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
Rite of The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (the Exclusive Brethren)

Six o'clock on Sunday morning, around the loaf.

The Lord's Supper is early and it is the week's centre; nobody presides, brothers minister as led, and the same pattern runs in every meeting room in the world. Meetings fill most other evenings, so that the fellowship is the calendar as well as the community.

⏱ Weekly — the Lord's Supper on Sunday morning at six, with meetings most other days◌ Members in fellowship only
What happensThe company gathers early around the loaf and cup with no one presiding; brothers give out hymns, pray and minister as led; the week carries further meetings including readings from the current ministry
What it needsAn unmarked meeting room, and a fellowship none of whose members are under discipline
What it aims atThat the whole body worship as one, on the same pattern, everywhere
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this rite is held

The Lord's Supper on Sunday morning, held very early, follows the Brethren form: a company seated around a table bearing a loaf and a cup, with no presiding minister and no order of service, and brothers giving out hymns, praying and ministering as they are moved. What distinguishes the PBCC from the Open Brethren is the boundary rather than the form — only members in fellowship break bread, and reception or exclusion in one meeting is binding on every other worldwide. Meetings occupy most evenings of the week: readings, prayer meetings, and gatherings at which the current worldwide ministry is read. Larger occasions bring thousands together, and the fellowship builds substantial purpose-made halls for them. The meeting rooms themselves are deliberately unmarked from the street.

The same ground, other faiths

rites that share this one's ideas
The Eucharist. Christianity Go deeper →
The Mass. Catholicism Go deeper →
The liturgy is heaven on earth. Eastern Orthodoxy · core tenet Go deeper →
Word and sacrament. Lutheranism Go deeper →
The sacrament meeting. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Go deeper →
The Holy Qurbana. The Church of the East Go deeper →

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