Amish Church

What really counts

I really enjoyed church service today.  This is the second weekend in a row I’ve gone with this group.  Church in any particular district is normally held bi-weekly, the two consecutive Sundays in this case being due to a special situation. Many Amish are conscious of the differences that exist among their own people.  I spent some time discussing this with church members today. Very…

Back to Holmes County

My two-month excursion in Lancaster County is over.  I’m back in Ohio now. Lancaster was a fantastic experience but now that I’m back here, I’m reminding myself why Holmes County is perhaps my favorite of all Amish settlements. Holmes County is more diverse, (much) more rural, arguably a smidgen more beautiful, and I guess I just have known more people here for longer so that…

A special Sunday

I was invited by one of my customers to attend Amish church tomorrow.  We’re going to meet at the farm and buggy over to the neighbor’s where it’s being held this week. Church is consistently held at 8, standard time, which these days means 9 am.  I’m looking forward to the fellowship and food. I asked what to wear–‘Amos’ suggested regular Sunday attire.  ‘Unless you…

Assurance of salvation-a thorny issue

This week while selling books in Lancaster County, I met ‘Abe’ and ‘Anna Ruth’, an excommunicated Amish couple, kicked out, they said, for promoting the idea of assurance of salvation. While they still attended their local church services, lived and dressed ‘Amish’, they had lost full membership and were presumably under the Bann. Amish believe that all we can do is do our best to…

The Amish Church District

The Amish arrange themselves into compact groupings known as church districts. Each district has its own name, usually a geographically-based one–Lamoni South, Randolph, and Crab Orchard are examples of places providing names for districts, these being found in Iowa, Mississippi, and Kentucky Amish communities. Since the Amish travel by horse-and-buggy to one another’s homes for Sunday service, most districts are grouped together in a logical,…

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Leaving

When a baptized Amish person leaves the community for another church, it can be a jarring experience, both for the family involved and for others in the church. And especially so, in the very rare occurrence when one party stays behind. Most cases I have come across of Amish leaving have involved the full family;  one or two peculiar situations have not–with the wife remaining…

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31 Flavors of Amish

Most Amish look alike to the man on the street. In reality the group is surprisingly diverse. Though tied by a set of core beliefs, the Amish have no national governing body, no pope nor patriarch. The individual congregation, guided by its bishop, decides its own rules and customs. This decentralized approach, along with a widely varying tolerance for progressive ideas, creates many different ‘flavors’…