Old Order Mennonites

Old Order Mennonites form a branch of the Mennonite Protestant tradition. Old Order are those Mennonite groups of Swiss German and south German heritage who practice a lifestyle without some elements of modern technology, who dress plain and who have retained the old forms of worship, baptism and communion. There is no overall church or conference to unite all the different groups of Old Order Mennonites.

A large minority of Old Order Mennonite use cars (~10,000 members), whereas a majority (~17,000 members) have retained horse and buggy transportation. They are almost entirely of Swiss German or south German descent and the majority of them speak Pennsylvania German. Very conservative Plautdietsch speaking "Russian" Mennonites, who may have a similar belief and lifestyle are normally not called "Old Order Mennonite".

From the first Old Order division in Indiana in 1872 under bishop Jacob Wisler (1808–1889) until the middle of the 20th century sometimes all Old Order Mennonites were called "Wisler Mennonites", "Old Order Mennonites, Wisler" and the like or even "Wislerites". In a few cases this usage has persisted, but today the term "Wisler Mennonites" normally refers to a certain subgroup, the Ohio-Indiana Mennonite Conference. Old Order Mennonites who do not use automobiles are either referred to as "horse and buggy Mennonites" or "Team Mennonites". The word for them in Pennsylvania German is Fuhremennischte. Sometimes the term "Old Order Mennonites" is restricted to groups that do not use cars. It is common to name groups after a bishop, in most cases the leading bishop during the time of division.

The Old Order Mennonites emerged through divisions from the main body of Mennonites between 1872 and 1901 in four regions of North America: Indiana in 1872, Ontario in 1889, Pennsylvania in 1893 and Virginia in 1901. 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. These modernizing trends that changed the form of religious practice were pushed among the Mennonites especially by two men: John F. Funk and John S. Coffman. The traditional minded people left the old conferences to form new ones, not the modernizers.

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