Editing Open Brethren (section)

=== Oceania ===
{{Main|Christian Community Churches of Australia|Christian Brethren Church of New Zealand}}
[[File:Victoria_Avenue_Gospel_Hall,_Palmerston_North_on_13_July_2024.jpg|thumb|A Gospel Hall in [[Palmerston North]], New Zealand]]

According to the Evangelical publication, [[Operation World]], there are 320 Brethren congregations in Australia<ref>{{citation|first=Jason |last=Mandryk|title= Operation World |publisher=Biblica Publishing|year=2010|page = 118}}</ref> and 202 in New Zealand,<ref>{{citation|first=Jason |last=Mandryk|title= Operation World |publisher=Biblica Publishing|year=2010|page = 632}}</ref> with 46,176 affiliates in the former and 16,164 in the latter. Some Brethren sources claim the latter number to be underestimated, with internal sources indicating as many as 38,000 adults and children attending Brethren assemblies — almost one percent of New Zealand's population.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://aspects.org.nz/category/church-issues/ |title=The State and Growth of Brethren Churches in New Zealand (2011) |access-date=2015-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150522134839/http://aspects.org.nz/category/church-issues/ |archive-date=2015-05-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The Brethren in both countries have diversified greatly in the last generation. "Gospel Chapels" tend to be conservative; "Gospel Halls" even more so. "Bible Chapels" include both conservative and progressive assemblies, while "Community Churches" (often similar to the Brethren-affiliated "Evangelical Churches" of the United Kingdom) tend to be at the progressive end of the spectrum, often with salaried pastors, women taking an audible part in worship — and sometimes in leadership, and varying degrees of openness to the [[Charismatic movement]]. "Bible Churches" tend to embrace many progressive trends, but generally retain a male-only leadership and continue to disassociate themselves from the Charismatic movement.

Although Brethren leaders throughout New Zealand unanimously rejected the Charismatic movement in 1964,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lineham|first1=Peter J.|title=Tongues Must Cease: The Brethren and the Charismatic Movement in New Zealand|url=https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/cbr/34_07.pdf|website=biblicalstudies.org.uk|access-date=3 June 2015}}</ref> attitudes today are much more diverse. Complete rejection, and uncritical acceptance, of this movement are both minority positions among New Zealand Brethren today.

It is worth nothing that although many "Community Churches" and "Bible Churches" in New Zealand are part of the Open Brethren movement, others — such as [[Mairangi Bay Community Church]] and [[Auckland Bible Church]] — are not. This is often seen as one of many signs that the line of demarcation between Brethren assemblies and other independent Evangelical churches is becoming blurred — a situation that some Brethren welcome, and some do not.

The Brethren movement in Australia, too, has diversified, with the more progressive assemblies generally growing and the more conservative ones declining.

In both Australia and New Zealand, Open Brethren have been embarrassed by negative publicity surrounding the [[Plymouth Brethren Christian Church]], a hardline branch of the Exclusive Brethren (and the only Exclusive group to exist in significant numbers in either country), which some defectors have accused of being a [[cult]]. In Australia, the Open Brethren network has rebranded itself as the [[Christian Community Churches of Australia]], partly because of public confusion between their own movement and the Exclusives.