More than 100 residents of the greater Cazenovia area crowded into the Cazenovia Public Library community room last week to hear from members of the Peterboro-Cazenovia-Canastota Amish community who offered a discussion on Amish life, history, tradition and culture.

The presentation, titled “Our Amish Neighbors,” was sponsored by the Cazenovia Area Community Development Association (CACDA) as part of its 2015 Community Building Signature Project.

“It has been nine years since the Amish moved into Cazenovia. We are very fortunate they’ve come here — they have breathed new life into farms that might otherwise be abandoned, they increase the diversity of our community and they are just wonderful people,” said Jimmy Golub, CACDA board member and Signature Project chairperson at the beginning of the event.

Golub said he did not believe there had been much contact, much “understanding and appreciation” of the Amish culture by the local community, and this event was designed to remedy that deficiency.

Golub introduced six Amish family patriarchs who were in attendance at the event, and the men introduced the members of their families who were also present. The men also stated where they lived and what they farmed, which included everything from beef to milk to fowl, maple syrup, vegetables and eggs.

Nathan Weaver, a resident of East Mile Strip Road between Peterboro and Canastota, gave the presentation.

Weaver gave a brief history of the Amish, which started with the Anabaptist religious beliefs that began during the Protestant Reformation in Europe in the 16th century. This ultimately led in 1693 to followers of Jacob Amman separating from the Mennonite faith, founded by Menno Simon, and creating the Amish faith.

“There is a huge variation amongst the Amish,” Weaver said. “That sometimes can be confusing to outsiders.”

Weaver said there are extremely liberal and extremely conservative Amish communities and community members, as well as varying degrees in between. The Peterboro-Cazenovia-Canastota Amish community, for example, is more liberal than the Amish community in nearby Georgetown.

Weaver said the 17 families in the Peterboro-Cazenovia-Canastota Amish community came to Cazenovia nine years ago mostly from Holmes County, Ohio, which is the largest Amish community in the world. They left Ohio because of a shortage of available farmland, he said. They decided to relocate to Central New York because the area offered the three main items they wanted: Good soil, a working dairy infrastructure and affordable land.

“It’s been a wonderful experience,” Weaver said. “We’ve been welcomed with open arms.”

Weaver’s presentation offered descriptions and explanations of certain aspects of the Amish belief system, including their educational system, religious beliefs, church services, restrictions on technology and common misconceptions.

Education — The Cazenovia area Amish community has a “typical” education system in which boys and girls in grades 1 through 8 learn from two teachers in a one-room schoolhouse. Amish education ends at eighth grade because they believe that level of education is sufficient to be of service to oneself and to one’s community, Weaver said. “We limit our education because of our belief in losing ourselves in our community,” he said. With everyone having the same amount of education, no one can exalt himself over others because he may have an advanced degree, he said.

Voting and paying taxes — The Amish can vote, but generally do not, Weaver said. They do pay all the same taxes as non-Amish, except for Social Security, from which they are exempt. The Amish “take care of their own” community members, which the U.S. government recognizes, he said.

Religious beliefs — The Amish believe in the Bible as truth and uphold Christ’s life and call to discipleship, Weaver said. “His call to simplicity is something we adhere to,” he said. The church consists of a bishop, two ministers and one deacon. All decisions of the church are unanimous or they do not pass; every member, male and female, receives one vote.

Amish church services are three hours long, and occur in the home. There is no central church because the Amish believe “the people are the church, and when people see how we dress they think of the church,” Weaver said. “The church is within us, in the people, not in a building, not centralized.”

The contents of an Amish church — backless benches, song books, Bibles, prayer books — all get loaded onto a wagon every four weeks and move to someone else’s house.

The Amish live and dress the way they do because the Bible promotes modesty, and because they “want to be separate from the world,” Weaver said.

Weaver suggested that people interested in the Amish interpretation of the Bible should read, “The Anabaptist Vision” By Harold S. Bender.

Restrictions on technology — The Amish are best known for the absence of technology in their daily lives, but they are not completely anti-technology,” Weaver said. “We’re not Luddites. … We want to control technology so technology does not control us,” he explained. He said that technology “turned loose” on society has “disrupted” many rural communities, and anything that interrupts the “fabric of community” or of the “family unit” is something the Amish reject.

For example, Amish families all sit down at the table three times a day every day for meals, before, during and after which they spend time as a family — they do not spend their mealtimes separated by frozen dinners watched in front of televisions or while playing on iPhones.

A typical evening in an Amish home is spent reading, talking, playing board games or outdoor games in the summer, and just spending time together as a family, Weaver said.

Weaver said the best book to read to understand the Amish belief in the restriction on the use of technology is “The Riddle of Amish Culture,” by Donald Crayville.

The event lasted about two hours, during which there were numerous questions from the audience. Golub also announced that as part of CACDA’s 2015 Signature Project the organization has received funding from the CNY Community Foundation to install hitching rails at Buyea’s True Value and at Tops to make it easier for the Amish to park their horses and buggies when they come into Cazenovia to shop. The hitching posts will be in place later this year.

“This event exceeded our expectations,” said Lauren Lines, executive director of CACDA. “We are very grateful for the Amish families who presented such an interesting and thought provoking discussion. We are also pleased with the incredible turnout by community members and the very welcoming reception offered to our Amish neighbors.”

Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia republican. He can be reached at [email protected].