Plain meetinghouses
Subtitle: Lancaster County Old Order Mennonites gather to worship
By: Beth Oberholtzer ; photographs by John Herr
Contributors: Herr, John P., photographer
Publisher: Schiffer Publishing; Schiffer
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 224
ISBN-13: 9780764353017
Subjects: Church architecture; Mennonite church buildings
Description: "Old Order Mennonites are deeply faithful, agrarian-rooted, Swiss-German Anabaptists who have called Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, home for 300 years. Their meetinghouses silently embody their religious traditions, and yet few outsiders have seen the startling utilitarian beauty of these rural structures up close. The author and photographer were allowed rare access to 22 austere houses of worship. The result is a one-of-a-kind book featuring over 300 photos and diagrams that document all aspects of the meetinghouses, from the design of their benches and buggy sheds to the arrangement of tables central to worship. As fast-growing Lancaster County encroaches on the Old Order way of life, their communities are changing. This book is a record of an extraordinary religious heritage"--provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (page 222) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: design and meaning; title: Free to worship: early Mennonite meetingshouses; title: Along the Pike: Stauffer and Weaver Mennonites; title: The schism: one conference becomes two; title: Faith and design: Old Order traditions; title: Held in common: Weaverland and Groffdale shared meetinghouses; title: Joe Wengers: Groffdale Conference; title: Thirty-Fivers: Reidenbach Old Order Mennonites; title: Hornings: Weaverland Conference.