 As the oldest Mennonite body in America, Franconia Conference is a three-century-old Mennonite “congregation of congregations” in southeastern Pennsylvania.Comprising about fifty with some 7,000 members, it dates the arrival of its first members at Germantown near Philadelphia in 1683, and the first baptisms a quarter-century later in 1708.The caution which delayed the first baptisms is symbolic of the desire for authentic church order, characteristic of the Franconia tradition.