Berea Amish Mennonite Fellowship

Overview

The Berea Amish Mennonite denomination was the most conservative, constitution-based Amish Mennonite denomination in the early 21st century. Berea supported the 1632 Dordrecht Confession of Faith and also maintained a set of distinctive practices and limits on lifestyle choices. They were more permissive than Old Beachys—the Midwest Beachy denomination— yet are more conservative than the two Beachy separatist denominations, the Ambassadors and Maranatha Amish Mennonites. While Berea congregations were autonomous, they come under the precepts detailed in a constitution.

Historical Origins

In 1998, a group of like-minded ministers met for a fellowship meeting at the invitation of Believers’ Fellowship, just north of Daviess County, Indiana. They represented churches that were not in full fellowship with any other Amish Mennonite denomination at the time. From this meeting, the ministers agreed to continue meeting every year. The evolution of the network into a denomination was gradual. In early 2008 they adopted the name Berea Amish Mennonite and developed a constitution soon after, modeled closely after Maranatha Amish Mennonite’s constitution.

The churches that originally constituted Berea came from diverse backgrounds. One group emerged from the Old Beachys. During the 1960s, the Old Beachys and the revivalist Beachys vied for influence in many Beachy congregations. As the revivalists came to dominate, the Old Beachys gradually withdrew from participation in the denomination. Old Beachy congregations held to German in church services while mainstream Beachys switched to English. However, from the late 1980s and on, some Old Beachy churches wanted to switch to English to accommodate non-Anabaptists who were interested in attending and joining. When the Old Beachys were emigrating out of Paris, Tennessee, in the early 1990s (see Midwest Beachy Amish Mennonite article), two of the congregations established used the migration as a chance to permit English, one in Illinois and one in Kentucky. Simultaneously, Old Beachy churches in Stuarts Draft, Virginia, and Holmes County, Ohio, also permitted English. A second source of Berea churches were those who had once affiliated with the mainstream Beachy Amish Mennonite or Mennonite Christian Fellowship denominations, but because of their conservatism, did not feel in harmony with the larger body. Thus, Berea was composed of liberal Old Beachys and conservative mainstream Beachys/Fellowship people.

Theology, Structure and Culture

In the early 21st century the Berea Amish Mennonites thought of themselves as Beachy in the sense of the broader Amish Mennonite movement, but not as part of the organized denomination. Their standards of practice resembled that of the Beachys at the beginning of the 1950s-1960s revivalist movement. Men wore suspenders, broadfall pants, and hats, while women wore full cape dresses, aprons, and cap-style coverings that come onto the ear. However, unlike some early Beachys, they did not tolerate tobacco and they maintained a close guard on adolescent and courtship behavior. Automobiles were required to be black.

The majority of Berea churches have been located outside of historic Anabaptist settlements, with the exceptions of Holmes County, Ohio, and Daviess County, Indiana. The primary occupations have been farming, carpentry, and construction, and the church schools employed men and women from the community. Schooling was through eighth grade; members did not seek higher education. Family sizes were large by American standards. For the young adults, Berea sponsored an annual weekend youth fellowship meeting.

Congregations

In 2018 the following 12 congregations, comprising 555 members, were part of the Berea Amish Mennonite Fellowship:

Congregation	City	State	Members	Founded
Believers Fellowship Amish Mennonite Church	Worthington	Indiana	22	2000
Belleville Amish Mennonite Church	Belleville	Arkansas	58	2001
Fryburg Beachy Fellowship	Fryburg	Ohio	28	1940
Lebanon Mennonite Christian Fellowship	Lebanon	Missouri	34	2015
Mount Carroll Christian Brotherhood	Mt. Carroll	Illinois	20	2015
Peniel Christian Fellowship	Holmesville	Ohio	60	1969
Pleasant Hill Mennonite Church	Cynthiana	Kentucky	67	2001
Pleasant View Amish Mennonite Church	Holliday	Missouri	21	1982
Rehoboth Amish Mennonite Church	Roodhouse	Illinois	69	1995
Salem Christian Mennonite Brotherhood	Salem	Missouri	51	2004
Seven Mile Christian Fellowship	El Progresso Village	Belize	18	2013
Unionville Christian Brotherhood	Cincinnati	Iowa	49	2002
Total			555

Bibliography

Amish Mennonite Directory. [Various editions since 1993.] Edited by Devon Miller. Millersburg, OH: Abana Books. 

Anderson, Cory. "Retracing the blurred boundaries of the twentieth-century 'Amish Mennonite' identity." Mennonite Quarterly Review 85 (2011): 361-412.

Beachy Amish Mennonite Churches. "Amish Mennonite Sects and Movements." Web. 28 September 2010. http://www.beachyam.org/amishmennonites.htm.

Mennonite Church Directory 2010. Harrisonburg, VA: Christian Light Publications, Inc., 2010: 49-50.

Additional Information

Beachy Amish Website (Informal)

Author(s)	Cory Anderson
Date Published	January 2012

Cite This Article

MLA style

Anderson, Cory. "Berea Amish Mennonite Fellowship." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. January 2012. Web. 18 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Berea_Amish_Mennonite_Fellowship&oldid=160279.

APA style

Anderson, Cory. (January 2012). Berea Amish Mennonite Fellowship. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 18 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Berea_Amish_Mennonite_Fellowship&oldid=160279.

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