A 1685 illustration by Jan Luyken, published in Martyrs Mirror, of Dirk Willems saving his pursuer, an act of mercy that led to his recapture, after which he was burned at the stake near Asperen in the present-day Netherlands
Old Order Mennonites (Pennsylvania German: Fuhremennischte) 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.
All Old Order Mennonites reject certain technologies (e.g., radio, television, Internet), but the extent of this rejection depends on the individual group. Old Order groups generally place great emphasis on a disciplined community instead of the individual's personal faith beliefs.[1] The Pennsylvania German language is spoken vigorously among all horse-and-buggy groups except the Virginia Old Order Mennonites, who lost their original language before becoming Old Order. There is no overall church or conference to unite all the different groups of Old Order Mennonites. In 2008–2009, a minority of Old Order Mennonites accepted automobiles, whereas a majority retain horse and buggy transportation.
The total population of Old Order Mennonites can be estimated to be between 72,000 and 84,000 in 2021.
Very conservative Plautdietsch-speaking Russian Mennonites, who may have a similar belief and lifestyle, are normally not called Old Order Mennonite.
Names
From the first Old Order division in Indiana in 1872 under bishop Jacob Wisler (1808–1889) until the middle of the 20th century, all Old Order Mennonites were called by many "Wisler Mennonites,"[2] "Old Order Mennonites, Wisler,"[3] even "Wislerites," or the like.[4] In a few cases this usage has persisted, but today the term "Wisler Mennonites" normally refers to a certain subgroup, the Ohio-Indiana Mennonite Conference. Old Order Mennonites who do not use automobiles are either referred to as "horse and buggy Mennonites" or "team Mennonites" (the word for them in Pennsylvania German is Fuhremennischte). Sometimes the term "Old Order Mennonites" is restricted to groups that do not use cars. "Automobile" Old Order Mennonites refer to those who split from horse-and-buggy Old Order groups. It is common to name groups after a bishop, in most cases the leading bishop during the time of division.[5]
History
19th century
In the second half of the 19th century, the Old Order Movement emerged among Anabaptists of South German and Swiss origin in North America who spoke mostly Pennsylvania German. Most "Old Order" Mennonites emerged through divisions from the main body of Mennonites between 1872 and 1901 in four regions of North America: Indiana in 1872, Ontario in 1889, Pennsylvania in 1893 and Virginia in 1901. Conflicts over the introduction of such modern practices as Sunday Schools, revival meetings, and English-language preaching drove the formation of Old Order Mennonite churches. These 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 traditionally minded people left the old conferences to form new ones, but not the modernizers.[6][7]
The Stauffer Mennonites had already split away in 1845 over several issues, favoring a stricter church practice. Today they, and groups that split from them, are the most traditional Old Order Mennonite groups concerning technologies and dress.[8]
The Reformed Mennonites, formed in 1812, are a special group that does not totally fit into the "Old Order" group but that has best retained some old traditions, e. g. they wear the most traditional form of plain dress among all Mennonites. Concerns that led to the formation of the new group were "the worldly drift of the church" and "degeneration".[9]
"there are two basic strains of Mennonites in Canada: the Swiss-South German Mennonites came via Pennsylvania, and the Dutch-North German Mennonites came via Russia (Ukraine). In the late 1700s and early 1800s “Swiss” Mennonites from Pennsylvania settled in southern Ontario. In the 1870s, a large group of “Russian” Mennonites from Ukraine moved to southern Manitoba. Further waves of “Russian” Mennonites came to Canada in the 1920s and 1940s". In the last 50 years, Mennonites have been coming to Canada from Mexico.
The majority today are not of the Old Order.
20th century
Between 1907 and 1931 another wave of church splits occurred among the Old Orders, concerning the use of new technologies, especially cars. The splits occurred in Indiana and Ohio in 1907, in Ontario in 1931, and in Pennsylvania in 1927, generally dividing them into the groups called horse and buggy and automobile.[11]
Between the 1940s and the 1960s, both the Orthodox Mennonites and the Noah Hoover Mennonites emerged from a long series of splits and reunifications of people among the Old Orders who were not modernizers but sought a purer form of Mennonite life. Both the Orthodox Mennonites and the Noah Hoovers are "intentionalist-minded, ultra-plain Old Order Mennonite" groups.[12] Stephen Scott writes about the Noah Hoover Mennonite:[13]
Many people from various backgrounds have been attracted to the Noah Hoover group. The ultra-conservative stance on technology combined with firm Biblicism, intense spirituality and high moral standards have had a wide appeal.
Beliefs and practices
Old Order Mennonite horse and carriage in Oxford County, Ontario, in 2006."Black bumper" car of the 1920s, such as might have been driven by early Horning Church members.
The avoidance of technologies by Old Order Mennonites and Old Order Amish is based not on a belief that the technology is in some way evil, but over a concern for the nature of their communities. Community is important to a Mennonite, and a technology or practice is rejected if it would adversely affect it. Many Old Order Mennonite groups reject automobiles but in an emergency even the most traditional Old Order Mennonite is likely to accept a ride in an automobile; those who sell milk in areas that require cooling will install electricity in the barn. Some of the groups that allow the use of cars and trucks, such as the Markham-Waterloo Mennonite Conference, will ensure that they are all black, even painting over chromed sections to achieve this effect.[14]
Old Order Mennonites also practise plainness, including the dress, which is the opposite of showiness in clothing but also in physical appearance.
Many Amish and Old Order Mennonites do not use traditional health insurance with monthly premiums copayments. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, some Amish and Mennonites use Preferred Health Care (PHC) Old Order Group coverage (OOG).[15] When an OOG member visits a participating provider (approximately 1100 local physicians and 9 hospitals in the Lancaster area accept the OOG coverage), they present a unique white card with red and blue print identifying them as a PHC member. These cards are void of any identifying information, as is the custom of their religious belief. After care is rendered, providers submit a claim to PHC for a "repricing" as if the patient had insurance. A PHC statement is then sent to the medical practice and the patient indicating the discounted amount due the provider. The practice then collects the repriced amount from the patient directly, as per practice policy for collecting balances due on self-pay patient accounts. In this way, the Old Order Group has engaged in collective bargaining practices to lower their cost of health care. Additionally, the community will support any member who is sick, disadvantaged, old, or who has suffered an accident.
Old Order Mennonites and Old Order Amish groups are often grouped together in North America's popular press. This is incorrect, according to a 2017 report by Canadian Mennonite magazine:[10]
The customs of Old Order Mennonites, the Amish communities and Old Colony Mennonites have a number of similarities, but the cultural differences are significant enough so that members of one group would not feel comfortable moving to another group. The Old Order Mennonites and Amish have the same European roots and the language spoken in their homes is the same German dialect. Old Colony Mennonites use Low German, a different German dialect.
Unlike most Old Order Amish, Old Order Mennonites have meeting houses for worship, typically of very simple design and lacking adornment. In many respects especially car driving Old Order Mennonite groups are quite similar to Conservative Mennonites but differ particularly in their non-acceptance of Sunday School and Revival Meetings, whereas horse and buggy Mennonites additionally retained use of the German language in everyday life and in their worship services.
The spectrum of Old Order Mennonite groups ranges from those that differ little from even conservative Old Order Amish groups like the Swartzentruber Amish to those that are barely different from Conservative Mennonite groups concerning the use of technologies.
What characterizes automobile groups as Old Order rather than Conservative Mennonite is their retention of traditional forms of worship, communion, baptism, funeral and leadership structures. By contrast, some wedding practices have changed. The Old Order Mennonites normally have neither Sunday Schools nor revival meetings.[16]
Horse-and-buggy groups have retained a rural lifestyle, with farming as an important part of their economy. Most horse-and-buggy Old Order Mennonites allow the use of tractors for farming, although some groups insist on steel-wheeled tractors to prevent their being used for road transportation. Some traditional groups, like the Orthodox Mennonites and the Noah Hoover Mennonites, still till their fields with horses. The horse-and-buggy people stress separation from the world, excommunicate, and normally shun in a strict manner. All Old Order Mennonite groups meet in meeting houses or church buildings (when they have full-fledged congregations), contrary to the Old Order Amish, who meet in the homes or barns of their members.
Progressive ("automobile") Old Order Mennonites, like the Weaverland Conference Mennonites (USA), Wisler Mennonites (USA), and Markham-Waterloo Mennonite Conference (Canada), largely evolved from the same series of Old Order schisms from 1872 to 1901. Nowadays, they often share the same meeting houses with and adhere to almost identical forms of Old Order worship as their horse-and-buggy Old Order brethren with whom they parted ways in the early 20th century. Although Weaverland Old Orders began using cars in 1927, the cars were required to be plain and painted black. The form of the ban among progressive groups in general is less severe, which means an ex-communicant is not always shunned and is, therefore, not excluded from the family table, shunned by their spouse and/or cut off from business dealings. All progressive Old Orders have either already shifted from Pennsylvania German to English or are in the process to do so. In recent decades, however, family sizes and growth rates of the progressive groups have diminished compared to the horse-and-buggy groups.
According to a University of Waterloo report of 2017, "of the estimated 59,000 Mennonites in Ontario, only about twenty percent are members of conservative groups".[17]
Controversy
In November 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada, both the Region of Waterloo Public Health unit and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health issued orders to close Old Order schools and places of worship in their regions and to limit social interactions. The orders were issued because of extremely high infection rates. In Waterloo Region, the orders applied to sects "including Markham, Old Colony, and David Martin Mennonite communities", according to a news report. Both agencies cited a lack of cooperation with public health requirements that were intended to minimize the spread of the virus. In an interview with the Waterloo Region Record, bishop Peter Brubacher, (bishop "for seven Old Order Mennonite church districts" in north Waterloo Region, according to another news agency),[18] made this comment:[19] "I guess to be frank and honest, a lot of people really didn’t take it that serious, to isolate".[20][21]
Subgroups
The table below lists all groups with more than 250 members in 2008–2009[22] and in 2018-2019, if available.[23]
↑ This number is probably too low and should be around 800[25][26]
In addition to the groups listed above there were also several smaller horse-and-buggy groups like the Joseph Brubaker group with 58 adult members, the William Weaver group with 55 adult members, the Aaron Martin group with 45 adult members, the Allen Martin group with 37 adult members, and the Wellesley Orthodox group with about 20 members (this information dates from 1995). Kraybill and Bowman in 2001 mention one more small group, the Harvey Nolt group, divided from the Wengers.[28]
Because splits, mergers and even the dissolution of small groups are not uncommon among Old Order Mennonites, the situation today may look quite different.
Population and distribution
Horse-and-buggy (or team) Old Order Mennonites can be found in the United States, Canada, and Belize. In the year 2000 more than 70 percent of the horse-and-buggy people lived in Pennsylvania and Ontario, where they emerged through divisions from the main body of Mennonites in the late 19th century and from the division between automobile and horse-and-buggy groups in the early 20th century. In Indiana, Ohio and Virginia they also emerged through divisions, but in much smaller numbers. Settlements of horse-and-buggy Mennonites in other states were created by migrations, that started mainly since the 1960s. There are also Old Order Mennonites in Belize (Cayo and Toledo Districts). The table on the right lists the total population of horse-and-buggy Mennonites per U.S. state, Canadian province or Belize in North America in the late 1990s[29][30] and the 2015 number of Pennsylvania German speaking Mennonites that is almost identical with the number of horse-and-buggy Mennonites.
Country (Belize), state (U.S.) or province (Canada)
↑ Virginia Old Order Mennonites use horse and buggy but speak English instead of German.
↑ Because some of the Noah Hoovers speak Plautdietsch instead of Pennsylvania German, the number given is maybe only half or a third of their total population.
Adherents
According to C. Henry Smith, who wrote in 1908, all Old Order Mennonite groups counted "hardly more than two thousand members".[32] In 1957 the total number of members of all Old Order Mennonite groups was 5,800 members in 44 congregations.[7] For the year 2001 Kraybill and Hostetter give the number 16,478 for the membership of "all Old Order Mennonites groups" in the USA.[33] According to the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia in 2002 there were approximately 17,000 baptized Old Order Mennonite members in the USA and 3,000 in Canada.[7] There were more than 27,000 adult, baptized members of Old Order Mennonites in North America and Belize in 2008/9. The total population of Old Order Mennonites groups speaking Pennsylvania German was about 43,000 in 2015,[31] which indicates that the total population of all Old Order Mennonites groups, including those who have lost the language or are in the process of losing it, was roughly between 60,000 and 70,000 in 2015. Under the condition that the annual growth is 3.7 percent, this would result in a total Old Order Mennonite population of about 72,000 to 84,000 in 2021.
Growth
The Wenger Mennonites, the largest horse-and-buggy group, have a growth rate of 3.7 percent a year, which is comparable to the growth rate of Old Order Amish.[34] The Wengers have larger families and a higher retention rate than their car-driving brothers, the Horning Mennonites.[35] In 2005, the average number of children per household was 8.25 among Old Order Mennonites in Indiana.[36] In a sample of 199 people from the Martindale District of the Wenger Mennonites, born between 1953 and 1968, there was a retention rate of 95 percent in 1998.[37]
Similar groups
There are quite a lot of similarities between Old Order Mennonites and Old Order Amish, especially between the Amish and the horse-and-buggy Old Order Mennonites, who both speak Pennsylvania German and who have a shared tradition of plain dress. To a lesser extent there are similarities with conservative "Russian" Mennonites, who live in Latin America, speak another German dialect, Plautdietsch, and who have their own tradition of plain dress. The same is true for the Hutterites, who speak Hutterisch and live in community of goods. There are also similarities with the different Old Order Schwarzenau Brethren groups and the Old Order River Brethren, who have some shared Pennsylvania Dutch heritage with the Old Order Mennonites.
Publishing
The Old Order Mennonites find an affinity with the Old Order Amish publishing house called Pathway Publishers located in Lagrange, Indiana, and Aylmer, Ontario. More recently the Old Order Mennonites of Ontario have done some of their own publishing and a private enterprise known as Vineyard Publications has been formed near Wallenstein, Ontario. Members of the Old Order churches tend to use the Pennsylvania German dialect for literary expression more often than Old Order Amish. There are several authors of Pennsylvania German prose and poetry. Well-known, for example, is Isaac Horst (1918–2008) from Mount Forest (Ontario, Canada), who wrote the book Bei sich selwert un ungewehnlich (in English: "Separate and Peculiar"). Pennsylvania German texts are mostly published in the Pennsylvania German dialect newspaper Hiwwe wie Driwwe.
Mennonites are a group of Anabaptist Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name Mennonites is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of the Holy Roman Empire, present day Netherlands. Menno Simons became a prominent leader within the wider Anabaptist movement and was a contemporary of Martin Luther (1483–1546) and Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560). Through his writings about the Reformation Simons articulated and formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss Anabaptist founders as well as early teachings of the Mennonites founded on the belief in both the mission and ministry of Jesus. Formal Mennonite beliefs were codified in the Dordrecht Confession of Faith (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", nonresistance, and in general, more emphasis on "true Christianity" involving "being Christian and obeying Christ" as they interpret it from the Holy Bible.
Plain people are Christian groups in the United States, characterized by separation from the world and by simple living, including plain dressing in modest clothing. Many plain people have an Anabaptist background. These denominations are largely of German, Swiss German and Dutch ancestry, though people of diverse backgrounds have been incorporated into them. Conservative Friends are traditional Quakers who are also considered plain people; they come from a variety of different ethnic backgrounds.
The Old Order River Brethren, formerly sometimes known as York Brethren or Yorkers, are a River Brethren denomination of Anabaptist Christianity with roots in the Radical Pietist movement. As their name indicates, they are Old Order Anabaptists.
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.
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 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 Mennonite Conference but have some differences in Ordnung.
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.
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.
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.
The Weaverland Conference, also called Horning Church or Black-bumper Mennonites, is a Christian denomination of Old Order Mennonites who use cars.
The Noah Hoover Mennonites, called "Old Order Mennonite Church (Hoover)" by the Mennonite World Conference, and sometimes called "Scottsville Mennonites”, are a group of very plain Old Order Mennonites that originally came from the Stauffer Mennonites and later merged with several other groups. Today it is seen as an independent branch of Old Order Mennonites. The group differs from other Old Order Mennonites by having settlements outside the US and Canada and by attracting new members from other groups on a larger scale. They have more restrictions on modern technology than all other Old Order Mennonite groups. They are rather intentionalist minded than ultra traditional.
Stephen Scott was an American writer on Anabaptist subjects, especially on Old Order and Conservative Mennonite groups.
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.
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.
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.
Old Order Anabaptism encompasses those groups which have preserved the old ways of Anabaptist Christian religion and lifestyle.
1 2 "10 things to know about Mennonites in Canada". Canadian Mennonite. 12 January 2017. Retrieved 6 December 2020. it is in many ways, an option of last resort and it's something we only do when we think we have a critical threat to the community's safety and we need immediate action
↑ Donnermeyer, Joseph, and Cory Anderson: The Growth of Amish and Plain Anabaptists in Kentucky, in Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies 2(2):215, page 231, 2014.
↑ "Waterloo Region, COVID surges in old order Mennonite communities". Waterloo Region Record. 27 November 2020. Retrieved 6 December 2020. In hindsight, it's so contagious and spreads so easily, by the time you're aware that there's an outbreak, you've got a lot of people affected
↑ "Public health intervenes to limit COVID-19 surge among old order Mennonites". Waterloo Region Record. 30 November 2020. Retrieved 6 December 2020. Infection rates in rural Mennonite areas are the highest in the region ... "Unfortunately, we have encountered insufficient co-operation among a number of individuals with public health requirements"
↑ Around the year 2000 the David Martin Mennonites counted about 350 households, which would mean about 2100 people. Donald Martin: Old Order Mennonites of Ontario: Gelassenheit, Discipleship, and Brotherhood. Kitchener, Ontario. 2003. p. 176.
↑ Thomas J. Meyers; Steven M. Nolt (2005). An Amish Patchwork: Indiana's Old Orders in the Modern World. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. pp.149/50.
Kraybill, Donald B.; Hurd, James P. (2006). Horse-and-Buggy Mennonites Hoofbeats of Humility in a Postmodern World. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press. ISBN978-0-271028651.
Scott, Stephen (1996). An Introduction to Old Order: and Conservative Mennonite Groups. Intercourse PA: Good Books.
J. Winfield Fretz: The Waterloo Mennonites: A Community in Paradox. Waterloo, Ontario, 1989.
Isaac R. Horst: A Separate People: An Insider's View of Old Order Mennonite Customs and Traditions. Waterloo, Ontario 2000. Mainly on Ontario Old Order Mennonites.
Isaac R. Horst, Separate & Peculiar: Old Order Mennonite Life in Ontario/Bei sich selwer un ungwehnlich: Alt Mennischde Weg vun Lewe in Ontario, 2nd ed. Herald, 2001, ISBN9780836191462.
Donald B. Kraybill: Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites. Baltimore, 2010.
Donald B. Kraybill and James P. Hurd: Horse-and-buggy Mennonites: Hoofbeats of Humility in a Postmodern World. University Park, PA, 2006. Mainly on Groffdale Mennonites.
Donald B. Kraybill and C. Nelson Hostetter: Anabaptist World USA. Scottdale, PA and Waterloo, Ontario, 2001.
Donald B. Kraybill and Carl Bowman: On the Backroad to Heaven: Old Order Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren. Baltimore 2001.
Daniel B. Lee: Old Order Mennonites, Rituals, Beliefs, and Community. Lanham, MD 2000. Mainly on Horning Mennonites.
Donald Martin: Old Order Mennonites of Ontario: Gelassenheit, Discipleship, Brotherhood. Waterloo, Ontario 2003.
Thomas J. Meyers and Steven M. Nolt: An Amish patchwork: Indiana's Old Orders in the Modern World. Bloomington, IN et al. 2005.
Stephen Scott: An Introduction to Old Order and Conservative Mennonite Groups. Intercourse, PA, 1996.
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