UPDATE: this contest is now over! I used Random.org to choose a winner, and that winner is Eugenia. Congratulations, Eugenia!
On the second Monday of each month, I’m going to aim to address readers’ questions about the Amish. Today, I will continue the story of how the Amish began by explaining why they split from the Mennonites.
Over a hundred years after the beginning of the Anabaptist movement, a Mennonite bishop named Jakob Ammann (sometimes spelled Jacob Amman) was worried that the Mennonite church was becoming too worldly. He wanted to return to a more strict way of life that maintained the separation from the “modern” people around him. In addition, there was a lot of disagreement about how serious church discipline should be and how long it should last. Eventually, these issues led Ammann and his followers to split from the Mennonite church and become the Ammann-ish, or the Amish.
Since that time, the Amish and Mennonites have continued to split and establish many separate groups. Some of these groups are differentiated by ideology or rules of living. Others, however, are simply separated by geography. Although many of the Amish seem to look the same to an outsider, there are many subtle differences that mark which subset they belong to that the Amish would recognize immediately. Some examples of these differences are the type of buggy they drive, the type of prayer Kapp worn by the women, the length of time they sing during church, the length of a woman’s dress or a man’s hair, and the type of harness used on horses.
Some Housekeeping
I wanted to draw everyone’s attention to an easy way to see the entire series on the history of the Amish. If you scroll to the bottom of the post, before the comments, you should see different tags that I have attached to this blog entry. I have included a picture below of the tags to help you find them. One is “History of the Amish,” and if you click on this tag, it will pull up every post that I have written on this topic. This feature makes it very easy for you to read the entire series of blogs in order, if you would like, without having to scroll through months of posts.
I will also tag other important parts of my posts, such as the books I mention, giveaways, and recipes. So if you would like to scroll through all of my posts that included a recipe, simply click on the “Recipes” tag, and it will filter my entries for you! I hope this will be a simple and easy way for you to look back at my previous blog posts and find the ones that interest you the most.
Recipe Swap Wrap-Up
I had an absolute blast with last week’s recipe swap! Thank you to each and every one of you that participated. You posted a lot of recipes that sound delicious. I cannot wait to start trying them!
Using Random.org, I selected a winner of The Esh Family Cookbook from those of you that posted recipes. The winner is Melissa Norris. Melissa posted two wonderful recipes, one for Strawberry Rhubarb Dump Cake and one for Chicken White Sauce and Pizza Crust. Thank you and congratulations, Melissa! Thank you again to everyone who shared a recipe, and I look forward to our next recipe swap!
Giveaway
If you would like to enter for a chance to win an autographed copy of Plain Wisdom: An Invitation into an Amish Home and the Hearts of Two Women, simply leave a comment at the bottom of this post on my website.
If you are reading this anywhere other than my website, such as on Facebook, in an email, or on Goodreads, please hop on over to my website and leave a comment at the bottom of my post to enter the giveaway. Only comments left on my website will be entered into the giveaway. (It’s just too hard to track down all the comments left in various places, and that means it’s too easy to miss some of the comments.)
The deadline for this contest is Friday, April 13, 2012, at noon. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be contacted privately, as well as announced on next Monday’s post.
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