If the author could maintain the quality of writing and research seen in segments featuring the ministers and members of the
Amish church this novel could be a delight.
This was also the fate of his interesting effort to put oral
Amish church music into musical notational form so it would not be lost.
Soon after, we were honored to be invited to an
Amish church service, conducted in High German.
They sing lullabies,
Amish church hymns, and songs to children from infancy.
As a matter of faith, members of the
Amish Church do not have to carry insurance, including unemployment or social security.
There he and his wife Catherine farmed and raised a large family, and John served as a deacon in the
Amish church. In 1872, John and Catherine Stoltzfus moved with several of their children to Knox County, Tennessee, where John organized and pastored a small Amish congregation until his death.
A third rite, marriage, is also a church function binding only two
Amish church members.
The sect still exists in Holland and Germany, although most of its membership is now to be found in Canada and the U.S., the
Amish Church being one of its major and strictest branches.
He immigrated to Butler County, Ohio, at age 15, and then was baptized by Bishop Jacob Augsburger and joined the
Amish church in 1841 at the age of 17.
For households that were no longer Amish or refused to participate, we randomly sampled replacement households from within the same
Amish church district listed in the Amish Directory to maintain the target sample size.
(45) Another pressure against exiting, particularly for those who were baptized, is the fact that those who leave the
Amish church face the possibility of excommunication and shunning.