Are the Amish and Mennonites Related? Yes, They Parted Ways in 1693

Yes, the Amish and Mennonites are related. Both churches grew out of the Anabaptist movement of 16th-century Europe, and they belonged to one fellowship until 1693, when Jakob Ammann’s followers separated from other Swiss Anabaptists, mainly over the shunning of excommunicated members. They remain separate churches that cooperate on relief work but generally live apart.

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Where did the Amish and Mennonites come from?

Both trace their roots to the Anabaptists, reformers who began baptizing one another as adults in Switzerland in 1525. Because they had already been baptized as infants in Catholic or Protestant churches, their opponents called them Anabaptists, meaning rebaptizers. They tried to follow the teachings of Jesus literally, especially the Sermon on the Mount, and they called for a voluntary church free of government control. Catholic and Protestant authorities answered with persecution, and as many as 2,500 Anabaptists were executed in the movement’s first century.

On 24 February 1527 a group of Anabaptist leaders led by Michael Sattler agreed on the Seven Articles of Schleitheim, which dealt with baptism, the ban (excommunication), the Lord’s Supper, separation from the world, pastors, the sword and the oath. Nine years later, in 1536, Menno Simons, a Dutch Catholic priest, joined the movement and became a prolific writer and leader. In time many of his followers became known as Mennonites.

Why did the Amish split from the Mennonites?

Jakob Ammann was a Swiss Anabaptist leader who had moved to Alsace, in present-day France, with a wave of Anabaptists escaping persecution. In 1693 he pressed for renewal. He wanted communion held twice a year instead of once, foot washing in the communion service, untrimmed beards, no fashionable dress and strict discipline. Above all he insisted that members shun anyone the church had excommunicated, a practice called Meidung. He appealed to the New Testament and to the practice of the Dutch Anabaptists, whose Dordrecht Confession of 1632 told members to shun an excommunicated person “in eating, drinking, and other similar intercourse.” The Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online says the division turned on separation as taught in 1 Corinthians 5:11, where Paul tells the church “not to keep company” with a professed brother who is a fornicator, a drunkard or an extortioner, “with such an one no not to eat.”

Hans Reist, who led the opposing side, would not accept Meidung, and Ammann excommunicated him and a number of other ministers. The division split the Mennonite brotherhood in Switzerland, Alsace and southern Germany. A large majority of the churches in Switzerland and the Palatinate sided against Ammann, while practically all the Alsatian churches followed him. Attempts at reconciliation in 1694 failed, and Ammann’s followers became known as the Amish. The Amish still affirm the eighteen articles of the Dordrecht Confession, which the Swiss Mennonites never adopted. No Amish congregations remain in Europe, where most of their descendants rejoined the Mennonites.

How are the Amish and Mennonites different today?

Mennonites are the larger and more varied family. Mennonite World Conference counts about two million baptized believers in more than 85 countries, about two-thirds of them African, Asian or Latin American. In North America most Mennonites drive cars, wear contemporary clothing, support higher education and use modern technology, all of which almost all Amish groups reject. The more conservative Mennonites dress plainly but still drive cars, keep telephones at home and use electricity from public power lines; only some Old Order Mennonites travel by horse and buggy. Mennonite Church USA says Mennonites practice simple living through stewardship and care for others’ needs rather than by separating completely from the world.

The line between the two families has moved over time. Between 1850 and 1880 the American Amish divided into an Old Order wing and a progressive wing, and the progressive Amish Mennonite conferences later merged into the Mennonite Church. In 1927 the congregation of Moses Beachy, a bishop in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, broke with the Old Order and soon adopted automobiles. The Beachy Amish Mennonites who grew from that movement keep Amish roots but drive cars and use grid electricity.

Do the Amish and Mennonites get along?

Generally, yes. The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College calls them religious cousins. They sometimes work together on historical projects and on relief through Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite Disaster Service, which helps people recover from hurricanes, floods and tornadoes. Old Order Mennonites sometimes cooperate with the Amish on schools and publications. Still, the two groups generally live separately, even where they share the same countryside, and the Old Order Amish do not allow their members to marry outside the church.

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