The Merger of the Ohio Mennonite and Amish Conferences / 197

us by the grace of God cast away all selfishness and malice and be as dear children in Christ. May the Lord bind us all together in love and union in our Lord and Master.

Behind these urges toward union (or more exactly reunion) was the wave of evangelism already referred to. In 1882 John S. Coffman had started to hold meetings in Ohio. A similar activity among the Amish Mennonites was promoted by D. J. Johns and Jonathan Kurtz of Indiana. Exchanges of pulpits occurred frequentIy. Congregations of both groups joined in the founding and support of charitable institutions. The home and foreign mission programs became increasingly something in which to unite effort and will. In the influential Mennonite Sunday school convention of 1894 at Bluffton, Ohio, both Mennonites and Amish Mennonites combined their forces.

Beginnings of Reunion

The first formal proceedings by the Amish Mennonites toward a merger took place at a conference held at New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, on May 30, 31, 1912. At this conference the following action was taken: "Inasmuch as brethren from the Ohio Mennonite Conference have been appointed to confer with the members of this conference on a question of bringing about a closer union between these two conferences, be it resolved, that a committee of four brethren be appointed to take the matter under advisement. The committee appointed consisted of John S. Mast, John E. Kauffman, Benjamin Gerig, and Fred Mast."' There is no record of the committee appointed by the Ohio Mennonite Conference.

In 1913 again there is no record of the report of the Ohio Mennonite Merger Committee, but the committee appointed by the Eastern Amish Mennonite Conference at the 1913 conference held at Smithville, Ohio, on May 27-30 gave the following report: In compliance with the last year's conference desires we as a committee appointed

pointed by the said body for investigating the feasibility' of merging the Ohio Mennonite and Eastern Amish Mennonite Conference beg to submit the following report: It is our opinion that the uniting of the two conferences should be encouraged, but because of a few vital circumstances in our district, we believe it to be a little soon to merge.

The committee was retained for the following year.'

In 1914 the Ohio Mennonite Conference passed the following