Klearview Old Order Mennonite Meetinghouse (Listowel, Ontario, Canada)

Klear View Mennonite Meetinghouse in 2018.
Photo by Sam Steiner

The Klear View Old Order Mennonite meetinghouse is located in Perth County, at 7721 Road 129, concession 12 pt. Lot 10 AS, RR 4, Listowel, Ontario (about 12 km east of Listowel and 12 km northwest of Millbank). 

Old Order Mennonites first purchased farms in Perth County, west of Waterloo County, in the 1970s. The Klear View meetinghouse was built in 1990, paid for by a personal donation of profits generated through the sale of the Waterloo Old Order shed. At that time, approximately 30 families lived in the Klear View district. The meetinghouse was originally called Clearview, and the name was later changed to the present spelling in order to distinguish it from the Cedarview meetinghouse near Mount Forest.   

The first ordinations at Klear View were held in 1991, when Mervin R. Sauder was ordained as Minister and James M. Bauman was ordained as Deacon. As is the practice in Old Order churches, they were ordained by lot from within the congregation. Ordained persons are not paid for their church service.  

In the 1990s six families moved to the Kinloss settlement north of Lucknow, Ontario to join a more conservative settlement that did not permit phones or electricity in the homes, and continued to only use horses in farming.

In 2004, the Klear View district was divided into north and south districts, with services held six out of seven Sundays. On "off" Sundays families visited one another, or attended the service of another district.

At that time, there were approximately 70 families in the district. An accurate count of members is not always available because Old Order Mennonites think of themselves as members of the church at large and not just the immediate congregation. The Old Order also do not see the quantity of members as indicative of the congregation's importance.  When people move from one geographical area to another, they automatically "belong to" the congregation whose meetinghouse is closest to their home. No membership transfer takes place from the former location.

Additional Information

Klear View Meetinghouse Ordained Leaders

Ministers	Years of Service	Deacons	Years of Service
Mervin R. Sauder	1991-	James M. Bauman	1991-

Author(s)	Anita Streicher
Date Published	2005

Cite This Article

MLA style

Streicher, Anita. "Klearview Old Order Mennonite Meetinghouse (Listowel, Ontario, Canada)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 2005. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Klearview_Old_Order_Mennonite_Meetinghouse_(Listowel,_Ontario,_Canada)&oldid=160548.

APA style

Streicher, Anita. (2005). Klearview Old Order Mennonite Meetinghouse (Listowel, Ontario, Canada). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Klearview_Old_Order_Mennonite_Meetinghouse_(Listowel,_Ontario,_Canada)&oldid=160548.

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