The Amish do not build shrines or worship in cathedrals or temples, or mosques. They worship at home, for them, the most sacred space.

Their worship is as fascinating as their lives. And as simple.

The nature of their worship is the complete reverse of the way the “English”  worship.  Even Quakers build Meeting Houses for their services.

Their connection to faith is seamless, their worship is integrated into every part of their lives. They don’t need to step outside of their own homes or lives to worship, all they need is a horse and wagon.

Spectacle, success, images, power, grandiosity are not sought or valued; they never come at the expense of family, peacefulness, God, and community.

Sunday church services reenact the deep meanings of Gelassenheit in the Amish moral order. The sanctuary may be a home, a barn, even a shop for three hours every other Sunday.

Amish services approximate a medieval monastic session; they are interwoven with humility, patience, and silence.

The Mennonite World Review described Gelassenheit as “the state or quality of being easy-going or laid-back.”

According to the Global Anabaptist Encyclopedia Online, these are the multiple meanings of the word: “self-surrender, resignation in God’s will, yieldedness to God’s will, self-abandonment, a (passive) opening to God’s willing, including the readiness to suffer for the sake of God, also peace and calmness of mind.”

Like most Amish rituals, the church service mixes social structure and cultural values and celebrates their deepest religious beliefs.

Almost everything the Amish do is meant to reinforce their identity. Contrary to public belief, their worship is not secret. They don’t talk about it.

Outsiders are often invited to attend some or all of the services.

Meeting at home is meant to reinforce the idea that Amish religion is not tied to monuments, statues, scribes, or priests, or elaborate structures, but daily life.

Each Gmay – or service – gathers every other week or 26 times a year. Each household hosts church about once a year in a typical Amish community.

Each household is open for the inspection of others. Cleaning and preparation begin weeks in advance. Each worship district (and many individual farms) are stacked with backless benches delivered by bench wagons.

The wagon carries benches but also eating utensils, songbooks, a prayer book, and A Bible. If a district is small, these items may be stored in barns. Traditionally, the bench wagon arrives a few days early.

Services begin between eight and nine o’clock in the morning.

To arrive on time, farm families begin their chores early on Sunday mornings. Members walk if possible or arrive by horse and buggy.

One family member told me that pacing their horses on time is an art form for the Amish; they can’t simply speed up to make up for lost time.

Benches for worship are arranged in two sections – one for men and one for women. They face each other. Neither ministers nor members carry Bibles to church.

The term minister refers to the ordained or elected men – a bishop, two or three preachers, and a deacon – who lead the congregation.

Amish ministers do not preach with robes on or behind a lectern but stand not the floor a few feet from their congregants and always at their level.

Church services are conducted in two languages.

The hymns, Scripture reading, and prayers are read from old German texts, but the ministers preach in Pennsylvania Dutch, the first language of the Amish, the one they speak in their own homes.

Unlike most Christian worship services, there are no printed bulletins, no icons or statues or stained glass or religious symbols, stars, candles, no cross, altar, chimes, candles, robes, incense, or stained glass windows.

There is no choir, the congregation does all of the singing, and the singing is done without organ, piano, or other instrumental accompaniment.

Silence is dramatic and pronounced at Amish services, an integral part of worship. There is no electricity, video, amplifiers, microphones, sound system.

Silence prevails until the singing begins.

The worship service is a common and universal experience for everyone living in the district, from small babies to the aged. There are no nurseries, age-defined classes, no Sunday school or programs, or panels for special interest or discussion groups.

Even though the Amish are an unabashedly patriarchal society,  they are also a soft patriarchy.

No Amish community has ever gone to war to punish its rivals or dominate territories. No Amish person has ever tortured or burned to death heretics and blasphemers or killed the firstborn of their enemies.

The Amish emphasize in their services what they seek in their lives – unity, infirmity, and community over individual interests or special interest groups.

To me, the gathered community reflects what is visible in their lives outside of the church. Wherever possible, the Amish have constructed simplicity systems, where the English (us) build structures of expensive and elaborate complexity.

No troll or hacker in Russia will ever shut down an Amish home or community, there is nothing to shut down; their worship of simplicity extends far beyond church and is visible in their homes.

They have built almost impenetrable walls of simplicity around their lives.

There is no intermediary, no structure, no clergy in between them and their idea of God. It is both simple and pure.

There is no administrative overhead in an Amish community because there is no administration: no salaries, offices, technology, facility maintenance, or security systems.

People ask me all the time why Amish farmers have survived, and other family farms are collapsing. The answer is simple: no labor costs, no debt, no expensive buildings, budgets, performances, or professional staff.

They are truly a society built on minimalism; they reject almost every effort to complicate their lives. They protect their core, always, even as they compromise when they must.

Their interactions with the outside world are many, but they are also bounded.

The simple gathering in a private home magnifies a start and unique reality – the gathered community is the sacred object blessed by divine presence.

Amish worship reflects Amish life.

They don’t use cathedrals or robed icons to attract or stir people. There are no priests or rabbis, or imams to tell them what to do.

God is not in buildings or Popes; God is present in every part of their lives.

I want to thank Donald B. Kraybill, Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, Steven M. Nolt, three different Amish families, one Amish minister, and an Amish elder for their help in describing services in several different Amish districts, including the one I live in. Visitors are sometimes permitted, but they are asked to keep their invitations secret.

The Amish do not consider their services a secret to be withheld from outsiders. Panels convened for punishment or counsel are private.