Jump to content

Plymouth Brethren

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 65.95.105.159 (talk) at 04:50, 12 January 2006 (→Characteristics). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Plymouth Brethren is a Christian religious movement that began in Ireland and England in the late 1820s and was made prominent by John Nelson Darby, Dr. Edward Cronin, John Bellett, and Francis Hutchinson who felt that the established Church had become too involved with the secular state and abandoned many of the basic truths of Christianity. The group began by meeting in households in Ireland, and were dubbed "brethren" because of their practice of calling each other "brother" instead of the titles favoured by other denominations.

The movement soon spead throughout the UK and by 1831, the group assembled in Plymouth, England had over 1,500 members. These members became known as "The brethren from Plymouth" and soon were simply called the "Plymouth Brethren". The group is also known as the "Assembly movement". The term Darbyites has also been used, although is uncommon and refers mainly to the Exclusive branch.

The Brethren are divided into "open" and "closed" or "exclusive" branches. The Closed Brethren maintain a very isolationist and traditional view, with many of their children home schooled, a strict smart dress code for church meetings and members commonly self employed or working for Christian organisations. The Open Brethren are less prone to these practices and are more open to visitors.

When arriving at one church from another, it is common practice for the leaders to send a "letter of commendation" with the newcomer to inform the new church that they are in fellowship at another assembly and can be allowed to fully participate in all services from the point of their arrival. It is customary to send one of these letters even when only one service will be attended, and individuals often take these letters on holiday when they will be away from their local church and wish to attend another.

Open Brethren remain affiliated with one another, mostly through common support of missionaries, area conferences, and the ministry of traveling preachers. Over the years, they have come to resemble Protestant evangelical churches in doctrine, except that there are no officially recognized clergy and the Lord's Supper is celebrated weekly - both of which are common to Open, Closed and Exclusive groups alike.

Terminology

The Plymouth Brethren are unusual in not recognising a denominational name; they do not generally refer to themselves as "Plymouth Brethren," nor do they regard themselves as a denomination. Thus there is no denominational headquarters and no governing body to whom local assemblies are accountable to. Local assemblies are often informally linked with each other.

The Plymouth Brethren refer to themselves as "the assemblies," and members are called "saints," or "believers." Members are usually aware of the term "Plymouth Brethren" but deny it applies to them since they don't consider themselves a denomination.

A common distinguishing characteristic of a Plymouth Brethren meeting place is an outdoor sign indicating a weekly service set apart for "Breaking of Bread," "The Lord's Supper," or "The Rememberance Meeting," which is how they refer to communion.

Many Plymouth Brethren assemblies meet in a building called a "Gospel Hall", "Gospel Chapel", "Bible Chapel", or "Bible Church".

Services

Sunday services are mostly similar among different congregations, and a distinctive of the Brethren is a separate weekly communion service. This is a solemn affair during which any of the men can, at any time, temporarily lead and direct the service. Women pray silently and sing all hymns but generally do not pray or exort the congregation audibly as this is often seen as violating the order set out in 1 Corinthians 11.

The Brethren also have weekly meetings such as a teaching or preaching service. Other meetings include missionary report meetings, and mid-week prayer meetings, and Bible readings or studies. In Open Brethren asssemblies there is frequently a Sunday School for children. Exclusive Brethren assemblies often meet daily from house to house for Bible readings.

Characteristics

The Plymouth Brethren are basically conservative evangelical Christians and are in substantial agreement with other conservative evangelical Christian groups. Their distinction lies in a combination of the doctrinal and practical matters which they teach with special emphasis.

The Brethren believe in the divine inspiration of the Bible and that the same Bible gives clear instruction about how services of worship are to be held. These instructions include:

  • the importance of the weekly communion service
  • the communion is not led or administered by an individual
  • the freedom and the responsibility for men to participate in services
  • the silence of women (whose heads must be covered during meetings of the local church) in most Plymouth Brethren assemblies
  • the importance of preaching the gospel
  • the rejection of a separation of believers into clergy and laity classes, and
  • the plurality of leadership (usually as elders and deacons) as opposed to an ordained, professional clergy class

Baptism and communion are the only two ordinances, although sharing their exact beliefs may be a necessary condition for fellowship in some local assembly, though this condition is much less common in "open" assemblies. Some Exclusive Brethen practice infant or household baptism.

Influence

The influence of the Plymouth Brethren upon evangelical Christianity exceeds their relatively small numerical proportion. The movement today has many small churches in Great Britain, Canada, the US, New Zealand, Australia, and the European, African and Asian continents.

Christian Missions in Many Lands (CMML) in the United States, Missionary Services Committee (MSC) in Canada and Echoes of Service in the UK, serve as support agencies for Brethren missionaries, helping with logistics and material support. These agencies help to train, equip, and support those sent from local churches.

The Brethren have been productive writers and publishers including George Cutting's "Safety, Certainty, and Enjoyment". Many leaders of the contemporay evangelical movement have come from Brethren backgrounds including Geoff Tunnicliffe, CEO of the World Evangelical Alliance, the late British scholar F. F. Bruce, Brian MacLaren of the emergent church "conversation", 1950's Auca missionary martyrs Ed McCully, Jim Elliot, and Peter Fleming, Walter Liefeld, NT professor at Trinity Evangelical Seminary; and the late preacher Dr. Harry Ironside. J. N. Darby, one of the original members and perhaps the most well known of the movement, has published over fifty books and is often credited with the development of the theology of dispensationalism.

The Brethren were also influential in the formation of Thelema, the religion created by Aleister Crowley, the noted occultist and sexual revolutionary. Many biographers, as well as Crowley himself, on occasion, ascribe his occult interests to the rigid theological dogma of his childhood in a Plymouth Brethren family in Warwickshire, England; in particular, to his mother's constant admonishments that he was the Beast of Revelation and that he would go to Hell for his behaviour.

Some Brethren writers have made unique contribution in the field of Christian Apologetics the most notable being Johnson C. Philip a physicist and theologian.

Open Brethren

Exclusive or Closed Brethen

Resources

Booksellers

Resource Reading

  • Coad, F. Roy - A History of the Brethren Movement: Its Origins, Its Worldwide Development and Its Significance for the Present Day. (2001, Regent College Publishing) ISBN 1573831832
  • Ironside, H. A. - Historical Sketch of the Brethren Movement. (1985,Loizeaux Brothers) ISBN 0872133443
  • Smith, Natan Dylan. - Roots, Renewal and the Brethren. (1996, Hope Publishing House) ISBN 0932727085
  • Strauch, Alexander. - Biblical Eldership: An Urgent Call to Restore Biblical Church Leadership. (1995, Lewis & Roth Publishers) ISBN 0936083115
Stub icon

This Christianity-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plymouth_Brethren&oldid=34851720"