I am always Leary of charges 4 decades later.
It is an English upper middle class intensely evangelical sort of neo-Anglican group. I was unaware they were any congregations in the United States.
A former classmate of mine, a divorced man, is a minister in his Plymouth Brethren church, but the church is otherwise relatively conservative.
Amazing that they are still juveniles after 50 years.
WHO ARE THE PLYMOUTH BRETHREN?
The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church was established in the early nineteenth century in Plymouth, southern England. We are a community of over 50,000 members across Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the Americas (including the Caribbean) and the UK.
We are deeply family-oriented and live, work and pray as ‘Brethren’ – a community of families held together by our common Christian belief.
Brethren believe that the Holy Bible is the true Word of God and that we are each called upon to live a life in accordance with its instructions. Plymouth Brethren members attend regular church services each Sunday to celebrate the Lord’s Supper and preach the Gospel.
There is a strong and generous charitable spirit among Brethren, with many willingly devoting their time contributing to philanthropic efforts to relieve the load on humanity.
https://www.plymouthbrethrenchristianchurch.org/
Sorry, apparently my answer is wrong. Please disregard.
Behind some of the drywall he found 30,000 (that's thirty thousand!!!!) 35mm slides were discovered carefully cataloged and dated. They were hideous pictures of naked children in sexual (definitely non-medical) poses.
Based on patient records and dates authorities were able to identify some of the victims but real recourse was pretty much impossible, the widow by this time was in a long-term care facility and essentially had no assets.
I grew up in this type of church and have been loosely affiliated many years as an adult. Many of the comments describing the history on this thread are fairly accurate.
For a small group they have been very impactful.
I think the small size and Biblical standards applied in conducting church make these churches less likely than most to foster abuse. They are all small. No one can really hide out in them. There is accountability.
Where I grew up there was a secretly homosexual pedophile who attended while going to a local college of optometry. He was attempting to groom 2 or 3 boys sexually but was caught. No criminal charges were brought because I think those boundaries had not been crossed. The elders tried to work with him to get treatment, help, counseling, but he eventually disappeared.
I ran into him at a small meeting in another city a few years later and saw that he was attempting to do the same thing in there. I asked for him and the elders to meet with me right on the spot. I laid on the table what I knew and it resulted in him not being involved with these boys any longer. (This is the only time I visited that church, but I heard that they had dealt with the matter. I was only 21 at the time, and wasn’t an adult when the earlier incident took place.)