Amish Fellowship
Traditional Anabaptist fellowship practicing agrarian simplicity, Ordnung, and Meidung
The Amish originated in 1693 in Alsace and Switzerland when elder Jakob Ammann led a separation from the Swiss Brethren (Mennonites) over concerns regarding spiritual laxity, advocating strict enforcement of the ban (Meidung / shunning), simple unadorned dress, and total separation from worldly culture.
Historical Context & Significance
Immigrating to North America in the 18th century, Old Order Amish communities maintain German Pennsylvania Dutch dialect, horse-and-buggy transportation, plain dress, and community discipline governed by the unwritten congregational *Ordnung*.
Genealogical Lineage & Splits
Mennonite Church
The Mennonite Church was named after the former Dutch Catholic priest Menno Simons, who consolidated Dutch and North German Anabaptism after the disastrous Munster rebellion, directing the movement onto a strictly peaceful, biblical, and Christocentric foundation of nonresistance, mutual mutual aid, and believer's baptism.
Separated in 1693 ADTheological & Hermeneutical Coordinates
Primary Scripture Proof-Texts
Key biblical passages central to this tradition's exegesis and historical debates.
Connected Theological Perspectives & Debates
Universal confession that Christians are called to love their enemies, pray for persecutors, and respect civil authorities as established under God's providence.
Universal confession that the church is called to holiness and that persistent, unrepentant scandalous sin requires pastoral confrontation and correction.