Basic Information

The Church of the Brethren grew out of the 18th century Pietist movement in Germany. It was founded in 1723 in the U.S. by Alexander Mack Sr., Christopher Sauer II, Alexander Mack Jr., and Peter Becker. They are also referred to as Conservative Dunkards.

History

	Church of the Brethren (1723)	continuedChurch of the Brethren
		split into Old German Baptist Brethren Church (1881)

Snapshot

	1990	2000	Growth/Decline
Congregations	1,121	1,074	-47 (-4.2%)
Adherents	186,588	171,281	-15,307 (-8.2%)

Notes

Snapshot data are from Churches and Church Membership in the United States 1990 and Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000. Copyright © 2002, Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB). All rights reserved. Published by Glenmary Research Center, 1312 Fifth Ave., North, Nashville, TN 37208. www.glenmary.org/grc.

History data were taken from the National Council of Churches' Historic Archive CD and recent editions of the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches [More information on history data sources]