170 / Growth in the Early 1900's

The study probes into the processes of change in the community and the effect on the religious life of the people. The study is convincing that here isolation from the influences of a mass society is not possible. (It goes without saying that complete isolation has not been possible in any other of the numerous Amish communities which have become a part of the Ohio and Eastern Mennonite Conference.)

The changes in the community out of which came the Sharon Mennonite Church are quite similar to the changes which have influenced virtually all the other communities in this study. The differences are in detail, in time, and in rate of change but not in direction taken, since the changes themselves and the forces producing them are essentially the same. In the Plain City community, as elsewhere, the resistance to change in the religious life of the Amish was at conflict with the necessity or desire for change in the economic life.

The changes in the larger society (modern inventions and applied technology) sharpened the conflict for the Amish. The Amish could no longer compete with their neighbors who used the new inventions and machinery such as automobiles, electricity, and tractors. Slowly changes took place among the Amish but not to everyone's satisfaction. Some favored more innovations than did others and were willing to form a new congregation that permitted them. For these persons the German language was no longer sacred. The larger society's values in education, recreation, homelife, and occupation became more and more accepted by a part of the Amish community and, having decided to form a new religious life, this group then sought to affiliate with a Mennonite body or with some other Amish body that had also changed.

That new patterns are not accepted by everyone to the same degree is seen in the following statement from the study: "From a community one hundred per cent Old Order Amish in 1926 has developed a community with a church affiliation of 26.7 per cent Old Order, 20.8 per cent in the two Beachy churches, 25.8 per cent in the two Conservative Churches, and 26.7 per cent in the Mennonite Church.""

The future of this community and others similar to it will bear watching as technology grows, as urban areas develop, as family life changes, and as religious and spiritual values are then retained or modified in the process.