The Brethren Church had its origins in a division within the German Baptist Brethren in the early 1880s.  In the next series of posts, I would like to explore the issues that brought about this division and the various parties that were part of this three-way division.  This post will give background information about developments in the 1700s and1800s that led up to that division.

During the latter 1700s the Brethren continued to expand westward and southward from their initial beginnings in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  In the mid-1700s Brethren had moved southward to Maryland and Virginia and even the Carolinas.  In the latter 1700s Brethren were found in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio.  Throughout the 1800s the Brethren expanded westward to Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado.  The first Brethren had arrived in California and Oregon in the mid-1800s.

With this expansion, there was a felt need to maintain unity among the scattered Brethren congregations.  One of the important means to preserve the cohesiveness within the church was through the Annual Meeting.  Originating possibly in 1742, the authority of this gathering of Brethren from throughout the country evolved over time as did the structure and officers of the meeting.  During the 1700s, the decisions of the body were often described as “advisory,” but such was the desire to maintain harmony within the body that congregations abided by the united counsel of those in attendance.  This annual gathering included worship and the observance of love feast (what we today call threefold communion) as well as business sessions that dealt with various queries or questions brought before the gathering.  During the 1800s there was an increasing amount of time devoted to business, leading to various changes in the structure of these business sessions including restrictions on the number of voting delegates, the creation of districts, the selection of officers, and, most notably, the establishment of a Standing Committee.  This committee gradually assumed greater responsibility and power, even framing the answer to those queries brought before the assembly, which then had to be discussed and voted upon by the delegates.  These queries dealt with a wide range of issues such as the style of clothes to be worn, whether such “innovations” as lightning rods, carpets, and musical instruments were permissible, and, what would become major issues, Sunday Schools, higher education, paid ministry, evangelism, prescribed dress, and the proper form of feetwashing.

The divisions of 1881-1883 centered around disagreements over these issues and especially the authority of Annual Meeting itself, which often sent out committees to enforce decisions of the assembled body on local congregations.  One group of German Baptist Brethren, as the church was known at the time, the Old Order Brethren, called for the mandatory observance by local congregations of all Annual Meeting decisions.  The Progressive Brethren, on the opposite side, held that only those decisions with direct biblical support should be considered binding on all congregations.  The main body of the church, designated the Conservatives during the controversy, desired to maintain the unity of the church but also was willing to allow some degree of progression if carefully considered and generally supported.

In the following posts, I will be looking specifically at the main issues or “innovations” that were dividing the church at this time: periodicals, Sunday Schools, higher education, evangelism, paid ministry, dress, and the proper form of feetwashing.  The photo with this post was taken at the 1881 Annual Meeting hosted at Ashland College.