Old Order Mennonite in the context of "Amish"

Conservative Mennonites include numerous Conservative Anabaptist groups that identify with the theologically conservative element among Mennonite Anabaptist Christian fellowships, but who are not Old Order groups or mainline denominations.

Conservative Mennonites adhere to Anabaptist doctrine as contained in the Schleitheim Confession and the Dordrecht Confession, with Doctrines of the Bible compiled by Mennonite bishop Daniel Kauffman being used for catechesis. Seven Ordinances are observed in Conservative Mennonite churches, which include "baptism, communion, footwashing, marriage, anointing with oil, the holy kiss, and the prayer covering."

In the Anabaptist tradition, an Ordnung is a set of rules describing the way of life of church members. The term is mostly used by Amish and Old Order Mennonites. Ordnung (pronounced [ˈɔʁdnʊŋ] ) is the German word for order, discipline, rule, arrangement, organization, or system. Because the Amish have no central church government, each assembly is autonomous and is its own governing authority. Thus, every local church maintains an individual set of rules, adhering to its own Ordnung, which may vary from district to district as each community administers its own guidelines. Among the Amish, these rules are largely unwritten, yet they define the very essence of Amish identity. Conservative Mennonites refer to Ordnung by the English terms "discipline" or "standard", and their rules are usually written.

Amish Mennonites came into existence through reform movements among North American Amish mainly between 1862 and 1878. These Amish moved away from the old Amish traditions and drew near to the Mennonites, becoming Mennonites of Amish origin. Over the decades, most Amish Mennonites groups removed the word "Amish" from the name of their congregations or merged with Mennonite groups.

In the latest decades the term "Amish Mennonite" is sometimes erroneously used to designate horse-and-buggy Old Order Mennonites, whose lifestyle is more or less similar to the Old Order Amish. Sometimes the term "Amish Mennonite" is used to designate all groups of Amish, both the Old Order Amish and the Amish Mennonites and also the Amish before this division in the second half of the 19th century. The Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online uses the term "Amish Mennonite" in this sense.

The Fancy Dutch (German: Hoch-Deutsche), also known as the High-Dutch, and historically as the Pennsylvania High Germans (German: Pennsylvanisch Hoch-Deutsche), are the Pennsylvania Dutch who do not belong to Plain Dutch sects. Unlike the Amish, the conservative Dunkards, or Old Order Mennonites, they do not wear plain clothing, and can fight in wars. Many popularly associated characteristics of Pennsylvania Dutch culture, including spielwerk, hex signs, and other aspects of Pennsylvania Dutch art, music, and folklore, are derived from the Fancy Dutch. The tourism industry and mainstream media often erroneously attribute such contributions to the more conservative Plain Dutch, though they would reject these aspects of their more worldly Fancy counterparts.

For most of the 19th century, the Fancy Dutch far outnumbered the Plain groups among the Pennsylvania Dutch. But since the two World Wars and the subsequent suppression of the German language in the US, as well as socioeconomic trends generally, there was substantial pressure on the Pennsylvania Dutchmen to assimilate. All the while, the Amish population has grown, especially in recent decades.

Old Order Anabaptism is a collection of communities that have preserved the old ways of Anabaptist Christian religion and lifestyle.

Historically, an Old Order movement emerged in the second half of the 19th century among the Amish, Mennonites of South German and Swiss ancestry as well as the Schwarzenau Brethren and River Brethren in the United States and Canada. The Hutterites are additionally regarded as being Old Order Anabaptists, as they continued the practice of communal living. The Old Order movement led to several Old Order divisions from mainstream Anabaptist groups between 1845 and 1901. All Old Order Anabaptist groups that emerged after 1901 divided from established Old Order Anabaptist groups or were formed by people coming from different Old Order Anabaptist groups.

The Virginia Old Order Mennonite Conference, also called Cline Mennonites or Cline-Showalter group, is an Old Order Mennonite group to use horse-drawn carriages for transportation. It separated from the Virginia Mennonite Conference in 1901. The members of the group speak English only, unlike almost all other horse and buggy Old Order Mennonite groups, who speak Pennsylvania German as their first language. In recent years the group sometimes uses the name "Riverdale Old Order Mennonite Church".

The Amish (/ˈɑːmɪʃ/ , also /ˈæmɪʃ/ or /ˈeɪmɪʃ/; Pennsylvania German: Amisch), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships with Swiss and Alsatian origins. Because they maintain a degree of separation from surrounding populations, and hold their faith in common, the Amish have been described by certain scholars as an ethnoreligious group, combining features of an ethnicity and a Christian denomination. The Amish are closely related to Old Order Mennonites and Conservative Mennonites, denominations that are also a part of Anabaptist Christianity. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and slowness to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view neither to interrupt family time, nor replace face-to-face conversations whenever possible, and a view to maintain self-sufficiency. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility and Gelassenheit (submission to God's will).

The Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish. In the second half of the 19th century, the Amish divided into Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites; the latter do not abstain from using motor cars, whereas the Old Order Amish retained much of their traditional culture. When people refer to the Amish today, they normally refer to the Old Order Amish, though there are other subgroups of Amish. The Amish fall into three main subgroups—the Old Order Amish, the New Order Amish, and the Beachy Amish—all of whom wear plain dress and live their life according to the Bible as codified in their church's Ordnung. The Old Order Amish and New Order Amish conduct their worship in German, speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and use buggies for transportation, in contrast to the Beachy Amish who use modern technology (inclusive of motor cars) and conduct worship in the local language of the area in which they reside. Both the New Order Amish and the Beachy Amish emphasize the New Birth, evangelize to seek converts, and have Sunday schools.