![]() Hutterite women at work | |
Total population | |
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![]() (2020) | |
Founder | |
Jakob Hutter | |
Regions with significant populations | |
North America (notably South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan) | |
Religions | |
Anabaptist | |
Scriptures | |
The Bible | |
Languages | |
Hutterite German, Standard German, English |
Part of a series on |
Anabaptism |
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Hutterites (German: Hutterer), also called Hutterian Brethren (German: Hutterische Brüder), are a communal ethnoreligious branch of Anabaptists, who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the early 16th century and have formed intentional communities.[1]
The founder of the Hutterites, Jakob Hutter, "established the Hutterite colonies on the basis of the Schleitheim Confession, a classic Anabaptist statement of faith" of 1527, and the first communes were formed in 1528.[2][3][4] Since the death of Hutter in 1536, the beliefs of the Hutterites, especially those espousing a community of goods and nonresistance, have resulted in hundreds of years of diaspora in many countries.[3] The Hutterites embarked on a series of migrations through central and eastern Europe. Nearly extinct by the 18th century, they migrated to Russia in 1770 and about a hundred years later to North America. Over the course of 140 years, their population living in communities of goods recovered from about 400 to around 50,000 at present. Today, almost all Hutterites live in Western Canada and the upper Great Plains of the United States.
Hutter was important because he was a fearless, effective leader and because he established the Hutterite colonies on the basis of the Schleitheim Confession, a classic Anabaptist statement of faith.
The essential beliefs and practices of the Hutterites are embodied in the Schleitheim Confession of Faith. Thus, in addition to a set of community rules for Christian living and the principle of worldly separation, the Hutterites, in accordance with the Schleitheim Articles, subscribe to the faith baptism of sin-conscious adults; the universal spiritual church of believers; the complete separation of church and state; pacifism and the refusal to bear arms; and the rejection of oaths of allegiance.
The Hutterites are an Anabaptist group founded in 1528 in Moravia.