Left: Ian Payne, and Richard & Hilly Goodwin. Right: Historian Tim Grass at Fitzwilliam Square.
It’s 200 years since the Open Brethren movement began in Ireland, and 200 years of God's faithfulness is worth pausing and celebrating!
With the generous funding of Lichfield and Hillview Trusts, Richard Goodwin (Raleigh Street Christian Centre and Pathways College faculty) and Ian Payne (Lifezone Church and Pathways College board member) visited Dublin and Belfast on 29–30 August.
Richard says it was an exciting trip, "Seeing with my own eyes the context in which the Brethren movement sprang to life blew the dust off my imagination. Our beginnings weren’t humdrum and stuffy; they were vibrant and relevant." Ian agrees that the clarity and simplicity of Brethren beginnings stand out, "Those early Brethren were amazing and devoted!"
A highlight was the Dublin walk-about tour to several historic places where the first Brethren groups met from 1825, including a house in Fitzwilliam Square. It was here that Anthony Norris Groves suggested "that believers, meeting together as disciples of Christ, were free to break bread together…weekly…" without the need for a clergyman. Those early Brethren were mostly educated and wealthy, but their earnest simplicity flourished when they moved in 1830 to meet in a public hall in a poorer area of Dublin. The movement spread rapidly across Britain and the globe, especially in the revivals of the 1850s.
Taking a bus overnight to Belfast, Ian and Richard joined a morning seminar in Queen's University. Dr Ian Burness (of Echoes) enthused about the global impact of the Brethren: 200 years of vigorous missionary enterprise has led to some 3.6 million people in 40,500 congregations who identify as ‘Brethren’ in over 140 countries.
Read more about the trip, including learnings for churches in the Open Brethren movement today...
Check out the full story and read about the 200 year celebrations.
