tradition, that formed in 1973. They are not considered to be Old Order anymore, but are widely seen as Conservative Mennonites. Stephen Scott lists them as "Ultra Conservative" (Mennonites).

References

  1. ↑ Stephen Scott: An Introduction to Old Order and Conservative Mennonite Groups, Intercourse, PA 1996, page 16.
  2. ↑ Ohio Wisler Mennonite Churches at Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.
  3. ↑ Ohio-Indiana (Wisler) Mennonite Conference at Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.
  4. ↑ Indiana (USA) at Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.
  5. ↑ Stephen Scott: An Introduction to Old Order and Conservative Mennonite Groups, page 72.
  6. ↑ Donald B. Kraybill and C. Nelson Hostetter: Anabaptist World USA. Scottdale, PA and Waterloo, Ontario 2001.
  7. ↑ Donald B. Kraybill (2010). Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hurtterites and Mennonites. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 258.
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