The Church of the Brethren

Denomination·Founded 1708 CE·est. 81,345 members in the United States in 2022, the last full denominational Yearbook figure, down from 91,608 in 2020 — a fall of more than ten thousand in two years. Membership passed below 100,000 in 2020 for the first time since the nineteenth century. Counts exclude the related Old German Baptist Brethren, Dunkard Brethren, Brethren Church and Grace Brethren, who separated in 1881-83 and 1883 and 1939.

Judaism → Christianity → Catholicism → Protestantism → Anabaptism → The Church of the Brethren

Church of the BrethrenYoung Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College

Branch
Overview Belief 3How to Live 1Practice 1Stories & Scripture 1Community 1 You × The Church of the Brethren Discussion

Rites & Ritual

what its people do — and when All 1 →
Yearly
The love feast — the whole of John 13, in order, at a table. It runs for hours: examination, then feetwashing in pairs with basins and towels, then an actual supper eaten together, then the holy kiss, and only then the bread and the cup. Doing the meal is the point; Brethren regard a communion without it as an abridgement. When Twice a year in most congregations — the annual and semi-annual love feast, usually near Maundy ThursdayWho Baptised members, with the unbaptised welcome to watch Go deeper — context →

Numbers count Panfaith activity only — never real-world adherence.

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