Tight Brethren is a disparaging term sometimes used to identify Open Brethren assemblies within the Plymouth Brethren movement which hold to a conservative Gospel Hall Brethren policy of reception to fellowship and Lord's Table, in contrast to the more open policy of the Loose Brethren (another pejorative term used informally).
All nomenclature among Brethren is informal as they have refused any denominational names, and in particular the usage 'tight' is a colloquialism with no formal status.
Tight Brethren are also known as Closed-Open, Closed Brethren (a term more usually used of the Exclusive Brethren), Conservative Open Brethren or small 'e' exclusive. These terms primarily refer to the 'tight' manner in which they do not receive other Christians, who may not attend a Gospel Hall, to the fellowship of their assembly.
In this regard, Tight Brethren reflect the teaching of the 'Churches of God' or Needed Truth Brethren that the basis of reception is assembly fellowship, rather than the biblical understanding of the "one body of Christ". Needed Truth teachings were dispersed throughout the Open Brethren assemblies during the late nineteenth century.
The term Tight Brethren also has a wider application encompassing a conservative approach to church life and a greater regulation of church order than those assemblies deemed 'loose'. For example there may be an insistence on no interdenominational cooperation, no musical accompaniment, uncut hair for women, adherence to using 'thee' & 'thou' in prayer and use of the King James Bible; and retention of the evening gospel meeting. There is therefore a twofold dimension: it means an adherence to those practices according to what the Reformed churches call the regulative principle - only those practices expressly commanded by Scripture should be allowed; and in addition there is also a diachronic dimension - as some assemblies change (e.g. introduce new types of services or change the translation used), then the conservative ones will adhere to the older practices, even though Scripture does not expressly legislate for them.
In the UK 'tight' Brethren are strongly represented in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and they are also strong among North American Open Brethren. In the USA, Canada and UK they generally call their meeting places Gospel Halls and should not be confused with Exclusive Brethren, who separated from the Open Brethren in 1848.
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The editor of The Believer's Treasury, William Shaw, stated in an article entitled 'Fellowship among saints' (10 February 1895 edition, page 19):-
"While professing to be as “open” as ever, we cannot disguise the fact that in the course of the last twenty years a steady tightening process has been at work." [1]
Historian Neil Dickson comments:-
"He [William Shaw] dated the period during which a sharper ecclesiastical definition emerged to the twenty years after the mid-1870s, almost exactly the time of his association with the Brethren.[2] As the excitements of the revivals died down, there was a move towards greater uniformity and regulation of church order within Scottish assemblies. It was, Shaw stated in the colloquial jargon of the time, a process of ‘tightening’. Those who effected it were concerned with its opposite, ‘looseness’, a range of practices that they maintained fell short of biblical standards and which they wished to eliminate." [3]
Dickson quotes Thomas McLaren, one of the leaders of the 'Churches of God':-
"There were other issues apart from those relating to intercommunion which troubled the emerging party. Thomas McLaren (son of the Home and Foreign Mission Funds founder) later confessed to the embarrassment he had felt when someone would list the diversity of practices in the Open Brethren: “Oh, the meeting at A— have a harmonium. The meeting at B— receives any Christian to ‘the table’. The meeting a C— will admit an unbaptised believer. The meeting at D— are not so strait-laced towards the sects. The meeting at E— allows women to minister. The meeting at F— allows friends from the sects to minister among them.” [4]... Even if these were not practised in his assembly (or were common in general), McLaren had felt guilty of such ‘loose’ practices by association." [5]
In Peter Cousins's 'The Brethren' (1982) [6] he made up the fictitious South Street Gospel Hall and Westbrook Chapel, describing them as 'tight' and 'loose' assemblies. The account illustrates the diversity of the Open Brethren.
FF Bruce in his autobiography wrote:-
"Some people employ a vocabulary which does not commend itself to me, and make a distinction between 'tight' and 'loose' brethren'... I have tried to be a bridge-builder within the Brethren movement as well as elsewhere." [7]
'Tim Grass, 'A Brief History of the Brethren', http://brethrenhistory.org/?pageid=809