Does anyone know much about the Brethren?

[carlycurly]

There are plenty of indications that our new neighbours may be part of the Brethren and I suspect that the house has been bought by the church for let to Brethren families.

I'm fascinated by such a different way of life and am really just interested in finding out some more about it all. I'm guessing I won't find any on here due to the restrictions on using internet. we've had a few interesting situations with them so far and it's certainly not the usual neighbour interaction.

@EastWestWhosBest

*They only work for brethren-owned companies I remember one company made wooden toys and play equipment for nurseries and schools and was v successful. Not sure what their ‘typical’ industries are though*

Community Playthings is, I believe, a Brethren owned company. www.communityplaythings.co.uk/about-us/Why-Community-Playthings/Behind-the-scenes

Any Early Years teacher or Nursery staff will tell you that they are far and away the best nursery products you can buy.

They never push their Christianity and will happily sell to anyone. If you look at the catalogue you will see that the girls are all in skirts etc.

This is the Bruderhof - not the same as Plymouth Bretheren.

They live in community and own nothing, share everything, they do dress in a similar way to PB though.

@LunaTheCat

I am in NZ in a rural community with lots Brethren. They live a separate life, they cannot vote ( but donate huge amounts of money to conservative politicians), they separate families by excommunicating those who leave. They run businesses and often are very wealthy but regarded as exploitive. They cannot marry outside their community so there is a huge issue with inter-marriage and there are lots children with learning difficulties in the community. They cannot watch TV, go to movies but they drink enormous amounts of alcohol and that is a huge issue in the communities.

Is this Gloriavale?

I'm sorry for your experience and her restricted life

Thank you MusicTeacherSussex, very kind of you. She was Plymouth Brethren as I have documents about it. Don’t know if she married into it as my grandfathers parents were Plymouth Brethren too.

This is the Bruderhof - not the same as Plymouth Bretheren.

They live in community and own nothing, share everything, they do dress in a similar way to PB though.

Thanks for that information.

There’s been issues with kids being born with rare hereditary disorders. I remember a conversation a number of years ago where one of the women casually mentioned that the community had approached a Plymouth brethren community in Canada and asked if some of their women could be sent over.

This certainly happened in the community I was part of. It was not uncommon for some of the girls were offered arranged marriages (basically) in Australia or Argentina. They understand about the gene pool.

Novels are considered wrong because they're not 'true'.

I don't think that's accurate. It's just hard to find novels with the correct morals.

We had a big drive at our school to build up the school library with suitable books. It was really hard to find anything for senior school students as most 'young adult' have unsuitable themes. There were plenty of books in the primary section. Actually, the mums came in to run the library and keep the books in good condition.

I noticed that the students did not have a particularly broad vocabulary, and indeed, had a lot of their own words from their closed community. They have quite an old-fashioned register.

They do not like anything 'live' as there might be something dodgy to come. They are perfectly happy with scrutinised videos, and subscribe to a video service for school.

@CraftyGin

There’s been issues with kids being born with rare hereditary disorders. I remember a conversation a number of years ago where one of the women casually mentioned that the community had approached a Plymouth brethren community in Canada and asked if some of their women could be sent over.

This certainly happened in the community I was part of. It was not uncommon for some of the girls were offered arranged marriages (basically) in Australia or Argentina. They understand about the gene pool.

I do wonder how they've dealt with the pandemic given they stay away from the NHS.

And yes they travel a lot between international communities.

I do wonder how they've dealt with the pandemic given they stay away from the NHS.

I don't think that's true.

The kids I taught were all registered with their local GP. I was head of pastoral care, so knew this.

craftygin

It's sometimes the case.

Yes, finding books with nothing worldly must be very difficult.

So... it is very confusing. I should no all the history but forget most of it. There are open brethren and Plymouth brethren and they would be very traditional but not as'seperatist' as the current Plymouth Brethren Christian church' who are pretty much a cult to all intents and purposes. In 1970 there was a big conference up in Aberdeen and the then leader of the Plymouth Brethren James Taylor was found in bed with another man's wife who was naked. There was a huge split( when my parents left) and loads of people realised it had become cultural and this leader was an abusive alcoholic with a taste for other people's wives. The men seemed to consider it an honour to be asked to share their wives!!! It was desperately sad as families were just rolled apart. My mother never saw her sister again. My grab never saw her oldest daughter till the day she died. My aunty showed me a letter last month written in 1970 by her sister arranging to come and stay for the holidays. She never came.... never spoke to her again. Absolutely heartbreaking. So the little church I grew up in was formed from these half families who were quite broken and a bit scattered of the outside world. They had been taught to be suspicious of non brethren. Fortunately my family for involved in non denominational youth work and quickly discovered Christians from all sorts of churches who were not the devil incarnate!!
There have been lots of changes since then and the rules are created now but Bruce Hales, ( the current man of God MOG) who lives in Australia, is a multi millionaire and takes it in because all brethren have to use the same IP for phones and computers and what they access is monitored and controlled and the money paid goes to MOG.He flies a private plane. The brethren are encouraged to drink heavily.... whisky... and I have known relatives leave who were alcoholic.
There was a big move, because of their exclusiveness and cultlikeness, to have their charitable status removed in the UK and they were monitored for a year. This caused a rebranding where they produced a shiny website ( remember, previous members were excommunicated for using a computer!?) and renamed themselves The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church. They launched the Rapid relief Teams RRT who appear in times of flood s etc and h hand out good and drink. They lobbied parliament and offered to sing at events in parliament and sang contemporary songs with electric guitars etc( again....a few years ago that would have had you excommunicated)
The biggest sign that they are a cult, apart from the money thing and the exclusivity, is the fact that you cannot leave without being excommunicated. I am in contact with people who could not stay within brethren or for thrown out for misdemeanours or disobedience of the roles. They lose their partners and children, their houses and jobs. Some commit suicide. If a 19 year old decided it was not for them they would have to say goodbye to their parents, siblings, friends, job etc etc. If a parent is caught out keeping in touch, they can be' shut up' where they are not allowed to church and the priests have to visit them and basically device ID they will be locked out or allowed to stay.
Having said ALL that, the majority of families you meet will just be lively, family orientated, kind people who have never known any different and are brainwashed into thinking all the separation stuff is needed.
There is so much I could say. As someone who has 7 cousins and numerous other relatives still stuck in this cult, I hope and pray that the power house will come tumbling down around Bruce Hales. There are ongoing lawsuits currently from previous members which I hope will be successful but he had endless plus of money to fight any claims.
RE your neighbours specifically, the child sounds like he had SEN as that language would not be normal. I never heard swearing growing up other than at school. Some kids go to mainstream school but most are minibussed to PBCC schools. Happy to answer any questions.

Sorry...so many typos but hope you get the gist of it.

It's a real eye opener, thanks for sharing @vdbfamily & interesting about the different groups of Brethren. Wow. It's coercive control really with the PBCC & as you say, a cult.

Interesting development. The neighbours on the other side were also consulted about the planning by the landlord.

In the course of the conversation, the landlord mentioned that the family are actually planning a move to Australia.. I guess there's less reason than ever to bother speaking to us if they're not staying.

I wonder if it's to increase opportunities for the dcs. And if the head honcho is Australian I'd guess there's a fair sized community over there.

@vdbfamily thank you for sharing! It sounds rather corrupt at the top.

I now have a vague recollection that an accountant in our wider family once did some work for the brethren and used to say they were very nice people but strange. I recall some peculiarity about them asking God what class they should travel for their business (God rather generously said first)

This is a fascinating thread - so many parallels with the Jewish ultra-orthodox communities in parts of London and other faith groups.

@Savoury

This is a fascinating thread - so many parallels with the Jewish ultra-orthodox communities in parts of London and other faith groups.

All cults have very similar traits.

Same structure and operation just a different manual.

Had a couple of Plymouth brethren girls at my school. Lovely people but as others have said, no eating with us, no extra school activities and no staying on past 16, such a shame to be held back in your education because a man made religion says so!

If they weren't in school it seemed they were always at meetings, sounded very boring to 15 year old me.

On the plus side, seemed happy enough and I certainly know one of them was working at a local secular business so was getting out and about.

So interesting @vdbfamily. Thank you for sharing.
It sounds like so many cults (and mainstream religions, in my opinion) where the followers are generally decent people but right at the top there are corrupt men.

op just want to say I use ‘head honcho’ quite a bit but I think your lost is the first time I’ve ever seen it written.

I would normally say big cheese. I had a sudden panic I'd been inadvertently racist but I don't think it is. Phew.

Have started the Rebecca Scott book - it's already brilliant.

Well forgive a last post on the slight derail but fascinatingly honcho is Japanese. I think bizarrely I thought it was perhaps Spanish/Mexican as used in the states a lot and I confess partly because of ‘poncho’ - subliminal.
First usages US POWs in Japan.

Honcho, another word borrowed from Japanese, also came into use around World War II. In English, honcho means "person in charge.” In Japanese, the word is hancho. It means "squad leader" and comes from two words: han meaning “squad" and cho meaning "head" or "chief."

@clairethewitch70

I live next door to a Plymouth Brethren couple. We are Pagans and host the local Pagan and coven groups. This has resulted in a religious vendetta from their community and we are now embroiled in Police case with them. They are the worst people we have ever dealt with. They have to have everything their way. Land grabbers, lack of planning permission, I could go on

It made me titter when I found out that Aleister Crowley’s parents were strict Plymouth Brethren. That worked out well for them!

@ColdTattyWaitingForSummer

I know someone who was raised in a strict brethren community, and left as an adult. They’re still a Christian (so am I) but describe the church they left as a cult.

Off topic slightly but, by definition, most (if not all) religions are cults

I used to work for them and they are lovely people but very naive.

They are allowed computers in their workplaces but all news websites and non-pg websites are blocked. So they have no idea about what's happening in the world. No television, online videos, radios, newspapers or magazines allowed at all.

They don't go to uni, never eat with worldlies (or socialise with worldlies) and their every day is dictated by church. Even on weekends they have to get up at 4am to spend all day at church. They basically have no time to think for themselves.

And yeah, they can't leave or they lose everything. Businesses, homes, families. Out in the real world (where you need qualifications etc), I suspect theyd find it difficult to get on their feet.

Of the 6 Brethren mums at dds school 3 of them looked exactly the same - to the point that for 2 years I thought they were just 1 person, until I saw them together. All of the kids were like clones of each other.

Well, there's not many of them so inbreeding is the norm to a certain degree. Many of them (that I've known) have physical problems.

Apparently, when they turn 16, they are given a book of photos of all of the other global church members who are that age. They choose their partner and then the head of the church decides whether the marriage can go ahead. I heard that as part of that process, they investigate how closely related they are but frankly, they are all related so I imagine it makes little difference.

And nobody ever joins them so there's no new influx of genetics every year.