The Ordnung: The Unwritten Law That Governs Everything
Near Berlin, Ohio
Every Amish congregation lives by what is called the Ordnung, a German word that translates as order or discipline. The Ordnung is the code of rules and standards that governs community life from the style of dress a member may wear to the technology a household may use to the way discipline is administered and the way a barn must be built. In most Amish communities it is not a written document.
It is passed down through community practice, through observation, through the decisions of bishops and deacons, and through a twice-yearly church ritual in which members publicly affirm their continued commitment to its standards. The specific rules of the Ordnung vary from congregation to congregation. In some communities buttons are forbidden on clothing and hooks and eyes are used instead.
In some orders certain fabric colors are restricted. In the strictest orders, no technology more advanced than what would have been available in an eighteenth century Swiss farming community is permitted in the home. In others, electricity may be used in a business setting but not in a house, or a shared phone may be kept in an outbuilding but never inside a home.
These distinctions can appear arbitrary from the outside, but they serve a consistent purpose: keeping the community together and keeping it meaningfully distinct from the world beyond its boundaries. The Ordnung is not primarily a list of prohibitions. It is the lived shape of a community's shared faith, renewed twice every year by every adult who chooses to remain in it.
