Breaking the rules can have dire consequences for Brethren church members

Part two of “Veracity: Breaking Brethren," Cristina Howorun examines some doctrines that guide the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church. Former members share their experience in following the edicts and what happens when members step out of line.

By Cristina Howorun

In a series of reports and an in upcoming documentary, CityNews is taking a look at a very exclusive Christian sect. Former members are now speaking out about their experience in The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.

It’s easy to miss the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church’s (PBCC) meeting hall. Located in a quasi-industrial section in the north end of Toronto, its just a simple brown box building on a large swath of land.

Unlike the ornate and welcoming BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir across the street, the PBCC hall is surrounded by a black chain link fence. There is no lush landscape or gardens leading to the door and access to the hall is only through a chain-link gate which is secured by padlock.

There is no signage, no crucifix, no elaborate lights to welcome the lost, and established worshippers, into its sanctuary.

It is separate from its surroundings, separate from the community, blending into the background of small factories and shipping containers. The building is very much like one of the chief tenants of the religion – to be in the world, but not of it.

“My experience of the Brethren is that the doctrine of separation just affects every aspect of your life in huge way,” Richard Marsh tells CityNews. “You can’t attend university at all. You can not live in a house with a common wall with someone (who is not Brethren). You can’t live in an apartment; you can’t live in a townhouse. You have to have a detached house.”

Marsh is a rarity. He left the PBCC but, just like in any religion, most members do not. He immigrated from England to Regina, Saskatchewan over a decade ago as part of a PBCC mission to further expand the religion into former British colonies.

After a tragic car accident, he and his family returned to England. But Marsh came back alone, settling in the Toronto area. He was too disillusioned to stay with the church but couldn’t convince his wife and children to join him and leave the church behind.

“There are no freedoms in life. Everything is circumscribed, everything is controlled, everything is centrally controlled. That’s the reality of separation from the world,” explained Marsh.

While the church denies that there is “typical hierarchy” and said its services are egalitarian, over the course of several months, every former member we spoke with refuted the church’s claims and said that rules, discipline, and general practices are dictated by the “Man of God”, the head of the church, and spread to congregations on a regular basis.

There’s a shared sense of paranoia and genuine fear of the church among former members. They allege that the church surveilled them; intercepting their phone records, watching their internet usage through computers and mobile devices that members were compelled to purchase through a church-affiliated company.

“I know the Brethren do surveillance because I’ve been asked to do it myself and I have done it,” said Dennis Wragg, a former member who left the church more than two decades ago.

Even now, he believes the church could choose to track him.

The church was asked specifically if it used censoring software or spyware on member’s devices. It didn’t address the question, although the church’s website acknowledges that filters are used to block internet content.

The church also did not respond to queries about past and present practices of surveillance on current and former members. Former members believe the tracking of the congregation is to ensure compliance with a long list of rules.

“The rules seem to change so often,” explained Mike Heggie. He, his wife Christy and three children left the church five years ago.

Mike and Christy Heggie

Mike and Christy Heggie speak out about their expierence as members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church. CITYNEWS

“No sex education, no contraceptives,” Christy begins. “No restaurants, no hotels, no pets, no pre-recorded music, no worldly literature, no novels, no magazines.”

“No white pants, no tan pants, no white shoes,” Heggie added in, laughing as he struggles to find the logic behind those edicts.

Women are forbidden from dying their hair or wearing makeup, most men wear similar haircuts. Piercings and tattoos are forbidden, as are 2SLGBTQ+ relationships, mixed-race relationships, sex before marriage and media consumption.

“Media would be a huge no-no because that’s access to all different kinds of belief systems,” explained Caroline Cherry who left the church several years ago and now lives in Abbotsford with her daughter.

“The radio was actually called by one of the leaders ‘a pipeline of filth’ and I would assume that goes for television as well. We weren’t allowed to have newspapers,” She adds.

The church’s website acknowledges that “TV and radio are not used, except in an educational setting at school, due to the fact that it is very difficult to filter out content.”

“There are no specific rules as such, but we follow a Christian life and are guided by Christian values,” a PBCC spokesperson wrote in a statement to CityNews. “Brethren universally are regulated by and maintain beliefs and a lifestyle that is based on the Holy Scriptures.”

The PBCC, sometimes referred to as the Exclusive Brethren, is a secretive and little-known religious sect. Founded in Ireland in the 1800s, it expanded across the United Kingdom and the ocean – with a heavy presence in Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and Canada.

There are heavy pockets of practitioners in nearly every province in Canada, yet most of the general public have never heard of this group, in part because members don’t generally participate in worldly society.

There is a charity branch of the church called the PBCC Rapid Relief Team, which goes into areas impacted affected by natural disasters and has provided snack packs to schools and food boxes to people impacted by COVID-19 or other economic hardships.

According to its 2021 report, in July, it served pizza and cold drinks to Winnipeg firefighters battling an apartment fire.

But according to former members that is largely the extent of the church’s connection with outside society, they say they are forbidden from voting, from political activism and from joining outside clubs and groups.

Last year, a Brethren crossing guard in Abbotsford refused to join the crossing guard’s union and challenged the British Columbia Labour Relations Board, arguing that his religious beliefs forbade it. The application was later dismissed.

When asked about this compulsory separateness from general society, a PBCC spokesperson didn’t fully address the question, but wrote that “We make a commitment to eat and drink only with those with whom we would celebrate the Lord’s Supper – that is, other members of our church.”

“You go through tremendous gymnastics in business to avoid having a cup of coffee with someone,” Wragg explained. “You look down on everybody who isn’t part of the group, so therefore, you cannot eat with them.”

Breaking Brethren rules has consequences

Breaking these rules could have dire consequences for its members.

“The Brethren have two levels of what they call discipline,” Richard explained. “The first one is that you are shut up or confined, which means you are isolated but still part of the fellowship.”

Members who are shut up are not allowed to attend daily worship meetings, to engage in any social activities or even speak with family, according to those who have experienced it.

“Living in a house with people you are supposed to be keeping separate from is a very, very weird experience,” Marsh reflected. “[Family members] come into a room and you are supposed to leave the room.”

CityNews asked the PBCC what being “shut up” or “shut out” entails, what causes this level of discipline and how a member can regain their place in the Brethren community after undergoing this process. It did not address those questions.

“For most people, it was a terrible, terrible thing,” Cherry explained, reflecting that she’s been shut up and her father is currently shut up, although doesn’t know why. “You lose your position in the church, you lose any kind of reputation you may have had before your discipline.”

Caroline Cherry

Caroline Cherry speaks out about her experience as members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church. CITYNEWS

“Very often the punishment is so severe that people will capitulate and try to get back in. That can happen anywhere from a month to maybe more than a year, that’s how long people can be shut up,” explained Wragg. He too, was shut up and didn’t know why.

“These two priests, who were appointed people, would come and visit you and interrogate you. They will come and they want to know ‘Are you repentant?’ Well, repentant of what? ‘Well, you should know.’ Nobody would come out and say what it was,” said Wragg. At times, people will confess to fleeting sinful thoughts, or personal matters,  like masturbation, that the church could not have possibly known about.

“It’s hard to explain the terror of it, because you’ve always been taught that if you are kicked out of the Brethren, your life is over,” he explained.

Wragg was kicked out, a practice known in the Brethren as being “withdrawn from.” He still doesn’t know why. While Wragg has a very strong relationship with two sons who left the church as well, some of his children refuse to speak with him to this day.

“Every individual in a family must follow the rules. And if one person transgressed, that person would have to be eliminated from the family.”

The church denies that it forbids members from communicating with family who have left.

“When people leave the church, it’s up to individuals to decide how and when they communicate with their families and circumstances will be difference for each individual family,” a spokesperson wrote.

Marsh hasn’t spoken to his children since his exit from the church. He knows that one of his daughters has been married and heard that one his sons was struggling with math — but he learned this only through other former members.

Wragg’s ex-wife refused to visit their teenage son when he was suffering from cancer in the hospital. Heggie only learned of his father’s passing by happenstance as his family won’t speak with him.

Christy Heggie only recently met and formed a relationship with an aunt who left the church before she was born because her family didn’t speak of her or include her in family events. She grew up only a few blocks away from her aunt.

When it comes to priorities, all former members CityNews spoke with said the church comes before everything else.

“If that means you must let go of your sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, children, you do it. Because that’s the right thing to do,” explained Cherry.

Cherry said she spent much of her early adulthood in angst.

Leaving the church gave her freedoms she couldn’t have fathomed, simple things like staying in a hotel, but also significant ones, like pursuing a career of her choice.

She spends her downtime watching movies from the 1980s and 90s, catching up on staples like “Clueless” and “The Breakfast Club”, enjoying moments experienced by most of her friends 25 to 30 years ago.

Mike and Christy now have a several pets, including two dogs, something they say they couldn’t do while part of the church.

Their eldest daughter, Chloe, started college this year, opening doors that she didn’t even know existed before.

Marsh is very much in love with his new wife Kneisha, who he met online and who comes from a small village in Jamaica. Wragg is still a man of faith, but he and his wife spend their time at a different church and enjoying the finer things in life.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Christy said of leaving the church. “But it’s also the best thing. We did this for our kids so they can have a future. And now they do.”

The documentary, “Veracity: Breaking Brethren,” airs this Sunday, March 27, on Citytv at 10p.m. EST.

You can read the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church’s complete statement below:

Response from Plymouth Bret… by CityNewsToronto

 

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