KLC with Grant-Stuart

Q: Is the KLC with Grant-Stuart Biblical?

Left divine ground. Huebner says the 1953 merger, like that of 1933, "involved the denial that CES's doctrine was fundamental evil". He was present at one negotiating meeting, where a Grant brother said: "It is serious error to be rejected, but not fundamental." Kelly's own company had once put away those who held that doctrine. 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).

Brethren · 1953 · Britain; North America

In 1953 the KLC company, with those who had joined it in 1940, merged with the Grant-Stuart company formed in 1933.

KLC with Grant-Stuart was formed in 1953. It ended as a separate body in 1974, entering Reunited Brethren (KLC). KLC with Grant-Stuart's institutional line runs back through KLC with ex-Tunbridge Wells, 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 Grant-Stuart stand 4 divisions along the institutional line, counting separations and disputed forks, not mergers, renewals or national organizations.

At a glance

Formed: In 1953
Family: Brethren
Region: Britain; North America
Ended: It ended as a separate body in 1974, entering Reunited Brethren (KLC).
Cause tags: Governance

Is the KLC with Grant-Stuart Biblical?

Left divine ground.

1953. The KLC company, with those who had joined it in 1940, merged with the Grant-Stuart company.

Huebner says the 1953 merger, like that of 1933, "involved the denial that CES's doctrine was fundamental evil". He was present at one negotiating meeting, where a Grant brother said: "It is serious error to be rejected, but not fundamental." Kelly's own company had once put away those who held that doctrine. "So the Kelly group once maintained a strong stand against the evil doctrine of CES."

Sources: R. A. Huebner, How the Leaven of Evil Mergers by the KLCs Came About (PTP, 2nd ed., 2007), pp. 5, 50, 53, 57–58.

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

Formed by union with KLC with ex-Tunbridge Wells, one of several constituents.
Formed by union with Grant-Stuart Brethren, one of several constituents.

Bodies organized out of it or separated from it: Reunited Brethren (KLC).

On the tree

Solid lines are separations and unions; dashed lines are renewals that began inside a body; dotted gray lines are national organizations of one communion or branches of one family; 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), pp. 5, 58 — 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.