Moses M. Beachy

Moses M Beachy (December 3, 1874 – July 7, 1946) was the founding bishop of the Beachy Amish Mennonite churches in 1927 and a former bishop in the Old Order Amish churches.

Beachy was born near Salisbury, Somerset County, Pennsylvania. He was ordained a minister in the Amish church on 1912 May 19 and ordained a bishop in that church on 1916 October 1.
His father, two brothers, and two sons were also Amish ministers. In 1927, he was involved in the church division that led to formation of the Beachy Amish congregations.

The Amish Mennonite division had its roots in differences among church leaders over a strict interpretation of the streng meidung, or strong ban, shunning, or avoidance of members under church discipline, which had come to effectively excommunicate church members who left the stricter Pennsylvania district of the church in order to transfer to the less strict Maryland district. Beachy favored a more moderate position. Since he was not united on this issue with other ministers and the retired bishop of his own congregation, he considered resigning his office, but was urged by at least one minister not to do so.

Unlike many Amish congregations which meet in homes, Amish church meetings in Somerset County were conducted in church buildings, customarily meeting at two alternating locations on different Sundays, but on 1927 June 26, after a decade or more of tension over the streng meidung issue, the more conservative group and the formerly retired bishop met at the Summit Mills meetinghouse, even though Beachy had previously announced that services were to be held that Sunday at the Flag Run meetinghouse. Effectively, there were now two congregations where previously there had been one, though they continued to share the same two church buildings on alternate Sundays.

The new congregation under Moses Beachy gradually became known by the name of its bishop, a nomenclature that was not uncommon, especially when church groups met at different locations and could not assume the name of a particular place.

Other Amish congregations that identified with the issues leading to the formation of the Beachy congregation started to ally themselves into a new church fellowship group, and this larger grouping also came to be called Beachy Amish, though in some areas they were known as Amish Mennonite or as Fellowship churches. Moses Beachy and John A. Stoltzfus, bishop of a group that had divided from the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, began a practice of visiting one another's churches in 1929, and their two congregations became leaders in the growing Beachy Amish Mennonite fellowship of churches.

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