Mennonite & Anabaptist

Volume 6, Issue 1 of The Journal Of Plain Anabaptist Communities is now released. This issue of JPAC includes an “in memoriam” to Dave Luthy, one of the founders of the Pathway Heritage Historical Library, located in Aylmer, Ontario. It includes brief statements of appreciation for his contributions to Anabaptist studies and the assistance and advice he generously provided to numerous scholars. Two articles in…

Allen Hoover makes toned-down, “offline” computers for the Amish and Mennonite community. And not everyone in the community likes him for it, according to a new interview. Hoover is an Old Order Mennonite man in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania who has been providing “Plain” computing solutions for Amish and Mennonites for over two decades. The appeal of these machines: devices which provides business functionality – but…

This is a disturbing story, but one that needs covering, for multiple reasons. Fresh reports describe what appears to be a second man from the same plain Mennonite community being charged with sex-related crimes within the span of a few weeks. And in this second instance just being reported, it seems that action by the Mennonite community was pivotal in making the suspect’s arrest. First…

Impressions from the conference “Early Anabaptism in Global Perspective: Past, Present, and Future at 500 Years” As a rural sociologist steeped in statistical analyses of data to test hypotheses, I had my doubts about attending a conference focused on the 500th anniversary of the Anabaptist movement. Too much history for me, I thought! Organized by the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, and held…

Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities, Volume 5, Issue 2 now released New milestones have been reached for both the Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities (JPAC) and Anabaptist scholarship in general. JPAC is blessed with nearly 500 registrants, but there is room for many, many more, as its tenth issue is now released. It is now the “go-to” journal for Anabaptist studies, particularly scholarship about the…

This is a sad – and maddening – story about a special employee of a bakery that we’ve covered here on the site before. Schlabach’s Bakery has been in business since 1970. It’s located in the area of the “electric New Order” Amish community at Guthrie, Kentucky (Todd County). From what I’ve heard, it was Amish-founded, but is not currently Amish-owned (though it has stayed…

Just in time for Christmas! The newest issue of the Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities (Volume 5, Issue 1) is now released. It is chock full of goodies for your reading stocking, with articles and reviews on a great range of topics. Amish Relief & Development Work The dynamics of continuity and change in Plain communities are especially evident in the opening article by Joseph…

Last year I made a Christmastime visit to a plain Mennonite bakery in Snyder County, Pennsylvania. Weaver’s Market and Bakery is run by Stauffer aka “Piker” Mennonites, essentially the plainest of horse-and-buggy Mennonites. The group settled here from Lancaster County decades ago. They would be plainer and more traditional than some Amish. I was excited to have a chance to return. Especially since last year…

The Journal of Plain Anabaptist Communities has released volume 4, issue 1. In this issue of JPAC, we begin a new series introducing Anabaptist research centers and their holdings and management. We begin with the Ohio Amish Library and the Geauga Amish Historical Library and will feature additional centers in the coming issues. From the fields of legal studies, demography, socio-linguistic scholarship, and ethnographic religious…

In what looks like another affinity fraud scheme targeting Plain Anabaptist people, the Department of Justice is seeking the arrest of a man who collected over $30 million over a decade-long span – telling donors the money was for Bibles and other Christian literature to be distributed in China. Jason Gerald Shenk allegedly got at least some of his money (and perhaps most of it)…