Brotherhood Church

The church can be traced back to 1887 when a Congregationalist minister called John Bruce Wallace started a magazine called "The Brotherhood" in Limavady, Northern Ireland. Wallace was influenced by the views of Henry George and Edward Bellamy. In 1891 Wallace moved to London and took over a derelict church in Southgate Road, Hackney, naming it "The Brotherhood Church." The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party used the building in 1907 for their 5th Congress.{{cite web|url=http://www.historytoday.com/print/65306 |title=Tolstoy's Guiding Light |author=Charlotte Alston |date=2010 |publisher=History Today |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322031032/http://www.historytoday.com/print/65306 |archive-date=22 March 2012}}

Subsequent communities were established by a Tolstoyan named John Coleman Kenworthy in Croydon, Surrey, in 1894 and Purleigh, Essex, in 1896. Residents at Croydon and Purleigh included Aylmer and Louise Maude and Vladimir Chertkov. However, both these communities ceased shortly after they were established, as Kenworthy fell out with Chertkov and argued with Aylmer Maude over the English translation of Tolstoy's works. Based on a letter from Tolstoy, Kenworthy was under the impression that he had exclusive rights over some of Tolstoy's texts.{{cite book |title=Tolstoy's Letters: 1880-1910 |last=Tolstoy |first=Leo |author-link=Leo Tolstoy |year=1978 |publisher=Scribner |page=[https://archive.org/details/tolstoysletters0002tols/page/534 534] |url=https://archive.org/details/tolstoysletters0002tols |url-access=registration |quote=He fell out with Chertkov in England, and also quarrelled with Aylmer Maude over the English translation of Tolstoy's works}} Aylmer Maude, on the other hand, believed the reason for the failure of the colony was due to Kenworthy's autocratic and irresponsible behaviour.{{cite book |title=Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel |last=Christoyannopoulos |first=Alexandre |author-link=Alexandre Christoyannopoulos |year=2010 |publisher=Imprint Academic |location=Exeter |page=257 |quote=Tolstoyism and Tolstoyan colonies}}

In 1897 several members, some from a Quaker background, moved to Leeds. The receipt of a legacy enabled the group to relocate to a seven and a half acre smallholding at Stapleton in 1921.{{cite web|url=http://www.diggersanddreamers.org.uk/index.php?fld=initial&val=B&one=dat&two=det&sel=brothood |title=Brotherhood Church |publisher=Diggers and Dreamers}} Another Purleigh splinter group established the Whiteway Colony in 1898, funded by a Quaker journalist.

John Bruce Wallace went on to become an early resident at Letchworth in Hertfordshire where he held religious gatherings each Sunday in the Howard Hall. After the establishment of the Brotherhood Church Wallace founded the Alpha Union Society which held many of its meetings at the recently built The Cloisters in Letchworth.{{cite web|url=http://www.gardencitycollection.com/exhibitions |title=Spirituality and Belief in Letchworth Garden City |website=Letchworth Garden City Collection}}

In 1934, the church was demolished and now a block of flats stands on the site.{{cite web |last1=Bartholomew |first1=Emma |title=How a tiny Southgate Road chapel played a big role in Russia's 1917 October Revolution |url=https://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/22938021.tiny-southgate-road-chapel-played-big-role-russias-1917-october-revolution/ |website=Hackney Gazette |date=20 October 2017 |access-date=5 December 2022}}

{{main|Stapleton Colony}}

The Stapleton Colony are vegetarian, grow much of their own organic food and attempt to live independently from the government.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/life-at-one-of-englands-last-tolstoyan-communes |title=Life at One of England's Last Tolstoyan Communes |magazine=The New Yorker}} They are affiliated to the Peace Pledge Union, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and War Resisters' International.{{cite web|url=http://www.utopia-britannica.org.uk/pages/YORKS.htm |title=Brotherhood Church |publisher=Utopia Britannica |quote=British Utopian Experiments (1325-1945), Yorkshire}} Residents have included Len W. Gibson (1919–2007) who was a lifelong peace campaigner and conscientious objector.{{cite web|url=http://www.wri-irg.org/news/2007/gibson.htm |title=Obituary for Len W. Gibson |publisher=War Resisters' International}}

• Utopian socialism
• Tolstoyan movement

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Higgins |first=Alfred G. |date=1982 |title=A History of the Brotherhood Church}}
• {{cite book|last=Weller |first=Ken |date=1985 |title="Don't Be a Soldier!": The Radical Anti-War Movement in North London 1914-1918 |chapter-url=http://libcom.org/library/16-brotherhood-church |chapter=Chapter 16: The Brotherhood Church}}
• {{cite magazine|last=Draper |first=Warren |date=2012 |title=Anarchy in Albion: Utopia, Tolstoy and the Brotherhood Church |magazine=The Idler: The Utopia Issue |number=45}}

• [http://www.thebrotherhoodchurch.org/intro.htm Official website]

Category:Christian anarchism

Category:Christian pacifism

Category:Tolstoyan movement

Category:Christian organizations established in 1887

Category:1887 establishments in Ireland

Category:Intentional communities in the United Kingdom

Category:Quakerism in the United Kingdom

Category:Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Hackney