Christian Community Churches of New Zealand
Network of churches in New Zealand / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Christian Brethren Church of New Zealand?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The Christian Community Churches of New Zealand (formerly known as the Christian Brethren Church of New Zealand) is the name by which churches in the Open Brethren movement in New Zealand are publicly known. They adopted the new name, as did their counterparts in Australia (the Christian Community Churches of Australia) to avoid confusion with the similarly named Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.[4]
Christian Community Churches of New Zealand | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Classification | Protestant |
Orientation | Plymouth Brethren |
Polity | Congregationalist |
Region | New Zealand |
Founder | James George Deck[1] |
Origin | 1863 Ngātīmoti |
Separated from | Exclusive Brethren/PBCC, 1875 |
Congregations | 202[2] |
Members | 16,164 (including children)[2] |
Missionaries | 150[3] |
Official website | cccnz |
It is not a denomination in the organizational sense, but a loose network of like-minded autonomous local churches, or "assemblies", as Brethren churches are generally known. According to the Evangelical publication, Operation World, there are 202 Brethren congregations in New Zealand[2] with 16,164 in regular attendance (including children). Some Brethren sources claim this number to be an underestimate, with internal surveys indicating as many as 38,000 adults and children attending Brethren assemblies — almost one percent of New Zealand's population.[5]