Every year, I take a considerable amount of time to learn about a new denomination. This year is dedicated to the Anabaptists

Some time ago, when I was looking up some information about the Amish, I came across the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College. Their website includes some good information and some links to published resources.

JohnB445 said:

I have learned about the Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Baptists, Lutherans, Reformed, Pentecostals.

What's next is the Anglicans, Episcopalians, and I'm sure there are much more. There are too many for me to study I can get overloaded with information, so I'll try to stick to the largest denominations to study. but right now, I will start with the Anabaptists, then study the Anglicans, Episcopalians later.

Any documentary you recommend, I am interested in the history of the Anabaptists, how they started, and traveled, their beliefs and way of life.

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If I were you I’d also try to look into the persecuted Syriac Orthodox or the Assyrian Church of the East. The former is Oriental Orthodox but has very close relations with its Antiochian Eastern Orthodox counterpart, the closest between any EO and non EO church. Both churches are unique in that they primarily use Aramaic in the liturgy (some vestigial Aramaic also remains in the Maronite Catholic, Syriac Catholic, Chaldean Catholic, Syro Malabar Catholic, and the protestant Mar Thoma Syrian Church in India, which despite the name, is Indian, not Syrian (look up St. Thomas Christians).

The history of the Anabaptists is interesting, but they’re kind of well known, not exactly obscure, and the more dramatic Anabaptists, the Old Order Mennonites and Amish, have a bit of a holier-than-thou attitude which is unfortunate. Thus, given the choice, if you haven’t studied the Syriac speaking churches yet, I strongly suggest it, because they speak the language of our Lord, a slightly different dialect of it, but the same language, and their hymns are so very beautiful, and its very unlikely a tour of the Eastern Orthodox would have given you much if any information on this issue.

I think it's wonderful that you've devoted yourself to learning about different denominations and choose one every year! It isn't necessary to restrict yourself to lesser known groups and with a year to explore you're certain to learn a lot and have many more ahead as you said. There's an Amish population downstate in Arthur, IL and Shipshewana is very popular in Indiana.

Amish 365 and Amish America are excellent resources you may want to peruse as is QuakerSpeak. The Amish are most prominent in America but you'll find anabaptists in other countries including Mennonites and Quakers. There's a settlement in the UK as well that I learned about in a private group. They're trying to build a community and reestablish their presence. I saw a video a year ago you may be interested in. I'll try to find it and post the link.

I'm not an expert by any stripe but I went down this rabbit hole when looking for a church a few years ago. I settled on the anabaptists for many reasons. I've had an opportunity to learn about the quakers and mennonites and fellowship to some degree. There's not a lot of them in the city. But now that we're moving I've found several communities for both.

We're urban homesteaders as well and there's many people within that demographic that were raised as mennonites including old order sects. I don't want that level of tradition or restrictions. But I find their philosophies on family and community to be very satisfying. A common complaint on the site is loneliness and it weighed on me a lot in my search because of the things I observed during the pandemic where the church was concerned.

The lack of togetherness was bothersome. I didn't want a church that did otherwise. I wanted a culture where it's the norm and I found it with them more than others. I was part of a group of anabaptists online. Many were in the traditional sects. It was challenging at times when they spoke about their marriages. It wasn't a cakewalk and after a while it started to vex my spirit and I stepped away.

As the saying goes, it's not you it's me and it was. I used to be in the company of women like that and mormons and others who had traditional relationships. I've grown a lot and their discourse is fairly unbalanced. Their identity is enmeshed in a manner I don't think the Lord intended and it makes me uncomfortable. Although I love anabaptists, I don't know if I could marry someone who grew up in an old order environment nor would I welcome the same for my daughter.

I don't find them to be holier than thou and it takes a certain mindset to live like that. The separation doesn't bother me per se. I'm not a hermit but I have my bubble too. Some find it problematic and want christians to have greater hegemony. But I don't require that nor would I want a group to set aside what makes them unique to merge with others. We all have different needs and things that minister to our spirit. I can be myself with them and we have similar interests and concerns. Their priority is one another. Not the news, politics and so on.

I remember a video I saw that drove it home. It was a barn raising for a family who'd lost theirs in a fire and the community was building them another one. The women were busy setting up the tables with food and drinks for the workers when they finished and it was quite the spread. There was a moment that gripped my heart I've never forgotten. The men were on the roof and there wasn't a free space available. It seemed like they were hammering in unison and I began to cry because it was beautiful. I said to myself this is the gospel.

You could walk this country by foot amd struggle to find the same anywhere outside of that culture. I wanted that for myself and my family. More than words as the songwriter says. People who show up and do life together. That's what I needed most.

~bella

I hope your explorations include actual visits to worship with the groups you are studying. It is enlightening to see and experience how others worship. Over one year, I once took one Sunday a month to worship with a different tradition. It was both an adventure and clarifying about what I wanted and didn't want for myself.