Amish Funeral Traditions: The Viewing, Service & Burial

What are Amish customs regarding funerals – specifically the viewing, service, and burial? It’s a somber topic, but in the latest Amish Cook column, Dorcas Raber, mother of regular columnist Gloria Yoder, steps in to describe Amish funeral traditions. I’ve been to an Amish funeral, and also a viewing in a separate instance, though have […]
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Amish Seventh-Day Adventists? A Look At The West Salem Mission

Do you remember the “Amish Seventh-Day Adventists“? Andy and Naomi Weaver, former members of a Swartzentruber Amish church, were featured in a post here two years ago. They had been interviewed for an article and Seventh-day Adventist television program, telling the story of how they left the Amish for the Adventist faith. Not long ago […]
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5 Insights From Swartzentruber Amishman Sam Shetler

I didn’t plan on this becoming a series, but we’ve had a nice run of articles lately with Amish people sharing their lives and beliefs (see posts on Indiana Amishman John Gingerich and Illinois Amishman Reuben Mast). I’ve enjoyed them, and hopefully you have too. It would be good to get a female Amish perspective […]
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5 Insights From Illinois Amishman Reuben Mast

Reuben and Wilma Mast belong to a New Order Amish church in Ava, Illinois. They live with their 10 children on a farm in this settlement of three church districts. Isaac Smith of The Southern Illinoisan visited the Mast farm on several occasions this spring and summer. His article shares extensive comments from Reuben on Amish life […]
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Amish Exile John Shrock Helps Teen Who Left Same Community

“The main thing I miss is my family. That’s the only thing I’d like to go back for.” John Shrock was one of several people featured in our recent 3 stories of leaving the Amish post. The now 25-year-old man grew up in a Wisconsin Amish community before leaving at age 17. Now he’s helping […]
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A First Visit To The Amish: Attending Amish Church (9 Photos)

What’s it like to attend Amish church as an outsider? In previous posts, we followed Don and Pam Burke as they made their first trips to the Amish in Ohio and in Pennsylvania. In this third post in the series, Don and Pam take us along to a Lancaster County Amish church service*. If you’ve […]
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Leaving The Amish: 3 Stories

We’ve seen three stories in the media in just the past several days, of people who were born and raised Amish – but ended up leaving the church under widely differing circumstances. First a note: when we speak about “leaving the Amish”, this can mean more than one thing (at least the way it is […]
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Amish Cook Gloria Yoder: Easter Traditions & Reflections

With Easter close at hand, Amish Cook columnist Gloria Yoder recalls Easter traditions, and reflects on the meaning of Christ in her life: When I was a young girl, our Amish youth group would go Easter caroling early in the morning. Long before the first crack of dawn, a team of workhorses was hitched to […]
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Amish Latter-Day Saints? (Video)

Is there such a thing as an “Amish Latter-day Saint”? The video below tells the emotional tales of three Amish families who joined the LDS church. This recently-released film recalls a similar story on “Amish Seventh-Day Adventists“. This formulation – Amish + another denomination – is always attention-getting. Especially if you consider “Amish” to be […]
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6 Examples of Amish Ordnung Rules

Amish are well-known for living by guidelines and rules governing technology, dress, and other aspects of daily life. But Amish churches are not all the same. Some are more traditional, and others more progressive. Some do things one way, and others do things another way. So how do Amish know the dos and don’ts specific […]
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