The+Amish

The Amish 1. **When was it founded? Where? By Whom?** 2. **How many members does it have today? Where are they located?** 3. **What are the principle beliefs? Is It connected to any other religions? What and why?** 4. **Is there a Holy Book of some kind?** 5. **Where do members worship?** 6. **Is there a difference in lifestyle between its members and other people from the same location?** 7. **What are the beliefs about life/death/afterlife?** //Grief and Grieving// - Grief is very private. Public displays of grief are rare. Which doesn't mean they are grieving any less than those who make strong emotions outbursts. //Embalming// - Most Amish communities will allow the embalming of the body by a local undertaker familiar with Amish customs, but no makeup is applied. //Caring of the Dead// - The family takes care of cleaning and dressing the body in traditional white garments. //Visitations// - There are three different times when friends and family can view or visit the deceased //Funeral Service// - The funeral service is simple, with no eulogy or flowers. //Casket/Coffin//- Caskets are plain pine boxes, wooden coffins made within the local community. They use simple pine boxes made locally instead of ornate coffins. The deceased is generally buried in the local Amish cemetery. //Graves and Grave Stones// - Graves are usually dug by hand. People make take turns sittting with the body until the grave can be dug. > Gravestones are simple, following the Amish belief that no individual is better than another. Children are buried in unmarked graves or have small headstones that lie flat on the ground. > Some Amish communities do not engrave their gravestones. Instead community elders maintain a map of the cemetery to identify the occupants of each burial plot. //Mourning// - Mourners still wear black. The immediated family enters a year of mourning. //No "Memorial Day"// - Families do not observe a formal memorial day, nor do they go back to visit the grave. In Amish faith after death, the spirit has left the person's physical body.
 * The Amish group started in 1693 when a group of Swiss Mennonites led by Jacob Amman broke from the main body of Mennonites over differences in how to celebrate communion.
 * 180,000 members located in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New York, Maine, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Montana and Washington.
 * The Amish are closest to the Anabaptists: Protestant Christians who believe in adult baptism, pacifism, the separation of church and state and the importance of the community to faith. The denomination is closely related to the Mennonites. They base their daily life and religious practice on a literal interpretation of the Biblical instruction "be not conformed to this world" (Romans 12:2). Their separateness may also have been a reaction to the persecution they has suffered in Europe.
 * The Bible; mostly the Old Testament.
 * The Amish worship in their houses, which are designed to allow a large group to meet. Different households take it in turns to host worship. A 3-hour service preaching service takes place every other Sunday morning and is followed by a shared meal. On Sunday evening there may be a meeting for young people of several communities who gather in a house to sing hymns and talk, sitting on opposite sides of a long table. Communion services are held twice a year.
 * 1) Several hymns are sung while the ministers retire upstairs to meet for prayer and to arrange who will preach
 * Hymns are led by a single voice who sings the first bar of each line alone, and is then joined by the community
 * Singing is very slow and a hymn can take 20 minutes
 * The second hymn is always the //Loblied//
 * 1) Introductory sermon
 * 2) Prayer: kneeling and usually silent
 * 3) Bible reading for which the assembly stands
 * 4) Main sermon, which ends with a Bible reading
 * 5) Testimonies given by other ministers as requested by the preacher
 * 6) Closing remarks from the preacher
 * 7) All turn and kneel for a prayer from //Die Ernsthafte Christenpflicht//
 * 8) Benediction
 * 9) Notices
 * 10) Closing hymn
 * 11) Dismissal - the community leaves in age order, youngest first
 * Non-Amish people can go to war, sue people, gamble and take photographs.Amish people can not. Amish women only wear dresses and prayercoverings, but very few non-Amish women do so.The Amish dress in in handmade clothes, but non-Amish people dress in shop bought clothes. The Amish live in the countryside and cannot live in a town or city, non-Amish people can. The Amish live off the land, but non-Amish people generally do not. Amish kids go to school until 8 grade and then drop out. Amish kids cannot do this. Amish people use buggies and scooters as transport, non-Amish people use cars, and motorbikes. Amish people have big families.Non-Amish people have smaller families. Amish people do not use insurance. Non-Amish people can. Married Amish men grow beards which they do not cut.Non-Amish men can chose to grow beards before marriage, can chose to trim or get rid of their beards. Amish people have church in members' homes.Most non-Amish people have their services in fancy churches. Most non-Amish Christians are baptised as babies. The Amish baptise adults. The Amish take care of their elderly. Non-Amish tend to place their elderly in nursing homes. The Amish are pretty much anti-technology, and cant use anything that might have to do with it. They condone doing anything worldly and think their way of life is the best way of life.
 * //A funeral to us is a much more important thing than the day of birth because we believe in the hereafter. The children are better off than their survivors.//
 * First viewing - A view held at the home a day before the funeral.
 * Second viewing - A viewing during the funeral, when the open casket is on display at the home.
 * Third viewing - A viewing at the gravesite. The final viewing is held before the coffin is lowered into the ground.
 * Focus - The focus is on praising God and not on commemorating the dead.
 * Timing - An Amish funeral and burial is generally held three days after death.
 * Location - The Old Order Amish do not have churches, so funerals are held in two locations. The smaller service in the home of the deceased. The body is taken to a separate place, usually a barn for the larger service.
 * Language - The funerals are conducted entirely in Pennsylvania Dutch a form of German.
 * Speakers - The Amish feel that the focus of the funeral is on God, not on remembering the dead. Their custom is not to eulogize (speeches specifically given in praise of the deceased).
 * Music - Ministers will read hymns, but it won't be sung. There is no singing at the Amish funeral.
 * Flowers - Flowers are usually not present. Sometimes kerosene lanterns are used in place of a flower displays.







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