Check.Church

KLC with ex-Tunbridge Wells

Brethren · 1940 · Britain; North America

In 1940 some of those who had bowed to the Tunbridge Wells action of 1909 merged with the KLC company formed in 1926.

KLC with ex-Tunbridge Wells was formed in 1940. It ended as a separate body in 1953, entering KLC with Grant-Stuart. KLC with ex-Tunbridge Wells's institutional line runs back through KLC (Kelly and Lowe-Continental), Kelly Brethren, The Brethren movement, Church of England, Roman Catholicism to the post-apostolic church. No body on this tree is the assembly of Acts 2; where a body claims that, the claim appears in the claimed-lineage layer.

Between the post-apostolic church and KLC with ex-Tunbridge Wells stand 4 divisions along the institutional line, counting separations and disputed forks, not mergers, renewals or national organizations.

At a glance

Formed
In 1940
Family
Brethren
Region
Britain; North America
Ended
It ended as a separate body in 1953, entering KLC with Grant-Stuart.
Cause tags
Governance

Is the KLC with ex-Tunbridge Wells Biblical?

Left divine ground.

1940. Some of those who had bowed to the Tunbridge Wells action of 1909 merged with the KLC company.

Those who bowed to that action had held "that there can be but one expression of the one body". Huebner says of these mergers that they "have taken place on the basis that these divided companies were all gathered (together?) to Christ's name while in division". He calls merging on that basis a "trampling on the truth that there is one body".

Sources: R. A. Huebner, How the Leaven of Evil Mergers by the KLCs Came About (PTP, 2nd ed., 2007), pp. 5, 58, 72.

This verdict concerns the ground of gathering, not the salvation of any individual. Whoever truly believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is a member of the one body, wherever they gather; ‘[The] Lord knows those that are his’ (2 Timothy 2:19).

What it was organized out of

Bodies organized out of it or separated from it: KLC with Grant-Stuart.

On the tree

KLC with ex-Tunbridge Wells and its institutional line back to the post-apostolic churchAD 33The church at Pentecost: On divine groundThe church at Pentecost: on divine groundtoday1004244314511054153418271881192619401953The post-apostolic church (The spine)The post-apostolicchurchDepartureChurch of the East (Church of the East)Church of the EastChurch of the EastThe conciliar church (The spine)The conciliar churchDepartureThe Chalcedonian church (The spine)The Chalcedonian churchDepartureOriental Orthodoxy (Oriental Orthodox)Oriental OrthodoxyOriental OrthodoxEastern Orthodoxy (Eastern Orthodox)Eastern OrthodoxyEastern OrthodoxRoman Catholicism (Catholic)Roman CatholicismNot gatheredChurch of England (Anglican)Church of EnglandAnglicanThe Brethren movement (Brethren)The Brethren movementOn divine groundKelly Brethren (Brethren)Kelly BrethrenLeft divine groundKLC (Kelly and Lowe-Continental) (Brethren)KLC (Kelly andLowe-Continental)Left divine groundKLC with ex-Tunbridge Wells (Brethren)KLC with ex-TunbridgeWellsLeft divine groundKLC with Grant-Stuart (Brethren)KLC with Grant-StuartLeft divine ground

Solid lines are separations and unions; dashed lines are renewals that began inside a body; dotted gray lines are national organizations of one communion; a diamond marks a fork event where neither side is drawn as the one that left. Every line runs back to the post-apostolic church; no body descends from the assembly of Acts 2. Dashed gray boxes mark the institutional line after the apostles, shown as departure; no line of descent is drawn from Pentecost. A verdict appears on a box once its section is published.

Sources

  • R. A. Huebner, How the Leaven of Evil Mergers by the KLCs Came About (PTP, 2007), p. 5 — courtesy of Present Truth Publishers

Brethren division and merger chronology: R. A. Huebner, courtesy of Present Truth Publishers (free PDF).

Research compiled July 2026. Page data built 2026-10-31.