Mennonite & Anabaptist

It’s the 65th Annual Pennsylvania Relief Sale, and 65 quilts will be sold online today (Saturday April 10) starting at 10 AM. This sale benefits Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). Amish support and participate in MCC disaster relief efforts. Here are some of the quilts. These are not necessarily Amish-made (going by the names, most of […]

Continue Reading Pennsylvania Relief Sale: 65 Quilts To Be Auctioned Online @ 10 AM Today

Do the Amish live in Ireland? There are no Old Order Amish communities in Ireland, but Beachy Amish do live there. The question is revisited today by irishcentral.com in an article titled “Did you know Ireland has an Amish community?” The Christian Fellowship of Dunmore East, Co. Waterford is Ireland’s only Amish-Mennonite community. It was […]

Continue Reading Irish Amish?

The Young Center at Elizabethtown College provides annual Amish population numbers, with totals for each state, province and so on. But they also have figures for the Old Order Mennonite population, a group similar to Amish in many ways (and in some cases living next door to them as neighbors). According to their latest tallies, […]

Continue Reading The Old Order Mennonite Population (Horse & Buggy): 38,000+ in The US, Canada & Belize

Jim Halverson shares a visit he made back in the fall to the Wakarusa area of northern Indiana. This town lying north of Nappanee is in the vicinity of a small Old Order Mennonite community. Jim made two interesting stops while in the area, as you’ll see below. Instead of trick-or-treating on Halloween, I attended […]

Continue Reading Visiting An Old Order Mennonite Horse Auction – And Casket Shop (22 Photos)

I’ve seen a lot less coverage of the Amish & COVID north of the border, perhaps because their populations are smaller and/or because I’m less plugged in to the Canadian media. It may also be – and this is just speculation – because Canadian media is less likely to publish stories readily identifying the subject […]

Continue Reading Ontario Amish & Mennonites Tied To COVID Increase

Last week we learned the tragic story of Jonathan and Wilma Hochstetler, a Mennonite couple shot in a late-night robbery in Indianapolis, with Wilma losing her life. Jonathan happens to be a cousin to Amish Cook columnist Gloria Yoder – the oldest cousin of 47 on her father’s side, as she describes him. In this […]

Continue Reading Amish Cook Gloria Yoder On The Hochstetler Shooting

This is a pretty awful and senseless story which hit me for several reasons. This couple is Mennonite, apparently grew up in an Amish community, and probably still have a good number of family who are Amish (two photos of family in the article linked below appear to be Amish). Hochstetler family photo provided by […]

Continue Reading Amish-Raised Couple Shot, One Killed In Indianapolis Robbery

This is an absorbing 42-minute documentary on the Little Belize Mennonite colony. Little Belize is the home of approximately 3,000 Old Colony Mennonites, living on about 100 square kilometers of land. The Old Colony Mennonites are Plain Anabaptist cousins of the Amish, with numerous similarities to them. The producers of the documentary, made for the […]

Continue Reading Life In A Belize Mennonite Colony (Documentary)

I was shocked to see this obituary today. I immediately recognized the photo from the back of her book. Lillian Fern Stoltzfus wrote a very nice guide to learning Pennsylvania Dutch called Speaking Amish. I don’t believe I ever met Lillian or anyone in her family, but have known of her for years. I would […]

Continue Reading Lillian Fern Stoltzfus 1974 – 2020

In February we posted about Philip E. Riehl, a now-excommunicated Mennonite man who defrauded Mennonite and Amish investors to the tune of $60 million, in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in state history. Riehl was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison. From the Allentown Morning Call: BERKS COUNTY — An accountant who […]

Continue Reading Man Who Defrauded Mennonites & Amish In $60 Million Scheme Sentenced To 10 Years