On my drive to church this beautiful morning I passed scattered groups of Amish men, women and children, all dressed in Sunday best, walking the backroads of Lancaster County to the homes of fellow churchmembers where the day’s service would be held. Suddenly, a raunchy red pickup containing a pair of suspiciously Amish-looking ‘hatted’ silhouettes pulled out in front of me and sped off ahead. …
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,…
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;Â one or two peculiar situations have not–with the wife remaining…
The Roman Catholic Church has one of the largest holdings of real estate of any organization in the world. Over the last two millenia it has build thousands of churches around the globe, some humble, some resembling lavish storehouses of art and artefacts. The multi-million dollar Crystal Cathedral, often called ‘the most spectacular religious edifice in the world’ was built in 1980 by the Reformed…
Sunday morning means church for the Amish. Amish services are held in members’ homes. There can be a couple hundred people in attendance. The Amish group themselves into church districts of anywhere from 20 to 50 families, though they typically have around 25 to 35. Each has a bishop, two or three ministers, and a deacon. Service lasts around three hours and includes sermons, Scripture…
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’…