Separated Brethren

Pentecostalism in Britain owes its origins to meetings convened by Anglican priest Alexander Boddy and addressed by Norwegian preacher T. B. Barratt, in Boddy's Sunderland parish, just over a century ago. From the outset most Pentecostals regarded Roman Catholicism as a serious departure from New Testament Christianity at best and thinly disguised paganism at worst. Roman Catholics, in their turn, saw Pentecostalism as yet another and rather unruly sect imported from across the Atlantic. This article traces the steps and circumstances by which a significant number of Roman Catholics and Pentecostals, through the Charismatic Movement and via personal contacts, came to regard each other as `separated brethren'.