The Beachy Amish Mennonites   

Mennonites   

Beachy Ministers’ Meeting 2012

The Beachy Amish Mennonites hold an annual three-day meeting of the constituency’s ministers to share in fellowship and exchange ideas, receive reports from Beachy agencies, and vote on constituency decisions if any are brought forward.

· The 2009 meeting was held in Sarasota, Florida. (meeting page)

· The 2010 meeting was held in Goshen, Indiana. (meeting page)

· The 2011 meeting was held in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (meeting page)

· The 2012 meeting was held in Plain City, Ohio (April 3-5)

· The 2013 meeting will be held in Holmes Co., OH (April 2-4)

 

The Bethesda, Canaan, and Haven congregations hosted the meetings at the United Bethel Mennonite Church in Plain City, OH. The program committee included Elmer Stoltzfus, Robert Beachy, Lonnie Beachy, and Nate Yoder. The meeting attendance was higher than last year, attracting around 490 ministers and wives during daytime sessions. Committees met starting on Monday and continued through Thursday. Five ministers presented messages and 19 presented workshops.

Facts, Figures, and

For the Record

Anthony Miller of North Carolina preaching

 

Knowing the Good Shepherd

 

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Merl Beiler of South Carolina sharing

 

Leading Our Flock into Missions

 

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Bill Mullet of Ohio preaching

 

Being the Good Shepherd’s Shepherd

 

 

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Donny Swartzentruber of Georgia sharing

 

Servanthood

 

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Ivan Beachy of Virginia preaching

 

Shepherding with Joy

 

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MEETING DOCUMENTS (download)

· Official Minutes & Committee Roster

· Complete meeting transcript (except business session)

· Meeting Brochure

· Bishop Committee Statement

· Bishop Committee, Proposed Statement of Faith

· Amish-Mennonite Population Report

· Peace & Service / C.A.S.P. documents

· Women’s session on modesty, Outline

· RECORDINGS are available via Victory Music Services (Lavern Yoder).

 

 

BUSINESS MEETING HIGHLIGHTS

1) Eighteen men introduced themselves as newly ordained (or ordained as bishop).

 

2) Renovations at Penn Valley are near complete. Renovations and building at Hillcrest Home are underway. Calvary Bible School is looking towards renovations in the next year or two.

 

3) FMH is asking the constituency to consider a proposal that would place liability support on Beachy churches.

 

4) Bishop committee chair David Yoder presented a short, single-paged proposed statement of faith for the constituency. Tim Miller of Virginia was elected back on the bishop committee, having gone off in 2010.

 

5) The Peace & Service Committee and the Beachy C.A.S.P. program are being rolled into a single program: the Peace & Service/C.A.S.P. Committee.

 

6) The Amish-Mennonite Historical Association has been established. By-laws are being finalized and a location for the archives is being sought.

 

 

FOR THE RECORD: NEW AND OLD

At Wednesday lunch, 535 plates were served.

 

PowerPoint was first used during the meetings in 2010. It is now in fairly regular use, mostly by presenters during the business sessions.

 

In the 2009, 2010, and 2011 meetings, coffee or snacks were served during breaks. The 2012 meetings did not include refreshments, aside from bottled water.

 

Historically, meetings have included gender segregated seating. The 2010 and 2011 meetings included mixed seating. This year, one daytime session was gender segregated while evening meetings were mixed. Workshops, however, were gender segregated.

 

Extra efforts were made to invite widows of ministers to the meeting. The result was, more women registered for the meetings than men.

Covering Styles

for Ministers’ Wives

A tally was taken of women’s covering style. The count was taken during a daytime session when practically all present were ministers’ wives. The tally demonstrates that a strong majority of the constituency’s leaders’ wives have chosen to wear the traditional Beachy covering over cloth styles. Cloths increased by 10% from last year’s count, perhaps partially reflecting the community in which the meetings were held.

Cloth styles (hanging veil/doilies, etc.)

Traditional Covering

 Eighty-five years in God’s service: June 26, 1927 — 2012

Ladies’ workshop

Kitchen crew

Daycare center

Song leader Jonathan Raber

Amish-Mennonite Population Report 2012

The 2012 population report names the six largest Amish-Mennonite settlements, the U.S. and Canadian Amish-Mennonite population and membership, the rate of outreaches vs. divisions, and other figures. It also includes an essay, “How Population Changes Cause Splits and What We Can Do about It: A Proposal to Strengthen All Churches.”

Download the report.