Christian Brethren of Malaysia
| Christian Brethren of Malaysia | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Plymouth Brethren |
| Polity | Congregationalist |
| Associations | NECF |
| Region | Malaysia |
| Origin | 1859 |
| Congregations | 150 |
| Members | 13,500 (including children) |
| Primary schools | 3 |
| Secondary schools | 3 |
The Christian Brethren of Malaysia, sometimes simply called the Brethren, are an aggregate of independent and autonomous Protestant Evangelical Christian churches in Malaysia, which are networked together through a set of shared Biblical doctrines and practices. Most of these churches are associated with the faith and practices of the Plymouth Brethren movement that arose in the late 1820s.
Each Brethren assembly is independent in its administration, and there is no larger policy making body or federation. The primary organised links between the Brethren assemblies are the Christian Brethren of Malaysia Property Trust Berhad which holds the properties of the local Brethren assemblies in trust and the Christian Brethren Secretariat Malaysia which coordinates joint activities between the local Brethren assemblies.
Early Brethren missionary work in Malaysia is not well recorded but can be traced to the early work of nonconformist Christian missionaries.
In 1821, a mission house was purchased in Penang by the London Missionary Society (LMS) and used as a Chinese girls' school. A chapel was opened in the same premise in 1824. In 1826, the Independent Church, Mission Chapel Prince of Wales Island was officially founded as an independent, non-denominational church modelled on the primitive New Testament Church. Based on their own description, their practices resembled those of the early Brethren, which emerged at precisely the same time in Britain.
The conclusion of the First Opium War and the signing of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 opened the possibility of new missionary work and the LMS started to wind down their mission stations in the Straits Settlements to focus on the newly opened treaty ports in China.
In 1843, the LMS school and chapel was administered by Maria Dyer, the widow of Samuel Dyer, an LMS missionary known as a typographer for creating a steel typeface of Chinese characters for printing to replace traditional wood blocks. Maria Dyer remarried fellow nonconformist missionary, Johann Georg Bausum, in 1845. The administration of the LMS school was entrusted to the Bausams in 1846 in recognition of Maria Dyer's contribution as a missionary wife in exchange for its upkeep.
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