About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Plymouth Brethren

Encyclopedia : P : PL : PLY : Plymouth Brethren

The Plymouth Brethren are a Christian Evangelical religious movement that began in Dublin, Ireland and England in the late 1820s.

The Brethren are divided into "Open Brethren" and "Exclusive Brethren", as well as an outshoot of the Exclusive Brethren called the "Closed Brethren"http://www.reachouttrust.org/articles/othergrp/exbreth.htm. The Exclusive Brethren maintain a very isolationist and traditional view, with many of their children home schooled, a strict dress code for church meetings, and members commonly self employed or working for Christian organisations.http://www.brethrenonline.org/faqs/PBHIST.HTM

The Open and Closed Brethren differ on few theological issues and often, no clear distinction is made between the two by the general public. The main difference is in openness to visitors, that is, the Open Brethren allow anyone who is a believer to participate in the Lord's Supper (communion) while the Closed generally require a "letter of commendation" as discussed below. The Closed Brethren also will usually have a back row set up for anyone who does not have this letter so that the individual may observe, though not participate, in the "morning meeting" as they call the communion service.

When arriving at one church from another, it is common practice for the visitor to carry a "Letter of Commendation" from the leaders of their local assembly 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.

A second difference between the Open and Closed Brethren is the willingness of association with other Christian churches. While the Open Brethren will often hold Gospel meetings, youth events or other activities with other Evangelical Christian churches, the Closed Brethren support only their individual assembly. A third difference is in the use of instrumental accompaniment during the meetings. While both generally do not use musical instruments during the Lord's Supper, the Open Brethren will have someone play piano, guitar or, although rare, a full worship band accompany the congregation during the other services.

In some parts of the world, the Exclusives and Closed are placed together as Closed, while the Exclusives are called Darbyites. Most of those who attend Closed Brethren assemblies are quick to distinguish themselves from the Exclusive Brethrenhttp://www.reachouttrust.org/articles/othergrp/exbreth.htm.

Open Brethren remain affiliated with one another, mostly through common support of missionaries, area conferences, and the ministry of traveling preachers, as do Closed Brethern. 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 observed weekly - both of which are common to Open, Closed and Exclusive groups alike.

Contents

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 which local assemblies are accountable. Local assemblies are autonomous but are often informally linked with each other.

The Plymouth Brethren refer to themselves as "the assemblies," and members are called "the brethren," "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 Remembrance Meeting," which is how they refer to communion.

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

Services

Sunday services are similar among various 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, 14 and 1 Timothy 2. (A few PB Assemblies in the US and Canada allow women to participate verbally in the weekly Breaking of Bread service. These assemblies are seen as "progressive" and may not be well accepted by other more traditional assemblies.)

The Brethren also have weekly meetings such as a teaching or preaching service. The teaching service of an Open Brethren assembly might resemble that of a conservative, evangelical church such as an Evangelical Free church or Baptist church. Other meetings in a Open or Closed assembly include missionary report meetings, and mid-week prayer meetings, and Bible readings or studies. In Open and Closed Brethren assemblies there is frequently a Sunday School for children and youth groups for teens. Exclusive Brethren assemblies often meet daily from house to house for Bible readings.

Music

During the weekly breaking of bread service, hymns are usually sung unaccompanied by any musical instrument. Hymns sung during the other types of meeting are often accompanied by piano or electronic organ, though this practice varies from place to place. Other musical instruments are used at some assemblies. One of the unifying features in each of the different branches of the Brethren is a common hymnbook. One such hymnbook that dates back to 1856 is called, Hymns for the Little Flock, the first edition of which was compiled by G. V. Wigram.

Characteristics

Sancta SimplicitasOrthodox Old Maid. "But, Rebecca, is your place of worship consecrated?"Domestic (lately received into the Plymouth Brotherhood). "Oh no, Miss - It's galvanised iron!"Cartoon from Punch, Vol. 102, April 23, 1892
Enlarge
Sancta Simplicitas
Orthodox Old Maid. "But, Rebecca, is your place of worship consecrated?"
Domestic (lately received into the Plymouth Brotherhood). "Oh no, Miss - It's galvanised iron!"
Cartoon from ''Punch, Vol. 102, April 23, 1892

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:

Baptism and communion are the only two ordinances. All assemblies adhere to the practise of full immersion baptism, which is required before participation in fellowship. Sharing the exact beliefs of a local assembly may be a necessary condition for fellowship in some local assemblies, though this condition is much less common in "open" assemblies. Some Exclusive Brethen practice infant or household baptism.

History

The movement was begun by several men who felt that the established Church had become too involved with the secular state and had abandoned many of the basic truths of Christianity. They included:

One 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 spread 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.

Influence

The influence of the Plymouth Brethren upon evangelical Christianity exceeds their relatively small numerical proportion. The movement today has many congregations around the world.

Christian Missions in Many Lands (CMML) in the United States, Missionary Services Committee (MSC) in Canada and Echoes of Service in the United Kingdom, 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" and W.E. Vine's "Dictionary of NT Words.". J. N. Darby, one of the original members and perhaps the most well known of the movement, wrote over fifty books and is often credited with the development of the theology of dispensationalism.

Many leaders of the contemporary evangelical movement came from Brethren backgrounds. These include Geoff Tunnicliffe, CEO of the World Evangelical Alliance; the late British scholar F.F. Bruce; Brian McLaren of the Emerging Church movement; 1950s Auca missionary martyrs Ed McCully, Jim Elliot, and Peter Fleming; Walter Liefeld, NT professor at Trinity Evangelical Seminary; and the late preacher Dr. Harry A. Ironside.

Since 2004 Plymouth Brethren have become politically active. Plymouth Bretheren have been responsible for the production and distribution of political literature in Australian, United States, Canadian and New Zealand national elections.

See also

External links

Open Brethren

Exclusive Brethen

Resources

Booksellers & Publishers

Bibliography

References

Research libraries

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: