Cedar Grove Amish Mennonite Church (Wellesley, Ontario, Canada)

Cedar Grove Mennonite Church, 2004

Cedar Grove Mennonite Church (formerly Lichti Amish Mennonite) split off of the Wellesley Amish Mennonite congregation, located in Wellesley Township, Waterloo County, Ontario, located in Wellesley Township, Waterloo County, Ontario. About 1911 Bishop Jacob F. Lichti, ordained minister in 1898 and bishop in 1901, and John Gascho, ordained minister in 1913, separated from the Maple View Amish Mennonite Church. There was no doctrinal dispute. The group led by Jacob F. Lichti was inclined to be more liberal than the Old Order, but more conservative than the Maple View congregation. About 1912 they built a new meetinghouse one-half mile (one km) east of the other church. Jacob F. Lichti continued as bishop and John Gascho was ordained minister in 1913. Their membership  increased from an earlier probable 150 to a 1955 membership of 236 with 82 families and 360 worshipers. In the 1950s they used the German language entirely and continued to use the Ausbund. They had no Sunday school and were not affiliated with any conference. Services were held every Sunday. The ministers in 1955 were Samuel Roth, Samuel Lichti, and Noah Gerber. After the death of Jacob F. Lichti in 1944 they called upon Bishop Moses Nafziger of Mornington to perform the bishop's functions. 

The congregation became affiliated with the Beachy Amish Mennonite Fellowship in 1947. In the late 1990s the congregation became part of the Maranatha Amish Mennonite Churches, a group that is slightly less congregational in its polity than the Beachy Amish. The language of worship is German and English; the transition from German occurred in the 1970s.

In 2014 the ministerial team included Bishop Arthur Gerber, Ministers John Gerber, Timothy Gerber, and L. Paul Jantzi, and Deacon Laverne Zehr.

Bibliography

Mennonite Church Directory 2014. Harrisonburg, VA: Christian Light Publications, Inc., 2014: 82.

Yoder, Elmer S. The Beachy Amish Mennonite Fellowship Churches. Hartville, Ohio: Diakonia Ministries, 1987: 368.

Archival Records

Church records at home of Bishop Arthur Gerber in 1989.

Additional Information

Address: 4831 Deborah Glaister Line, Wellesley, Ontario

Phone: 519-656-2418

Denominational Affiliation:

Maranatha Amish Mennonite Churches

Cedar Grove Amish Mennonite Church Membership

Year	Members
1965	200
1975	187
1985	186
1995	150
2000	150
2004	127
2009	122
2014	100

Maps

Map:Cedar Grove Amish Mennonite Church (Wellesley, Ontario)

Author(s)	Joseph C. Fretz
	Sam Steiner
Date Published	March 2010

Cite This Article

MLA style

Fretz, Joseph C. and Sam Steiner. "Cedar Grove Amish Mennonite Church (Wellesley, Ontario, Canada)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. March 2010. Web. 18 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Cedar_Grove_Amish_Mennonite_Church_(Wellesley,_Ontario,_Canada)&oldid=138811.

APA style

Fretz, Joseph C. and Sam Steiner. (March 2010). Cedar Grove Amish Mennonite Church (Wellesley, Ontario, Canada). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 18 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Cedar_Grove_Amish_Mennonite_Church_(Wellesley,_Ontario,_Canada)&oldid=138811.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 336. All rights reserved.

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