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

Stories

the narratives it tells itself
The eight at the Eder, and the name they left out. None of them held a baptism they thought valid, so they drew lots for who would go first; that man baptised Mack, and Mack baptised the rest. His name was deliberately never written down, so that no one could ever claim the church descended from him. Read it in full — context →

The Scriptures

the texts that carry the stories — and everything else

The New Testament, taken as the only creed

The Brethren Encyclopedia and the Annual Conference minutes

Alexander Mack, Rights and Ordinances (1715)

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

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