Plymouth Brethren

Definition and Meaning

The Brethren Church is a Protestant denomination that continues the Brethren movement, which arose in Britain and Ireland in the early nineteenth century. Because the assembly in Plymouth, England, became widely known, the movement came to be called the "Plymouth Brethren." Churches within the Brethren movement, however, state that they have not used a denominational name for themselves and have avoided treating church offices as ranks. Because the English word "Brethren" also appears in the names of other Protestant traditions, this article covers only the Plymouth Brethren tradition.

The most distinctive feature of the Brethren Church is its form of church government. It emphasizes the principle of the priesthood of all believers, the teaching that every believer is a priest before God. Accordingly, it rejects the clerical order of established denominations that distinguishes pastors from the laity; instead, a plurality of elders leads each assembly. No higher denominational body exists, and each local church is regarded as directly accountable to God. In this respect it resembles independent churches and Congregational churches.

Biblical and Historical Background

The Brethren movement began in Dublin in the 1820s. Its central figures were men associated with Trinity College: the dentist Anthony Norris Groves, the medical student Edward Cronin, John Parnell, the clergyman John Nelson Darby, and the lawyer John Gifford Bellett, who brought them together. They had no fixed liturgy, order of service, or full-time ministers. They are said to have sought to gather exactly as Scripture describes, taking the Bible alone as their guide.

In England, the first assembly was established in Plymouth in 1831 under the leadership of Benjamin Newton and Samuel Tregelles. In 1848 the movement split in two. One branch became the Open Brethren; the other, the Exclusive Brethren, is known for strictly following the teaching that believers must remain separate from the world. Figures associated with this tradition include George Müller, renowned for his orphanage work, and Jim Elliot, the missionary martyred in Ecuador.

Practice in the Korean Church

The movement is described as having entered Korea through two channels.

• Before the Japanese colonial period: In December 1896 the Japanese evangelist Norimatsu Masayasu (乘松雅休, 1863–1921) arrived in Korea and worked chiefly in Suwon. He organized the Christian Brethren Assembly (Kidok Dongsinhoe) to propagate the Brethren movement.
• From the late 1950s: Around 1958, a series of conversions occurred among soldiers at a U.S. military chapel in Bupyeong. Young Koreans who went there to learn English embraced this faith, and their subsequent connection with Brethren missionaries is described as the beginning of the present-day Brethren movement in Korea.

The churches known today in Korea as Plymouth Brethren churches generally belong to the Open Brethren rather than the Exclusive Brethren. These churches are reportedly led by brothers serving as elders rather than by a senior pastor. Support for elders who devote themselves full-time to church work varies from church to church: some churches support them from believers' offerings, others pay a fixed amount, and in churches with limited finances elders may serve while supporting themselves. Their church polity differs markedly from that of the Presbyterian and Methodist churches, which maintain denominational structures such as presbyteries and general assemblies.

Some Korean church sources have published articles warning that certain groups using the name "Brethren Church" resemble the Salvation Sect. Brethren believers, for their part, maintain that their churches are distinct from the Salvation Sect. Whether the general assemblies of major denominations have issued an official ruling on the Brethren movement as a whole requires further verification.