Old Beachy Amish
The Old Beachy Amish or Old Beachy Amish Mennonites, also called Midwest Beachy Amish Mennonites are a Plain car driving Beachy Amish group, that preserves the old ways of the Beachy Amish before the Evangelical transformation of the majority of the Beachy Amish between 1946 to 1977. As descendants from the Old Order Amish they are an Anabaptist Christian group in the tradition of the Radical Reformation of the early 16th century. In contrast to other Beachy Amish they have retained the Pennsylvania German language, which they also use for church service.[1]
They have dress standards as strict as or stricter than many Old Order Amish. They require their automobiles to be black and do not allow microwaves and answering machines.[2]
From the 1970s until the early 1990s the center of the Old Beachy Amish was in Paris, Tennessee.
In 2010 there were 747 members in congregations in the six following locations: Casey County, Kentucky, with 135 members, Webster County, Kentucky with 112, Graves County, Kentucky, with 109 members, Adams County, Illinois, with 171 members, Richland County, Illinois with 123 members and Saline County, Illinois with 97 members.[3] According to the Mennonite World Conference there were six Old Beachy Amish congregations with 686 baptized members in 2016.[4]
References
- ^ Midwest Beachy Amish Mennonite Church at Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
- ^ Donnermeyer, Joseph, and Cory Anderson: The Growth of Amish and Plain Anabaptists in Kentucky, in Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies 2(2):215, page 223, 2014.
- ^ Midwest Beachy Amish Mennonite Counties at Association of Religion Data Archives
- ^ Mennonite World Conference: Membership USA: Old Beachy (Amish Mennonite)