Old Order Mennonite
Old Order are those Mennonite groups of Swiss German and south German heritage who practice a lifestyle without some elements of modern technology, still drive a horse and buggy rather than cars, wear very conservative and modest dress, and have retained the old forms of worship, baptism and communion.
Old Order groups generally place great emphasis on a disciplined community instead of the individual's personal faith beliefs.
In 2008–2009, a minority of Old Order Mennonites accepted automobiles, whereas a majority retain horse and buggy transportation.
Conflicts over the introduction of such modern practices as Sunday Schools, revival meetings, and English-language preaching drove the formation of Old Order Mennonite churches.
The splits occurred in Indiana and Ohio in 1907, in Ontario in 1931, and in Pennsylvania in 1927, generally dividing them into the groups called horse and buggy and automobile.
Some of the groups that allow the use of cars and trucks, such as the Markham-Waterloo Mennonite Conference, will ensure that they are all black, even painting over chromed sections to achieve this effect.
[14] Old Order Mennonites also practise plainness, including the dress, which is the opposite of showiness in clothing but also in physical appearance.
In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, some Amish and Mennonites use Preferred Health Care (PHC) Old Order Group coverage (OOG).
In this way, the Old Order Group has engaged in collective bargaining practices to lower their cost of health care.
The Old Order Mennonites and Amish have the same European roots and the language spoken in their homes is the same German dialect.
What characterizes automobile groups as Old Order rather than Conservative Mennonite is their retention of traditional forms of worship, communion, baptism, funeral and leadership structures.
According to a University of Waterloo report of 2017, "of the estimated 59,000 Mennonites in Ontario, only about twenty percent are members of conservative groups".
In Waterloo Region, the orders applied to sects "including Markham, Old Colony, and David Martin Mennonite communities", according to a news report.
Both agencies cited a lack of cooperation with public health requirements that were intended to minimize the spread of the virus.
In an interview with the Waterloo Region Record, bishop Peter Brubacher, (bishop "for seven Old Order Mennonite church districts" in north Waterloo Region, according to another news agency),[18] made this comment:[19] "I guess to be frank and honest, a lot of people really didn’t take it that serious, to isolate".
[28] Because splits, mergers and even the dissolution of small groups are not uncommon among Old Order Mennonites, the situation today may look quite different.
[7] For the year 2001 Kraybill and Hostetter give the number 16,478 for the membership of "all Old Order Mennonites groups" in the USA.
[34] The Wengers have larger families and a higher retention rate than their car-driving brothers, the Horning Mennonites.
[36] In a sample of 199 people from the Martindale District of the Wenger Mennonites, born between 1953 and 1968, there was a retention rate of 95 percent in 1998.
To a lesser extent there are similarities with conservative "Russian" Mennonites, who live in Latin America, speak another German dialect, Plautdietsch, and who have their own tradition of plain dress.
Well-known, for example, is Isaac Horst (1918–2008) from Mount Forest (Ontario, Canada), who wrote the book Bei sich selwert un ungewehnlich (in English: "Separate and Peculiar").
