I was just digging through my things and came across the pen above, picked up while visiting Amish communities earlier this year. This pen commemorates the wedding of Steven and Lydia, married this past spring in Ohio. Keepsakes and souvenirs such as this memorialize Amish weddings in many communities. Remembrance items can range from pens with the couple’s name and date of marriage, to painted…
Last week, an excerpt from The Amish Way mentioned a gentleman named Abner, a deceased Amish historian whose trade was bookbinding. Abner was apparently quite a remarkable person who touched a lot of people in his community. Brad Igou (The Amish in Their Own Words) knew Abner well and has shared some remembrances which he recorded after Abner’s death in 2002: A good friend has…
As I write this I’m sitting at home late Sunday morning, happily munching on bread slathered with Amish peanut butter, trying to keep it from sticking my laptop’s keys together. Amish across America will soon be doing the same at the after-church fellowship meal (the peanut butter, not the laptop part), at which the Amish interpretation of the venerable nut spread features prominently. What makes…
I’m happy to share the Amish Way winners with you today. It was a lot of fun to run this contest and I much enjoyed the interview with authors Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and David Weaver-Zercher (if you missed it: Part 1 and Part 2). I particularly appreciated the point they make about shunning–that it is the “flip side to the community barn raising that…
“Brimming with many children,” write the authors of The Amish Way, “most Amish homes produce eight or more sets of dirty dishes three times a day. That means at least twenty-four glasses, dozens of plates, and countless pieces of silverware, not to mention pots, pans, mixing bowls, platters, and serving utensils.” Yet you won’t find an automatic dishwasher in any Amish home. For the Amish,…
The Amish settlement at Mechanicsville is one of only three Maryland Amish communities in existence. The oldest Maryland Amish settlement, at Oakland (Garrett County), was settled in 1850. Today it is a single church district in size. The Mechanicsville Amish community in southern Maryland was founded nearly a century later (1940) than the Oakland community. But today it is much larger, consisting of 8 districts,…
Are Amish “born again”? Are cars immoral? When describing church, why do Amish use the term “Gmay” instead of “Kirche”? And who actually decides the rules that guide Amish life? The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World is the first book to explore Amish spirituality and religious practices in-depth, addressing these and many other questions along the way. Authors Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt,…
Today marks the fourth anniversary of the Nickel Mines Amish school shootings. I’d like to share two items with you. The recently-released paperback version of Amish Grace features a Q-and-A with Charles Roberts’ mother Terri, whom Donald Kraybill interviewed earlier this year. In it, she discusses her feelings on learning of the shooting, the Amish community’s response, and how she has interacted with the families…
The Amish settlement near Munfordville and Horse Cave, Kentucky is the largest in the state, with 13 church districts as of 2010. Last week I had a chance to visit a number of Kentucky Amish communities, including the Munfordville settlement. The Amish here live among the hills of Hart County, which lies about halfway between Lexington and Nashville. Munfordville and Horse Cave are both small…
Amish are typically buried in simple pine boxes. Who makes them? In many communities, an Amishman will operate a business constructing the pine coffins. I recently spoke with a casket maker after a business talk I gave in Holmes County, Ohio. He asked me if I had met one of his kind while writing my book. Unfortunately I had not. Given the nature of his…