The Amish take very seriously the apostle Paul’s warning against those who “eateth and drinketh unworthily” (1 Corinthians 11:29)—those who participate in communion without first mending ruptured relationships. Thus members may seek out one another during communion season to heal old wounds in their relationships. Both at Council Meeting and again just prior to communion, each member affirms that he or she is at peace with others and ready to proceed with the holy event. On both days, the response needs to be unanimous, or nearly so, for the service to proceed.
The Holiest Days of the Year
Communion Sunday, the twice-yearly high point of the Amish year, is a lengthy service that stretches from about 8:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. without a formal break. During the lunch hour, people quietly take turns eating in small clusters in an adjoining room.
After the singing but before the first sermon, members reiterate their commitment to unity and desire for communion. Following the bishop’s lead, each minister and then each member affirms his or her peace with God and the
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.
The sermons that day follow a prescribed pattern. They survey a large portion of biblical history, beginning with creation and continuing through an overview of the Acts of the Apostles. The first preacher tracks the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, the Jewish Passover feast, and God’s command to observe it yearly as a reminder of his saving power. This preacher shifts back and forth between the patriarchs and Jesus, explaining, for example, that Jesus kept the Passover with his disciples but “gave His flesh and blood to redeem mankind from sin . . . and [then] commanded that his apostles and later, his church, should observe this feast in remembrance of Him.”
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The second sermon summarizes Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Jesus’ submission to God, his self-giving love for others, and his suffering in the face of evil are held up as models for daily living. The sermon concludes with a reading of one of the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper, in which Jesus washes the feet of his disciples, and a communion prayer from
Christenpflicht
.
Now well into the afternoon, the bishop thanks the congregation for its expression of unity, and he “gives the glory and honor to the Lord for the privilege to be together in such circumstances.” He then breaks pieces of bread from a loaf and offers them to members as a symbol of Jesus’ body broken on the cross. After this, the congregation drinks wine from a single cup to commemorate the blood of Jesus Christ.
When speaking of the bread and wine, the bishop stresses that each member is like a grain of wheat that is crushed to produce a loaf of bread, and like a grape that is pressed to make a bottle of wine. One bishop explained, “If one grain remains unbroken and whole, it can have no part in the whole . . . if one single berry remains whole, it has no share in the whole . . . and no fellowship with the rest.” These metaphors encourage individuals to yield their wills for the welfare of the larger body.
One final act remains in the daylong drama. Patterned after the example of Jesus, who washed his disciples’ feet in an act of humble service (John 13:1-20), church members divide into pairs—men with men, women with women—and remove their shoes and socks. Bending over a basin of warm water, each washes his or her partner’s feet and dries them with a towel.The two then stand and conclude with a handshake and a holy kiss. In the words of the Dordrecht Confession, this rite is “a sign of true humility and lowliness” that also symbolizes “the true washing, when we are washed through His precious blood and purified in our souls.”
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Footwashing does something else, too. As a physical and menial task, this bodily ritual concludes the holiest days of the Amish year with a stark reminder of the very practical and sometimes unpleasant realities of community. Having affirmed the importance of that community throughout the long communion season, members know that their life together remains imperfect, prone to petty problems and conflicts. Sustaining the joy of unity over the next six months will require ongoing effort and all the patient virtues that their worship has nourished.
CHAPTER SIX
Living Together
Discipline is important anywhere people are to live together in peace, and especially so in the church.
W
hen doctors told the Amish parents that their babies would survive, the couple’s relief and joy were immeasurable. Their premature twins had arrived with a host of complications, but the Indiana couple decided to accept the advanced technology necessary to keep them alive. Shortly after the twins came home, the family received a hospital bill that nearly topped a million dollars.
Such a bill would shake most Americans. For those without insurance, it would be a prescription for bankruptcy. Even for those with insurance, copayments, lifetime-benefit limits, premium increases, or a policy cancellation could jeopardize their financial futures.
Most Amish are troubled by rising health care costs, too, but their options and responses are decidedly different. With a few exceptions Amish people do not carry commercial insurance, nor do they participate in Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security.
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Although individual households cover their own medical bills as they are able, they often rely on the support of their
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or other Amish congregations in their region, especially for large expenses.
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Many Amish communities have negotiated discounts with local hospitals if they pay in cash within thirty or sixty days. Rounding up that cash is no small undertaking, but in nearly every case the church comes through—as it did for the new parents in Indiana.
Whereas health care evokes everything from awe to outrage among American consumers, for the Amish it’s an arena for spiritual formation and definition—from the act of declaring their church membership to qualify for a hospital’s cash-payment discount to helping one another so that their community can thrive. In a financially perilous world, mutual aid—the assistance that church members know they can count on—not only offers a crucial safety net but also articulates the deepest bonds of care within the
Gmay
.
Mutual Care Instead of Insurance
Many American Christians would say that they are part of a caring church that supports them in many ways, but few rely solely on their church to cover their medical costs. The courage to reject commercial insurance and government aid in modern society is only possible with the enduring help of a community of faith to assist with major medical expenses. The Amish believe that commercial insurance is “an attempt to make secure that which Jesus said is not secure.” True security for them comes when members take care of one another as much as possible. One Amish guidebook says that in “the world’s system of insurance . . . the poor man’s premiums are included in replacing the rich man’s loss. In the Scriptural pattern, the situation is reversed. . . . There are no selfish motives involved.”
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During the 1950s and 1960s, Amish people stoutly resisted participation in the U.S. Social Security program, insisting that it was the responsibility of families and churches to care for their own elderly and orphans. The Amish won exemption in 1965 largely because of their decades-long record of mutual care. The widespread use of
Dawdyhauses
(grandparent houses), built for in-laws and usually attached to family dwellings, testifies to this practice.
Amish charity has increasingly shifted from helping with fire and storm damage to covering the medical bills of members. Although procedures vary from one community to another, deacons always oversee the process. Each
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collects alms twice a year around communion time, when households donate to the deacon fund for community needs. Deacons have discretion in distributing the money, often to widows, the ill, and families with unusual bills.
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Communities meet the costs of larger and unexpected needs in various ways. Some have fire and storm aid plans, in which church members pay assessments and trustees make disbursements. Fundraising efforts such as benefit suppers and charity auctions are common ways to defray mounting medical bills. In a festival-like atmosphere, auction-goers bring goods to sell, and auctioneers donate their skills to sell the items—in some cases back to the very people who brought them! These events, filled with fun and fellowship, are successful community efforts to aid the needy.
This does not mean that individual families bear no financial responsibility. “Charity should begin at home,” writes one Amish leader. “If someone has a loss or hospital bill, he should pay what he can himself. Beyond that, his relatives are responsible to help.” This leader admits, however, that some costs require the help of the local congregation and “sister congregations” when the need is large. “If the people have the right love for each other and are willing to share the blessings God has given them, such a plan will work.”
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A Thinking-of-You Shower
Amish mutual aid occurs in more ordinary ways as well. The most legendary, visible form of mutual aid is the barn raising, when neighbors gather to rebuild a fire-ravaged barn, but because many Amish people now work in small shops, on constructions crews, and in other nonfarm jobs, fewer barns need replacing. Still, all Amish families receive practical aid from their community when they need a helping hand.
For example, a mother with five small children said, “If I need to go to town and need a babysitter, I have three cousins living within a mile of here, where I can drop off some of my girls anytime.” Following childbirth, whether at home or in a clinic or hospital, grandmothers, mothers, aunts, or sisters come to stay with the mother for a week or more, helping with the new baby and caring for other children. Neighbors may bring meals for even longer. And if a person is injured, church members assist with household and farm chores. One farmer in Ohio explained how he and a half dozen other Amish neighbors spent two days plowing the fields of a church member who was hospitalized for several days. “It’s a good feeling and also a lot of fun,” he said, “and I know if I have a problem, they’ll all be here doing it for me.”
Visiting one another is another means of emotional support, especially for the elderly and chronically ill. One Amish woman told us about visiting a friend on an off-Sunday. She and her husband made the twenty-mile trip by horse and buggy on one of the coldest days of winter. When we expressed surprise at taking such a chilly journey, she said simply that their friend was recovering from cancer and needed visitors.
Expressions of care often come from beyond the local church district in the form of card showers. Contributors to Amish newspapers encourage readers to write—or in some cases, send money—to cheer ill or lonely people. “Let’s have a thinking-of-you shower for Enos Yoder. He will be seventy-four March 15. He cannot do anything and has many long days,” began one request. “Let’s have a get well or whatever-you-wish shower for Mrs. Andy L. Hershberger,” urged another. “She had hip replacement surgery. Let’s fill her mailbox.”
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These showers generate scores of cards from people, many of whom the recipients will never meet because they live outside the community or state, but who reach out to fellow church members with concern and care.
What About the Wayward?
The practice of mutual aid has a flip side. The Amish, like anyone else, face the challenge of betrayal, disobedience, and offense. Coping with disobedience requires a different set of religious habits than mutual aid—rites that include confession, discipline, and shunning, all of which remind members of their spiritual responsibility to and for one another. The practice of shunning may seem harsh to outsiders, but the Amish see mutual aid and church discipline as two sides of the same coin. Both involve reciprocal relationships of accountability and respect, and both sustain community.
All human communities experience broken and tense relationships from time to time. Some twenty-first-century Americans choose anonymity, avoidance, and distance to cope when conflicts arise. Moreover, privacy fences and automatic garage doors allow people to bypass their neighbors, and career changes and divorce reflect a cultural impulse to start life again. The Amish, bound in close relationships, cannot easily move away or avoid conflict. Disagreements must be addressed head-on, often publicly and in the church. And those who betray their vows to the community are not ignored.
Amish churches deal with violations of the
Ordnung
through confession and, in some cases, discipline. If the social shaming of discipline does not change an offender’s attitudes and behaviors, the church may excommunicate and subsequently shun the person.
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