Amana Church Society

Amana Church Society , corporate name of a group of seven small villages in E central Iowa, clustered around the Iowa River NW of Iowa City; settled 1855 by members of the Ebenezer Society. The society originated in one of the Pietist religious groups of 17th-century Germany. Led by Christian Metz (1794-1867), 800 members emigrated to the United States in 1842 to escape persecution at home. Settling first near Buffalo, N.Y., they developed a communal way of life that reached its flowering in Iowa. Amana became one of the most successful of such communities in America. In 1932 it was made a cooperative corporation, with separation of religious and economic administration. Long famous for the products of their woolen mills (especially blankets) and farms, the quaint villages also attract many visitors. The name Amana is used for a refrigerator and appliance company located there; the company is not owned by the society. There are about 500 members of the society today.

Bibliography: See study by J. Liffring-Zug (1975).

Amana Society. A small Christian sect, also known as the Community of True Inspiration. It originated in Germany in 1714. A large part of the body sailed to America in 1842 and in 1855 settled at Amana, Iowa. Their settlements were organized on a communal basis until the Amana Society was converted into a modified joint stock company in 1932. The Amana Church Society, which then became a separate legal entity, in 1998 had c.450 adult members.

Church Missionary Society Founded in 1799 for missions in Africa and the East, the society became the Church of England's first effective body for such work despite far earlier establishment of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Consistently evangelical in its theology, it continues to sponsor Bible translations.