A controversial Christian church eyes the Philly suburbs for expansion

A controversial Christian church at the center of investigations into excommunication and rigid control of its members is finding a foothold in the Philadelphia suburbs.

The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church has about 54,000 members worldwide and a history shy of 200 years.

The evangelical group has long been known for imposing boundaries on outside life, with some former members going as far as comparing Brethren life to that of a “cult.”

Those allegations have reached larger audiences in recent years following investigations by leading news organizations in the United Kingdom and Australia, where the Brethren’s influence is strongest.

Earlier this month, the Telegraph detailed a former member’s account of being shunned after her departure from the church, where “fear overruled my life, really, from about the age of four,” she recounted.

Those who speak out say the process can sever long-standing relationships between mothers and sons, grandmothers and grandchildren.

The Plymouth Brethren have categorically denied those allegations, and no comparable accounts have been shared in major American news outlets. The church has touted something of a modernization in recent years, loosening restrictions and integrating more members into public life.

And even as church membership dwindles across the country, the Brethren — in Delaware County, at least — are growing.

The church increased its membership in the suburban county significantly in the last decade, scooping up a handful of properties around Middletown Township in the process.

“Our relatively small congregation of 150 members has roughly doubled over the last 12 years,” a U.S.-based Plymouth Brethren representative, who asked to be identified as a church spokesperson, told The Inquirer.

That’s due to “our younger members building families, as well as members from outside of the area moving into Delaware County for the wonderful opportunities and lifestyle it offers.”

The Plymouth Brethren, often called “Exclusive Brethren,” originated in Ireland in the 1820s amid growing dissatisfaction with the hierarchical nature of the Anglican Church.

Groups splintered off over the years, and Brethren arrived in the United States by the 1860s.

Today, Australian multimillionaire Bruce Hales is the church’s global leader.

Brethren have practiced in Delaware County for several decades, according to the church spokesperson, though not at today’s scale.

The church’s “doctrine of separation” has become the subject of multiple media reports in recent years.

Many Brethren are forbidden from consuming secular sources of television and radio, for example. That is in addition to being discouraged from eating with those outside the church, attending college — and, by some accounts, living in homes that share walls with them.

Speaking with the New Statesman in 2023, former Brethren recounted those limitations as well as being “withdrawn from” — the church’s purported method of disciplining noncompliant members through isolation.

“Everything was really regimented and controlled — what you wear, what you do during your day, how you spend your evenings, what you think,” one former member told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. in a 2024 report on life within the church.

Of course, not all Brethren experiences are similar.

Some raised in the church have taken to social media sites like Reddit to soften the worst of those narratives (one user told of being allowed to listen to Taylor Swift, for example), and the church says many of its conservative beliefs are no different from those of other Christian faiths.

And while Brethren mostly avoid social media, members have begun to use it for business endeavors, the spokesperson said.

Brethren are deeply involved in entrepreneurial pursuits where non-church relationships are unavoidable; members own a variety of businesses, so much that well-connected Brethren-linked firms in the United Kingdom were recipients of more than £2 billion in government contracts for personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the allegations of cultlike behavior that have gripped the United Kingdom and Australia, no such accounts have been raised in Delaware County.

But in 2023, as the church eyed an expansion near Chicago, a group including former Brethren protested the sale, citing alleged abuses within the sect.

The Plymouth Brethren denied allegations raised in multiple reports through its U.S. spokesperson.

“To be clear, most of us live normal lives, run normal businesses, have normal families, and work with and alongside many people from outside of our church community,” the spokesperson said.

“The people who are feeding social media and media with stories to the contrary are misrepresenting our way of life. We work, live and interact with others every day as we strive to embody Christian principles in all we do — a free practice of religion like any other, whose tolerance and protection is built into the heart of this country.”

Within the past decade, the Plymouth Brethren have purchased five Delaware County properties through a nonprofit arm called Philadelphia Meeting Room Inc., according to tax and deed records.

The buying spree began in 2016 with the purchase of 40 State Rd. in Media. In 2022, the nonprofit bought a single-story property in nearby Chester Heights.

Philadelphia Meeting Room has since acquired three more properties along Middletown Road in Middletown Township.

One property serves as the Plymouth Brethren’s main meeting hall, the spokesperson said, a space that seats around 300 for weekend services.

Three smaller properties are used as meeting rooms, which the spokesperson described as “hyperlocal neighborhood worship centers for families in the immediate vicinity, used for prayer during the week,” that accommodate between 30 and 50 people.

The church has larger ambitions for the area.

“We are in the process of soliciting contractors for a new meeting hall located in Middleton Township, which we intend to break ground on in 2025,” the spokesperson said via email. “Once completed, we will consider offering for sale our property in Media, PA.”

Those driving by the Brethren’s property at 47 N. Middletown Rd. may also notice a sign for “Campus & Co.” deliveries. The global chain of Brethren-exclusive supermarkets is open only to church members and the stores are managed by volunteers.

Those are in addition to OneSchool Global, the Brethren’s worldwide network of independent schools; the closest campus is in Joppa, Md.

“We feel honored to be members of this beautiful community and will continue to contribute to it for many years to come,” the spokesperson said.