Indian Brethren
| Indian Brethren | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Plymouth Brethren |
| Polity | Congregationalist |
| Region | India |
| Origin | 1833 |
| Congregations | 1929 |
| Members | 449,550 (including children) |
| Ministers | 1300 (not ordained, but preaching full-time) |
| Missionaries | 250 |
| Tertiary institutions | 11 |
The Indian Brethren are a Christian Evangelical premillennial religious movement. Although they have some distinct characteristics, they have a lot in common, in both doctrine and practice, with the international Open Brethren movement, with whom nearly all of them are historically affiliated.
The Brethren in India, as in most other countries, do not usually regard themselves as a denomination in the usually understood sense, but rather as a largely informal network of like-minded autonomous local churches. They remain linked mostly through common support of missionaries, area conferences, youth ministries, and the work of itinerant preachers, who are usually called evangelists. The Brethren do not ordain clergy, and each local church, called an assembly, is led by a number of Elders.
The Plymouth Brethren was introduced into India in 1833 by Anthony Norris Groves, a dentist by profession who was one of the Plymouth Brethren pioneers in the United Kingdom. His ministry centred in the Godavari delta area of Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
John Arulappan followed Groves and lived "by faith" as a full-time worker. Through Arulappan's ministry, a revival broke out in Thirunelveli (Nellai) in Tamil Nadu, and many congregations were formed. Tamil David and Handley Bird followed in their footsteps and conducted revival meetings throughout Southern India in the late 1890s.
Some Indian Brethren disclaim the missionary connection, instead making a case for continuity with an unbroken line of Christians going back to what they believe were evangelistic endeavours of the Apostle Thomas in the First Century. One Brethren website states :
Brethren Assemblies in India, as elsewhere, are extremely diverse, although the majority tend to be towards the conservative end of the spectrum. Nevertheless, they are having many of the same internal debates known among Brethren elsewhere. Contentious issues include whether assemblies should appoint pastors (a practice Brethren have traditionally rejected, but which has gained popularity in some parts of the Brethren world), whether to retain the absolute congregational autonomy that has long characterized the Brethren movement, or whether to adopt a more centralized system to safeguard against what some preachers perceive as heresies, whether to allow women to participate audibly in worship (traditionally, they do not), and whether and to what extent they should cooperate with non-Brethren Christians, and if so, under what conditions. Some assemblies will welcome a visitor from a non-Brethren church to partake of The Lord's Supper, while others have a more restrictive policy. Other issues being debated include the Charismatic movement (which some assemblies have embraced, although most high-profile Brethren leaders, such as Johnson Philip, Principal of Brethren Theological College at Cochin University, Kerala, are opposed). Yet another bone of contention in some circles has been the relationship between Indian Brethren assemblies and workers and foreign organizations and missionaries, particularly when foreign funds are involved.
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Wikipedia