Mennonites

Mennonites
Emblem of the Mennonite World Conference
Total population
Increase 2.13 million (2018)[1]
Regions with significant populations
United States500,469[1]
Ethiopia310,912[2]
India257,029[2]
Dem. Republic of the Congo225,581[2]
Bolivia150,000[3]
Canada149,422[1]
Mexico110,000[4]
Indonesia102,761[2]
Tanzania92,350[2]
Thailand63,998[2]
Zimbabwe50,287[2]
Germany47,492[4]
Paraguay36,009[4]
Kenya35,575[2]
Angola30,555[2]
Religions
Anabaptist
Scriptures
Bible
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A 1685 illustration by Jan Luyken, published in Martyrs Mirror, of Dirk Willems saving his pursuer, an act of mercy that led to his recapture, after which he was burned at the stake near Asperen in the present-day Netherlands
A 1685 illustration by Jan Luyken, published in Martyrs Mirror, of Dirk Willems saving his pursuer, an act of mercy that led to his recapture, after which he was burned at the stake near Asperen in the present-day Netherlands
Background
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Mennonites are a group of Anabaptist Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name Mennonites is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of the Holy Roman Empire, present day Netherlands. Menno Simons became a prominent leader within the wider Anabaptist movement and was a contemporary of Martin Luther (1483–1546) and Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560). Through his writings about the Reformation Simons articulated and formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss Anabaptist founders as well as early teachings of the Mennonites founded on the belief in both the mission and ministry of Jesus.[citation needed] Formal Mennonite beliefs were codified in the Dordrecht Confession of Faith (1632),[5] which affirmed "the baptism of believers only, the washing of the feet as a symbol of servanthood, church discipline, the shunning of the excommunicated, the non-swearing of oaths, marriage within the same church", nonresistance, and in general, more emphasis on "true Christianity" involving "being Christian and obeying Christ" as they interpret it from the Holy Bible.[6]

The majority of the early Mennonite followers, rather than fighting, survived by fleeing to neighboring states where ruling families were tolerant of their belief in believer's baptism. Over the years, Mennonites have become known as one of the historic peace churches, due to their commitment to pacifism.[7] Mennonites seek to emphasize the teachings of early Christianity in their beliefs, worship and lifestyle.[8][9]

Congregations worldwide embody various approaches to Mennonite practice, ranging from Old Order Mennonites (who practice a lifestyle without certain elements of modern technology) to Conservative Mennonites (who hold to traditional theological distinctives, wear plain dress and use modern conveniences) to mainline Mennonites (those who are indistinguishable in dress and appearance from the general population).[10] Mennonites can be found in communities in 87 countries on six continents.[11] Seven ordinances have been taught in many traditional Mennonite churches, which include "baptism, communion, footwashing, marriage, anointing with oil, the holy kiss, and the prayer covering."[6][12] The largest populations of Mennonites are found in Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, and the United States.[11] There are Mennonite settlements in Argentina, Belize, Bolivia,[13] Brazil, Mexico, Peru,[14] Uruguay,[15] Paraguay,[16] and Colombia.[17] The Mennonite Church in the Netherlands still continues where Simons was born.[18]

Though Mennonites are a global denomination with church membership from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, certain Mennonite communities with ethno-cultural origins in Switzerland and the Netherlands bear the designation of ethnic Mennonites.[19] Across Latin America, Mennonite colonization has been seen as a driver of environmental damage, notably deforestation of the Amazon rainforest through land clearance for agriculture.[20][21][22]

  1. ^ a b c Mennonite World Conference. World Directory, 2018. p. 58.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Mennonite World Conference. World Directory, 2018. p. 56.
  3. ^ "Expansion of Mennonite farmland in Bolivia encroaches on Indigenous land". Mongabay Environmental News. 3 April 2023. Archived from the original on 6 September 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Mennonite World Conference. World Directory, 2018. p. 57.
  5. ^ Kraybill, Donald B. (12 September 2017). Eastern Mennonite University. Penn State University Press. p. 94. ISBN 9780271080581.
  6. ^ a b Hartzler, Rachel Nafziger (30 April 2013). No Strings Attached: Boundary Lines in Pleasant Places: A History of Warren Street / Pleasant Oaks Mennonite Church. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-62189-635-7.
  7. ^ "Historic Peace Churches". Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Archived from the original on 15 April 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  8. ^ Bregman, Lucy (25 November 2009). Religion, Death, and Dying. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-313-35174-7.
  9. ^ "What We Believe". North Side Mennonite Church. Archived from the original on 14 May 2024. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  10. ^ Smucker, Donovan E. (1 January 2006). The Sociology of Mennonites, Hutterites and Amish: A Bibliography with Annotations, Volume II 1977-1990. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. pp. xviii–xix. ISBN 978-0-88920-605-2. There are educated, professionalized, affluent Mennonites, conservative Mennonites who still wear plain clothes, restrain education but drive cars and tractors, and use electricity, and there are Old Order Mennonites who differ from the Amish only by the absence of beards and the use of plain, austere church buildings instead of the Amish house church. Transportation is by horse and buggy.
  11. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference MWC stats was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Kauffman, Daniel (1898). Manual of Bible Doctrines. Elkhart: Mennonite Publishing Co. pp. 147–159.
  13. ^ Romero, Simon (21 December 2006). "Bolivian Reforms Raise Anxiety on Mennonite Frontier". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 22 June 2013. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  14. ^ "Nuevos alemanes en la selva de Peru, Los Menonitas llegaron a colonizar la selva (Reportaje)". YouTube. 29 November 2015. Archived from the original on 8 August 2022. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  15. ^ "Aus Montevideo: Galizische Mennoniten in Uruguay" [Mennonites from Galitzia in Uruguay]. Galizien.org. 1 November 2012. Archived from the original on 1 August 2012. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
  16. ^ De La Cova, Antonio (28 December 1999). "Paraguay's Mennonites resent 'fast buck' outsiders". Latinamericanstudies.org. Archived from the original on 12 July 2010. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
  17. ^ "Menonitas en Colombia: así vive la misteriosa comunidad religiosa en los Llanos Orientales". Caracol TV. 15 August 2021. Archived from the original on 23 January 2022. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  18. ^ "Member Churches – Mennonite Church in the Netherlands". World Council of Churches. January 1948. Archived from the original on 18 February 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  19. ^ Dueck, Jonathan (28 April 2017). Congregational Music, Conflict and Community. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-78605-3. But Mennonites ... are from many places and diverse in terms of belief, drawing, historically, on European diasporic histories, and at present, negotiating a much broader variety of diasporic histories, perhaps especially in Asia (Indonesia, for example), Latin America (Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, among others) and Africa (Congo, for example). A subset of these groups of Mennonites--Swiss Mennonites and Russian Mennonites--sometimes identify or are identified as 'ethnic Mennonites'.
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference lePolain2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hanners2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference MAAP112 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).