Groffdale Conference Mennonite Church

The Groffdale Conference Mennonite Church, also called Wenger Mennonite, is the largest Old Order Mennonite group to use horse-drawn carriages for transportation. Along with the automobile, they reject many modern conveniences, while allowing electricity in their homes and steel-wheeled tractors to till the fields. Initially concentrated in eastern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, their 10,000 members resided in eight other states as of 2008/9.

The Groffdale Conference has its roots in the Old Order division, that occurred in 1893 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, over the question of English language preaching, Sunday Schools and other questions. The trigger for the split was the a quarrel about a pulpit, that was to be installed in church instead of the traditional preacher's table.

The Groffdale Conference arose in 1927 at the conclusion of a seventeen-year disagreement within the Weaverland Old Order Mennonite Conference, over use of the automobile. Five hundred of the more traditional members of the Weaverland conference, about half of the congregation, formed this group in order to retain horse-drawn transportation. The name of the conference comes from the Groffdale churchhouse where Joseph O. Wenger led the first worship services. The John W. Martin Mennonites, a group of Old Order Mennonites from Indiana, merged with the Groffdale Conference in 1973.

In 1974 a new settlement in Yates County, New York, was started. It grew quickly and steadily and with a population of more than 3,000 in 2015 it was almost as large as the Lancaster County settlement.

The black carriages of the Wenger Mennonites distinguish them from the Amish in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who use gray ones. They are mainly rural people, who work small farms. Initially concentrated in eastern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, they resided in eight other states as of 2002.

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