The Exclusive Brethren and the Open Brethren are both worldwide.Judas Maccabeus wrote:We thought we would be ok because we knew a couple there. They are more common in Australia so I will let Josh fill in the blanks, but the mainstream media calls them a cult.
We did not, and still do not know its exact affiliation, but if it quacks like a duck......
J.M.
In Australia the Exclusive Brethren became fairly well established and basically function as an extremely closed society now. They do the same in the U.K., and actually went and hired a P.R. agency to improve their public image, complete with glossy brochures and a modern looking website.
The Open Brethren split with the Exclusive Brethren, so generally their two meeting locations aren't that far apart, but sometimes one or the other of the two went extinct. Where I live in Ohio, the Open Brethren meet. They refer to themselves as just "Christians" and their meeting place as a "Gospel Hall".
I found out a girl 18 years of age or so who went to a Bible study I was a part of grew up in the Open Brethren and attended there regularly. I didn't have the foggiest idea. She basically dressed up for church on Sunday with no real understanding of why they did so, hat and all. When we discussed 1 Cor. 11 in our Bible study, it was a completely new concept to her and she did not connect it to the Open Brethren's practice at all.