Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

thereof, in prayer, in the remembrance of the Lord at his table, and in personal
Christian intercourse.‟ 105
In his views on missionary work Groves broke new ground for that day. He saw that in
countries outside „Christendom‟ such as India there was the possibility of believers breaking
down denominational barriers and clearly showing true Christian unity. Most missionaries
seemed to be perpetuating abroad the denominational divisions of the homeland. He believed
strongly in developing an Indian-led ministry. The Indian preachers were not to be above
their flocks by education or superior living style and he himself sought to live frugally. There
was to be no denominational allegiance and no separate clergy as such, yet he was on good
terms with missionaries from the established societies like SPG, CMS and the Wesleyan
Society. He wrote in 1847:
„To make myself one in heart with all God‟s children, is one of the principles I have
ever held. I love them ten times more, because they belong to Christ, than I feel
separated from them on any comparatively lesser ground.‟
Groves did venture into industrial missions in India (silk and sugar) with some failure and
some success – but his principle of operating by faith remained.
He died in England in 1853 an „ecumenist‟ to the last, speaking not long before his death at a
Bible study of about 25 people from all denominations.
Perhaps the clearest exposition of the „open‟ Brethren teaching on the true nature of Christian
fellowship and unity is found in Groves‟ letter to John Nelson Darby on 10 March 1836. 106
Darby‟s followers came to be known as the Exclusive Brethren (not their own name for
themselves), and they separated from other Brethren they considered to be doctrinally
unsound; they also developed a centralised church government, unlike their „open‟
counterparts, who repudiated all central control and maintained the strict autonomy of each
assembly.
Groves could see the tendency of Darby and his followers to establish unity on the basis of
what people believed rather than on what they were in Christ. In this letter he faithfully
warned Darby, „…you will be known more by what you witness against than what you
witness for and practically this will prove that you witness against all but yourselves.‟
This was a perceptive and prophetic judgement. Groves felt that Darby had moved away
from the view of Christian unity and fellowship that they had at the first. In the early days,
Groves asserted, the basis of fellowship was seen to be the divine life that was in a person.
Now, said Groves, many of the little gatherings of the Brethren were making light, not life,
the test of reception into communion.
105 Lang, G H, Anthony Norris Groves, saint and pioneer, Thynne and Co, London, 1939, pp 148-149.
106 This letter can be found in the Appendix A to F Roy Coad‟s A History of the Brethren Movement,
The Paternoster Press, 1968.
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