Kempsville Amish Mennonite Church (Kempsville, Virginia, USA)
The Old Order Amish settlement in Kempsville, Virginia, USA in 1900 became one of the more progressive Amish settlements. It constructed a meetinghouse in 1913, and introduced Sunday school in 1922. It accepted the use of tractors in 1920, electricity in 1927 and pneumatic tires in 1934. Concurrently, the congregation discouraged tobacco and alcohol usage and bed courtship, practices prevalent in many other Old Order congregations at the time.
The co-operative, Amish-owned Yoder Dairies prospered in the 1930s, and purchased a fleet of trucks for home deliveries. This focused the issue of ownership and use of automobiles to a head. Communion was not held in the congregation for several years. Those who favored use of motorized vehicles organized as the Kempsville Amish Mennonite Church with Simon L. Yoder as minister. It became part of the Beachy Amish Mennonite Fellowship. The minority group, led by Bishop Simon D. Schrock and Minister Eli M. Yoder moved to Stuarts Draft, Virginia by 1944. German remained the language of worship at Kempsville until 1961.
The 1913 meetinghouse was enlarged and remodeled several times; a new meetinghouse was constructed in 1968 on North Landing Road in what was then Princess Anne and is now part of Virginia Beach.
Kempsville Amish Mennonite, probably because of the increasing urbanization in the community, helped to start a number of new Beachy Amish settlements, including Montezuma Amish Mennonite in Georgia, Franklin Amish Mennonite in Kentucky, Farmville Christian Fellowship in Virginia, and the settlement in Abbeville, South Carolina.
Bibliography
"Amish Mennonite Churches in Virginia." The Beachy Amish Mennonites. 2013. Web. 12 February 2018. http://www.beachyam.org/churches/va.htm.
Anderson, Cory. The Amish-Mennonites of North America: a portrait of our people. Medina, New York: Ridgeway Publishing, 2012: 64-65.
Anderson, Cory Alexander. "The Diffusion of Beachy Amish Mennonite Congregations in the US South: A Regional Chronicle and Spatial Analysis." Unpublished paper, 2006: 15-16. Web. 12 February 2018. http://www.beachyam.org/librarybooks/Anderson(2006)_Diffusion.pdf.
Beachy, Alvin J. "The Rise and Development of the Beachy Amish Mennonite Churches," Mennonite Quarterly Review 29 (April 1955): 118 ff.
Mennonite Church Directory (2014): 42; (2017): 44; (2019): 44.
Yoder, Elmer S. The Beachy Amish Mennonite Fellowship Churches. Hartville, Ohio: Diakonia Ministries, 1987: 360-362.
Zook, Leon R. The Amish-Mennonites of Kempsville, Virginia: 1900-1970. Leroy Miller, ed. [Virginia]: The Donning Company, 1995. Available in full electronic text at: http://www.beachyam.org/librarybook/kempsville/Zook_HighQ.pdf.
Additional Information
Address: 3261 North Landing Road, Virginia Beach, VA
Phone: 757-427-0375
Denominational Affiliation:
Beachy Amish Mennonite Fellowship
Pastoral Leaders at Kempsville Amish Mennonite Church
| Name | Years of Service |
|---|---|
| Simon L. Yoder | 1940-1953 |
| Jacob J. Hostetler (Minister) (Bishop) |
1941-1960 1960-1965 |
| Jonas H. Hershberger (Minister) (Bishop) |
1942 1942-1953 |
| Paul D. Brenneman (Minister) (Bishop) |
1955 1955-1959 |
| Ezra Troyer | 1940s-1969 |
| Crist M. Mast | 1956-1971 |
| Raymond Kauffman | 1966-2018 |
| Henry Raber | 1972-1978 |
| Lloyd D. Brenneman (Minister) (Bishop) |
1977-1991 1991-2018 |
| Marcus Kauffman (Minister) (Bishop) |
2008-2018 2018-present |
Membership at Kempsville Amish Mennonite Church
| Year | Membership |
|---|---|
| 1945 | 104 |
| 1950 | 162 |
| 1955 | 126 |
| 1960 | 152 |
| 1965 | 140 |
| 1975 | 61 |
| 1985 | 45 |
| 1995 | 62 |
| 2007 | 69 |
| 2015 | 40 |
Map
Map:Kempsville Amish Mennonite Church (Kempsville, Virginia, USA)
Original Mennonite Encyclopedia Article
By Melvin Gingerich. Copied by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 165. All rights reserved.
The Kempsville Amish Mennonite Church (Beachy Amish) is located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in the southeastern part of the state. An Old Order Amish community had been established here near the beginning of the 20th century by settlers, many of whom came from Somerset County, Pennsylvania. In 1940 some of the later arrivals in the community led a movement to allow ownership of automobiles by members of the congregation. This produced a schism and the formation of the Kempsville church. After this event, most of the Old Order who did not join the progressive group moved out of the community. In 1955 the congregation had 150 members, with Jacob J. Hershberger and Ezra N. Troyer serving as ministers and Paul Brenneman as bishop. The congregation operated a parochial school, fully organized in 1946. Providence Conservative Mennonite Church wa organized here in 1952, with Simon Coblentz as bishop. Some 15 families left the community in 1953 to found a new congregation at Montezuma, Georgia.
| Author(s) | Samuel J Steiner |
|---|---|
| Date Published | April 2019 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Steiner, Samuel J. "Kempsville Amish Mennonite Church (Kempsville, Virginia, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. April 2019. Web. 18 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Kempsville_Amish_Mennonite_Church_(Kempsville,_Virginia,_USA)&oldid=165335.
APA style
Steiner, Samuel J. (April 2019). Kempsville Amish Mennonite Church (Kempsville, Virginia, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 18 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Kempsville_Amish_Mennonite_Church_(Kempsville,_Virginia,_USA)&oldid=165335.
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