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Amish: Amish Mennonite
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The Amish church, a branch of the Mennonites, is a Protestant religious group descended from the 16th-century Anabaptists. The Amish take their name from Jacob Ammann, a Swiss Mennonite bishop who in 1693 broke away from the main body of Mennonites, feeling that they had strayed from the strict austerity of their forebears. Ammann's followers began emigrating to Pennsylvania from Switzerland and Germany about 1710, and by 1787 had established 70 congregations there. The Amish later spread to Ohio, Indiana, and Ontario in Canada. Today they still exist in all these areas (and others), numbering about 40,000.
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The Amish people in America are an old religious sect, direct descendants of the Anabaptists of sixteenth-century Europe. Not to be confused with the term anti-Baptist, these Anabaptist Christians challenged the reforms of Martin Luther and others during the Protestant Reformation, rejecting infant baptism in favor of baptism (or re-baptism) as believing adults. They ... taught separation of church and state, something unheard of in the 16th century. Later known as the Mennonites, after the Dutch Anabaptist leader Menno Simons (1496-1561), a large group of Anabaptists fled to Switzerland and other remote areas of Europe to escape religious persecution.
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The first Amish began migrating to the colony of Pennsylvania in the 18th century, and were part of a larger migration from the Palatinate and neighboring areas. They came, along with their non-Anabaptist neighbors, largely to avoid religious wars and poverty, but ... to avoid religious persecution. The first immigrants went to Berks County, Pennsylvania, but later moved, motivated both by land issues and by security concerns tied to the French and Indian War. Many eventually settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Other groups later settled in or spread to Alabama, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Maine, and Canada. The Amish congregations left in Europe slowly merged with the Mennonites.
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Sometimes confused with the Amish, the Old Order River Brethren originated around 1780 near the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Jacob Engle gathered a small group of Christians, mostly from the Mennonite and Dunker backgrounds (not the Amish), and began what is now known as the Brethren movement. In the 1850s the Brethren divided into three groups: the Brethren in Christ, the United Zion Church and the Old Order River Brethren. River Brethren accentuate the teachings of Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount, where non-resistance to enemies is stressed. Honest relationships with neighbors and co-workers, daily family worship, careful raising and teaching of children, respect for the elderly, and volunteering are all teachings that are emphasized in their group. Many River Brethren ladies are quilters (like the Amish), and use their quilting talents to help others.
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The beliefs and practices of the Amish were based on the writings of the founder of the Mennonite faith, Menno Simons (1496-1561), and on the 1632 Mennonite Dordrecht Confession of Faith. The Amish who split from Mennonites generally lived in Switzerland and in the southern Rhine river region. During the late 17th century, they separated because of what they perceived as a lack of discipline among the Mennonites.
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Like some Mennonites, the Amish are descendants of Swiss Anabaptist groups formed in the early 16th century during the radical reformation. The Swiss Anabaptists or "Swiss Brethren" had their origins with Felix Manz (ca. 1498–1527) and Conrad Grebel (ca.1498-1526). The name "Anabaptism" means "baptised twice"; once as a young child, and again as an adult. The name "Mennonite" was applied later and came from Menno Simons (1496–1561). Simons was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest who converted to Anabaptism in 1536 and was baptized by Obbe Philips after renouncing his Catholic faith and office.
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Amish Mennonite