by Tim Twinam
‘Be Ye Separate’ was first published in 1998 on the ‘Wyman Website‘ – a website forced to close in 2003 due to Exclusive Brethren litigation.
Being Separate always was fundamental to the Exclusive Brethren. As a child it was an unquestioned part of our existence, I knew of no other way. The family was enough because it was a huge Family. The Family was more than my parents and five younger sisters, it included all Exclusive Brethren everywhere.
As a teenager, long before the Aberdeen fiasco, I was aware that I could travel to almost any UK town and to many other countries around the world and would always be able to find a friendly door upon which to knock. Once announced as a brother belonging to the Sevenoaks Local Assembly, I would be given a welcome and immediate unconditional hospitality.
This was always the greatest aspect of the Little Flock. We shared a commonwealth of each other. We were the Church. We were the Bride. We, the ‘Un-named’, were the lonely banner-wavers of the only Truth in an evil world. We looked after each other.
From the time that an invited audience of local brethren gathered in a room to witness the complete immersion in warm water of a week-old infant, a new member of the church was added to the list of the Beloved. Each child was nurtured and became the spiritual responsibility of the wider community. I answered to my parents of course, but I was also expected to be subject to all members of the assembly. Well, some more than others if I’m honest.
From the earliest age the boundaries were carefully explained. I remember the time that an older relative told me firmly not to use a drinking fountain in the park because “Unclean people drink from there, dear.” I must have been between three and four years old. Evil was portrayed as a disease that we would be damaged by, if we allowed ourselves to come into contact with it. Eating with others was not a problem in the pre-school years because we were only ever in the family environment. But all that changed when we entered the public school system. At that time, during the Taylorite 1960′s, there was no such thing as an Exclusive Brethren school.
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Powerscourt Estate, Ireland
The Plymouth Brethren have several contenders for the title of Founder and Early Church Father. There is however probably only one woman who would fill the role of ‘Mother of the Church‘. Lady Theodosia Wingfield Powerscourt was a young and wealthy widow, and like Darby, was a member of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy in the early 19th century. Viscountess Powerscourt was a powerful advocate in the formative years of the movement that became known as the Plymouth Brethren.
J.N. Darby, recognized as one of the founders of the Plymouth Brethren, was a very close friend of Lady Powerscourt. It is believed that they at one time planned to marry but mutually decided that their lives were headed in different directions. Some say that they were ‘dissuaded’ by other members of the early Plymouth Brethren.
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