The Lancaster Amish affiliation is the largest affiliation among the

Old Order Amish The Amish (; pdc, Amisch; german: link=no, Amische), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsace, Alsatian origins. They are close ...

and as such a subgroup of Amish. Its origin and largest settlement is Lancaster County in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. The settlement in Lancaster County, founded in 1760 near Churchtown is the oldest Amish settlement that is still in existence.

Practice and belief

Even though the Lancaster affiliation is quite liberal concerning the use of technology compared to other Amish affiliations (see table below), it is an affiliation that practices ''strenge Meidung'' (strict

shunning Shunning can be the act of social rejection, or emotional distance. In a religious context, shunning is a formal decision by a denomination or a congregation to cease interaction with an individual or a group, and follows a particular set of rul ...

). Lancaster affiliation buggies have gray tops.

Settlements and districts

Lancaster affiliation had 141 church districts in 1991 and 286 in 2010. In 2011 it was present in eight states in 37 settlements with 291 church districts.Donald B. Kraybill, Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, Steven M. Nolt: ''The Amish'', Baltimore 2013, page 139. It represents about 15 percent of the Old Order Amish population, that is about 45,000 out of about 300,000 in 2015.

References

Literature

* Donald B. Kraybill, Karen M. Johnson-Weiner and Steven M. Nolt: ''The Amish'', Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2013. * Charles Hurst and David McConnell: ''An Amish Paradox. Diversity and Change in the World's Largest Amish Community'', Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2010 * Steven Nolt and Thomas J. Meyers: ''Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities'', Baltimore MD 2007. * Donald B. Kraybill: ''The Riddle of Amish Culture'', Baltimore MD 2002. {{Amish Old Order Amish