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The Exclusive Brethren are a subset of the Christian evangelical movement generally described as the Plymouth Brethren. They are distinguished from the Open Brethren from whom they separated in 1848.〔 〕 The Exclusive Brethren are now divided into a number of groups, most of which differ on minor points of doctrine or practice. Perhaps the best-known of these, however, is the Raven-Taylor-Hales group, now known as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, which maintains the doctrine of uncompromising separation based on their interpretation of 2 Corinthians 6 and 2 Timothy 2, believing that attendance at the Communion Service, the 'Lord's Supper', governs and strictly limits their relationship with others, even other Brethren groups. These brethren have one fellowship in some nineteen countries — including France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Holland, Switzerland, Sweden, and Argentina, but they are more numerous in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and North America〔 〕〔 〕 where they are referred to just as the ''Exclusive Brethren'' or ''Brethren''. ==History== The Plymouth Brethren split into Exclusive and Open Brethren in 1848 when George Müller refused to accept John Nelson Darby's view of the relationship between local assemblies following difficulties in the Plymouth meeting. Brethren that held Muller's congregational view became known as "Open", those holding Darby's 'connexional' view, became known as "Exclusive" or "Darbyite" Brethren. Darby's circular on 26 August 1848, cutting off not only Bethesda but all assemblies who received anyone who went there, was to define the essential characteristic of "exclusivism" that he was to pursue for the rest of his life. He set it out in detail in a pamphlet he issued in 1853 entitled ''Separation from Evil - God’s Principle of Unity''.〔 〕 But a tension had existed since the earliest times, as set out in a letter from Anthony Norris Groves in 1836 to Darby (who was not a believer in adult baptism):〔 〕
For most of his life, Darby was able to hold the exclusives together by his great learning and tireless activity, although several longtime members had seceded after accusing him of similar errors about the nature of Christ's humanity of which he had accused Benjamin Wills Newton. The Central Meeting in London (London Bridge) would communicate with the other assemblies and most difficulties were eventually smoothed over. But shortly before he died in 1882, things started to fall apart. It all started from an initiative in 1879 of Edward Cronin, one of the Dublin founding members, that paralleled Darby's initiation of a new assembly at Plymouth thirty years before. Some members had left a failing assembly in Ryde and Cronin travelled down to break bread with them. When he reported back to London, different assemblies took differing views of his action. Though Darby was sympathetic in private he attacked him fiercely in public. By 1881 an assembly in Ramsgate had itself split over the issue and the division, over an issue not of doctrine or principle but church governance, became irrevocable. The excluded party became known as the "''Kelly'' Brethren", although William Kelly remained devoted to the memory of Darby and edited his collected papers. But after another division in 1885, three years after Darby's death, when a London assembly excommunicated a brother in Reading over the "standing" of a Christian, the minority in the resultant split (''Stuarts'') adopted a more "open" approach to fellowship, as did those who followed ''Grant'' in America. A more serious split occurred in 1890 around the teaching of F. E. Raven of Greenwich. "The seceders from his communion falsely accused him of denying the orthodox doctrine of the union of the Divine and the human natures in the Man Christ Jesus – not indeed in a Unitarian, but in a Gnostic sense." After furious strife in which the leading opponent was William ''Lowe'', many of the remaining assemblies in Britain stayed with Raven but those on the continent separated whilst the American assemblies were split. Not all of the people remaining in fellowship with Raven agreed with him and this led in 1908-9 to further splits, initiated by actions of the Glanton assembly in Northumberland over dissensions in the neighbouring Alnwick assembly. Once more assemblies had to decide which side to support and this included those as far away as Melbourne, Australia. Thus the ''Ravens'' and the ''Glantons'' were established. In the same year a festering disagreement in Tunbridge Wells led to a minor breakaway from the ''Lowe'' group by a number of assemblies. A further division took place in 1970. By this time, James Taylor, Jr. had come to control what had been the Raven group. At a meeting in Aberdeen, Scotland, on 25 July, a clearly drunk Taylor publicly insulted members, calling them "bums", "bastards", and other such names. That weekend, he was allegedly found in bed with a married woman, both of them naked. His host published a long letter of protest which was sent to the New York assembly. Taylor immediately rejected both accusations as lies and the incident definitively divided the Brethren membership worldwide. Very few based near the scene of the events stayed in fellowship with Taylor — only two families in Aberdeen and 200 out of 3,000 members in Scotland remained. Altogether, over 200 such assemblies in England, Scotland and Ireland seceded from the Taylor group, according to a 1971 listing.〔 (【引用サイトリンク】url=http://discourses.org.uk/History/UKmeetings1971.pdf ) 〕 Others, especially those further afield, believed Taylor's line that he was a ''pure man'' and that this incident was used by God to expose his enemies. Following this incident, those who separated from Taylor "rolled back" the changes in doctrine and practice that he had introduced, reverting to the teachings that had been followed in the time of his father, James Taylor, Sr., who had led the movement from 1905 till his death in 1953. This fellowship further fragmented in 1972, and the party which broke away has since further sub-divided. However the history of Exclusive Brethren is not only one of division. Eventually several of the groups realised that the divisions caused by personalities clashes or ecclesiastical issues were no longer relevant and reunions occurred. The Kelly and Lowe groups reunited in 1926 to form the ''Lowe-Kelly'' group, in 1940 with most of Tunbridge Wells and in 1974 with the Glantons and are sometimes known as ''Reunited Brethren'', though there was a further split in 2000 and their ageing congregations have often not been replenished and are dwindling. Most of the Grant party threw in their lot with the Open Brethren in 1932.〔 〕 Most Exclusive Brethren have traditionally been described as "Darbyite" as they adhere in the main to the original doctrines and teachings of John Darby, and do not accept the concept of a doctrine that evolves through the teachings of successive leaders. Neither do they accept the concept that teachings of church leaders are authoritative, divinely sanctioned, and binding on those in fellowship, as is the belief of the Raven/Taylor/Hales Brethren. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Exclusive Brethren」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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