W'ON's felicitous reference to meidung in the parishioner thread invites cross-fertilization with Wordwind's canton thread, elucidating both words at the same time [altho I can't take any credit for that ... alas].

It seems that a clash, many hundreds of years ago, between a Mennonite leader by the name of Jakob Ammann and the elders of the canton of Bern regarding enforcement of the meidung, resulted in a schism in the Church which reverberates to this day. To wit:

From the original documents which have been preserved, it is clear that Jakob Ammann's attempt to force the elders in the Emmental (canton of Bern) to accept the Meidung, i.e., the shunning or avoidance of excommunicated persons, was the chief if not full cause of the division, although several minor issues were mentioned.

Of course, one man's meidung is another man's canton ... albeit a canton of one.