Josh wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2024 1:30 pmbut the Beachy coverings are about the same size as CMC coverings used to be or smaller. I recently saw one that is smaller than anything an AC person would wear.
If so, that is not at all typical for Beachy's. And no, I do not consider ADC to be Beachy.
(And very few Old Order or Conservative Anabaptists would consider the items at the link above to be "head-coverings".)
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The old woodcutter spoke again. “It is impossible to talk with you. You always draw conclusions. Life is so vast, yet you judge all of life with one page or one word. You see only a fragment. Unless you know the whole story, how can you judge?"
Josh wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2024 1:30 pmbut the Beachy coverings are about the same size as CMC coverings used to be or smaller. I recently saw one that is smaller than anything an AC person would wear.
If so, that is not at all typical for Beachy's. And no, I do not consider ADC to be Beachy.
(And very few Old Order or Conservative Anabaptists would consider the items at the link above to be "head-coverings".)
I sure did. Perfectly circular/round but maybe about the size of a silver dollar. I am not 100% sure which affiliation they were but they otherwise seemed pretty Beachy (wearing solids, for example).
In Holmes/Wayne Cos., I see Amish too sporting shrinking veils in public, which didn't used to be the custom. Either that, or there are a great deal of Charity and ADC people riding e-bikes wearing solid-colour cape dresses, which seems unlikely.
I noticed this list seemed to exclude the Holdemans. At least it did include Apostolic Christians. For example it says the closest church to Greeley CO is an hour north (presumably the Charity church there).
It is also amusing to see “plain Anabaptist” used as a term to exclude Apostolics. I went to an AC service three weeks ago. They were significantly plainer than a typical Beachy congregation around me (particularly the ADC split)
- Consistently practicing the greeting, which is nearly extinct in many “plain” circles
- Strong attendance at multiple services on a Sunday
- outfits at church are more modest and consistent than they used to be.
The old woodcutter spoke again. “It is impossible to talk with you. You always draw conclusions. Life is so vast, yet you judge all of life with one page or one word. You see only a fragment. Unless you know the whole story, how can you judge?"
There are Holdeman missions in a number of those places. Typically such a mission has a combination of any or all of these: tract-worker & missionary couple, boys' or girls' service unit with house parents, and guest-house caretakers, for guest houses located near major medical centres.
Sometimes there is a permanent member there. For example, Anaheim, CA (Los Angeles metro area) has 1 permanent member. NYC is still a mission and service unit, but it now has between 5-15 permanent members. (It fluctuates because new members often eventually decide to move to a more typical plain community.) Others, like Miami, just have whoever the current missionary couple is.
I would also note that the need for missionaries is great, and there seem to be more posts to fill than there are couples and families and ordained men available to go. This is true both in North America and overseas. Like other CA groups, there is funding and the missionary workers don't have to worry about finances or being paid. The harvest seems to be great, but the labourers seem to be few.
Life in such a mission setting is often very good and healthy for a new member or a seeker. They get exposure to different people from the entire church group. The people they are exposed to are already "mission minded". If they're willing to travel (and most are), they often end up going and visiting other congregations.
There is talk amongst us of why we seem to have two models for new congregations: sometimes, we set up a mission, usually in a big city like Houston, NYC, or Miami. But other times, a family or two moves to a new area, perhaps attracted by cheaper land, or business opportunity, or just that they like the scenery in an area. Once it feels like there is a blessing on it, more families move in. But there isn't much mission focus when that happens. Some people who have served as missionaries ask, "What if we treated such new congregations just like a mission, and sent mission workers, and tract workers?"
A final note, there was a CDR unit in New Orleans, LA for a long time, which was the biggest cons. Anabaptist presence in the parts of Louisiana where most Louisianans live. Eventually it closed down, and the feeling was that many people in nola seemed to be migrating to Houston, so a mission and boys' service unit was established there instead.
