A survey of the Open Brethren, conducted in 1998 but published last year, reveals a movement increasingly unsure of its past and much less sure of its future.
A precipice has appeared before them. Those churches, typically the smallest, seeking to maintain the traditions of the last 170 years are rapidly falling off the edge. The larger churches, casting off much of what they once were, have arrested their fall only by grasping hold of the wider evangelical world.
The survey is the fourth in four decades compiled by Partnership, a Brethren group concerned with providing statistics for the movement. As with all data, care should also be exercised when drawing conclusions. Just under one-third of the 1,106 churches in Great Britain said to be of Open Brethren origin replied to the survey. As the author admits, those that replied doubtless represent the more 'progressive' elements.
