Church of the Brethren

Church of the Brethren belongs to the Anabaptist family of churches.

Governance: congregational.

Church of the Brethren reports 921 congregations in the United States (RCMS 2020 (ARDA national table), 2020).

Heirs of eight believers baptized in a German river in 1708 — a peace church with no creed but the New Testament, whose service projects taught America how to give away livestock, rebuild after disasters, and object to war constructively.

Heritage

In 1708 at Schwarzenau, Germany, Alexander Mack and seven others — shaped by both Pietism and Anabaptism — baptized one another in the Eder River, founding the movement neighbors called Dunkers for their manner of baptizing. Fleeing persecution, they emigrated to Germantown, Pennsylvania beginning in 1719, and for two centuries were known as the German Baptist Brethren. The major body took the name Church of the Brethren in 1908; RCMS 2020 counted 921 congregations, still strongest in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Midwest.

Theological family

Anabaptist-Pietist and non-creedal: the Brethren confess "no creed but the New Testament," practice believers' baptism by trine immersion, and hold the love feast — feetwashing, a shared meal, and the bread and cup — as the full communion Jesus gave. One of the three Historic Peace Churches, with Friends and Mennonites.

Who decides what

Congregations call their own leadership and send delegates to district conferences and to Annual Conference, the body's highest authority, which speaks for the church when it speaks at all — a conference-governed church of self-governing congregations.

What a first-time visitor would find

A visitor finds unpretentious Protestant worship — hymns, Scripture, sermon — warmer than formal, with the tradition's depth appearing at the love feast, held once or twice a year, when members wash one another's feet before sharing the meal and the cup. Anointing for healing is a quiet, cherished practice.

What it has always cared about

Peace as obedience rather than politics; simple living; service as the church's signature — the denomination's motto is "Continuing the work of Jesus. Peacefully. Simply. Together."

Its gift to the wider church

A genius for organized compassion the whole world inherited: Brethren layman Dan West's heifer project became Heifer International, Brethren Volunteer Service predated and helped inspire national service programs, Brethren workers pioneered Christian disaster childcare, and the Civilian Public Service system for conscientious objectors was built with Brethren hands.

Commonly confused with

With the Brethren in Christ, a different body from a different river; with the several other 1708-stream bodies — Old German Baptist Brethren, Dunkard Brethren, The Brethren Church (Ashland), Charis Fellowship — each treated separately on this map; and with Mennonites, fellow peace-church Anabaptists of separate origin.

Range of views inside it

A genuinely wide internal range, from evangelical congregations to progressive ones, with real differences over sexuality and biblical interpretation that recent decades have made visible; districts vary markedly in character.

A note from the mapmakers: Nothing here may be asserted of a specific congregation, least of all its position on the questions the denomination itself is still discerning. Sentences drawn from this record hedge as "Church of the Brethren congregations typically…" and yield to the congregation's own materials.

Sources: Church of the Brethren — who we are (Church of the Brethren) · The Brethren Encyclopedia (Brethren Encyclopedia, Inc.) · 2020 U.S. Religion Census (ASARB)

Where Church of the Brethren churches are on the map

18 Church of the Brethren congregations appear on The Church Map, across 12 states.

More of the Anabaptist story · Find these churches on the map