The secretive, cult-like church says its members volunteer their time to contribute to society, but an RNZ investigation has found hundreds of thousands of dollars were sent every year to a Sydney. Television is a strange thing. Many of UBT's vendors are leading global brands which provide a wide range of products and services, from travel, corporate fuel cards to insurances. The marriage relationship is very much a partnership. He also allowed the New Zealand assemblies a degree of congregational autonomy that was unknown among the Exclusives in the British Isles. Numerous questions are explored, such as What exactly was their interest in politics? I don't know, we have enough friends of our own." Imagine a life without television, music or freedom; imagine every minute of your spare time being spent attending church; imagine growing up believing swimming pools, cinemas and dancing were evil. But eventually the constant monitoring by other Brethren and having to account for their actions got too much. He claims that the Exclusive Brethren destroys people and families, have no respect for women and absolute contempt for anyone not in their religious group, and do all this while enjoying the benefit of charitable status from our government. Darby held that true Christians should separate not only from the churches, which were corrupt, but also from those who were impure in faith or morals. The leader of the church has absolute power to appoint the priests, resolve breaches of the rules, approve marriages and decide on punishments. Children are often educated within the Brethren community, although many Brethren children do attend mainstream schools. Sadie Stewart, 16, James Wearmouth, 18, and Susanna Stewart, 48, died when the ute driven by Russell Stewart crashed into a tree. While we don't have fellowship and eat with them, we still appreciate they're genuine people." I couldn't imagine being self-assured enough to make such a bold statement to the world. Tears. I didn't want to leave but it seemed inevitable, and the longer I waited the more collateral damage I would cause. The movement split in the 1840s on this question of the closed table, and Darbys party became known as exclusive in contrast to those Brethren who imposed no such test for admission to the communion table, thereafter known as Open Brethren. This week, former teachers at Brethren-run schools claimed the schools heavily censored reading material, ripping out chapters on reproduction from science texts, and dictated every aspect of the children's lives. A shell company of that name has already been set up here, reportedly to help the church hire its own without relying on "worldly people" A broker with the insurance company, Crombie Lockwood, said he was instructed to use a special code with Brethren clients, discounting his commission by 20 percent, which went to the listed "sub-agency", UBT (Universal Business Team) a church-controlled company. When the Herald on Sunday approached Dargaville Brethren businessmen to set the record straight about their way of life, most politely dismissed us. Picture / Doug Sherring, Dargaville couldn't be further from the Beehive, where revelations of Exclusive Brethren political lobbying and espionage are fuelling Parliament's running dog-fight. Source: The Exclusive Brethren, BBC. I stared in fascination. However, many leading New Zealand companies are lining up to join the list of preferred suppliers to what former members describe as a captive market. Non-members are called worldlies. I felt trapped, a Brethren failure, and ultimately convinced that I needed to confess my sexuality. You'd think it would be cause for celebration, but it can be agonising to have someone reappear. When his son, John Field Deck returned to England in 1859 to study Medicine, however, and gravitated towards the Open Brethren,[7] Exclusive leaders, including Darby, became concerned. There are two main motivations thought to be behind Brethren-backed political campaigns: promoting parties whose policies are closest to Brethren values (anti-gay rights, pro-traditional family, privatisation and decentralisation), thus delaying the "Rapture", when Jesus Christ is expected to descend and take away true believers; and, the more worldly theory of promoting parties with business-friendly policies to further Brethren's own business interests. Within days the Brethren tracked me down in Christchurch and appealed for my return. Over the past two years, Thompson and Clark has conducted hundreds of hours of surveillance on former members who have criticised the cult-like church. What later became the GPH Society Limited originated in May 1900 when Edward Whitehead opened the Bible and Tract Depot at Palmerston North,[27] with the purpose of publishing Christian literature to serve primarily the Brethren movement in New Zealand, but also the wider Christian community in both New Zealand and Australia. Peebs.Net is a website that endeavors to investigate and report the Truth behind the Exclusive Brethren, a group of so-called Christians, and by so doing, help break the chains and break down the barriers that prevent us from seeing our families, friends and loved ones, trapped in what many are calling a bona fide Cult. We held back from each other it's hard to trust someone again when you've closed off that part of your heart but our reservations fell away the day before I left for Hong Kong. See also the articles in our news tracker. Such clandestine adventures frequently led to feelings of guilt and shame, and I regularly confessed my so-called sins to the Brethren "priests" as a teenager. Now 53, he's in his second marriage and runs a cartage business in his hometown, Christchurch. This cult-like control is unbiblical, and is one of the reasons why the movement has attracted negative publicity. [10] The result was a schism not only between different assemblies, but also within many of them. Like most ex-Brethren - they call themselves ex-peebs (short for people of the Exclusive Brethren) - the hardest thing has been losing family from their lives. Source: The Exclusive Brethren, BBC. The Brethren in New Zealand have diversified greatly in the last generation. My parents threw me out of their house, waiting until I was away one weekend before dumping my belongings in a storage unit and telling me I could collect the key. The Exclusive Brethren is not a democratic movement, nor do individual congregations have any autonomy. My Brethren calls for a return to our spiritual heritage, to the Scriptural principles, practices and teachings of former years and to the acceptance of personal responsibility for the maintenance of the truth in our days. The schools teach around 1000 year 7-12 students, and get glowing ERO reports. Our social lives were bound up with other sect members and, by the time I reached my teens, my peers and I were well and truly enmeshed. So that's a very, very unsatisfactory situation for Bruce Hales.". Three-day religious conventions were a teen dating ground (that's where Diana, who grew up in Palmerston North, met Cambridge local Adrian). In another case, Nelson man Clive Petrie was "withdrawn from" by the church after he was convicted of thehistoric sexual abuse of three young girlsin 2009, according to the former member. (The terms "conservative" and "progressive" are often informally used to describe the emphasis, or lack of emphasis, that Brethren assemblies and individuals put on matters of doctrine, worship, and church order which distinguish them from other Evangelical Christians). And all the old people in the Exclusive Brethren now, they're all depressed, because they know it's all wrong. We had virtually no contact with people outside the Exclusive Brethren, and there were rules for every part of our lives. Mum had a honey-coloured guitar. Going to the movies meant planning an elaborate cover story, taking a circuitous route to avoid being followed, checking for sect members, and pulling a hood over my face before making the quick dash across Invercargill's Dee St and into Reading Cinemas. However, then global leader (Jim Taylor) condemned "commerce in the assembly" and excommunicated the Hales brothers and those involved had to "publicly repent". Brethren run at least 12 firms in Dargaville - mostly in trade and farm supplies - many clustered in an industrial complex on the town's southern edge. Unity is based on truth not on a presumed total separationfrom what they havebeen inbued with as evil when in fact the Church is composed of wheat and tares and only the LORD KNOWS THOSE WHO ARE HIS-ONLY HE. Many Exclusive Brethren work in Brethren-owned companies, so they have to give up their jobs as well as their family and their home if they leave the faith. You'll find most of them are really happy in their role." Initially, they saw no need for any but the simplest pattern of organization, and their separation from all existing churches was not conceived as a negative decision, but rather as the only basis on which the unity of true Christians could be established. Decline as with every previous testimony allowed the emergence in 1959 of a legal party which caused havoc and much suffering among the brethren. The Exclusive Brethren - now rebranded the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church - says it does not own, operate or hold any commercial business interests itself, but members run their own "family businesses". []. It's the same in 40 towns around the country, from Gisborne to Cust. In Dargaville, the businessmen give the impression they're in the dark about the masterplan. Although widely welcomed at first, both found themselves increasingly isolated as their Charismatic sympathies became known and Brethren leaders like Robert Laidlaw, William H. Pettit, Enoch Coppin, Colin Graham, and Ces Hilton, along with J. New rules came thick and fast from the 1960s, when the world leader of the time James Taylor Jnr, an alcoholic businessman from Brooklyn, New York enforced the principle of "separation". Exclusive Brethren Information provided by Reachout Trust, a Christian apologetics and countercult organization The Exclusive Brethren Excellent overview by the BBC. James Deck brought the religion to New Zealand in 1853. Non-members are called 'worldlies'. Across the Tasman, we've seen exposes of strong Exclusive Brethren financial backing in John Howard's re-election and allegations of past money-smuggling and child sexual abuse cover-ups. Once someone leaves the Brethren, they are forbidden from having contact with anyone still in the church, including their relatives. Wellington man Peter Hart, who was excommunicated two years ago, said he was happy to give to the charity and often gave more than was "suggested". She explained how chalk could be dusted away. that we might humble ourselves before the Lord for our part active or passive in the shameful happenings and sorrow-ful scatterings which have taken place in our times. Hot, silent tears come from nowhere grief, yes, but hard to pinpoint. If they do not, they are banned from worship or are isolated from family and only allowed to see particular church members until the ordained priests decide that God has forgiven the "sinner". Our mission is to educate the media and help those who have left and those who wish to leave a vicious regime that is causing increasing concern world-wide. However within 25 years of the Plymouth Brethren forming, one of the founders a certain John Nelson Darby asserted his dominance, breaking away and forming a separatist sect referred to by others as the Exclusive or Closed Brethren. Most members are so isolated within the sect that they cant even imagine a life on the outside. We urge you to wait. My gaze rested on them for a few seconds before I looked away. [8], The slow pace of communication between the British Isles and the far-flung colony of New Zealand allowed Deck to operate more or less independently. 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