Evangelical United Mennonites
Evangelical United Mennonites, 1879-83, formed October 1879 by a merger of the Evangelical Mennonite Society (Gehman group 1858-79) of Pennsylvania, and the United Mennonites of Canada, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio (1875-79), a transition group which became the Mennonite Brethren in Christ in 1883 by the addition of the Swankite (Ohio) faction of the Brethren in Christ (1861-83).
The United Mennonites were themselves the result of a merger of three small groups in 1875, two of which were based in Ontario. The New Mennonites in Ontario had emerged in the late 1840s and 1850s under the early leadership of Daniel Hoch in Vineland, and later by John McNally, Samuel Schlichter, Abraham Raymer, John Steckley and Christian Troyer. The issues in that division included organized prayer meetings that included a very expressive piety. The Reforming Mennonites in Ontario resulted from a division in the Mennonite Conference of Ontario in 1874 following several years of conflict over the introduction of revivalism and a Methodist-style piety. Solomon Eby was the leader of this group. The Reformed Mennonites in Indiana, also formed in 1874, were led by Daniel Brenneman, who worked in close association with Solomon Eby.
At the time of the Evangelical United Mennonite union in 1879, the group had some 40 ministers and 18 congregations, organized into 3 district conferences, Ontario, Pennsylvania, and Indiana-Ohio-Michigan. The discipline of the United Mennonites (slightly revised) was adopted for the merged group. The presiding elders of the three conferences during this period were as follows: Pennsylvania -- William Gehman 1880-1891; Ontario -- Solomon Eby 1875-1886; Indiana-Ohio-Michigan -- Daniel Brenneman 1879-1880, 1881-1882, 1883-1884. By 1883 the group had 58 ministers, 37 churches (and 76 preaching places), and 2,076 members.
Bibliography
The Doctrines and Discipline of the Evangelical United Mennonites of Canada and the United States. Goshen, 1880.
German edition of the above, 1880.
Huffman, Jasper A. History of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church. New Carlisle, O.: The Bethel Pub. Co, 1920.
| Author(s) | Harold S Bender |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1956 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Bender, Harold S. "Evangelical United Mennonites." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Evangelical_United_Mennonites&oldid=115158.
APA style
Bender, Harold S. (1956). Evangelical United Mennonites. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Evangelical_United_Mennonites&oldid=115158.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, pp. 267-268. All rights reserved.
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