Without doubt the most contentious issue that stirred the emotions of the German Baptist Brethren during the 1870s was the correct mode of feetwashing.  The reason for this derived from how highly the Brethren valued unity of both thought and practice, especially when it came to the ordinances.  Two forms or modes of feetwashing had arisen among the German Baptist Brethren: the single mode and the double mode.  The distinction between the modes depended on how many people were involved in washing and wiping the feet of other people.  In the single mode, one person both washed and wiped the feet of another person.  In the double mode, two people were involved in the process: one person would wash the feet of several people while a second person followed and wiped the feet of several people.  The foremost antiquarian of the German Baptist Brethren during the 1800s, Abraham Cassel, had provided an explanation for the development of the two modes.  The mother congregation of the Brethren in America at Germantown, Pennsylvania, had always practiced the single mode.  This mode was retained especially by Brethren who settled furthest from the main body of the Brethren; they were known as the Far Western Brethren and settled in Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and eventually California.

 The Germantown congregation had very early formed congregations in Coventry and Conestoga, Pennsylvania.  These two congregations practiced the double mode of feetwashing.  They became for the feeders for expansion of the Brethren into Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and other locations.  They were the main body of the church in the 1800s and retained the double mode.  These Brethren, sometimes called the eastern Brethren or the Annual Meeting Brethren by the Far Western group, formed the vast majority of the Brethren who attended Annual Meeting.  Attempts were made during the 1800s to unite the Far Western and eastern Brethren, but the mode of feetwashing always remained the sticking point. 

Because of the desire for unity within the Brethren family on the practice of the ordinances, Annual Meeting mandated the practice of the double mode of feetwashing in 1872 and sent out committees to enforce this ruling on elders and congregations.  As a result, many elders and congregations that had been associated with the Far Western Brethren were disfellowshipped by these committees.  Many of these disfellowshipped Brethren would join together in the formation of the Congregational Brethren in 1872 and thereafter.  It was also the case, because of Cassel’s revealing that the original form of feetwashing was the single mode at Germantown, many Progressive Brethren adopted this mode in congregations with which they were associated.  Continued agitation within the church for allowance of the single mode caused Annual Meeting in 1877 to allow churches that wished to practice the single mode to do so as long as it could be done unanimously.  This decision greatly upset the Old Order Brethren, who were firm supporters of the double mode and who felt that this decision was in violation of the 1872 decision.  As noted at the outset of this post, this controversy was the most contentious of any of the issues dividing the various Brethren factions.  The Brethren Church and eventually the German Baptist Brethren/Church of the Brethren both adopted the single mode of feetwashing.  It should be noted that both the Far Western Brethren and the Congregational Brethren would join together with the Progressive Brethren in 1883 in the formation of the Brethren Church.  The photo for this post comes from Peter Nead’s Theological Writings and depicts the double mode of feetwashing.