Mennonites of St Jacobs

Last weekend we visited St. Jacobs, a charming country town surrounded by sprawling farmland that is home to a community of over 4000 Mennonites. The first Swiss-Germanic Mennonites settled in St Jacobs in the early 1800s, with many more coming to the area in the 1920s and later during the Second World War. The Mennonite culture shares some similarities with the Amish and Quakers. Mennonites practice Christianity as Anabaptists, meaning that they are baptised as adults, under their own free will. Church buildings are unadorned by religious decorations or iconography, and this simplicity and humility are cornerstones of the Mennonite culture. There are three main orders, the 'Old Order', 'New Order' and 'Progressive' Mennonites.

The Old Order Mennonites are the most traditional, shunning all technology and choosing to live and work without the aid of electricity. The women wear long black dresses and bonnets and the men wear long sleeved shirts, pants, suspenders and wide-brimmed straw hats. The Old Order Mennonites get around via horse and buggy and tend to their farms with horse-drawn plows. Most farms in the area are quite small, just enough for one family to manage. Agricultural produce is sold within the Mennonite community and at the local St Jacobs Farmer's market, which is open to the public. The farming is not intended to be commercial, but rather to provide food for the family and maintain a simple way of life.

The New Order and Progressive Mennonites are less extreme. They utilize some technology in their lives and dress in more modern clothing (although it is often plain). They may own cars (although they must be black) and they often live in the town instead of on a farm.

In the morning, we walked around the huge outdoor farmer's market and bought some lovely local produce (jams, apricots, nectarines, cherries) and sampled some apple fritters, perogies and a freshly-baked pretzel. Afterwards we drove through the nearby farmland. The fields were all so incredibly green and full of life, it's hard to believe winter only ended a couple of months ago. As if on cue, a flock of fuzzy lambs appeared and romped around playfully in the grass for our enjoyment. It was refreshing to get a brief glimpse of a more simple, peaceful and wholesome life, only to return to busy, noisy downtown Toronto..

Mennonite Church and cemetery