Amish Church

Amish church services were in German. They were very devout. They believe in the born again experience, the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost), and they believe that every day is a holy day. Baptism is practices, at maturity. Footwashing is practices once a year. Every member participates, women separate from men. Then they stand to their feet after the ceremony and greet each other with a holy kiss. Sometimes it's just the preachers who greet each other that way. The Amish lived their religion.

There would be two or three preachers each service. Children were well-behaved, and smaller children (grade-school age) were in every service, which are held in homes. Families have a clean-up day to get ready - sometimes neighbors help. The day before they'll bake a batch of cookies to use in keeping the restless children quiet. You don't hear noise.

One church had a nice building. They don't have musical instruments. They sing in German, and the song service always includes The Love Song. One man leads the singing, others follow.

Preachers are chosen by lot. They have a special meeting, like a conference. Other preachers come to help select and get ready to cast lots. They would take several Bibles. The preachers and an elder or two decide who they feel would have the qualifications to be a preacher. Then they get the names of three men, put them in the Bible. After preachers have been in the church for a while, they ordain them as Bishops. My Uncle Sam was a Bishop.

Amish think of non-Amish as being English people. Not worse, just English.

The Amish want to keep their family together. Barn-raising gets the community together. Most Amish are farmers. In some places Amish work in factories. They make their own clothes.

Every spring, the Amish gather in a large congregation. They have a lot of young people, and when the young reach the age of accountability and feel like they want to join the church, the preacher and the elders talk to them and let them know what is involved: staying free from worldly amusements.