Mennonites

The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist (Re-baptizers) denominations named after and influenced by the teachings and tradition of Menno Simons (1496-1561). As one of the historic peace churches, Mennonites are committed to non-violence, non-resistance and pacifism (or refusal to go to war).

There are about 1.3 million Mennonites worldwide as of 2006. Mennonite congregations worldwide embody the full scope of Mennonite practice from old fashioned 'plain' people to those who appear no different in dress from other people. The largest population of Mennonites is in the United States but Mennonites congregrate in tight-knit communities in at least 51 countries on six continents as well.

Mennonites are prominent among denominations in disaster relief, often being the first to arrive with aid after hurricanes, floods and other disasters. In the last few decades they have also become more actively involved with peace and social justice issues, helping to found Christian Peacemaker Teams, Mennonite Conciliation Service, and the Mennonite Central Committee.

Theology

Mennonite theology emphasizes the primacy of the teachings of Jesus as recorded in New Testament scripture. They hold in common the ideal of a religious community based on New Testament models and imbued with the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount. Their core beliefs deriving from Anabaptist traditions are:

• The authority of Scripture and the Holy Spirit.
• Salvation through conversion by the Spirit of God
• Believer's baptism understood as threefold: Baptism by the spirit (internal change of heart), baptism by water (public demonstration of witness), and baptism by blood (martyrdom and asceticism or the practice of strict self-denial as a measure of personal and especially spiritual discipline).
• Discipleship understood as an outward sign of an inward change.
• Discipline in the church, informed by New Testament teaching, particularly of Jesus (for example Matthew 18:15-18). Some Mennonite churches practice the Ban (shunning).
• The Lord's Supper understood as a memorial rather than as a sacrament or Christian rite, ideally shared by baptized believers within the unity and discipline of the church.

One of the earliest expressions of their faith was the Schleitheim Confession, adopted in 1527-02-24. Its seven articles covered:

• Believer's baptism
• The Ban (excommunication)
• Breaking of bread (Communion)
• Separation from the abomination (the Roman Catholic Church)
• Pastors in the church
• Renunciation of the sword (nonviolence and pacifism)
• Renunciation of the oath (swearing as proof of truth)

The Dordrecht Confession of Faith was adopted on 1632-04-21, by Dutch Mennonites, by Alsatian Mennonites in 1660, and by North American Mennonites in 1725. There is no concrete creed or catechism of which acceptance is required by congregations or members. However there are structures and traditions taught as in the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective of Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA.

History

Background

Ulrich Zwingli

From before the Middle Ages to the early 15th century, most Christianity in Western Europe was known alternately as the Universal or Catholic Church, headed by the Pope. Every Christian infant born in Europe was baptized. The Catholic Church was of paramount importance to the daily life of the average person. Church services were conducted in Latin, which was the ecclesiastical language of the time. Because many common people were illiterate, the Church endeavored to instruct its members in the Christian faith by means of artwork in Church buildings: statues, paintings, and stained glass windows.

When the printing press was invented around 1455, the Bible was one of the first books printed and mass-produced with movable type. Although illiteracy was still widespread, more people could now read the Bible and interpret it for themselves, a factor leading to the Protestant Reformation in Europe. Key reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin broke with the Catholic Church, each forming a new state church. In Zurich, Switzerland, Ulrich Zwingli also left the priesthood to lead the reformation among the Swiss Cantons.

Radical Reformation and the Anabaptists

Some of the followers of Zwingli's Reformed church felt that requiring church membership beginning at birth was inconsistent with the New Testament example. They felt that the church should be completely removed from government (the proto-free church tradition), and that people should join only once they were willing to publicly acknowledge that they believed in Jesus and wanted to live as he commanded. At a small meeting on January 21, 1525, Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and George Blaurock, along with twelve others, all baptized each other. This meeting became the birthplace of the Anabaptists, or re-baptizers.

The Protestant churches considered this radical idea of voluntary church membership to be dangerous. They joined forces to fight the movement. Laws were passed, and many people were persecuted, robbed of everything they had, driven from their homes and countries, and martyred. In the spirit of the times, many radical groups followed, preaching any number of ideas about hierarchy, the state, and various ideas on sexual license running from utter abandon to extreme chastity. These movements have been called by historians the Radical Reformation. Modern-day Mennonites, in addition to the Amish and Hutterites, are the direct descendants of the Radical Reformation Anabaptists - many do not consider themselves to be Protestants (nor Roman Catholic), but rather a separate (radical) Reformation.

As the movement spread slowly around Europe (primarily along the Rhine River), despite the best efforts of the state churches, many of the earliest Anabaptist leaders - those whose beliefs were strongest, and who were the most educated - were killed in an effort to purge Europe of this dangerous idea. By 1530, most of the founding leaders had been killed for refusing to renounce their beliefs. Their unwillingness to fight for their lives was a direct reflection of their belief that God did not condone killing or use of force for any reason, and played a large part in the evolution of Anabaptist theology. When the most educated leaders of the movement were killed, they were sometimes replaced by people who did not fully understand their predecessors' philosophy, and who felt that they had to fight to protect their lives and beliefs. These branches were eventually destroyed by their very willingness to fight. At the same time, the branches that refused to engage the stronger enemy of the state churches still continued to be persecuted, robbed of their possessions and forcefully moved.

Fragmentation and variation

During the sixteenth century, the Mennonites and other Anabaptists were relentlessly persecuted. By the seventeenth century, some of them joined the state church in Switzerland, and persuaded the authorities to relent in their attacks. The Mennonites outside the state church were divided on whether to remain in communion with their brothers within the state church, and this led to a split. Those against remaining in communion with them became known as the Amish, after their founder Jacob Amman. Those who remained in communion with them retained the name Mennonite. This period of persecution has had a significant impact on Mennonite identity. Martyrs Mirror, published in 1660, documents much of the persecution of Anabaptists and their predecessors. Today, the book is still the most important book besides the Bible for many Mennonites and Amish, in particular for the Swiss-South German branch of Mennonitism.

Other disagreements over the years have led to other splits; sometimes the reasons were theological, sometimes practical, sometimes geographical. For instance, near the beginning of the twentieth century, there were some members in the Amish church who wanted to begin having Sunday Schools and evangelize. Unable to persuade the rest of the Amish, they separated and formed the Conservative Mennonite Conference. Mennonites in Canada and other countries typically have independent denominations due to the practical considerations of distance and, in some cases, language.

Menno Simons

Menno Simons

Main article: Menno Simons

In the early days of the Anabaptist movement, Menno Simons, a Catholic priest in the Netherlands, heard of the movement and started to rethink his Catholic faith. He questioned the doctrine of transubstantiation, but was reluctant to leave the Roman Catholic Church. His thinking was influenced by the death of his brother, who, as a member of an Anabaptist group, was killed when he and his companions were attacked and refused to defend themselves. In 1536, at the age of 40, Simons left the Roman Catholic Church. Soon thereafter he became a leader within the Anabaptist movement. He would become a hunted man with a price on his head for the rest of his life. His name became associated with scattered groups of nonviolent Anabaptists he helped to organize and consolidate.

Persecution, Welcoming Monarchs, and Early America

The first recorded account of this group is in a written order by Countess Anne, who ruled a small province in central Europe. The presence of some small groups of violent Anabaptists was causing political and religious turmoil in her state, so she decreed that all Anabaptists were to be driven from her state. The order made an exception though, for the non-violent branch known at that time as the Menists. This order set the precedent that was to be repeated many times throughout history, where a political ruler would allow the Menists or Mennonites into his/her state because they were honest, hardworking and peaceful. However, inevitably, their presence would ruffle the feathers of the powerful state churches, or a new monarch would take power, and the Mennonites would once again be forced to flee for their lives, usually leaving everything but their families behind. Often, another monarch in another state would grant them welcome, at least for a while.

An example was the ruling Queen of England, Elizabeth I. There, in a small village in Britain, a group of Dutch Anabaptists made the acquaintance of a congregation led by John Smythe, who would later lead his Pilgrims to the Netherlands and then to the America. The Pilgrims' exposure to the Dutch Mennonite congregation probably influenced some of their teachings, including the freedom of each branch to regulate itself; although the Pilgrims, known today as the Congregational Church, kept their practice of infant baptism despite the Mennonites' belief that baptism should take place only once the person had the capacity and willingness to accept Jesus as their Lord and savior. In addition to the Mennonites' impact on the first American Pilgrims, religious historians have traced their impact to other religious teachings. This included the Baptist's emphasis of adult baptism upon confession of faith, and the Religious Society of Friends' (Quakers) strong stance against war. The dissemination of Anabaptist beliefs helped build the religious freedom that is enjoyed in America today.

The Netherlands: Origins of Community and Simplicity

While Mennonites in colonial America were enjoying a large degree of religious freedom, their counterparts in Europe were in largely the same situation they always had been. Their well-being still depended on a ruling monarch, who would often extend an invitation only when there was poor soil that no one else could farm. The exception to this rule being in The Netherlands, where the Mennonites enjoyed a relatively high degree of tolerance. The Mennonites would reclaim this land through hard work and good sense, in exchange for exemption from mandatory military service. However, once the land was arable again, this arrangement would often change and the persecution would again set in. Because the land still needed to be tended, the ruler would not drive the Mennonites out, but would actually pass laws to force them to stay, while at the same time severely limiting their freedom. Mennonites had to build their churches facing onto back streets or alleys (which began the habit of meeting in someone's home rather than a formal church), and they were forbidden from announcing the beginning of services with the sound of a bell.

In addition, high taxes were enacted in exchange for both continuing the military service exemption, and to keep the states' best farmers from leaving. Usually however, in the tradition established by the earliest martyrs, the Mennonites were willing to pay any price rather than give up their freedom of conscience. In some cases, the entire congregation would give up their belongings to pay the tax to be allowed to leave. If one member of the group or one family couldn't afford the tax, the other members of the group happily paid that burden.

This strong sense of community remains to this day one of the strongest ties that binds Mennonites together as a community. In addition, by having to often give up every earthly possession in order to retain individual freedoms, the Mennonites learned to live very simply. This was reflected both in the home and at church, where not only dress, but the buildings themselves were very plain. Even the music at church, which was usually simple German chorales, were performed with no more elaborate instrument than the human voice.

Jacob Amman and the Amish

Main article: Amish

Mennonites suffered the first church split while still in an area between France and Germany known as Alsace in 1693. Jacob Amman led an effort to reform the Mennonite church: to include a stronger ban, to have communion more often, and other differences. When the discussions fell through, Jacob and his followers left the Mennonite church to form the Amish church. Though the difference was originally theological, the many plain sects that are lumped together as the Amish church have come to be recognized for the practice of accepting technology selectively - for instance, many sects accept battery-powered cellphones but strictly limit wired telephones and power line electricity - in order to comply with the demands of Romans 12:2 - "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

Though the plain sects in southeast Pennsylvania are sometimes referred to as the Pennsylvania Dutch, that term actually encompasses a much larger cultural/linguistic group than just the Amish, including Mennonites and non-plain German Reformed Church groups as well. As they do not proselytize, Amish are almost always part of the larger Pennsylvania German ethnic group that emigrated to Pennsylvania in the 1720s and 30s.

Mennonite schisms

Many orthodox, ultra-conservative, and conservative Mennonite churches left what became the modern Mennonite churches begining before the end of eighteenth century and continuing through the 1960s and 1970s. During that time, modern groups were abandoning traditional Mennonite practices such as the headship veiling for women, modesty and simplicity in dress, ordination from the laity, and nonparticipation in government. In the years since, the groups that have held to a literal interpretation of Biblical Mennonite practices such as the headship veiling have actually increased at a much more rapid rate than those groups that have rejected these standards.

The Russian Mennonites

Main article: Russian Mennonites

Catherine the Great of Russia, who acquired a great deal of land north of the Black Sea (in the present-day Ukraine) in 1768 following a war with the Turks, invited those Mennonites living in Prussia to come farm the cold, tough soil of the Russian steppes in exchange for religious freedom and military exemption. The arrangement remained in place for many years during her rule, until she died and the next monarch came to power. The Mennonites that had settled in Russia during that time have come to be known to history as the Russian Mennonites.

Avoiding the worldliness of the outside world remains another important keystone in the foundation of the Mennonite faith. However, as with all groups, worldliness is virtually impossible to keep out. In the Mennonite colonies of Russia, the Mennonites grew financially prosperous, in sharp contrast to the ex-serfs around them. Industrial operations were started and grew. Farms grew large and successful. With prosperity came a certain amount of licentiousness, including reported fondness for alcohol and greed. Although by no means accepted by all, these habits created strife within communities, especially when leadership was unwilling to ask for changes in behaviour. Occasionally, Pietist movements, often influenced by Baptist missionaries from Germany, formed groups opposed to the accepted community ways; one particular group formed was the Mennonite Brethren, who left to form their own colonies. Eventually, after many years of prosperity, the colonies of Russian Mennonites were torn apart by war, famine, disease and finally mass expulsions under the Soviet Union.

The state of Kansas owes its reputation as a wheat-producing state to its early Mennonite settlers. As a result of their time on the Russian steppes under Catherine the Great, they were familiar with a strain of wheat known as winter wheat that was resistant to the cold of the American plains. It was planted in the fall and harvested in the following summer, and was therefore ideally suited to hot, dry Kansas summers. They brought it with them when the railroads were seeking farmers for the land owned on either side of the tracks, and today Kansas is a top producer of wheat in America. Swiss Volhynian Mennonites settled in theMoundridge, Kansas andPretty Prairie, Kansas areas. The Swiss Mennonite Cultural and Historical Association tells their story. Mennonites of Dutch-Prussian (Low German) descent settled much of South Central Kansas. One of the largest churches with Low German roots is the Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church in Goessel, Kansas.

After 1870 many Russian Mennonites, fearing state influence on their education systems, emigrated to the Plains States of the US and the Western Provinces of Canada. They brought with them many of their institutions and practices, including separate denominations heretofore unseen in North America, like the Mennonite Brethren. The largest group of Russian Mennonites came out of Russia after the bloody strife following the various Russian revolutions and the aftermath of WWI. These people, having lost everything they had known, found their way to settlements in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia and Ontario and in many regions of the United States. Some joined with previous Mennonite groups, while others formed their own. From there, many groups, fearing state persecution and searching for a way to "live quietly on the land," have left to form groups in Paraguay, Belize and Mexico beginning in the 1920s. Old Colony Mennonites went from Mexico and Belize in the early 1970's and to Argentina in 1986. A smaller number of Russian Mennonites emigrated as refugees along with the retreating German army after the failed German campaign of World War II.

Mennonites in early American history

Persecution and the search for employment forced Mennonites out of the Netherlands eastward to Germany in the 17th century. As Quaker evangelists moved into Germany they received a sympathetc audiance among the larger of these Dutch-Mennonite congregations around Krefeld, Altona-Hamburg, Gronau and Emden. It was among this group of Quakers and Mennonites, living under ongoing discrimination, that William Penn solicited settlers for his new colony. The first permanent settlement of Mennonites in the American Colonies consisted of one Mennonite family and twelve Mennonite-Quaker families of Dutch extraction who arrived from Krefeld, Germany in 1683 and settled in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Among these early settlers was William Rittenhouse, a lay minister and owner of the first American paper mill. This early group of Mennonites and Mennonite-Quakers wrote the first formal protest against slavery in America. The treatise was addressed to slave-holding Quakers in an effort to persuade them to change their ways.

In the 18th century, 100,000 Germans from the Palatinate, collectively known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, immigrated to Pennsylvania. Of these around 2500 were Mennonites and 500 Amish. This group settled farther west than the first group, choosing less expensive land in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area. A member of this second group, Christopher Dock, authored Pedagogy, the first American monograph on education.

During the colonial period Mennonites were distinguished from other Pennslvania Germans in three ways: their opposition to the Revolutionary War, resistance to public education and disapproval of religious revivalism. Contributions of Mennonites during this period include the idea of separation of church and state and opposition to slavery.

From 1812 to 1860 another wave of immigrants settled farther west in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. These Swiss-German speaking Mennonites, along with Amish, came from Switzerland, and the Alsace-Lorraine area.

Oberholtzer and the General Conference

One of the more recent branches was initiated involuntarily by John H. Oberholtzer in the mid 1800s. He believed strongly in the right of each congregation to regulate itself, and felt that many of the church leaders were trying to gain too much control over the individual congregations. They were mandating issues as small as style of dress, and splitting when such trivial issues couldn't be agreed upon. In his effort to reunite the church under a General Conference, he gained support of numerous congregations and pastors, but not the entire church. The result was that the congregations who supported Oberholtzer's idea came to be known as the General Conference Mennonite Church, organized in 1860.

One of the General Conference's greatest contributions was the idea that if a person didn't agree with the leadership of his particular congregation, he was allowed simply to change membership to another without embarrassment or scandal of any kind. This idea, along with many others unique to the General Conference Mennonites made membership more attractive to newer European and Russian Mennonites, who tended to join the General Conference rather than the (Old) Mennonites.

The other major outgrowth of the General Conference Mennonites was to fulfill John Oberholtzer's passion of working together in outreach and mission. He felt that with all the Mennonite churches working together, they could accomplish great things in mission. Even though he failed to unite all churches under this cause, the General Conference supported more service, including more missionaries to various parts of the world. In the years since the formation of the General Conference, several service organizations were created which drew on support from several Mennonite denominations. These included the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), founded in 1920, and Voluntary Service (VS) programs sponsored by the Mennonite Board of Missions, as well as Mennonite Mutual Aid.

World War II

Mennonites in Canada were automatically exempt from any type of service during World War I by provisions of the Order in Council of 1873. During World War II, Mennonite conscientious objectors were given the options of noncombatant military service, serving in the medical or dental corps under military control or working in parks and on roads under civilian supervision. Over 95% chose the latter and were placed in Alternative Service camps. Initially the men worked on road building, forestry and firefighting projects. After May 1943, as the labor shortaged developed within the nation, men were shifted into agriculture, education and industry. The 10,700 Canadian objectors were mostly Mennonites (63%) and Dukhobors (20%).

Mennonite conscientious objector Harry Lantz distributes rat poison for typhus control in Gulfport, Mississippi.

In the United States, Civilian Public Service (CPS) provided an alternative to military service during World War II. From 1941 to 1947, 4665 Mennonites, Amish and Brethren in Christ were among nearly 12,000 conscientious objectors who performed work of national importance in 152 CPS camps throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The draftees worked in areas such as soil conservation, forestry, fire fighting, agriculture, social services and mental health.

The CPS men served without wages and minimal support from the federal government. The cost of maintaining the CPS camps and providing for the needs of the men was the responsibility of their congregations and families. Mennonite Central Committee coordinated the operation of the Mennonite camps. CPS men served longer than regular draftees, not being released until well past the end of the war. Initially skeptical of the program, government agencies learned to appreciate the men's service and requested more workers from the program. CPS made significant contributions to forest fire prevention, erosion and flood control, medical science and reform of the mental health system.

Types of worship, doctrine, and traditions today

Orthodox

The Church of God in Christ, Mennonite church is the largest of the orthodox churches with a membership of about 18,000 members worldwide. It represents worship, doctrine and traditions typical of early Mennonite churches with an atypical cult of personality.

Conservative

Some Mennonite communities conscientiously reject the use of modern technology, such as electricity or motor transport, much the same as the Amish denominations, to whom they are related. Such Mennonites are often referred to as Old Order Mennonites (although the term strictly refers to a particular church within that group) in order to distinguish them from Mennonite denominations that fully accept modern inventions. They also reject modern notions of insurance, preferring to rely on their neighbors when disaster strikes. Old Order Mennonites have a distinctive form of dress which they call "Plain," often looking rather like Central European countrymen. In addition to Old Order Mennonites throughout the United States and Canada, there are many groups of conservative Mennonites whose practice of New Testament teachings makes them distinct from the larger Western culture.

Membership

Distribution

In 2003, there were about 1.2 million Mennonites, worldwide. North America had the highest number of Mennonites (about 444,000) closely followed by Africa with about 406,000 members. The third largest concentration of Mennonites was in the Asia/Pacific region with about 184,000 members while the fourth largest region was South/Central America and the Caribbean with about 112,000 members. Europe, the birthplace of Mennonites, fell a distant last with about 58,000 members.

Change in membership

With the fastest growth rate by far, Africa seems poised to overtake North America within the decade as the continent with the largest number of Mennonites. Growth in Mennonite membership is slow but steady in North America, the Asia/Pacific region, and the South/Central America and Caribbean region. Europe has seen a slow and accelerating decline in Mennonite membership since about 1980.

Organization: worldwide (under construction)

There is no single authorized organization that includes all Mennonite members worldwide. Instead, there are a host of automomous conferences that contain groups of churches along with a host of automonous churches with no particular responsibility to a conference or any other church. Worship, church discipline and lifestyles vary widely between progressive, moderate, conservative and orthodox Mennonites in a vast panopoly of distinct, independent, and widely dispersed classifications. Thus, there is no single group of Mennonites anywhere who can credibly claim to represent, speak for, or lead all Mennonites worldwide.

A majority of Mennonites, worldwide, belong to governing groups called 'Churches' or 'Conferences'. The ten largest of these independent groups in descending order are:

1. Mennonite Brethren (300,000 members on 6 continents worldwide)
2. Mennonite Church USA with 114,000 members in the United States
3. Brethren in Christ with 100,000 US and worldwide members
4. Meserete Kristos Church in Ethiopia (98,000)
5. Communauté Mennonite au Congo (87,000).
6. Kanisa La Mennonite Tanzania with 50,000 members in 240 congregations
7. Mennonite Church Canada with 35,000 members in Canada (seems automomous?)
8. Church of God in Christ, Mennonite a single church with 16,000? members in 240 US churches and 2000? members in 13 other countries (1995 data)
9. Beachy Amish Mennonite, a church with 10,000 US members (159 congregrations) plus many international locations.
10. Conservative Mennonite Conference, 10,000 members in the US (?? others elsewhere, and affilliates?)

The remaining 20? other smaller independent Churches, and Conferences numbering only a few churches and a few hundred members. Finally, there are 100? small independent churches with one or a few congregations numbering from as high as 2000 members to as low as a 40? members.

The largest Mennonite Churches or Conferences are typically divided into area conferences along geographical lines. The Mennonite Brethren have conferences in India, Africa, Japan, the United States, and Japan along with independent congregations in Germany. The Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada are broken down into around twenty regional conferences, in the United States and Canada. The Conservative Mennonite Conference has international affiliate national Churches and Conferences worldwide.

The Mennonite World Conference is a global community of 95 Mennonite and Brethen in Christ Mennonite national Churches from 51 countries on six continents. It exists to "facilitate community between Anabaptist-related churches worldwide, and relate to other Christian world communions and organizations", but it is not a 'governing body' of any kind. It is a voluntary community of faith whose decisions are not binding on member churches. The member churches of Mennonite World Conference include the Mennonite Brethren, the Mennonite Church USA, and the Mennonite Church Canada with a combined total membership of at least 400,000 or about 30% of Mennonites worldwide

Organization: North America

In the United States in 2003, there were around 325,000 Mennonites in the United States. About 110,000 were members of Mennonite Church USA churches, while about 26,000 were members of Mennonite Brethren churches. About 30,000 (according to Scott) were members of conservative, ultra-conservative, or orthodox churches. (That leaves about 159,000 Mennonites unaccounted for in other United States' churches)

Total membership in Mennonite Church USA denominations decreased from about 133,000, before the merger in 1998, to about 114,000 after the merger in 2003. The Mennonite Church USA has begun profiling potential members and has been successful at recruiting inner-city minorities into the church in several large cities in the United States. Significant growth in the conservative churches seems to be occurring by itself in the already existing communities.

In Canada, in 2003 there were around 130,000 Mennonites. About 37,000 of those were members of Mennonite Church Canada churches and about another 35,000 of those were members of [[Mennonite Brethren churches. About 5,000 belonged to conservative Old Order Mennonite churches, or other ultra-conservative and orthodox churches. (That leaves about 55,000 Mennonites unaccounted for in other Canadian churches)

In Mexico, there were about ?? Mennonites in 2003.

See also

• Anabaptism
• Amish
• Hutterites
• Mennonite Central Committee
• John Howard Yoder
• Peace churches
• Protestant reformation
• Radical Reformation
• Schleitheim Confession
• Shunning
• Simple living

References

• Gingerich, Melvin (1949), Service for Peace, A History of Mennonite Civilian Public Service, Mennonite Central Committee.
• Juhnke, James, Vision, Doctrine, War: Mennonite Identity and Organization in America, 1890-1930, (The Mennonite Experience in America #3.) Scottdale, Pa., Herald, Pp 393, 1989.
• Krahn, Cornelius, Gingerich, Melvin & Harms, Orlando (Eds.) (1955). The Mennonite Encyclopedia, Volume I, pp. 76-78. Mennoniite Publishing House.
• Mennonite & Brethren in Christ World Directory 2003. Available On-line at http://www.mwc-cmm.org/Directory/index.htm
• Pannabecker, Samuel Floyd (1975), Open Doors: A History of the General Conference Mennonite Church, Faith and Life Press. ISBN 0-87303-636-0
• Smith, C. Henry (1981), Smith's Story of the Mennonites Fifth Edition, Faith and Life Press. ISBN 0-87303-060-5

Further reading

• A Complicated Kind of Author
• The ex files: A San Francisco writer reimagines his Amish roots (review of Amish and Mennonite literature)
• Influence of Culture on Pretend Play: the Case of Mennonite Children
• Comparing the One True Churches (Holdeman Mennonite and other non-Mennonite churches from cult exiter sources)
• CNN:Mennonite Church Expelled for Accepting Gays
• Espenshade, Linda, Silenced by Shame: Leaders Willing to Lift the Shame and Reconsider, Lancaster (PA) Intelligencer Journal, 7/15/04, (4-part series on domestic violence, child abuse and incest).
• D'anna, Lynnette, Post-Mennonite Women Congregate to Address Abuse (Winnipeg, Canada), Herizons, 3/1/93.
• Holmes, Kristin E., Tradition Ends as Mennonites Choose Woman: Election is Radical Change, Buffalo News, Buffalo, NY, Aug 28, 1993. pg. A.5.
• Sherk, Mary, Pennsylvania Dutch Country? Well, Yes--but It's in Ontario, Boston Globe, Boston, MA: Jul 5, 1992, pg. A5.
• Laurie, Georing, Land-Poor Indians Unsettle Paraguay's Mennonites, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, IL: Apr 29, 1996. pg.11, 2 pgs.
• Allen, Eddie B Jr., Mennonites Work to Convert Africans, Americans, Detroit News, Detroit, MI: Mar 13, 992. pg. B3
• Goldman, Ari L., Mennonites Finding Vitality in Minority Converts, New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)), New York, NY: Aug 7 1989. pg. A11
• Tony Smith, Paraguay Mennonites Find Success a Mixed Blessing, New York Times, 8/10/03, pg. 1.4.
• K. Connie Kang, Mennonites in Mexico Battle Temptations: The Austere Sect Sought to Escape the World but Worldly Vices--Alcohol, Drugs--Are a Forbidden Fascination Now to Some., Los Angeles Times, 4/30/05, B.2.
• Arthur, Linda, B., Deviance, Agency, and the Social Control of Women's Bodies in a Mennonite Community, NWSA Journal, v10.n2 (Summer 1998): pp75(25).
• Toews, Miriam, A Complicated Kindness, Counterpoint, 2004.

External links

• Dordrecht Confession of Faith
• Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
• United States and Worldwide Mennonite Membership Statistics (source Mennonite Church USA)
• American Religious Identification Survey 2001
• The History of Christianity in the Reformation Era