Old Order River Brethren

The Old Order River Brethren, formerly sometimes known as York Brethren or Yorkers, are a River Brethren denomination of Anabaptist Christianity with roots in the Radical Pietist movement. As their name indicates, they are Old Order Anabaptists.

History

The denomination began about 1778 in Pennsylvania. They share their early history with the Brethren in Christ Church. A group of brethren living near the Susquehanna River, who had previously separated from the Mennonites fellowshiped with German Baptist Brethren but eventually became known as the River Brethren. In 1856, there was a three-way split among the River Brethren, with the Yorkers (because most of the members in 1843 were located in York County, Pennsylvania) establishing a separate, more conservative group.

The York Brethren believed that the majority of the River Brethren churches were becoming too lax in their standard of Biblical non-conformity and non-resistance, and desired to return to older Scriptural doctrines and traditions. With the increase of more progressive and modernizing groups in Christendom following the industrial revolution, and the emergence of clarifying naming of other traditional Old Order groups among the plain people such as Amish (Old Order Amish forming 1862–1878), the Mennonites (Old Order Mennonites, 1872–1901) and the German Baptist Brethren (Old German Baptist Brethren 1882) in the late 1800s they defined themselves also as "Old Order".

Between 1921 and 1961 four splits occurred in the group, mostly regarding the use of cars, leaving the Old Order River Brethren divided into five subgroups. Three of the five groups reunited between 1969 and 1977 so that there are three subgroups currently.