The first Anabaptist churches simply wanted to be a community of "brothers and sisters" following Jesus. They were people who understood baptism as a conscious confession. They rejected the term "Wiedertäufer" (Anabaptists).
They later called themselves "Mennonites" after the Dutch pastor Menno Simons (1496-1561). A split occurred in the Emmental and Alsace in 1693. Those Anabaptists who followed the preacher Jakob Ammann, who came from the Bernese Oberland, were called the "Ammanschen", which gave rise to the term "Amish".
The Anabaptists wanted to be a holy community based on the early Christian model. From their beginnings, they said no to violence and military service, to swearing and to taking on state offices.
In the 16th-19th centuries, they were repeatedly expelled for this reason and moved to areas where they were tolerated or welcomed as capable farmers: from Switzerland to the Alsace and the Palatinate; via the Netherlands to North America; from northern Germany and the Netherlands to Poland, southern Ukraine and Siberia.
Groups of Anabaptists migrated from North America to countries in Latin America. The Soviets deported Anabaptists to Central Asia. On the other hand, Mennonite missionaries founded large churches in Southeast Asia and East Africa in the 20th century.
Today, Anabaptism includes many hundreds of churches and communities of independent local congregations worldwide (overview map below).
The largest group are the Mennonites; they are united in the Mennonite World Conference. It also includes various Brethren churches.
The Amish in the USA and Canada seek to preserve the traditions and customs of their founding era in the modern age; they are experiencing strong growth.
The Hutterites in North America go back to Jakob Hutter, who was burned at the stake in Innsbruck in 1536. They live in community of property.
More about Anabaptist related Churches: HERE
Links:
Conference of Swiss Mennonites
Mennonite World Conference
The Mennonite World Conference exists to be a global community of faith in the Anabaptist tradition, to facilitate relationships between Anabaptist-related churches worldwide, and to relate to other Christian world communions and organizations.
MWC represents the majority of the global family of Christian churches rooted in the 16th century Radical Reformation in Europe, particularly in the Anabaptist movement.
MWC membership in 2023 included one international association and 108 Mennonite and Brethren in Christ national churches from 60 countries, with around 1.45 million baptized believers in close to 10,180 congregations. About 84% of baptized believers in MWC member churches are African, Asian or Latin American, and 16% are located in Europe and North America.
