Ohio and Eastern Mennonite Conference (Mennonite Church), first known as the Ohio Mennonite and Eastern Amish Mennonite Joint Conference, was formed in 1927 by a merger of the Ohio Mennonite Conference and the Eastern Amish Mennonite Conference. The new conference held its first full session in 1928. In 1955 it dropped the last vestige of the age-old separation by adopting as its official title the present name. At that time the annual report showed a total of 11,109 members, 78 congregations, 26 bishops, 109 ministers, and 96 deacons. The membership as reported in the 1958 Mennonite Yearbook was 65 organized congregations and 37 unorganized congregations or mission stations with a total of 10,893 baptized members. The apparent decrease was due to the withdrawal of several eastern congregations to unite with their nearer conference, the Southwestern Pennsylvania, now known as the Allegheny Conference: Maple Grove at Belleville in 1944 and the following in 1957: Allensville, Otelia, Rockville, and Mattawana. The combined membership of these congregations in 1958 was 594. There were still 22 congregations in the conference east of Ohio, with some 2,400 members (mostly in Eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland), sufficient to warrant the name Ohio and Eastern.

In 1978 congregations east of Ohio formed the Atlantic Coast Conference, and the remaining members formed the Ohio Conference of the Mennonite Church.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 30. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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