Who Are The Brethren?

 

Often mistaken for Amish or Mennonites because of our traditional clothing, headcoverings, and beards, our church fellowship was organized in 1708 in Germany.  Influenced by the spiritual renewal movements of both the Radical Pietists and also the Anabaptists, eight men and women chose to step out of their Reformed and Lutheran churches and baptized each other in the Eder River near the town of Schwarzenau, Germany.  Alexander Mack, a miller by trade and a Pietist by influence, was chosen as their leader at that time, and the first Brethren congregation was formed with an emphasis on taking the New Testament as our only creed, and allowing both it and the examples of the primitive church to determine our practices as a group. The congregation grew and grew into multiple congregations through active evangelism and baptism until pressure from the local governments and state churches drove them out. Some moved to the Netherlands for a time, but by the middle of the 18th century, all had either immigrated to North America or had scattered back into the state churches.

 

The Brethren spread far and wide in the new world, and from them have come several Christian denominations.  Our particular line, known as the Old German Baptist Brethren, represented a conservative faction that could not tolerate certain modern innovations of the 19th century that were growing in the larger church body of which they were a part. In 1881, we separated from the main body (now known as the Church of the Brethren) in order to maintain older customs, dress, and forms of worship.  The Brethren continue to practice several ordinances like Believer’s Baptism by trine immersion, literal feet washing, holding lovefeasts, taking communion with unleavened bread and wine, practicing the holy kiss, and anointing the sick with oil.