Basic Information

The Mennonite Church grew out of the 16th century Swiss Brethren and was named for Menno Simons, one of their Dutch leaders. It is the largest and oldest of the Mennonite bodies in North America. Many other U.S. Mennonite groups derive from it. Organization within the church was slow since each congregation tended to be autonomous.

History

	Mennonite Church USA	continuedMennonite Church USA
		split into Church of God in Christ, Mennonite (1859) Old Order (Wisler) Mennonite Church (1870) Reformed Mennonite Church (1812)

Snapshot

	1990	2000	Growth/Decline
Congregations	1,499	1,066	-433 (-28.9%)
Adherents	195,210	156,345	-38,865 (-19.9%)

Notes

Snapshot data are from Churches and Church Membership in the United States 1990 and Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Copyright © 2002, Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB). All rights reserved. Published by Glenmary Research Center, 1312 Fifth Ave., North, Nashville, TN 37208. www.glenmary.org/grc.

History data were taken from the National Council of Churches' Historic Archive CD and recent editions of the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches [More information on history data sources]