The Beachy Amish Mennonites   

Mennonites   

General Information

On this page:

· Brief History

· Membership Statistics 

· Photographs

 

Also, consider:

Elmer S. Yoder's comprehensive book on the Beachys (1987)

Check for availability at Amazon.com: The Beachy Amish Mennonite Fellowship Churches (external link)

Brief History of the Beachy Amish Mennonite Constituency

By Cory A. Anderson

The Beachy church has its origins in the Somerset County area in south central Pennsylvania. In the late 1881, the Amish community there, with members in both Pennsylvania and Maryland, built four meeting houses, two in Maryland and two in Pennsylvania. Many Amish do not have meeting houses. The services were held in rotation in these four meetinghouses. In the mid 1890s, the more progressive group in Maryland wanted to have Sunday School, a Protestant phenomenon rejected by the Amish and some Old Order Mennonite groups. Between 1893 and 1895, a split occurred between the Maryland and Pennsylvania groups over this issue. A few people in Maryland went with the Pennsylvania conservative Amish group, and vice versa for those in Pennsylvania.

Joseph Witmer, a visiting Amish bishop, assisted the Pennsylvania group. He did not support the strict shunning, where members were shunned if their only "offense" was transferring membership to the Maryland group. Moses D Yoder was ordained bishop in 1895, and Witmer left. Moses D Yoder led the Pennsylvania group into a unanimous decision in favor of the strict shunning. Yoder apparently made it appear that Witmer had supported the strict shunning, so many were inclined to go with Witmer's advice. The congregation soon discovered they were misled, but it was too late.

In 1912, Moses Beachy was ordained to the position of minister. In 1916, Moses Yoder was old enough that he accepted the position of inactive bishop. There was an ordination, and the lot fell on Moses Beachy for the position of bishop. Beachy did not agree with the strong shunning. However, he also wanted to have peace within the congregation. Noah Yoder and Joseph Yoder, both close relations to Moses Yoder, were at the time ministers. By now, the Maryland congregation had begun to affiliate with the newly formed Conservative Amish Mennonite Conference ("Amish" has since been dropped from the name).

Sometime in the early to mid 1920s, John D Yoder, a member of the Pennsylvania church, inquired on whether he would have to shun those who went to the Maryland church. When informed that he must, he also joined the Maryland church. However, Moses Beachy would not allow him to be shunned since there was no longer unanimous agreement in the church about the strict shunning. The tension built in the church as wellas between Beachy and the three Yoders. Communion was not held in the fall of 1926 and was only attended by the Beachy group in the spring of 1927. Finally, in late June of 1927, the Yoder group announced the next service's meeting place at a different location than what Beachy announced. Thus, on June 26, 1927, the Yoder group withdrew from the Beachy group, unofficial starting the Beachy church.

Within two years of June 26, the Beachy group allowed electricity, vehicles, and Sunday School. The Beachy group continued to alternate usage of meeting houses with the Amish, and the two groups got along fairly well in the years after. Beachy met up with John Stoltzfus of Lancaster County, PA, shortly after the Amish withdrew. Stoltzfus' group had been through a similar ordeal with the Amish in Lancaster. The two churches continued close contacts, though official fellowship was not established until about a decade later, at that point a merely ceremonial act.

The 1940s marked a time when many Beachy congregations were formed in the Great Lake and Midwest States as well as in Virginia. In the 1950s, a mission-oriented mindset was established in many congregations, and thus was born Amish Mennonite Aid (AMA) and Mission Interests Committee (MIC) as well as a colonization approach to outreach. Units were formed in the 1950s through 1970s to help knit the individual Beachy churches closer together. These included volunteer service units such as Hillcrest Nursing Home, Mountain View Nursing Home, and Faith Mission Home. This also included meetings such as annual Ministers' Meetings and Youth Fellowship Meetings. A Bible School was also established, Calvary Bible School, as well as a Beachy periodical, Calvary Messenger.

In the 1990s, Beachy leaders took steps to try to tackle concerns within the larger Beachy constituency. A Bishop Committee was formed. The bishop committee is assigned to address problems within Beachy churches, a sort of check-and-balance monitor, but has no power to do anything other than make recommendations for course of action to both the church and to the larger ministerial body. To address concerns about misbehavior of young people, Youth Fellowship Meetings were subdivided into regional groups to attempt to limit size of the meetings so hosts can keep better control. A more rigorous screening process for admission into Calvary Bible School was also put into place when the behavior of students was difficult to manage in certain terms.

However, several "subgroups" of Beachys have formed in recent years. These subgroups hold their own minister's meetings and other functions separate from the main body of Beachys, but have not requested leave from the constituency. The "Maranatha Amish Mennonites" were established in the late 1990s because of a concern over the lack of accountability among Beachy churches as well as certain increasingly accepted trends in the main body of Beachys. Maranatha has a slightly more conference structure, with a list of minimum universal guidelines for member churches. A second group of congregations was forming simultaneously, but the name of "Berea Amish Mennonite" was not adopted until the 2007 meeting of ministers within the subgroup. The group is more conservative than Maranatha; congregations may not allow tape players, cameras, computers, and other modern items that Maranatha and the main body of Beachys would allow. A third subgroup consists of the Midwest Beachy.  These congregations would use German in services and generally dress and live more plainly than other Beachys. A fourth group is the “Ambassadors Amish Mennonites” based in Kentucky.

Those involved in the original division:

Joseph Witmer: an Amish bishop who assisted the Pennsylvania group after breaking with the Maryland Amish. He was decidedly against the strict shunning.

Moses D Yoder: the first bishop in the Somerset County Amish group. Yoder led the congregation on a position of strict shunning, which was later contested by his successor, Moses Beachy.

Moses Beachy: the man from whom the Beachy church derives its name. Moses Beachy was ordained bishop in place of Moses D Yoder. His unyielding stance on the disallowance of the strong shunning led to the Yoder group's withdrawal in the summer of 1927.

John D Yoder: decided to withdraw from the Amish group in Pennsylvania over the strict shunning; he joined the Maryland church. This case started the debate between Moses Beachy and Noah, Joseph, and Moses Yoder over the strong shunning.

Noah Yoder: son of Moses D Yoder and minister, Noah supported the strong shunning and withdrew from Moses Beachy's group in 1927.

Joseph Yoder: nephew of Moses D Yoder and minister, Joseph also supported the strong shunning, and withdrew with Noah Yoder and Moses Yoder from Beachy's group.

Several Important Past Church Leaders (Deceased)

John Stoltzfus: the bishop of the Lancaster church that fellowshipped with Moses Beachy's group shortly after the division. Stoltzfus withdrew with Christian King from the Old Order Amish in 1909. In the 1920s, Christian King withdrew from Stoltzfus' group. Stoltzfus was then ordained to be a bishop. He had been a minister.

David O. Burkholder: an Amish bishop from Nappanee, Indiana, he was instrumental in starting a number of Beachy churches in the Midwest during the 1940s and 1950s; he also had a burden for Amish and Beachy young people, which in part led to the formation of the Youth Fellowship Meetings.

Eli Tice: the successor of Moses Beachy in the Mountain View congregation. He wrote an English-German parallel Bible that was widely distributed in Beachy, Amish, and other circles.

Jacob Hershberger: a bishop for the Kempsville Amish Mennonite congregation in Virginia Beach during the 1950s and 1960s. He was one of the founders of Amish Mennonite Aid. A prolific writer, he published a number of books and had a regular column in the Budget. Hershberger was killed in an automobile accident in 1965 while on an expedition trip to Alabama to search for a new church site.

Ervin Hershberger: an instrumental deacon in the Mountain View congregation. He assisted in the beginnings of Calvary Bible School, and was influential in work of Amish Mennonite Aid. An avid writer, he started the Beachy periodical Calvary Messenger and served as editor for about 30 years. He also helped compile and write Into the Highways and Hedges, AMA's first book, as well as a number of other books.

 Eighty years in God’s service: June 26, 1927 — 2007

Beachy Population Statistics

About the sources:
The Mennonite Yearbook first began reporting data on the Beachy church in 1957. The yearbook continued to include data on Beachys (as well as other conservative Mennonite groups) in a separate section in subsequent years. In 1998, Beachys and other conservative groups were excluded from the directory. Christian Light Publications, a conservative Mennonite press in Harrisonburg, VA, published a directory of conservative groups including Beachys. In 2006, the CLP Directory began listing the ‘Maranatha Amish Mennonite’ churches separately, and in 2008 began listing ‘Berea Amish Mennonite’ churches and ‘Unaffiliated Amish Mennonite’ churches separately. These churches are considered part of the Beachy Amish Mennonites and are included in the totals. Annual aggregated sums of weddings and births are as reported by the Calvary Messenger, and are not representative of the total weddings and births among Beachys, but are presumably proportional to the total. The Calvary Messenger began printing in 1970, and a full year of data was not available until 1971.

Quick Facts

· Official Name: Beachy Amish Mennonite Church

· Official origin: emerged from Amish in Salisbury, Pa., 1927, parallel movements in other communities joined this movement in years after

· Adherents: 11,000 (approximate)

· 2008 U.S. and Canadian congregations: 144

· Leading states, with over 15 congregations each: Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania

· Global congregations, 2008: 50 congregations

· Counties: Australia, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ireland, Kenya, Nicaragua, Romania & Ukraine; exploratory/relief efforts in numerous African, Middle Eastern and Asian countries.

Select Ministries:

· Amish Mennonite Aid (missions in developing countries)

· Missions Interest Committee (missions in developed countries)

· Faith Mission Home (Va.), mentally handicapped children’s home

· Hillcrest Home (Ark.), retirement facility

· Mountain View Nursing Home (Va.), retirement facility

· Calvary Bible School (Ark.), post-secondary Bible institute

· Calvary Messenger, primary periodical

· Christian Aid Ministries, conservative Anabaptist para-church relief agency.

Photographs

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