Old Order Amish Splitting 4 Ways

[cmbl]

Today I heard that the Old Order Amish are splitting 4 ways.

What are the new groups' names and differences in outlook/doctrine/practice between them? Are some groups more in some regions than others?

[JohnH]

An actual "split", or just drifting apart? There was a change within the last year to allow people who live in one district to drive through another district to attend their preferred district's church services.

The alignments I am aware of (within OOA, anything like Tobes, Dan G'm'e, etc. is out of scope):

- People that own vehicles (typically leased) and are on a path towards operating them themselves. I'm not sure what we call these, although there is precedent of "car Amish". They would also embrace e-bikes and unrestricted smartphones.

- People that are not fully embracing vehicles, but embrace e-bikes, smartphones without restrictions (you can find some of these people on TikTok, for example), and tolerate young women wearing small hanging type veils when in public.

- People that do not accept any of the above at all and specifically do not accept e-bikes nor smartphones. Instead, they would continue to have landline or black box based phones in their office, or perhaps in a vehicle that belongs to their driver. These OOA districts (there are only 3 I am aware of in Holmes County that meet this definition) are tending to find fellowship with the New Order Amish groups (sometimes called "Old New Order") that also didn't embrace the smartphone; past theological differences about prayer meetings etc. seem to be much less important now.

- There is a 4th nuance but I am not aware of the specific details. After some visiting I expect to do in the next few weeks, I should have more details.

The most interesting thing to result from this is that Amish basically aren't interested in joining the more conservative Beachy type of groups like they used to since the Beachy group often isn't as "liberal" or worldly as the Amish church they are already in. Thus, Beachys and other conservative Mennonites will have to look for new groups of plain people to "source" to keep their transitional churches from emptying out.

Several people have told me they don't really expect "Amish" to exist in Holmes County within a few years other than the non-OOA groups like Swartzies, Danners and so on. The most interesting development is that these groups of people are not drifting into evangelical-Mennonite types of churches as happened in the past.

[seinetsodumm]

Are you talking about what is happening in Lancaster county old orders?

[JohnH]

Are you talking about what is happening in Lancaster county old orders?

Sorry - I was only speaking to Holmes County Ohio. Where I live and n Geagua County none of this is happening.

[mike]

Today I heard that the Old Order Amish are splitting 4 ways.

What are the new groups' names and differences in outlook/doctrine/practice between them? Are some groups more in some regions than others?

I have heard a little about this. Is this affecting Amish outside of Lancaster County, PA? Many of my Amish relatives are in Lancaster or are in communities that originated there. I hear of a breakaway group called "Amish Fellowship." And I've heard a lot of it has to do with technology, particularly smartphones. Beyond that, I don't really know much about it, other than I've heard one of my uncles is part of a group that has left.

[cmbl]

Are you talking about what is happening in Lancaster county old orders?

Sorry - I was only speaking to Holmes County Ohio. Where I live and n Geagua County none of this is happening.

The conversation was with several Lebanon County Mennonites, so likely they had the Lancaster Amish in view.

[JohnH]

Are you talking about what is happening in Lancaster county old orders?

Sorry - I was only speaking to Holmes County Ohio. Where I live and n Geagua County none of this is happening.

The conversation was with several Lebanon County Mennonites, so likely they had the Lancaster Amish in view.

Very interesting. There seems to be a great deal of variation between regions an hour and a half drive apart.

Middlefield used to have a bad reputation. Nowadays I would say they are “better” than Holmes County, particularly in having less-wild youth.

[Valerie]

Sorry - I was only speaking to Holmes County Ohio. Where I live and n Geagua County none of this is happening.

The conversation was with several Lebanon County Mennonites, so likely they had the Lancaster Amish in view.

Very interesting. There seems to be a great deal of variation between regions an hour and a half drive apart.

Middlefield used to have a bad reputation. Nowadays I would say they are “better” than Holmes County, particularly in having less-wild youth.

There were several Amish from the Geauga County community who started attending Parkside couple years ago. I was talking with one of the young mothers and told her one of our friends was looking to join the Amish from the outside. She had a very concerned look on her face and said” doesn’t he know?” honestly I know that Middlefield has some problems of their own that are concerning. This is from people that know them.

[JohnH]

The conversation was with several Lebanon County Mennonites, so likely they had the Lancaster Amish in view.

Very interesting. There seems to be a great deal of variation between regions an hour and a half drive apart.

Middlefield used to have a bad reputation. Nowadays I would say they are “better” than Holmes County, particularly in having less-wild youth.

There were several Amish from the Geauga County community who started attending Parkside couple years ago. I was talking with one of the young mothers and told her one of our friends was looking to join the Amish from the outside. She had a very concerned look on her face and said” doesn’t he know?” honestly I know that Middlefield has some problems of their own that are concerning. This is from people that know them.

I am likewise very concerned to hear of someone who starts attending Parkside.

[Valerie]

Very interesting. There seems to be a great deal of variation between regions an hour and a half drive apart.

Middlefield used to have a bad reputation. Nowadays I would say they are “better” than Holmes County, particularly in having less-wild youth.

There were several Amish from the Geauga County community who started attending Parkside couple years ago. I was talking with one of the young mothers and told her one of our friends was looking to join the Amish from the outside. She had a very concerned look on her face and said” doesn’t he know?” honestly I know that Middlefield has some problems of their own that are concerning. This is from people that know them.

I am likewise very concerned to hear of someone who starts attending Parkside.

I realize you are not for an Evangelical church but you should be concerned about some of the Smish- I’ve witnessed Smish teen girls walking down the street in Middlefield smoking cigarettes and many Amish men outside restaurants smoking but having visited their farms when helping my friend auditing farms that want their produce “certified” you are concerned that when you read about what Apostle Paul admonished the Galatians for. The Gospel “plus” . Listen I’ve known enough former Amish and what I e learned to be glad they started Parkside.