The Old Order Amish are distinct in keeping the Ordnung, the unwritten local code that governs dress, technology, and daily life, and in refusing automobile ownership and connection to public electric lines.
The Old Order Amish descend from the 1693 division led by Jakob Ammann within the Swiss and Alsatian Anabaptist churches, and most immigrated to North America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Worship is held in homes, baptism is for adult believers who commit to the church for life, and formal schooling customarily ends after the eighth grade. Church districts are small and locally governed, so practice varies from district to district.
Sources
Primary
- Dordrecht Confession of Faith (1632), the confession used by Amish congregations
Secondary
- Donald B. Kraybill, The Riddle of Amish Culture (1989)