Plymouth Brethren

[clairethewitch70]

Just found out my neighbours are members, wondered why they ignore us. Does anyone have experience of this church? It's not one I have heard of.

I'm so loving the idea of op holding covens in the garden in front of brethren neighbours

Me too - they must be really regretting cutting down all those trees!

I think eating is seen as an act of worship, therefore eating socially isnt possible, unless with other Bretheren.

But there's Bretheren and there's Bretheren. DHs parents were Plymouth Bretheren, but not Exclusive Bretheren.

We live in woodland and the last two Saturdays they have removed so many mature trees that I waved to them as I walked around the quarters of my garden in my hooded robe. They don't work in the garden on Sunday but had builders into their house on Christmas Day before they they had moved in. Also noticed they had no honeymoon they moved in on day of Wedding. He is 21 but seems as old as my grandfather. Still friendly with neighbors who moved. They told me. She says the church paid cash for the house. Half a million.

I work for a company owned and run by Brethren - they are far and away the best employers I have ever had. Everything is really efficiently run and done by the book, they are extremely polite, kind and helpful and it is a very pleasant place to work. There are computers in the office, but there are super-stringent systems in place which block access to a lot of stuff on the internet. Certain access is allowed as a necessary part of running the operation, but nothing else. Which is fair enough really.

One day I happened to mention that it was a bit chilly in the office that day, and when I arrived at work the next morning they had put a little fan heater beside my desk. Very thoughtful and not an attitude I have ever encountere elsewhere!

They don't talk about themselves or their beliefs as such and although we chat about minor things in the office, they would no doubt be considerably more formal if we bumped into one another outside work. They don't socialise with people outside their faith, and eating is considered a social activity which is why the man was rather taken aback when you gave the invitiation to come round for coffee and cake. It is something that just isn't on their radar.

I sometimes take cakes into the office, and say that they are left over, and to please help themselves (I only work mornings and the cake is much appreciated, but eaten when I'm not there)
They would probably be uncomfortable acccepting it as a gift though.

I once asked why they don't celebrate Christmas or Easter, and they said they didn't really know what they would do any differently to what they usually do any other day.

Each to their own I say.

Besides the point, but I'd be furious if a new neighbour cut down a load of mature trees in late winter/spring. Will nobody think of the birdies.

We had neighbours who were Plymouth Brethren a few years ago. Lovely, friendly family, if a bit heavily religous. But they were not preachy about it.

They aren't all uninviting about eating either. We had many meals together.

@TarragonSauce. I told him it was nesting season and he just smirked at me. Diggers came in the second week to flatten some more. Found a bird egg on my grass

You can report them for environmental crime. It’s illegal to disturb nesting birds

I'm related to some. They're a cult. Our relatives just about tolerate us for the sake of family relationships but we're like their dirty little secret. Can't let their friends know we've been round for a meal... We've been excluded from various weddings & the few we've been allowed to go to we've had to be very cloak & dagger about it. It's offensive & hurtful & makes me so angry. I'm a Christian myself but they willfully misinterpret various sections of the Bible & blatantly ignore other bits. We're not allowed to talk about that though - we just have to ignore the elephant in the room for the sake of family harmony. I'm just biding my time until the older generations have gone & we can go complete NC with the lot of them!

Oh, & the not celebrating Christmas thing isn't so much to do with not knowing what else to do, it's an active rejection of what they see as a "worldly" celebration. My relatives won't even leave the house on Christmas day & glare at you if you dare to wish them a happy Christmas... Not that I'd ever do that for my own amusement or anything...!

My grandmother was PB. She married out though, met my grandad on a bus. Don’t think they were the strict ones though, as she wasn’t shunned or anything. My mums cousins still speak to her and always have (the cousins are the children of my gran’s mum and brother who were still PB.

My gran was a committed atheist though and didn’t bring my mum and her sisters up to be religious. My mum also didn’t bring us up to be religious.

I might read that book mentioned up thread. I’d like to learn more about it.

Well I hope your coven have some very loud services planned for the very near future, chanting, flares the whole caboodle please. People who move into rural areas with no respect for, nor intention to work with their new environment, piss me orf no end regardless of their religious proclivity. Arsehogs.

There are quite a few Plymouth brethren locally and my mum (briefly) taught at a PB school.

I can recognise the women as they either wear a flower in their hair or a little triangle head scarf. Long skirts, often denim.

They don't use electronic devices for social/pleasure. So when I've been in a PB house there was no TV or radio. They will allow electronic stuff for life saving measures, so a ventilator, etc. I'm unsure about computers if it's for work/business reasons, possibly.

I think they help each other out financially. They wont live in a semi detached house as if the other half of the house aren't PB it counts as living under the same roof as a non PB which they wont do. They wont mix socially with non PB.

Religion aside I would be as mad as hell if someone cut down all those trees.

Does anyone else think that PB living next door to pagans sounds like it should be a sitcom?

I am slightly entertained by PBs (especially as they sound like they might be the stricter end of the spectrum) living next to Pagans.

Keep us posted.

@LarryGreysonDoor. Yes to a sitcom. Brilliant idea. In fact my son is qualified in TV production

I taught at one of their schools and got to know them quite well. What was particularly interesting was that there was a large number of women with depression and a lot of men with alcohol problems. This was accepted as a fact and dealt with from within the religion but not seen as a weakness but as a sad fact that needed treatment.

Otherwise it seemed a good existence but very limiting. I would say better for the men than the women - they simply produced the children and had no life outside of this. The two women I met who were unmarried were pitied and given administration jobs at the school but not treated as equals and not respected in any way. Families were usually large, lots of disabilities due to inherited problems - something that was acknowledged and they now try to marry children to others from other parts of the world (with the women moving of course, not the men)so as to limit these problems.

They were always fine to work for but I didn't envy their lives. Or certainly not the female lives. The men had it ok, they were the boss of their own homes at least even if they had to adhere to the other lifestyle restrictions.

There are a lot in the town near me, I can tell them by the long hair and headscarves, long denim always look quite wholesome folk.

Intrigued at how it will pan out living next door to pagans.

I used to work with them and they were mostly pleasant but definitely a cult.
Woman aren't allowed to work once they're married so that's why they mostly employed non PB female office workers who are referred to as secretary's no matter what your job role is.
They are very strict, if one member of the family upsets the church the whole lot are thrown out. It happened at my work one of the boys kissed a 'western woman' and they were booted out.
They're very insular and only pretend to recruit outside with fliers. The don't actually except any outsiders.
They are also money motivated so have a crazy work effort our boss worked the morning of his wedding day, got married and they all came back to work.
I actually liked working for them as they did try to keep us motivated and were always nice to you in conversation.
We did laugh when the business grew and got older as they finally excepted homemade food and would sign birthday cards. We softened them up a bit

I’ve just been thinking.
If I said that I refuse to eat with Muslims/Jews/Christians because I thought they were unclean I would be rightly branded a bigot. However because these guys are doing it in the name of their religion it’s fine.

There are some in a town near me. The women wear triangle headscarves, over long hair, and long denim skirts. They pick the children up for lunch every day in large people carriers.
We had a friend who left that particular group. They encourage early marriage, to avoid sexual temptation. Her marriage was arranged by her parents with a young man from the same grouping, but from another part of the country. They only met a few times before they married.
She said if the wife wasn't pregnant after a year the elders came round to ask why!
After they left their families wanted nothing to do with them.
In addition to always having detached houses there mustn't be sewage from another house crossing their property, and they always have two separate sinks in the kitchen but I have forgotten why.
They own lots of businesses locally and everyone has a job. They also buy houses, so the people we knew had a five bedroom house to accommodate their family, but lost it when they left and had to move into a tiny rental.
We use one of their businesses and they are really helpful and friendly.

I shared a university flat with someone who described herself as 'Brethren but the open sort'. I'm not quite sure how her bunch fitted in to this world as she was doing a degree in engineering, only covered her head on Sundays when she had a hat for services, ate and watched TV with us, and went to the pub with us though she didn't drink alcohol.

We found that the Free Church of Scotland were more oppressive as students would have to hide any mention of normal student life from their families.

Our area has a big community of PB. We had a couple of families at my DS's primary school. The parents and children were always polite, friendly and unassuming.

I gather they pool their money to support each other in their trades, careers and housing. They run their lives differently. Can't see a problem with that.

We have a fairly substantial PB community near us, they don't mix much but any interaction is very polite. The women all wear denim and dare I say it all look the same. They also look much older than I suspect they are. At infant school when they eat in circle time the PB children turn their chairs outwards so that they are facing out of the circle. They are quite freemason-y in the sense that they are very helpful and supportive of their own.