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Is anyone familiar with Haven Mennonite Fellowship? There is a sizable congregation in Dalton, Ohio and I'm wondering about their dress and what their stance is on various issues - music, instruments, internet, Sunday School, evangelistic meetings, etc..

I've met some folks from Haven. I believe there are three congregations. The folks I met said they were a split off Ohio Wisler Mennonites (ultra-conservative) 10-20 years ago. Not sure what the issues were. These folks told me their church was independent, but they started their own fellowship in the last several years. It's not clear to me if all the Haven congregations originated from the split off Ohio Wislers or if the other congregations have different origins.

They mainly fellowship with Northeastern Mennonite Conference. Some of their young folks go to Northeastern's Bible School. My guess is Eastern won't fellowship with them because they split off Ohio Wisler and Haven thinks Pilgrim is too liberal. It seems like fellowship lines keep getting more narrow.

They do allow iPhones, using Apple's native restrictions to only allow basic apps like Maps, Weather, and Email. They are just beginning to allow business internet on computers. The women I've seen wear covering strings, not sure if that's a requirement. That's all I know about their standards, but I would guess very similar to Northeast, perhaps slightly more conservative.

QuietObserver has it quite right. I have many acquaintances and relatives in that church. There are at least 2 churches in Ohio and 1 in Indiana that I know of. I am not aware that covering strings are required but do know that many still wear them. Singing is acapella with no instruments permitted either in worship or the home. The break from the Ohio Wisler 1st came if I remember correctly when they had too many for one church building and so divided up. When some wished to go a in a bit different direction it created the division. Technology is slowly becoming more acceptable but limited. There are many good people there.

So Northeastern is halfway between Pilgrim and EPMC? Our area weathered a lot of divisions the past few years and I forget who split over what anymore.

steve-in-kville wrote:So Northeastern is halfway between Pilgrim and EPMC? Our area weathered a lot of divisions the past few years and I forget who split over what anymore.

Yes, basically.

More groups listed here.
https://www.plainnews.org/wp-content/up ... -01-11.pdf
and here
https://www.plainnews.org/wp-content/up ... 2014.4.pdf

Ernie wrote:https://www.plainnews.org/wp-content/up ... 2014.4.pdf

Excellent graph. Someone should do a Brethren version, as there are a lot of splinter groups no one really hears about.

That graph is dated by a few years. There were a few "uprisings" in a few other groups like KMF and Charity (if they count).

steve-in-kville wrote:

Ernie wrote:https://www.plainnews.org/wp-content/up ... 2014.4.pdf

Excellent graph. Someone should do a Brethren version, as there are a lot of splinter groups no one really hears about.

That graph is dated by a few years. There were a few "uprisings" in a few other groups like KMF and Charity (if they count).

I would like to learn more about the uprisings.

Frank Reed has a chart on the brethren groups.

Ernie wrote: Frank Reed has a chart on the brethren groups.

Do you have a link? I can't find it.

steve-in-kville wrote:

Ernie wrote: Frank Reed has a chart on the brethren groups.

Do you have a link? I can't find it.

It is not online that I am aware of. You can order a copy:
"A Chart of Brethren Bodies"
from The Brethren Heritage Center at Brookville, OH.


You can see some info here. https://www.cob-net.org/docs/groups.htm

Completely off topic (sorry for that), but talking about splits and charts, there were relatively few splits within the Apostolic Christian Church. Here's an excellent article (including chart on p. 4) on the Apostolic Christian Church. The chart only covers the Northern American denominations, though.

https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/handle/181 ... p26-60.pdf

In Western Europe, there was the "official" ca. 1905 split over the facial hair issue and then another "unofficial" or factual split in the 1980ies of the "tolerant" (i.e. facial hair tolerating) side when the ETG Federation was established between those congregations that joined the Federation and those that didn't. The congregations that didn't join the Federation are more conservative whereas the federated congregations opened up and became more "liberal" / "evangelical".