The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (the Exclusive Brethren)

Movement·Founded 1848 CE·Just over 55,000 members, on the body's own published figure, in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Europe, North and South America and the Caribbean. Australia holds the largest national community. The figure is self-reported and there is no independent count.

Judaism → Christianity → Catholicism → Protestantism → The Plymouth Brethren → The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (the Exclusive Brethren)

Branch
Core tenet of The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (the Exclusive Brethren)

You do not eat with those outside the fellowship.

From the 1960s the doctrine of separation was extended to the table, on 1 Corinthians 5:11. It governs restaurants, workplaces, weddings and the family kitchen, and it is why a withdrawal from is not only a matter of church attendance.

Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

The separate table is the practice that has drawn most public and legal attention, and the body has explained it as obedience to 1 Corinthians 5:11, which says not to eat with a person called a brother who is walking in sin. Under James Taylor Junior in the 1960s this was extended from the excommunicated to the world generally, so that members do not eat with non-members at all. The practical consequences are severe and are not disputed by either side, only characterised differently: a member cannot lunch with colleagues, attend a non-member relative's wedding meal, or eat with a son or daughter who has left. The PBCC's position, set out in the material accompanying its 2014 charity registration, is that pastoral care continues toward those withdrawn from and that families are not required to expel members. Evidence given by former members to inquiries and courts in Britain, Australia and New Zealand describes families divided and contact with children lost. Both accounts are in the public record.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
The Manusmriti. Hinduism · scripture Open the book →
The kosher kitchen. Judaism · rite Go deeper →
Marriage, and what the churches ask of it. Christianity · precept Go deeper →
Marriage, and what falls outside it. Islam · precept Go deeper →
Whether Sikhs should eat meat. Sikhism Go deeper →
Kegare, and staying away. Shinto · precept Go deeper →

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